This is a story of talent, courage and grit. It’s a story about Omobono Tenni, the bike racing pioneer whose success in the bike racing world is inextricably linked to that of the Moto Guzzi brand. A man who, amongst his many other achievements, became the first non-British rider to win the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race.
Although this was merely the most renowned in what was, in fact, an endless string of victories, we have to admit that whenever we think of him, the first image that springs to mind is that of him launching his Moto Guzzi 250 around the bends of the Mountain Course back in 1937. This performance not only earned him the win, but also the nickname of “The Black Devil”, coined by the British press.
BEYOND ALL LIMITS
In order to begin to understand Tommaso Omobono Tenni of Tirano and the way his mind worked, we have to accept that he really didn’t give a damn about winning races. The only thing that he was interested in and yearned for was outright speed and that’s what drove him to go above and beyond every limit. Giulio Cesare Carcano, the brilliant engineer and designer of many legendary Moto Guzzis (the 8-cylinder and the V7 700 to name but two), described him as follows:
“I really admired Tenni, even though I didn’t approve of his racing style. He was a really strange kind of guy. If he was sitting here with us now, he would seem to be totally calm and normal. However, the moment his butt touched a bike’s saddle, his entire demeanour would change totally.
What I most remember about him is that, whenever he climbed on a bike, his only objective was to go fast.
Not to win races, but just to go fast.
One day he said to me: «Do you really believe that the public goes to the races to see whether Gilera or Guzzi is going to win? No, they go to the races because they want to see the riders going fast.» For example, Lorenzetti was a calculator. If he was out in front, he would come off the throttle 20m earlier. Tenni, on the other hand, would rather come off the throttle 5 metres later. He used to say: «I feel like I’m robbing the public », a totally different way of thinking.”
Call it foolishness, heroism or just plain madness if you wish, but that’s the way Tenni raced right from the very start of his racing career. A career that began in 1924 when he was just 19 and continued on various city circuits until 1931. But what really put him in the spotlight were his first wins in national races in which he mercilessly beat some of the great champions of the time, like Pietro Ghersi. Although Tenni was shy and introverted in daily life, the moment he climbed on a bike he would instantly become fearless and ruthless and would push the bike beyond its limits. While racing on the very fast Monza circuit in 1931, he was already ahead of the pack on lap 12 when his bike blew a piston. He exclaimed: “No ghe xe machine par mi” (there’s no machine that can stand up to me)…
HIS ENCOUNTER WITH MOTO GUZZI
Ever since the 1920s Moto Guzzi had realised that the best way for the company to showcase its bikes was out on the track. In 1933 the Moto Guzzi team first noticed this rider with a very unusual and extreme riding style that no bike seemed to be able to cope with and they immediately signed him up (mainly thanks to his win over Ghersi at the Rapallo race held at the Tigullio circuit).
The “Trofeo della Velocità” (Speed Trophy) race held on the Littorio circuit in Rome on 15 October was a real baptism of fire for Tenni and the 500 Twin. After the first few laps Tenni was already well ahead of the pack, but he continued to push his bike even harder before coming off disastrously at 180Kph. The bike and rider slid for almost 300m and the stunned spectators feared the worst until Omobono painfully stood up and immediately ran towards his bike, hoping to restart. A broken throttle put paid to his fury and ended his race, but his legendary grit and fervour had already gone down in history, that very grit and fervour that earned him criticism from the press and public adoration in equal measure.
In 1934 and 1935 he took the Italian 500cc Championship title with that same bike, as well as the European 250cc Championship title in 1935. However, in the back of his mind there was still the much more ambitious promise that he had made to himself years before, namely to take part in the toughest and most prestigious race in the world, the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy.
OMOBONO AND THE RACE OF CHAMPIONS
The “TT” needs no introduction whatsoever, but while these days the race is still a major draw card for fearless speed addicts and adrenalin junkies alike (we could perhaps even call them Tenni’s disciples), you must remember that back then it was essentially considered to be the most important race in the world. Also, given that the first official TT race was held back in 1907, it was already the “oldest” race in the relatively brief history of bike racing.
Prior to that, “the race of champions” had only ever been won by British riders riding British bikes (the only exception being an Indian in one of the earliest races)… that is until Moto Guzzi and Omobono Tenni appeared on the scene.
