A superb and rare photo of Italian Guido Premoli standing behind his Sarolea 500 Supersport Model 23G racing machine shortly after finishing the 1925 edition of the famous Italian Circuito del Lario race in 6TH position. 

Guido Premoli was a succesfull Italian racer from the 1920’s and 1930’s.  On this photo we see Premoli just after finishing the Circuito del Lario race of 1925 in 6TH  position.  Premoli is seen standing behind his Sarolea Model 23 500cc Super Sport.  This magnificent 2 OHV racing machine had a bore and stroke of 80,5 x 97 mm and easily delivered a whopping power output of 20 HP at 4,500 r.p.m.  This was more then impressive at the time.

The famous Italian Circuito del Lario roadrace was an extremely heavy race which was organized between 1921 and 1939.  The circuit consisted of public roads which were closed during the race.  The Circuito del Lario was located between the two legs of the mountainous Lake Como in Northern Italy.  Its nickname the “ Italian T.T.” was definitely deserved. The circuit was no less then 22.7 miles (36.5 km) long and counted a mind blowing amount of 300 curves! Of those 300, a total of 50 were hairpins since also the famous Ghisallo mountain pass is part of the track!  The height difference between the lowest and the highest point of the circuit is 1,805 feet (550 metres).  To cover that difference, the riders and the bikes have to cross besides the mountainous hairpins, also the many longer and shorter curves combined with shorter and longer straights.  And all of that combined with a gruelingly poor road surface.

Sarolea was a very famous Belgian motorcycle brand that reached absolute fame in racing.  The factory was found by Joseph Sarolea as early as 1850 in the Belgian city of Herstal.  At first the factory concentrated on military arms production.  In 1892 bicycles were added to the production lines and in 1902 the first motorcycle was build by Sarolea.  The 300cc and 500cc sidevalve models did really well, they were excellent motorcycles.  In 1914 a 50 degree 703cc V-twin taken into production.  It was a luxury, gorgeous machine.  When motorcycle production started it quickly became clear that Sarolea build motorcycles that were perfectly suitable for racing.  Before long the factory started building pukka racing machines.  The 500cc Model 23 in this aspect became legendary. In the 1930’s the Sarolea factory campaigned a virtually unbeatable OHC racing machine.  After World War II Sarolea worked together with other Belgian motorcycle manufacturers like FN untill the factory folded in 1957.  In the 1950s Sarolea build a 500cc parallel twin that was also sold in the U.S.A., however under the name “ Atlantic “.

This non period photo reflects a very interesting and historic piece of motorcycling and Saroléa history. Therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 10" (ca. 20 x 25 cm).