The Bavarian rider started racing in the GPs at the age of 25, a little late, but with technique and dedication he made his way up to winning 42 races and 5 titles between 250 and 350. The last laurel at 38, after an accident skiing slowed down his career
– Milan
Born on 29 September 1949 in Inning, a small town about thirty kilometers from Munich, Anton “Toni” Mang competed in his first Grand Prix at the age of 25, an age in which a driver is now certainly not considered old. but mature. Therefore a very young talent has never been, because he started running late. If there was a book ‘Heart of motorcycles’, Mang would certainly have deserved a chapter, because the most titled German rider with his 5 World Championships and 42 GPs won between the 70s and 80s, made his way through all . Young Toni saw brands (Euros didn’t exist at the time) with a dropper, so his great passion had to first be expressed as a mechanic and not as a driver as he had always dreamed of.
first mechanic, then pilot
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Toni was also a good technician and when he assisted his compatriot Dieter Braun to see the bikes on the track, he suffered not to be among them. But then making enormous sacrifices, he managed to throw himself into the fray, initially alternating racing with the work in the pits that it gave him, both to live and to race. An experience that later proved to be invaluable given that he managed to make the most of his great technical culture, transforming it into an added value as a driver. Luckily, like all respectable fairy tales, Mang crossed paths with the classic fairy with golden hair and the magic wand: the munificent sponsor Ralf Scwabeschott, 130 kilos of German and perennially multi-jeweled.
the bejeweled sponsor
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In fact, the very wealthy Rolf, then an importer of Boeri and Dainese with his Rallye Sport, was a sort of jeweler who strolled. A living catalog of kitsch. He drove a Ferrari with unwatchable spoilers and accessories, while his imposing Teutonic body was perpetually wrapped in jewels. Do you think that’s an exaggeration? Well usually Mr. Rolf wore a solid gold chain sprinkled with precious stones weighing more than a kilo, while on his wrist he had a solid gold Rolex studded with diamonds, but the real touch of class was flaunted on his hand: a gigantic ring in the shape of a snake with two glittering diamonds for eyes. Nothing more tawdry had ever been seen in living memory. However, with this entrepreneur with a loud look and slightly peasant tastes, the union with Mang was indissoluble.
tones, the opposite of the sponsor
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A “mixed” marriage since Toni was the exact opposite of Rolf: never an utterance or an over the top performance. A pilot and a simple and humble man. Discretion personified. The opposite, in fact, of his manager who when you were in front of him, if it was a beautiful day, you had to put on sunglasses so as not to be blinded by his jewelery samples. But Toni didn’t shine just for her sponsor’s jewels, she shone with her own light. And for several consecutive years. He started with a 125 and immediately afterwards he forcefully entered the 250 and 350, becoming unbeatable with the Kawasaki, so after a Yamaha parenthesis, he was the leading man of Honda in the “quarter liter”.
also debuted in 500
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Midway through his career he also played the 500 card, but it went very badly because in 1983 he undertook it with a handicap. During the winter, in fact, he fell disastrously on skis. He seriously damaged his knee and the after effects of that accident affected his whole season. Then he had a second youth with Honda by beating them up against riders ten years younger. In short, a rare example of competitive longevity: his first GP, in fact, was won in 125 in 1976 at the age of 27, the last 12 years later in 1988 with the Honda 250, by which time the 40 springs were knocking on the door. Had he started a little earlier, his palmarés would have been even more lavish. For bikers “made in Germany” Toni is a legend. So far, in fact, no German has ever won as much as he and, at the moment, there is not even anyone in sight capable of emulating him.
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