CARLO UBBIALI OBITUARY

Tribute to the Italian multiple 125/250cc champion

Carlo Ubbiali enjoys the spoils of victory after winning the 125cc race in the Nations Grand Prix at Monza in 1957 on an MV Agusta

BELOW: Ubbiali on his way to winning the Ultra Lightweight TT at the Isle of Man on an MV Augusta in 1960 – the year when he won both the 125 and 250cc World Championships. He had done the same ‘double’ the previous year, too – an incredible achievement brilliant little dohc 125 single designed by Alfonso Drusiani. Ubbiali won second time out on the Mondial, taking victory at the Ulster GP in August 1950. The following summer he won the world championship. Two years later he returned to MV Agusta, where he forged a close relationship with Count Domenico Agusta which kept them together until his retirement.

Ubbiali became the first Italian to win a world championship for the Count – the 1955 125cc crown, which made him one of Agusta’s favoured sons. He retained the title in 1956, when he also took 250cc honours on MV’S 250 single.

Over the following years he battled with and beat the greatest riders of his generation – team-mate Cecil Sandford, Mondial’s Tarquinio Provini, Ducati’s Alberto Gandossi, MZ’S Ernst Degner and NSU’S Herman Müller.

He won the 125cc crown for the third time in 1958 and ended his career with a stunning back-to-back 125/250 title double in 1959 and 1960. Ubbiali attributed his numerous successes – at a time when staying alive was an achievement in itself – to his highly precise riding style and his strategy of never pushing too hard until he pounced on the leader in the closing stages of a race. This strategy won him the nickname of ‘The Fox’.

Ubbiali quit racing at the end of the 1960 season, after which he was voted Italy’s sportsman of the year. In retirement he ran his father’s bike shop in Bergamo and encouraged the career of up-and-coming local Giacomo Agostini. In 1964 Ubbiali’s friendship with Agostini and Count Agusta played an important part in Ago joining MV.