UK Buell Enthusiasts Group @ Moto Laverda 75th Anniversary UK Celebrations Saturday 7th September 2024 - Shelsey Walsh
Also see: Laverda 75th Anniversary Willersey
Video by the UK Buell Enthusiasts Group.
This special event was a unique opportunity to meet Piero Laverda, Fernando Cappellotto, Davide Dalla Costa and Werner Ricciolini from the Moto Laverda museum in Breganze, Italy.
Fernando Cappellotto was Piero’s chief test rider responsible for evaluating the factory prototypes.
Piero Laverda is the son of the motorcycle company’s founder Francesco and former manager of Laverda’s renowned endurance racing team. The company was founded in 1949 and closed in 1987.
Alongside his brother Massimo, Piero had overseen Laverda from the late 1960s, the pair acting as joint managing directors before the Laverda family exited the company in 1986.
While Piero oversaw Laverda’s racing team between 1969 and 1978, Massimo was the creative engineer that created a 650 twin that would grow into the 750 that, in S, GT, SF and SFC form, came to define the brand.
Piero Laverda now runs the ASI-LAVERDA Corse team, which brought the following machines to demonstrate at the event:
Laverda V6 – the works Endurance Racer from 1977
Laverda 750 SFC – which won the 1976 Belgian championship in 1976
Laverda 1000 Spaceframe – an ex-works 1975 endurance racer
Also at the event were three TT-F1’s which Scott Greenaway shipped over from Australia especially for the combined anniversary celebrations.
ASI-LAVERDA Corse was formed in 2000 with the aim of preserving and promoting the racing heritage of Moto Laverda. The team is an informal association of ex-works riders, mechanics, enthusiasts and collectors with a particular passion for the marques racing and competition machinery. See: https://giovannilaverda.wixsite.com/laverdacorse
Thanks to Pete Lamb who posted details during July on the Moto Guzzi Club GB (MGCGB) forum we were fortunate enough to be able to attend this special event at Shelsey Walsh that celebrated both the Moto Laverda 75th Anniversary and the International Laverda Owners’ Club (ILOC) 50th Anniversary.
We hadn’t seen any other publicity for the event, so it was fortuitous that we spotted Pete’s notice in the MGCGB ‘Rallies & Events’ section. This was one event we wouldn’t have wanted to miss!
Because it involved a 300+ mile round trip we decided to make a long weekend of it and stayed at The Admiral Rodney in the nearby village of Berrow Green. Our friend Vic, who owns a Laverda Jota, also joined us for the weekend.
The ride down from West Yorkshire on Friday was completed in dry warm sunny conditions but the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday wasn’t very good. Luckily it was dry all day on Saturday at Shelsey Walsh, but at Berrow Green just 4 miles away it was drizzly all day.
We would like to thank the ILOC for allowing non-members to attend the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb. It was great to be able to see and hear all these iconic machines up close in such an informal atmosphere. We had never been to this venue before, and we were impressed by the location and their facilities.
