Johnny Cecotto
Alberto "Johnny" Cecotto ( born January 25, 1956 in Caracas, Venezuela ) is a former Venezuelan racing driver. He won in his career once the motorcycle world championship and several touring car title.
Career
At age 16, Johnny Cecotto began with the motorcycle sport and was shortly thereafter taken from one Yamaha team under contract. In the following two years he won the title of the Venezuelan champion in the 350 cc class. In 1975 he started his international career in the motorcycle world championship and immediately won the title in the 350cc class. In the following years he continued to make good rankings and won some races, but he was sidelined due to injury again and again. 1978 won Cecotto Yamaha on the title in the Formula 750 World Championship.
Cecotto 1980 rose for the first time in a Formula car and drove for three years in Formula 2, where he won some races, in 1983, he got a contract with the Theodore - Ford team in Formula 1, but he could in an underpowered car no achieve success and moved a year later to Toleman, where he was team-mate Ayrton Senna. In qualifying for the Grand Prix of Great Britain Cecotto broke both legs in an accident in the TG184, which meant the end of his Formula 1 career and made him pause for a long time. He then drove isolated races or championships in Europe for several years.
1988 Cecottos career began in Germany when he was a cockpit in DTM received at Mercedes. In 1989 he won the Italian Touring Car Championship in a BMW M3 and drove from this year to 1992 in the DTM for BMW. In 1992 he won with his team mates Christian Danner and Marc Duez in the 24 -hour race at the Nürburgring also with BMW. A year later he won the ADAC GT Cup for the Bavarian automobile company. Only a year later Cecotto celebrated his next title for BMW, this time in the newly introduced Super Tourenwagen Cup. This title he won four years later, after he had in the meantime moved to other series. After this success, he withdrew more and more from racing back and only played single race. Since 2001, he ran again for Irmscher in the new V8 Star series. There he secured the title in the first two years. In 2003, he finally ended his professional career and starts since then only at invitation or charity race.
Johnny Cecotto is remarried and has a daughter and two sons. He now lives with his family in Italy. His son, Johnny Jr., was born in 1989 started in 2002 even with motorsport.
Others
BMW built Cecotto honor in a limited to 505 units of the special edition E30 M3 ' Cecotto '. The car had an increased output of 215 hp instead of 195 hp ( 211 hp Switzerland ) and some additional equipment.