Walter Villa (13 August 1943 – 18 June 2002) was an Italian four-time Grand Prix motorcycle road racing world champion.

[1] Villa was born in Castelnuovo Rangone in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, between Maranello and Modena, the heart of Italian motor sport country.

[1] In the early 1970s, Harley-Davidson bought the ailing Aermacchi factory near Milan, with the aim of selling a range of bikes from 125cc machines to complement the traditional big V-twins built in the USA.

During the winter of 1973 -1974, the factory under the direction of Dr. Sandro Colombo, made huge progress in developing their machines in order to compete with Yamaha.

[1] After he retired at the end of the 1980 season, Villa became a key player in the grand prix historic motorsport circuit, riding in high speed demonstrations in addition to becoming his country's top trainer.