Tom Bullus

A 1932 NSU 500 SS as she drove the Bullus.

Tommy Frederic "Tom" Bullus (* 1907 in Bradford , England ; † 1998 ) was a British motorcycle racer .

Bullus competed in his first motorcycle race at the age of 14. He was successful in hill climbs and took part in the Senior TT in 1925 , where he took fourth place on a P&M . Until 1930, when he finished fifth on Sunbeam , he did not reach the goal again. In 1928 he came second in the Kolberg bathing race . At the 1929 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring , Bullus was in the lead for six laps before being forced to retire due to a technical defect. This achievement caused a sensation at NSU . Also in 1929, Walter William Moore, an English designer, was hired.

Tom Bullus was offered a contract, which he accepted. From March 1930 Bullus was the top driver in the NSU team. In April, as its first outing, Bullus took part in a 144-hour reliability drive at the Nürburgring . The first race with a machine newly designed by Moore with an overhead camshaft and vertical shaft drive ended in the Austrian TT with a fall and the retirement of Bullus. He finished fourth at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. However, he won the Solitude race , the Eifel race and the Klausen race , the latter with a record of 77.5 km / h, which is still valid today. With further victories at the Great Mountain Prize of Germany (with the fastest time of all motorcycles and automobiles as well as a new course record), at the Gaisbergrennen , at the XI. The Nations' Grand Prix in Monza and at Rund um Schotten on the Schottenring made this season extremely successful for Bullus as well as for NSU and Moore.

In March 1931, Bullus returned to Nuremberg after a holiday of several months in his homeland . At the Gaisberg race he came second after a technical defect. The price of the city of Hanover in the class over 350  cc won Bullus as well as the half-liter race for the Hungarian Grand Prix . For the first time in Monza, petrol / benzene was used instead of alcohol . Bullus came second this time. During training for the Austrian TT, Bullus fell, breaking three metacarpal bones . He was only able to take part in the Schauinsland hill climb again , where he won both the 500 cm³ and the 1000 cm³ motorcycle race. At the Gaisberg race, Bullus started with a 500 cm³ machine in the 750 cm³ class and won. In the 600 cc class, he also won the day. During the race on the Schleizer Dreieck , the last race of the German road championship , Bullus fell, but was uninjured. Bullus won both the Kesselberg race and the AVUS race in Berlin .

The year 1932 was also characterized by the global economic crisis for racing . Tom Bullus was able to win the opening race on the then new Hockenheimer Dreieck and again he was successful on the Kesselberg. In the fall of 1932, Bullus withdrew from active racing. At Christmas he got engaged to Hilde Gehr, the daughter of the director of NSU. After getting married in 1933, he retired to England, where he and a brother-in-law opened a motorcycle shop. From the 1960s he was director of a finance company in the textile city of Leeds . He lived in Harrogate in the 1980s . A street in Hockenheim is named after him today.

literature

• Motorrad Classic issue 4/93
• Das Motorrad , No. 17, 1962
• Klaus Arth: NSU Motorcycles: 1900–1945: access - fahr NSU, Kleine Vennekate, Lemgo, 2008, p. 162.

Web links

• Tom Bullus on the Isle of Man TT official website.
• Photo: Tom Bullus with NSU chief designer Walter William Moore