125 CIRCUITO

Towards the end of the 1940s most motorcycle constructors considered that the best way to publicise their products was to participate in the various motorcycle races that were generally held on town roads. The scope was to bring people closer to motorcycling and create potential customers. Piaggio did not want to be left behind and equipped a series of "circuit" scooters, like this 1949 sample, to race in the categories reserved for them, making its mark right from the start and leaving behind all the other scooters. Besides the publicity angle, the Vespa Circuit was also used as "test bench" for new ideas that were then used on standard products. The Vespas 125 circuit and the previous circuit models were totally hand-built by the specialists of the company's experimental division and were used in races until the end of the 1950s by the official riders Dino Mazzoncini and Giuseppe Cau, who in 1950 wins the chronometer race Catania-Etna, gaining the first place in his category (125 cc) and obtaining the absolute third place in the general results after Guzzi and Benelli.