Carlo Ubbiali
Only Agostini and Nieto won more world titles than the recently departed Italian 125/250cc ace
MOTORCYCLE RACING HAS lost the rider who dominated the first decade of world championship racing. Carlo Ubbiali, who passed away at the age of 90 on June 2 after contracting Covid-19, won nine world titles between the years of 1950 and 1960.
Only two riders have amassed more championships: Giacomo Agostini and Angel Nieto, while only Mike Hailwood and Valentino Rossi have equalled his haul.
The little Italian was born on September 22, 1929, the son of a motorcycle dealer in Bergamo, and started racing immediately after the war, when he was still under-age. He won a race at his first meeting and another at his second, but was disqualified when the organisers discovered he had yet to celebrate his 18th birthday.
In 1948 Ubbiali took part in the first post-war event at Monza – which had been closed due to damage caused by Allied armour parading around the track after VE day – where he rode a determined race to finish second to Nello Pagani, winner of the following year’s inaugural 125cc world title. That result won him a ride with MV Agusta.
In July 1949 Ubbiali took part in the very first 125cc World Championship race, at Berne, Switzerland, where he rode an MV two-stroke to fourth place. Two months later the teenager travelled by train to Britain, where he won a gold medal at the ISDT, staged in Llandrindod Wells. But at that time four-strokes were the way to go, so in 1950 he left MV and switched to Mondial, riding the