500cc World Champions

From the Isle of Man to Philip Island, from 1949 bis 2001, the 500cc championship were the kings of motorcycle racing ? until new rules consigned the 500 class to history. This book celebrates those five decades, through the lavishly illustrated life stories of the twenty-two World Champion, from the first, former bomber pilot Les Graham, to the last, clowning genius Valentino Rossi.

Famous names like Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts senior are remembered, but so are the lesser-known heroes who rode the storm to brief glory. Appendices detail the top three riders, year-on-year, and the champion motorcycles.

A GP journalist since 1984, Michael Scott ? author of over 15 books including biographies and Barry Sheene and Wayne Rainey ? is editor of the prestige annual Motocourse. He has met all the surviving World Champions, and followed the careers of many of them in detail.

This book, packed with first-hand anecdotes and illustrated with more than 200 often rare, historic photographs, tells the champions´ inspiring stories.