Difference between revisions of "Benelli"

Benelli was formed Pesaro, Italy in 1911. The widow Teresa Benelli, bought a machine shop, to give her sons employment and keep the family together, the six Benelli brothers from Pesaro, built their first in-house motor in 1920 and '''Benelli''' produced its first motorcycle in 1921.  The little brother Antonio "Tonino the Terrible" Benelli , put the Benelli brand on people's radar with his four Italian championships in five years on a 175cc [[SOHC]] [[four-stroke]] prepared by big brother Giovanni in 1927, 1928, 1930 and in 1931 on a [[DOHC]] version of the 175cc bike.  Tonino was killed in a car crash in 1932 but  Benelli's racing prowess continued with [[Dario Ambrosini]]'s victory in the 250cc world GP championship in 1950, that year Ambrosini also won the greatest motorcycling prize, an [[Isle of Man TT]] win.  Ambrosini died a year later causing major setbacks for the Italian firm.  In the 1960s they returned with a four-cylinder 250cc machine.  Italian riders Tarquinio Provini and Renzo Pasolini won four Italian championships  on it throughout the 1960's, with Pasolini also winning a championship on the 350.  Australian [[Kel Carruthers]] who did the best of all, winning the 250cc GP world championship in 1969 and the Isle of Man TT. Kel's win was the last race win for a four stroke in GP until the advent of four stroke [[MotoGP]] in 2003.  Some of the worlds best road racers rode factory Benelli bikes, Joey Dunlop, Mike ' the bike' Hailwood, Phil Read, Jarno Saaranin and the last man to win on a Benelli was Antonio Rossi in 1990. The amazing Peter Goddard rode a factory [[Benelli 900 Tornado]] in the 2001 [[WSBK]] ( world superbike) series. In Australia, Benelli is competing in the 2007 Australian naked bike championship, with the help of a former GP pilot, they got first and second row on the starting grid on their maiden outing, so far have finished with a 3rd place best.