Here is another pilot that history completely swallowed up.
Nello pagani, nowadays, is totally forgotten. However, he was one of the main promoters of the championship in the early 1950s. He is particularly known for having competed, on two or four wheels, for almost thirty years at the highest level.
Cirillo Pagani began his career at the age of 17, in 1928. A Milanese aristocrat, he flitted from competition to competition before exploding in the early 1930s. In 1934, he won the Italian motorcycle speed championship, before engage with Moto Guzzi.
He is the teammate of Homobonus Tenni
nicknamed the black devil. In other words, a real myth. The team raged, and it was in this particular context that our good Cirillo won his first European grand prix in 1939, on the Sachsenring.
The Second World War stopped the progression of Italian. Fortunately for him, he came out alive and physically intact. In 1946, he started again with a vengeance by signing with the prestigious team Gilera.
Gilera is a firm established since 1909, one of the heavyweights of Italian construction. In 1949, during the first world championship, he produced a crazy performance. Not only did he win the first 125cc title in history on
FB World, but he won the very first 500cc world championship… unless ?
Pagani during the 1949 Dutch Grand Prix. Photo: Winterbergen
The battle against Leslie GrahamOn
AJS, is hotly contested. “Nello” Pagani is more regular but less efficient: he scores nine points more than Graham, but only the three best results are counted. Thanks to a second place at Assen, it's the British who wins.
Something to be very disgusted with. This type of fact is rather rare but appears sometimes. This type of regulation was supposed to cushion mechanical breakdowns, which were more frequent at the time. It is in the same way that Ayrton Senna was titled in 1988, although having scored fewer points than Alain Prost over the season.
1950 was to be his year, but a Umberto Masetti
intractable stood in his way. The two were then 'teammates' at Gilera and it was the rookie who won against all odds. Pagani, beyond that, had a more than disappointing season.
The TT Assen, run on a longer circuit than currently, was already a legendary event. Photo: Harry Pot / ANEFO
Nello Pagani will never win a single race in his life. While he was eyeing Formula 1 (he is also the only man to have participated in the inaugural year of the motorcycle Grands Prix as well as Formula 1), Umberto Masetti won everything in 500cc.
At age 42 in 1953, Pagani let go. He did some freelance work at MV Agusta during the following two seasons. In 1955 he retired from sport, finishing in twentieth place.
The story of Nello Pagani is the story of a enthusiast. Someone who dedicated his life to motorsports. A jack of all trades who, at the age of 57, won the Tour of Italy, by passion. An important example, which shows that crowns are not everything. Forgotten among the sacred monsters before the war, his son Alberto succeeded him in the most honorable of ways, rivaling Giacomo Agostini in the 1970s. Nello left us on October 18, 2003, at the age of 92. That day, a spring left.
Cover photo: Winterbergen
