Description
Additional photos of this Benelli WSBK Racer are available here for your perusal.
We’ve gushed about the Tornado Tre streetbike before with its distinctive sound and unique radiator location underneath the seat, but this is truly a special example – it’s the machine that Benelli campaigned in the 2002 World Superbike Championship with Australian Peter Goddard at the controls!
In 2001, Peter Goddard joined Benelli for their WSBK debut with this Tornado Tre, and his stats were oddly appropriate for being on a triple: he started 12 races, completed 9 of them, and scored points in 3 of them. That year, the bike ran with #14.
The following year (under #6), he finished 12 races out of the 17 he started – the season started poorly as Benelli had to withdraw from the first round in Valencia with a problem in the engine cylinder head. But by season’s end, Goddard had finished 22nd out of 41 riders that season, and Benelli had actually finished ahead of Yamaha in the Manufacturer’s Standings. To be fair, Benelli showed up to 10 rounds and Yamaha only showed up to two, but we won’t dwell on that too much.
This Benelli was in the possession of the collector that recently provided us so many 0-mile motorcycles. He asked if we would also want to feature a racebike – of course we had to say yes! It is currently located at our storage facility near Marina del Rey, California – please make an appointment if you’d like to come by and take a closer look.
As one would expect with an as-raced machine, there are some cosmetic blemishes on this bike (VIN: ZBNB300001P100088). We’re calling it patina from hard-fought battles! Photos of all known cosmetic issues are included in the album up top.
Special thanks to Classico Corse on Instagram, who let us know that he transporting this bike “from the old importer in Pennsylvania to the Indianapolis dealer expo to have on display in the Benelli booth in 2006.”! Here’s a photo he provided from that display:
This bike has been on display for some time, and we felt like we had to bring it back to life before we offered it up on the block. Please note the running video at the top of the listing, and we made sure to include several photos of this Benelli with the bodywork off in the photo album.
In a long and illustrious history of racing on the world stage, Benelli only participated in World Superbike for two seasons. This is a magnificent reminder of their last-ditch effort to stay 100% Italian and independent before being acquired by Qianjiang.
