Doriano Romboni

Doriano Romboni in 1996 on Aprilia at the Japanese Grand Prix

Doriano Romboni (born December 8, 1968 in Lerici , † November 30, 2013 in Latina ) was an Italian motorcycle racer .

Career

125 cc class

Doriano Romboni made his debut in the motorcycle world championship in 1989 on a Honda in the 125cc class. His best result was seventh at the British Grand Prix in Donington Park . In the overall ranking he finished 20th in his debut year.

In the following season , the Italian on a Honda from the Moto Club Crostolo team came fourth in the eight-liter world championship behind Loris Capirossi , Hans Spaan and Stefan Prein . Romboni clinched his first Grand Prix victory at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring and followed it up with another five weeks later at the Dutch TT in Assen . Overall, this year, in addition to the two victories, he achieved two second and two third places as well as three pole positions .

250 cc class

For the 1991 season Romboni switched to the 250 cc category. He drove a Kit-Honda-RS in HB Honda Racing Team Italy and was 15th overall. In the following season , the Italian took his first podium in the quarter liter class at the British Grand Prix in Donington Park behind his compatriots Pierfrancesco Chili and Loris Reggiani and finished tenth in the final standings.

In 1993 Doriano Romboni started in the HB team for the first time on a fully-fledged factory machine . He scored 46 points in the first four races, then won the Grands Prix of Austria and Germany and was second after six races behind the Yamaha factory rider Tetsuya Harada . At the following Dutch TT, the Italian broke his right leg in a fall , which is why he had to sit out four races. Romboni returned for the last four races of the season and finished second behind Loris Capirossi at the US Grand Prix in Laguna Seca , which ultimately earned him fifth place in the World Championship.

In the 1994 season, Romboni rose to fourth place in the World Cup, the best of his career, with a win in the USA, three second and four third places with 170 points. In 1995 , the Italian was ninth overall on a Honda from Giacomo Agostini's team with a Grand Prix victory at the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix in Jacarepaguá .

500 cc class

In 1996 , Doriano Romboni joined the Aprilia factory team IP Aprilia Racing , where he drove the V2 motorcycle as a single starter in the 500 cm³ class . The engine of the machine was a 250cc unit enlarged to 380 cm³, from which the Italian manufacturer promised weight and handling advantages over the more powerful Japanese competition. In the first year he was 19th due to a few falls and a break in injury. In 1997 the Italian climbed to tenth and finished third at the Dutch TT in Assen, behind Mick Doohan and Carlos Checa (both Honda), his only podium in the premier class a. At the end of the year Aprilia discontinued the project.

For the 1998 season, Romboni then switched to the German MuZ team, which, with the help of a Malaysian investor and the Swiss companies swissauto and Suter Racing Technology, had built a motorcycle for the premier class . The Italian drove the first race of the season in the Japanese Suzuka one with twelfth four championship points, but broke in the training to the next Grand Prix of Malaysia in Johor , the scaphoid bone of the right hand. Since he had suffered a few injuries on this hand in previous years, he was unable to compete for the rest of the season.

Superbike World Championship

In 1999 Romboni competed in the Superbike World Championship on a Ducati in the private R & D Racing Team . In the first three events of the season he was among the top ten. At the first run of the Italian races held in Monza on May 30th, at the beginning of the first Lesmo curve he was brought down through no fault of his own by New Zealander Aaron Slight and broke his right leg, which had already been injured in 1993. Romboni had to skip the rest of the season and finished the year on 17th place in the World Cup. In 2000 Doriano Romboni came again, but could not show any notable successes.

In 2003, Romboni returned to the race tracks after a three-year absence and competed in the Italian Superbike Championship for the Giesse Racing team . In 2004 he contested four more races in the World Championship on a Yamaha YZF-R1 belonging to the team. After the season Romboni ended his active career.

In 2004 Doriano Romboni was involved in a serious car accident on the A15 autostrada . His car crashed into a truck that was parked on the hard shoulder. The Italian suffered injuries to his spleen and lungs .

After the active career

In 2012 Doriano Romboni worked as sports director for the Puccetti Racing Kawasaki team . In 2013 he looked after the driver Franco Morbidelli as a riding coach for Team Italia FMI and won the title in the Superstock 600 European Championship with him. 2014 Romboni should be in the Team Italia FMI the migrated Roberto Locatelli the Moto3 -WM pilots Andrea Locatelli and Matteo Ferrari care.

