Pierfrancesco Chili

Did You Know?

• Chili won the 1989 Nations motorcycle Grand Prix when most top riders did not race due to the track being too slippery from rain.
• His best championship finish in the 500 cc class was sixth in 1989.
• He raced on a Gallina HB Honda with some works backing in the 500 cc class.

Superbike World Championship

Pierfrancesco Chili entered the Superbike World Championship riding a private Ducati, where he secured one victory at Monza, three additional podium finishes, and the fastest lap in four races, finishing eighth overall. In two consecutive seasons, he notably won the second race at Monza each year after crashing out of the first race. The following season brought two wins and his first two pole positions, earning him sixth in the championship. The next year he placed seventh, with three wins and three poles but only three more podiums. Moving to a factory Ducati, Chili improved to fourth overall—his career best—with five wins. However, at Assen, he crashed on the final lap after a fierce battle with Carl Fogarty, who also rode a factory-backed bike for a separate team, and was dismissed at season's end. He then joined Suzuki, finishing sixth with two more wins; his first win came in race two at the A1-Ring after he crashed while leading the first race. The next season, Chili matched his previous ten podiums and fourth-place finish, though he managed only one win as Colin Edwards dominated. Over the following two years, he reached the podium just three times, placing seventh and eighth in the series. Despite another seventh-place finish, the subsequent year marked a resurgence for the nearly forty-year-old rider, with five third-place results and one win. The PSG-1 Ducati team saw even better form the next season, as Chili took fifth overall with nine more podiums. He then moved to the Klaffi Honda team alongside rookie Max Neukirchner, finishing tenth. The following campaign was derailed by a broken pelvis that forced him to miss several races. After retiring, Chili became team manager for the Guandalini Racing team in World Superbikes for the 2009 season.