Walter Rusk

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Walter Frederick Rusk (born 1910 in Belfast , Northern Ireland , † October 8, 1940 in Tilton on the Hill , Harborough , Leicestershire ) was a British motorcycle racer .

During his playing days, Rusk was known to fans as "The Blond Bombshell" because of his hairstyle.

Career

A native of Belfast Walter Rusk began as a teenager with the motorcycle racing . In 1929 he started on Sunbeam in his Northern Irish homeland at the first North West 200 , a road race that continues annually to this day. The following year Rusk broke the lap record on a Velocette in this race, which at the time was considered to be one of the fastest in the world , but then retired with engine failure .

At the 1934 European motorcycle championship , which was held as part of the X. Dutch TT on the Circuit van Drenthe in Assen , the Netherlands , the Northern Irishman finished second in the 350 cc class behind Norton factory driver Jimmie Simpson . At the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man, he was able to celebrate his first podium finish this year in the 500 cc class ( senior TT ) with third place behind Norton factory drivers Jimmie Guthrie and Jimmie Simpson. At the Ulster Grand Prix he won the 500cc race on a Velocette .

In 1935, Walter Rusk on Norton finished second behind Guthrie in the junior TT race (350 cm³ class) at the Isle of Man TT and third behind Stanley Woods and Jimmie Guthrie in the senior TT race. A short time later he won the 350cc rounds of the Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten and the German Grand Prix on the Badberg-Viereck in Hohenstein-Ernstthal .

When Ulster Grand Prix in 1939 Walter Rusk managed on a 500 rotary AJS , as the first driver in the history of the race on the 20.5 Miles long Clady Circuit a round with an average speed of over 100  mph . A few laps later he retired due to technical problems and Dorino Serafini on Gilera won the race. Still, Rusk was awarded the Motor Cycle Union of Ireland Gold Medal for his performance .

In the autumn of 1939, after the start of the Second World War , Walter Rusk came to the Royal Air Force , where he became a Spitfire pilot . On October 8, 1940, the Northern Irishman was killed in a crash. He and his co-pilot Sgt. Johnson were on a routine training flight with a Hawker Hart when their machine crashed at Tilton on the Hill in Leicestershire.

Walter Rusk was buried in Peterborough's Eastfield Cemetery in Peterborough .

statistics

title

North West 200 Victories

year class machine Average speed
1934 350 cc Velocette 73.66  mph (118.54  km / h )
1935 350 cc Velocette 76.22 mph (122.66 km / h)

Race wins

year class machine run route
1934 600 cc Velocette XIII. Ulster Grand Prix Clady Circuit
1935 350 cc Norton XII. Swiss Grand Prix Bremgarten
350 cc Norton Dutch TT Circuit of Drenthe
350 cc Norton X. Grand Prix of Germany Badberg square

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rusk, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rusk, Walter Frederick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1940
Place of death Tilton on the Hill