Legends of MotoGP (Part 4)
Carlo Ubbiali
Carlo Ubbiali was born on September 22, 1929 in Bergamo, Lombardi. He was mostly good at the smaller class of the Grand Prix. In his very first year of racing in the Grand Prix, in 1949, Ubbiali finished in 4th place.
He also won a gold medal in the International Six Days Trial races. He signed on with Mondial from MV Agosta in 1950. He won his first World Championship in 1951. However, in 1952, Ubbiali left Mondial and resigned with MV Agosta and became their top driver.
He scored Six 125cc titles, three 250cc titles, and double Championships. He is one of the few drivers in the MotoGP, who have never crashed at any point in their career. Ubbiali retired at the ripe age of 30 years old.
John Surtees
John Surtees was born in Tatsfield, Surrey on 11th February 1934. He was the only person to win World Championships on both bikes and Cars. He is also the ambassador to the Racing Steps Foundation. He was the son of
a South London motorcycle dealer. Surtees entered his very first race in 1950. He was only 15 years old. Five years later in 1955, he joined the Norton team and beat the current champion at that time (Duke) at Silverstone and Brand Hatch. Due to financial
reasons, and the fact that there was a chance that Norton was going to pull back from racing, Surtees flipped sides to mV Augustus. In 1956, He won the 500cc World Championship. A year later Surtees placed 3rd. Through the years 1958 till 1960,
Surtees won 32 out of 39 races. He was the first man to win the Senior TT and the Isle of Man TT 3 years in a row. When Surtees was 26 years old, he shifted his attention from racing bikes to racing cars instead. He retired soon after and opened a motorcycle
shop in West Wickham, Kent.
Freddie Spencer
Freddie Spencer was probably one of MotoGP most favourite racers. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana on 20th December, 1961, Spencer was only 4 when he started to race motorbikes. He was signed by Honda America in 1978. When
he was with them, he beat Kenney Rodgers and Barry Sheene in the 1990 US VS Britain Trans-Atlantic Match Series. He split his focus onto two places: the AMA Superbike series, as well as the European Grand Prix Circuit. But 1982, he was a full time member of
the America Honda team. He was the youngest person in the history of MotoGP, to win the 500cc World Championship (in 1983). In 1985, he won the Daytona 200, Spencer was the only person to ever win all three events in one go. Spencer also won the 250cc and
the 500cc, making him the 5th person to win 500cc and the next step down. Freddie Spencer was the only person to win both 500cc and the 250cc races in one year. No one else has achieved this achievement yet. Spencer retired because of wrist injuries
in 1988 and now runs a motorcycle riding school in Las Vegas, Nevada.
These legends are heroes of the motor world. They defined the sport and made it into what it is nowadays. They might be different from one another in terms of where they come from and how old they were, but they all had one thing
in common. They all wanted to move forward…and they wanted to move fast. They stopped at nothing for their goals. They were from the time where the sport was played for the honor, and the satisfaction of winning. Now a day, politics among other reasons has
ruined the sport. The racers race for money instead of what really matters. Here is some friendly advice. If in the future, someone invents a time machine. Go back in time and watch these races live. It will be the best thing one can ever do in their lives.
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