Anton Mang

Mang grew up in Germany and had his first encounter with motorcycles at the age of 11 on a DKW RT 125, though he initially pursued skibobbing as his primary sport, winning the German national championship and the Junior European Championship in the discipline at the age of 16. Motorsport continued to draw him back, and he took part in a 50cc race on a Kreidler before mechanical difficulties ended his first competitive outing.

In 1970 Mang joined the team of reigning 125cc world champion Dieter Braun as a mechanic, an apprenticeship that gave him insight into the engineering side of Grand Prix competition. Together with Sepp Schloegl and Alfons Zender, he co-developed the Schloegl Mang Zender (SMZ 250) machine, and claimed his first race victory aboard it at an airfield circuit in Augsburg. He won the German 350cc championship on a Yamaha in 1975 and also made his Grand Prix debut that year at the Austrian round of the world championship.

Mang's first Grand Prix victory came at the 1976 125cc German Grand Prix, held on the 22.8-kilometre Nordschleife circuit at the Nurburgring, riding a 125cc Morbidelli. The performance earned him a factory Kawasaki ride for the 1978 season on the KR250 and KR350.

He became 250cc World Champion in 1980, finishing runner-up in the 350cc class behind Jon Ekerold the same year. In 1981 he won both the 250cc and 350cc World Championships and was named German Sportsman of the Year. In 1982 he became the last ever 350cc World Champion when the class was abolished at the end of the season, and he narrowly missed retaining the 250cc title, falling one point short despite winning five races.

Mang moved up to the 500cc class in 1983, but a serious skiing injury at the start of that season sidelined him until mid-August and he was unable to finish higher than tenth. He returned to the 250cc class in 1984 as a private Yamaha entry and finished fifth in the championship. In 1985 Freddie Spencer's dominant campaign pushed Mang to second in the standings, and he placed fourth in 1986.

In 1987 Mang delivered one of the most remarkable late-career performances in the history of the world championships, winning eight consecutive 250cc Grand Prix races to take his third 250cc world title. At 38 years old he became the oldest 250cc World Champion in the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. He opened the 1988 season with another victory before a serious crash at Rijeka in Yugoslavia ended his career.

Mang retired having won 42 Grand Prix races across his career. Like Angel Nieto, whose multiple world titles came in the 50cc and 125cc classes, Mang built his entire championship record on medium-displacement machinery — the 250cc and 350cc categories — never winning a title in either the smaller or larger classes. His ability to compete at the highest level well into his late 30s, and his third 250cc title achieved through a run of eight consecutive victories, set standards that have rarely been matched. The FIM named him a Grand Prix Legend in 2001.