Pierfrancesco Chili
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Pierfrancesco 'Frankie' Chili, born 20th June 1964 in Bologna, Italy, near the Imola race track, is a motorcycle racer who has raced in World Superbike and the 500cc World Championship. In WSBK be has a record number of starts, as well as 10 poles and 17 wins. He retired at the end of the 2006 season.
[edit] WSBK
He switched to Superbikes in 1995 on a private Ducati, taking a win at Monza and 3 further podiums, as well as the fastest lap in 4 races, en route to 8th overall. Curiously, in each of 1995-1997 he won race 2 at Monza after crashing in race 1. In 1996 he took 2 wins as well as his first 2 poles, coming 6th in the series. He was 7th in 1997, taking 3 wins and 3 poles but only 3 more podiums.
Results in 1998 on a factory Ducati were an improvement - Frankie won 5 races to come 4th overall, his best ever finish. However, at Assen he battled too hard with Carl Fogarty (also on a factory-backed bike, although a separate team), falling on the final lap, and was sacked at the end of the year, largely as a result. In 1999 he raced for Suzuki, coming 6th with 2 more wins. His first win came in race 2 at the A1-Ring, after crashing while leading race 1.
In 2000 he repeated the 10 podiums and 4th overall of 1998, although with only a single win as Colin Edwards dominated. Over the next 2 years he made the podium just 3 times, coming 7th and 8th in the series. Although he was only 7th again, 2003 represented something of a resurgence for a rider nearing 40, with 5 third places and a win. 2004 was even better for the PSG Ducati team, 5th overall with another 9 podiums. In 2005 he moved to the Klaffi Honda team with rookie Max Neukirchner, coming 10th overall. 2006 was ruined by a broken pelvis which has caused him to miss several races [1].
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