page_title: MV Agusta 350 racers
section_title: Results 1972-1976
hierarchical_section_title: MV Agusta 350 racers / MV Agusta 350 4C 1972-1976 / Results 1972-1976
context_page_description: The MV Agusta 350 cc racers were motorcycles produced by MV Agusta between 1954 and 1976 and raced in the 350 cc motorcycle GP championships. 10 world titles were achieved by riders John Surtees, Gary Hocking and Giacomo Agostini on these machines.
context_section_description: 1972
  The 1972 season did not start well for MV Agusta. In the opening race Germany, Agostini was defeated by Saarinen in a direct head-to-head. With his new water-cooled Yamaha YZ 634, Saarinen set a new absolute lap record. In France, the difference in weight between the water-cooled Yamaha YZ 634 (approx. 90 kilos) and the MV Agusta 350 3C (approx. 140 kilos). Saarinen won and Teuvo Länsivuori on an air-cooled Yamaha TR 3 finished second, 1½ minutes behind Saarinen. Renzo Pasolini on the Aermacchi-Harley-Davidson was third and Agostini forth. He took his loss, however, sportingly, but stated that the three-cylinder MV Agusta had become too slow.
  After two wins for Yamaha, Agostini came to Austria with the new MV Agusta 350 4C. In the race, the Saarinen's engine lost some power, leaving him in fourth place. Agostini won the race. MV Agusta hired Phil Read to support Agostini in Imola. Agostini won the race, but the star of the race for the Italian home crowd was Renzo Pasolini on the Aermacchi-Harley-Davidson. Pasolini had a bad start and was tenth after the first lap, but fought through the field to finish second. Read finished fourth. In the Junior TT, where Saarinen refused to ride due to the risks, Agostini led from start to finish, while his team-mate Phil Read dropped out on the second lap with shift problems. Both MV drivers rode the three-cylinder machines.
  Agostini dropped out in the Yugoslavia GP. Phil Read finished the race, but could not keep up with the Yamaha TR 3 of the Hungarian János Drapál. Read finished third. In Assen, Agostini won after a fight with Drapál, Pasolini and Read. (Agostini was on the four-cylinder, Read on the three-cylinder). Agostini dropped out in the GDR, but Phil Read now also had a four-cylinder MV Agusta at his disposal and won, setting a new lap record. His time was the same as that of Agostini in the 500 cc race.
  In Brno, Agostini fell, leaving Read in the lead. Saarinen passed Read to win the race. In Anderstorp, Agostini and Read fought hard in the first laps against Jarno Saarinen. Agostini took the lead and retained it throughout the race. Agostini's sixth win in Finland gave him the 1972 world title, with Saarinen in second place.
  1973
  For 1973, Phil Read was given contract with MV Agusta, but as No 2 rider to Agostini. Yamaha withdrew from the 350 cc class, concentrating on the 250 and 500 cc classes with Jarno Saarinen and Hideo Kanaya, but when Saarinen died in Monza, the factory team was withdrawn. Some priviteers contested the 350 cc class with Yamaha TZ 350s. Due to the poor reliability of the MV Agusta 350 4C, even in 1973, the team sometimes rode the "old" three-cylinder.
  Agostini led the opening race in France race from start to finish Phil Read came second. Although it had been sunny in Austria during practice, race day was wet. Phil Read retired because of a problem with his visor. Agostini built up a large lead over János Drapál, but on the penultimate lap the MV Agusta stopped due to water in the ignition, giving the victory to Drapál. In Germany, the Harley-Davidson factory team was missing, working hard on getting water-cooled machines ready. In the practice sessions private driver John Dodds (Yamaha TZ 350) was fastest. In the race Read fell on the fifth lap and on the eleventh lap the same happened to Agostini whilst he was in the lead. Teuvo Länsivuori won the race.
  The 350 cc race in Monza was initially quite exciting. The Harley-Davidson team had skipped the German GP to work on the new water-cooled machines and that paid off: Pasolini was less than a second slower than Agostini in practice. The race was initially led by Agostini and Read, but Read went into the pit with a bad running engine and Agostini won. Read, Agostini and Länsivuoridid not race in Yugoslavia, where János Drapál won. The 350 cc race in Assen led to a great fight between Agostini, Read and Länsivuori, until the latter had problems with his gearbox and had to quit. Agostini won with a 0.1 second lead over Read and Länsivuori was still third. Länsivuori won the 350 cc GP of Czechoslov
caption: Giacomo Agostini on the 350 cc MV Agusta during practice for the 1976 West German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
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