Johnny Cecotto

Two laps later, he was up to 26th place.

Their grueling pace proved too much for their tires and on the 33rd of the 52 laps Roberts slowed with a worn rear tire.

Nine laps from the end, Roberts' tire blew apart, almost making him lose control before he limped back into the pits.

Cecotto's pit crew attempted to wave him into the pits with three laps remaining to check on his tire but, he ignored their signal and continued on to win the race.

Afterwards, his shredded tires showed how close he was to suffering the same fate as Roberts.

In his first international racing outside of South America, he finished 35th overall at the Daytona 200 on a Yamaha 350cc, and suffered a mechanical failure after only 5 laps at the Imola 200.

On the 50th lap, he caught and passed Agostini for third place before his motorcycle began to overheat, forcing him to reduce his pace and settle for a third place behind the eventual winner Gene Romero and second place Steve Baker.

Johnny Alberto Cecotto Persello (born 25 January 1956), better known as Johnny Cecotto, is an Italian-born Venezuelan former professional Grand Prix motorcycle racer and auto racer.

Cecotto rode a Yamaha TZ350 to win the 1973 Venezuelan road racing national championship at the age of 17.

After the death of Jarno Saarinen at the 1973 Nations Grand Prix, Cecotto adopted a new helmet color scheme with two pointed red stripes that was based on Saarinen's helmet colors, in honor of the fallen rider.

He would keep the helmet design through the remainder of his career.

Cecotto successfully defended his title by reclaiming the Venezuelan national championship in 1974, and also won the 1974 South American motorcycle road racing championship, a one-race event held at the Interlagos Circuit near São Paulo, Brazil.

He rose to prominence as a teenage prodigy in 1975 when he became the youngest motorcycle road racing world champion at the age of 19.

Despite the auspicious beginning to his motorcycle racing career, he suffered numerous injuries and mechanical problems which curtailed his success in motorcycle Grand Prix racing.

At the age of 24, Cecotto turned his attention to auto racing where he reached the pinnacle of the sport as a Formula One driver.

He later became a successful Touring Car racer.

He is the last of a select group of competitors who competed at the highest level in motorcycle and auto racing, which includes John Surtees and Mike Hailwood among others.

Cecotto was born in Caracas, Venezuela to Italian immigrant parents.

His father was a motorcycle shop owner and former motorcycle racer who had won the Venezuelan national championship on a 500cc Norton.

He followed his father's career path and began motorcycle racing at a young age, first competing on a Honda CB750 and a Kawasaki triple before gaining the support of the Venezuelan Yamaha importer.

Cecotto rose to international prominence at the 1975 Daytona 200 motorcycle race with one of the more inspired rides in the history of the event.

At the time, the Daytona 200 was considered one of the most prestigious motorcycle races in the world, attracting world champions such as Giacomo Agostini and Barry Sheene.

He arrived at Daytona as an unknown rookie aboard an unmodified Yamaha TZ750 sponsored by Venemotos, Yamaha's Venezuelan importer.

The unheralded teenager promptly raised his profile by qualifying on the front row shared with pole-sitter Kenny Roberts, Gene Romero, Teuvo Lansivuori and Steve Baker.

As Cecotto took his place on the starting grid, race officials noticed a puddle of fluid developing beneath his motorcycle.

With the start of the race just moments away, the officials made the decision to remove Cecotto and his motorcycle from the grid for safety reasons.

As the race was started without Cecotto, officials discovered that the fluid was only water overflowing from the radiator and posed no safety hazard.

Officials allowed Cecotto re-enter the race however, by then he was in last place.

With an impressive display of riding ability, Cecotto passed half the field of competitors on the first lap alone.

In 1976, Cecotto returned to the Daytona 200, now with full support from the Yamaha factory racing team.

The race turned into a battle between Cecotto and his Yamaha teammate, Kenny Roberts.

At the age of nineteen, he was the youngest ever world champion until Loris Capirossi won the 1990 125cc world championship at the age of 17.

He was competitive in the 250cc world championship with two victories however, a crash at the German Grand Prix and then engine problems for his motorcycle left him in fourth place in the final standings.

On the event of the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 200 in 1991, the American Motorcyclist Association convened a panel of motorcycling press and former racers, who named Cecotto's accomplishment as the top performance in the first 50 years of the race.

One month after his Daytona performance, Cecotto traveled to Europe where he continued his meteoric rise with a victory at the prestigious Imola 200 F750-championship race after Agostini's engine seized while American champion Kenny Roberts withdrew due to a wrist injury.

Cecotto continued his impressive streak by scoring a double victory in the first world championship Grand Prix race of his career.

At the season opening French Grand Prix held at the Paul Ricard Circuit, he set the fastest lap time en route to winning the 250cc race and, followed that performance by leading the 350cc race from start to finish to win by a 25-second margin over the seven-time 350cc world champion Agostini.

He had originally planned to compete in two or three European events but, after his performance at the French Grand Prix, he gained full sponsorship for the remainder of the season aboard an ex-Agostini TZ350.

He went on to win three more races and defeated Agostini, for the 350cc World Championship.

By the fifth lap he was in 18th place and by the end of the tenth lap he was in tenth place.