Bruno Ruffo

Ruffo in 1950 after his victory at the Dutch TT

Bruno Ruffo (born December 9, 1920 in Verona ; † February 10, 2007 there ) was an Italian motorcycle racer .

Between 1949 and 1951 he won three world titles in the motorcycle world championship .

In 2003 Bruno Ruffo was awarded the title Commendatore dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by the then Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi .

Career

Bruno Ruffo began his motorcycle career in 1946. In 1949 he became the first world champion on Moto Guzzi in the 250 cm³ class of the newly created motorcycle world championship . In his first ever Grand Prix race, the Swiss Grand Prix on July 2, 1949 in Bremgarten , Ruffo was able to celebrate his first victory immediately. Overall, he achieved a victory, a second and a fourth place in only four races this year and secured the title from his compatriot Dario Ambrosini .

In the following season he started again in the 250cc class on Moto Guzzi and in the 125cc World Championship on Mondial . In the 250 cm³ class he did not succeed in defending his title, but in the 125 cm³ class he immediately won the world title.

In 1951 Bruno Ruffo competed for Moto Guzzi in the 250 cc and 500 cc classes. In the 250 cc he also confidently secured the title with two wins, a second and a third place out of five races, in the 500 cc he achieved 19th place in the overall standings with a fifth place in the only contested Grand Prix.

In 1952 Ruffo also competed for Moto Guzzi in the 250 cc class and was again one of the title contenders. At the Grand Prix of West Germany on the Solitude Ring , however, he fell so badly that he had to pause for the rest of the season. After another accident during training for the Tourist Trophy in 1953, he then decided to retire completely from racing.

Bruno Ruffo only contested 14 world championship races in his career, of which he won four, and made a total of ten podium finishes.

After the end of his career, Bruno Ruffo opened a successful motorcycle dealership in Verona, where he died on February 10, 2007 at the age of 86.

statistics

title

• 1949 - 250 cc world champion on Moto Guzzi
• 1949 - Italian 250cc champion on Moto Guzzi
• 1950 - 125 cm³ world champion on FB Mondial
• 1951 - 250 cc world champion on Moto Guzzi
• 1951 - Italian 250cc champion on Moto Guzzi
• 4 Grand Prix victories

In the motorcycle world championship

season	class	motorcycle	run	Victories	Podiums	Points	Result
1949	250 cc	Moto Guzzi	3	1	2	24	World Champion
1950	125 cc	FB Mondial	3	1	2	17th	World Champion
	250 cc	Moto Guzzi	1	-	1	6th	3.
1951	250 cc	Moto Guzzi	4th	2	4th	22nd	World Champion
	500 cc	Moto Guzzi	1	-	-	2	19th
1952	250 cc	Moto Guzzi	2	-	1	7th	6th
total			14th	4th	10	78	3 world titles

References

Web links

Commons : Bruno Ruffo  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Bruno Ruffo on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
• Bruno Ruffo on the Isle of Man TT official website.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Fleischer: Ex-world champion Bruno Ruffo has passed away. (No longer available online.) Www.motograndprix.de, archived from the original on February 28, 2007 ; Retrieved October 14, 2009 .