BLACK SUNDAY: MAY 20, 1973
By Don Emde
Photos by Dave Friedman

This day 32 years ago will forever be remembered as the most tragic day in the history of motorcycle racing. At Monza, Italy, 14 riders crashed in the first turn of the 250cc Italian Grand Prix event, taking the lives of veteran rider Renzo Pasolini and the reigning 250cc World Champion , Jarno Saarinen. Their speed in the Curva Grande, where the crash occurred, was estimated to be 135 miles per hour.

Despite some latter-day theories to the contrary, the overwhelming conclusions for the reason of the crash came from oil on the race course spilled by a rider, or riders, during the 350cc event that preceded the 250cc race. Despite being warned by riders who were in the 350cc race, the officials decided to start the 250cc event as scheduled. That fateful decision was arguably the greatest example of bad judgment that our sport has ever witnessed. One rider who aggressively tried to get the race stopped was threatened with a disqualification. A journalist who also voiced his concerns was nearly arrested.

Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. was so shaken by the loss of its great young champion and his current archrival that day, it embarked on a study of what happened and published the results in a booklet that it distributed at the time.

It concluded the report with the following statement:

“Motorcycle racing always will involve an element of danger. It may be said that danger is necessary to bring out the qualities of a champion, when man and machine are striving for the ultimate performance. Unnecessary and senseless danger can, and should, be eliminated as a duty to the competitors. It is never too late to improve.”

The full text of the booklet follows below. Luckily, some improvements have been made over the years regarding the placement of guardrails at racetracks and the implementation of air barriers , although as we saw last week at Sears Point with Vincent Haskovec, the job is still not done. Bad judgment, however, is timeless and could result at any time if we do not hold people accountable for their actions, or as in the case at Monza, their inactions.

Please read below the firsthand testimonies of riders and others who were involved, and judge for yourself if the deaths at Monza were preventable. I believe they were.

Godspeed to Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini.

©Don Emde 2005

Documentation of an Accident
The complete text of Yamaha’s booklet regarding the Monza tragedy of May 20, 1973

(Note: the text is as presented in the booklet, with minimal editing)

20.May ’73 Monza
Jarno Saarinen
Renzo Pasolini

Documentation of an Accident

Monza, 20 May 1973. The fourth World Championship round of the Grand Prix season 1973. Three races, the classes 50, 125 and 350cc are over…

Jarno Saarinen

Born 11 December 1945 in Turku/Finnland, married; profession: car-engeneer. Worksrider for Yamaha. 1965 Finnish Ice-Speedway Champion; six times Finnish Roadracing Champion; 1969 (125cc, 250cc); 1970 (250cc); 1971 (350cc); 1972 (250cc, 350cc). 1968 Debut in Grand Prix Racing, 1970 fourth place in World Championship 250cc, 1971 second place in World Championship 250cc and third place in 350cc, 1972 World Championship 250cc, second place in World Championship 350cc.

Renzo Pasolini

Born 18 July 1938 in Rimini/Italy, married, two children; profession: racing-rider. Worksrider for Aermacchi, Benelli and Harley-Davidson. 1966 third place in World Championship 350cc, 1968 second place in World Championship 350cc, 1970 third place in World Championship; six times Italian Champion 250cc and 350cc.

…the time is exactly 15.17 hrs. when the drivers of the class up to 250cc are started. Jarno Saarinen, favorite for the world championship of this class with three previous victories, intends to participate after this event only in two further events in Yugoslavia and the Netherlands, in order to attempt, next to the half liter class, a victory in the class up to 350cc. This was no longer to take place, since two minutes later Jarno is dead. Together with him dies Renzo Pasolini, less than one kilometer after the start in the Curva Grande.

The Autodrome of Monza was built more than 50 years ago. In its long history, it witnessed many serious accidents, the most tragic having been where Count Berghe von Trips and 17 spectators were killed. Improvements of the track were effected several times, but they were never of a decisive nature. As a result of demands by automobile racers following the accident of Count Trips, a steel barrier was constructed along the entire track. On several places hedges were erected to protect the racers, this took place, however, behind the steel barriers. The necessary improvements of the track surface were carried out shortly before the ’73 “Gran Premo delle Nazioni,” but these were effected in a very superficial manner. Thus, in the Curva Grande there was a difference of several centimeters in the track level. Moreover, another type of material was used for track improvements. Jarno Saarinen protested against it energetically with the management of the event after the first training. However, this fault could not be corrected for lack of time.