In 1935 the “Eagle” squad at the TT already included Stanley Woods, a heavyweight rider and multiple race-winner. However, right from the 250cc practice laps, Tenni kept up his usual insane pace to register a record lap time of 30 minutes and 10 seconds. In the race itself, Tenni came off on lap 5 due to the heavy mist, while Woods brought home his Moto Guzzi to take his first win on the Isle of Man, but never managed to come anywhere near matching the record lap time set by the acrobatic Italian rider. Tenni suffered two broken vertebrae in the fall, but it took everything the Italian team managers had to prevent him from taking part in the 500cc race, which was also won by Woods.
Word of Tenni’s exploits continued to spread and the other riders began to fear him. After the 1935 TT, the British press nicknamed him “The Black Devil”. In turn, Omobono did little to dispel their opinion. Just one month after his discharge from the hospital, he came first at a race held at the Livorno circuit, in which he came in 10 and 30 minutes respectively ahead of his teammates. He was now at peak performance. When he was in the saddle it seemed that his bones and muscles and the bike’s frame and pistons were vibrating in unison, pushing the rider and the bike over the finish line as one single entity. In almost every race in which he took part in those years, he was first to cross the finish line and regularly humiliated the competition. But Omobono still had a score to settle…
TENNI TAKES THE BENDS WITH GAY ABANDON …
In March 1937, while practicing at breakneck speed on the hairpins around Lario just a few kilometres from the Moto Guzzi factory, Tenni had a terrible accident that left him with a broken leg and two severed toes. However, he told the doctors that his only concern was whether or not he would be able to take part in the TT race that was coming up in just a few weeks time.
Indeed, Tenni didn’t just take part in the TT race that year, he even managed to make history. “The Black Devil”, that fearless Italian with two missing toes, on his Moto Guzzi 250 Single, built up such a massive lead that he even managed to overcome the delays caused by a slide and an unscheduled stop to replace a spark plug. That was when, with Tenni ploughing his way through the bends of the 37-mile circuit, a BBC reporter made what has become perhaps one of the most famous and exhilarating comments regarding his exploits, namely:
“The comments I’m hearing from every part of the circuit all agree on one thing, namely that Tenni is taking the bends with gay abandon and there are serious doubts as to whether he will finish this race in one piece”.
The truth of these words is totally confirmed by the well-known photo that many people still consider to this day to be “the best-ever shot of a bike rider in action” i.e.: Tenni on his Moto Guzzi 250.
“TENNI HAS WON!” This is the news that the excited crowd was waiting to hear, with bated breath, in the stands and on all the radio stations of Europe.
Two days later, only a broken throttle cable prevented him from repeating that same success in the 500cc class, but the job had been well done and the TT crown was firmly in Italian hands.
THE LEGEND AND HIS DEATH
In 1937, after his TT victory, he went on to record wins at the European Grand Prix and also at Monza, setting an unconfirmed number of records on that circuit, all on a Moto Guzzi.
In 1939 the Second World War put a sudden stop to international bike races and Tenni used the time to recover from the dozens of falls and injuries that had sorely tested his body. In 1945 he was 40 years old and could comfortably have retired, but he was still the fastest rider in the world and he wanted to prove it. Furthermore, he had often made it patently clear how he saw his future: “I will only retire when someone comes along who is faster than I am”.
From 1945 to 1948 Tenni continued to win races all around Europe and was widely acknowledged as being the greatest champion of his time. For a while he even tried car racing, but bikes were always his first love and remained so as long as he lived.
On 1st July 1948, during a practice session, Tenni took a catastrophic spill on the Ejmatt corner at the Bern circuit, in which he broke his neck and died. That date will forever be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of Italian bike racing. Just a few hours after Tenni’s tragic accident, another great champion by the name of Achille Varzi also died after crashing out on that very same corner.
A wake was held at the Moto Guzzi factory in Mandello del Lario and, on 4th July, a truck bearing the Moto Guzzi logo accompanied his remains on their final trip back to Tirano, the town where he was born. Right through to the very end he was surrounded by the managers, the mechanics, the public and the thousands of Guzzi fans with whom the fearless rider had thrown in his lot and to whom he had brought incomparable success and international prestige.
Just a few short weeks have passed since the 1st July and the 70th Anniversary of his death, but for us members of Proud Owners community his legacy and iconic status remain intact as time goes by, as do the memories of those heady years when man and machine rode fast and with gay abandon…
