Here is a pilot totally swallowed up by the story. Nello Pagani, these days, 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. Above all, he is a champion, a great one, a real one.
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 joining Moto Guzzi.. He is the teammate ofOmobono To Donicknamed 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.
Assen 1949, a completely different era. Photo: ANEFO
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 Gilera team. It 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 Mondialbut he won the very first 500cc world championship… unless?
Battle against Leslie Graham on AJS is hotly contested. “Nello” Pagani is more consistent 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 Briton who wins. Enough to be very disgusted. 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. This is the same way that Ayrton Senna won the F1 title during the 1988 season.despite having scored fewer points than Alain Prost over the season.
1950 was supposed 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 expectations. Pagani, beyond that, had a more than disappointing season.
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 that of F1), Umberto Masetti won everything in 500cc. At the age of 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..
Here in 1949, still in Assen. Photo: ANEFO
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. An important example, which shows that crowns are not everything. Forgotten among the sacred monsters of the interwar period, 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.
Did you know this pilot and his story?
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