In the race of the class up to 350cc which preceded that of the 250cc class, Walter Villa drove a works-Benelli. Toward the end of the race, the motor of this machine lost oil so rapidly, that Villa decided to pull into his box in the last lap but one. Already before that, everybody could see him riding around the track with a strong oil-smoke behind him. It is normally the duty of the organizers to take the rider out of the race immediately under such conditions. This did not happen. Villa, who came to the box out of his own initiative, was asked by his mechanics to continue the race, in order to finish. Villa ended the competition in fifth place.

Comment by Pino Allievi, editor of the Milan journal “La Gazzetta dello Sport”: “I happened to be in the Benelli-box during the 350cc race; in the last but one lap Villa came in, but the mechanics shouted at him – go – go – only one more lap! Villa continued with the race at once. Subsequently he showed me his Benelli and said, look, it is full of oil! After the tragedy Villa suffered a severe shock and was unable to talk for three days. Asked about the oil subsequently, he said – there was no oil!”—So much Pino Allievi.

French journalist Christian Lacombe watched the race from along the track. He too saw the Benelli loosing oil, which gathered on the road surface. He talked about it to a marshal posted there and asked him to show the oil-warning flag. But the marshal reacted differently: he called several policemen to the spot and all of them threatened Lacombe that they would remove him from the track by force. Two of his colleagues, F.M. Dumas (a contributor of Moto Revue) and Alain Kluchnikoff watched the scene, they too had seen the oil.

Immediately thereafter followed the 250cc class. An urgent intervention of John Dodd with the organisers to postpone the start and clean the track first was rejected, he was pushed out of the office by the police by physical force and threatened with a prohibition to participate in the race.

The first bend after the start is the Curva Grande. It is approximately nine meters wide, i.e. very narrow for a close field of riders. On the side of the track there is the steel barrier, which was covered by strawbales. Pasolini, in whose slipstream drove Saarinen and Kanaya, lost control of his machine at the beginning of the bend. Saarinen could not get around him any more and fell over him. Kanaya was just able to get around, but crashed into the straw bales with full force. Of the following closely knit field of drivers 12 others came to fall and suffered considerable injuries. Saarinen and Pasolini were dead on the spot. After a prolongued period of indecision the organizers decided to stop the race.

On 8 July a national race of juniors took place at Monza, the first event after the tragedy. Before the start, doctor of medicine Costa of the Moto Club Santerno/Imola demanded to post an ambulance at the Curva Grande. His request was not accepted. In a mass collision in the Curva Grande, three drivers lost their lives. It took 20 minutes before ambulances arrived at the place of the accident.

Hideo Kanaya
Before the 250cc start I was told there was oil on the track. I had a good start and was lying neck and neck with Jarno. Pasolini was in front of us. When we reached the Curva Grande, we were all three very close together, one just behind the other, with a distance of about half a meter between us. Pasolini was first, Jarno second and I was third. I saw Pasolini’s bike slide under him. Jarno could not do anything, he crashed; I forced my bike to the outside and hit the straw bales. Immediately everything was on fire. I had seen Jarno crashing to the left side, but later his body was lying on the right side of the track. The next day I went to this place and still could see all the oil lines.

Dieter Braun
I had a good start and was lying in front. I know from the previous 350cc race about the oil on the track, in the last few laps my bike slid away several times. For this reason I did not take the ideal-line and rode at the outside. I went through the Curva Grande in fifth gear, normally it is a flat-out bend to be taken in the sixth and with a speed of about 230 to 240 kp/h. I didn’t see what happened behind me and continued, several riders – Mario Lega and Roberto Gallina – followed me. During this first lap nobody signalized any warning to me, I passed the start/finish line and came to the Curva Grande for the second time. One rider, I think it was Dodds, came running towards me, warning me; I was braking and found a way through that inferno. Again, now in my second lap, I never saw any signals or warning from a marshal. When I reached the start/finish area this time, there also was no warning or other sign. It was obvious to me that the race had to be broken off immediately, so I pulled into my pit and stopped. The other riders, who had been following me, went away and with full speed towards the Curva Grande. Nobody held them off in doing so. I am absolutely sure, that without the “armco” barrier so close to the track, this accident would have been far easier. Had there been a wider safety-zone, which is today the most important condition at any racing-circuit, every rider would have had a chance to escape. But as long as circuits like Monza are used, the rider’s life is not worth more than that of a mouse in a mousetrap – nothing.

Victor Palomo
After the start I was lying behind Italian Bonera. Pasolini went into the corner on the left side, I did not know where Saarinen was. Suddenly Pasolini’s bike went over and immediately there was a wall of fire. I don’t remember how I managed to pass through, but then I crashed right after. I don’t exactly know what the reason was. I didn’t see oil on the track. I think – but I don’t know it for sure – that Saarinen and Pasolini were side by side before they crashed.

