Enrico Lorenzetti

Enrico Lorenzetti 1952 in a 250 cc Moto Guzzi

Enrico Lorenzetti (born January 4, 1911 in Rome , † August 8, 1989 ) was an Italian motorcycle racer .

In the 1952 season he won the world championship title in the 250 cc class of the motorcycle world championship on Moto Guzzi .

Career

Enrico Lorenzetti started out as a works driver for Moto Guzzi after the Second World War . In 1948 he won the European motorcycle championship in the 500 cc class held as part of the Ulster Grand Prix on the Clady Circuit in Northern Ireland .

Lorenzetti began his career in the motorcycle world championship in the first year of 1949 in the 500 cc class, also on Moto Guzzi. His first Grand Prix victory was in Monza at the Grand Prix of Nations in 1951 in the 250cc class.

Two weeks earlier, on August 15, 1951, there was a serious accident during training for the Ulster Grand Prix , in which Lorenzetti's team-mates Gianni Leoni and Sante Geminiani had a fatal accident. The three Moto Guzzi works riders lapped the approximately 16.5 mile long Clady Circuit close together in training in the quarter liter class . After a few laps, Geminiani and Lorenzetti drove into the pits unnoticed by Leoni to swap their machines. After about four kilometers alone, Leoni noticed the absence of his teammates and the Italian decided, probably worried that an accident might have happened, to turn around and drove the route in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, Geminiani and Lorenzetti had left the pits and were on the track at full speed. The two were not ready for the oncoming driver, so a collision was inevitable. Gianni Leoni and Sante Geminiani were probably both trying to avoid them, but drove in the same direction and hit their heads at a speed of about 100  kilometers per hour . Geminiani was thrown about 40 meters through the air and was dead on the spot. Leoni got up a moment after the accident, but then collapsed unconscious and died the same day in a hospital in Belfast . Enrico Lorenzetti, who was driving about 100 meters behind Geminiani, was still able to brake and only drove to the scene of the accident at low speed. He got away with minor injuries. Despite this tragic accident, the Moto Guzzi team did not withdraw from the Grand Prix. The following day, works driver Bruno Ruffo won the 250 cc race for the Ulster Grand Prix.

In the 1952 season , Enrico Lorenzetti celebrated the greatest success of his career. He won the world championship title in the 250 cc class with two wins from five races , just ahead of his teammate, Briton Fergus Anderson . The following year Lorenzetti was runner-up in the 350cc class behind Anderson.

Enrico Lorenzetti ended his active career in the World Cup at the end of the 1957 season . In his career he contested a total of 35 Grand Prix races, started exclusively on Moto Guzzi and celebrated seven wins and a total of 21 podium finishes.

statistics

title

• 250 cc world champion on Moto Guzzi : 1952
• 350 cc vice world champion on Moto Guzzi: 1953
• 500 cc European champion on Moto Guzzi: 1948
• Italian 500cc champion on Moto Guzzi: 1949
• Italian 250 cm³ champion on Moto Guzzi: 1948, 1952, 1953, 1954
• 7 Grand Prix victories

In the motorcycle world championship

season	class	Result	machine	Victories
1949	500 cc	8th.	Moto Guzzi	0
1951	250 cc	4th	Moto Guzzi	1
	500 cc	8th.	Moto Guzzi	0
1952	250 cc	World Champion	Moto Guzzi	2
1953	250 cc	4th	Moto Guzzi	2
	350 cc	2.	Moto Guzzi	2
1954	350 cc	5.	Moto Guzzi	0
1955	250 cc	12.	Moto Guzzi	0
	350 cc	12.	Moto Guzzi	0
1956	250 cc	3.	Moto Guzzi	0
1957	250 cc	9.	Moto Guzzi	0

Web links

Commons : Enrico Lorenzetti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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