Deadly accident

Doriano Romboni died on November 30, 2013 at the age of 44 from serious injuries sustained hours earlier in a fall during Sic Supermoto Day . The event, a supermoto race in honor of racing driver Marco Simoncelli , who died in Sepang in 2011 , took place at the Circuito del Sagittario in Latina near Rome . The charity race was intended to raise money for the Marco Simoncelli Foundation.

The accident occurred at 1:41 p.m. during the second qualifying session. Romboni lost control of his bike when accelerating out of Turn 12, fell, slipped over a piece of turf into the infield and returned to the track at turn seven. The Gianluca Vizziello coming towards him could no longer evade and ran over him. Romboni's helmet was destroyed and the Italian suffered severe traumatic brain injury . He remained motionless and was given first aid by the rushing pilots who witnessed the accident - among them Max Biaggi and Danilo Petrucci  - and resuscitated by the emergency services at the scene of the accident . A short time later he was to be taken to a Roman hospital by helicopter . However, complications arose on the flight, which is why it was decided to return to Latina, where Romboni was treated in the Santa Maria Goretti Hospital . At around 5 p.m., an emergency operation on the head, which was regarded as almost hopeless, was carried out to remove an edema . Minutes later, the doctors could only determine his death.

Romboni left three children. His second wife Sara had accompanied him to the route together with their four and three year old daughters. All races were canceled after the accident.

“Not posso crederci, Doriano Romboni un mio Amico, rivale di mille battaglie, un combattente con tanto cuore.”

"I can't believe it, Doriano Romboni, my friend, a rival in a thousand duels, a fighter with a big heart."

- Loris Capirossi shortly after Romboni's death

statistics

In the motorcycle world championship

season	class	team	motorcycle	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	Nice Race laps	Points	position
1989	125 cc		Honda	10	-	-	-	-	-	20th	20th
1990	125 cc	Moto Club Crostolo	Honda	12	2	2	2	3	-	130	4th
1991	250 cc	HB Honda Racing Team Italy	Honda RS kit A	12	-	-	-	-	-	32	15th
1992	250 cc	HB Italy	Honda SPL	13	-	-	1	-	-	43	10.
1993	250 cc	HB Racing Team Italy	Honda NSR	11	2	1	1	2	-	139	5.
1994	250 cc	HB Racing Team Italy	Honda NSR	13	1	3	4th	2	-	170	4th
1995	250 cc	Honda Team Agostini	Honda NSR	8th	1	-	1	-	-	75	9.
1996	500 cc	IP Aprilia Racing Team	Aprilia V2	8th	-	-	-	-	-	23	19th
1997	500 cc	IP Aprilia Racing Team	Aprilia V2	13	-	-	1	-	-	88	10.
1998	500 cc	MuZ ROC racing	MuZ	1	-	-	-	-	-	4th	28.
total				101	6th	6th	10	7th	0	724

In the Superbike World Championship

season	team	motorcycle	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	Nice Race laps	Points	position
1999	R&D racing team	Ducati	7th	-	-	-	-	-	44	17th
2000	R&D Bieffe	Ducati RS 996	3	-	-	-	-	-	14th	35.
2004	Giesse Racing Team	Yamaha YZF-R1	4th	-	-	-	-	-	3	34.
total			14th	0	0	0	0	0	61

References

Web links

• Doriano Romboni on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
• Doriano Romboni on the official website of the Superbike and Supersport World Championship

Individual evidence

1. ^ L'ex pilota Doriano Romboni muore mentre corre in onore di Simoncelli. www.lastampa.it, November 30, 2013, accessed December 3, 2013 (Italian). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Markus Niegtsch: Drama at SIC-Day: Doriano Romboni (44) is dead. Www.speedweek.com, November 30, 2013, accessed on December 3, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Robert Seiwert: Death after a training accident. www.motorsport-magazin.com, November 30, 2013, accessed December 3, 2013 . 
4. ^ ^{A b} Günther Wiesinger: After Romboni death: SIC Supermoto Day canceled! www.speedweek.com, November 30, 2013, accessed December 3, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Annika Kläsener: Collision with Vizziello. www.motorsport-magazin.com, December 1, 2013, accessed on December 3, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Romboni, dolore via Twitter. Capirossi: "Ti voglio bene". Melandri: "Correva col cuore". www.gazzetta.it, November 30, 2013, accessed December 3, 2013 (Italian).