John Dodds
During the 250cc race I was dueling with Kent Andersson, in the Curva Parabolica, I was sliding on oil. I couldn’t see any machines – only blue smoke!

Oil was spilled the ideal line round the whole track. Because of this, we all were taking the outer line; four laps before the finish there had been many new oil lines, maybe three or four. Villa was riding with his feet sliding on the ground, sliding round the corners.

After this 350cc race I tried to speak to an official about this problem, it was not possible. Why? Nobody wanted to listen to me. They even called the police to eject me. Kent Andersson told Kanaya about the oil on the track, Kanaya then informed Saarinen. I myself couldn’t speak to Jarno, I had to get ready for the following start of the 250cc race.

I had a bad feeling. As I had a bad start in the 250cc race, I was not so fast when I arrived at the Curva Grande, I had enough time for braking. It was as if a bomb had exploded. I saw no oil warning flag nor any marshals warning oncoming riders.

After I stopped I saw red and white leathers – Jarno’s colours – at the inside of the bend. Then I heard more motorbikes coming and ran back to warn them. Nobody seemed to do anything. I stopped Dieter Braun, then I took Kanaya on my bike back to the pits and we told people there what had happened.

The organization at Monza has been always poor, the marshals are not adequately briefed as to what to do in an emergency situation. In my opinion the accident would not have been so serious, if the steel barrier had been removed from the side of the track before motorcycle races.

Borje Jansson
When I was waiting at the grid for the start, I was not aware that something went wrong; then John Dodds came to me and told me that there was oil on the track. He pointed to Villa and said, that his machine had lost it in the previous race. Villa threw an unfriendly look at Dodds, when he heard what he told me.

After the start I think I was about tenth. I could see the crash. I saw Jarno in the middle of the bend. I saw, how the bike with the rider in the red and white leathers crashed off, and then I saw other riders crashing. I didn’t see Pasolini. Then a tank came sliding towards me; if this had not happened I wouldn’t have crashed. When I saw the riders crashing, my first thinking was – it must be slippery there, there must be oil. No warning was given at Monza, no flags, no marshals, nothing. I am absolutely sure there was oil on the track. People MUST learn from this tragedy!

Charles Mortimer
I arrived at the Curva Grande in about tenth place. I didn’t see any oil. I crashed at the beginning of the bend, I do not know why; my bike was sliding far away; nearly to the end of it. Before I crashed I saw a body lying on the right side, I thought it was Jarno. Later I rushed to Borje Jansson to care for him, it was obvious he was hurt.

Kent Andersson
During the end of the 350cc race I was dueling with John Dodds. In the last two laps before the finish, sometimes my bike slid away at the rear. In the Curva Grande, I could see nothing but blue smoke and a black, shiny oil line. Then Dodds passed me and pointed with his finger, that the rider in front of us was causing the trouble.

We both now were very careful riding on the outside in the corners. In the last but one lap I caught up with the smoking bike and saw that it was Villa on the Benelli. Because of the oil on his rear tyre he had a big problem with the braking in the corners, too; he did not take the ideal line. After the finish I went o the Yamaha garage and told Jarno and Kanaya to care of the oil on the track. Probably Pasolini was not informed about the oil, in fact he had also raced in the 3250cc, but he had pulled out with some trouble at half distance. The only way to prevent accidents like this in the future, is to build broad safety zones around the circuits and to remove – or at least place back further back – the steel barriers.

Giacomo Agostini
During the 350cc race I noticed an oil line in the Curva Parabolica. I didn’t see Pasolini after the race, so I was not able to speak to him about this. My opinion about safety on racing tracks is the following: we are racing with modern and ultrafast motorcycles on sometimes outdated and antiquated circuits, which were built many years ago and thus planned for much lower speeds that we have today. In the last few years some new and very modern circuits have been constructed, (most of them having safety zones) yet we have to race also on old circuits. It would be rather easy to reconstruct old circuit, to make them suitable for the speeds of the modern racing bikes. The most important thing is to remove the steel barriers from the track-side, and erect them – if at all necessary – behind a wide safety zone.

Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. would like to thank Mr. Volker Rauch for his research and effort in compiling this report of the events of May 20, 1973. Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. hope that this document will be studied by all people concerned with motorcycle racing.

Motorcycle racing always will involve an element of danger. It may be said that danger is necessary to bring out the qualities of a champion, when man and machine are striving for the ultimate performance. Unnecessary and senseless danger can, and should, be eliminated as a duty to the competitors. It is never too late to improve.

Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd.

Editor: Volker Rauch
Photos: Alessandro A. Bacchi, Lello Piazza
Graphic Design: Michael V. Lenek