Raymond Roche

Raymond Roche was born in 1957, in Marseille, Ollioules. 

The 1981 World Champion in the 500 class came to the Superbike Championship as a natural consequence of his contribution to the development of the Ducati 851 with the new Desmoquattro engine. 

Riding the new bike he won the second run of the inaugural race in Donington Park, England, and impressed all of his rivals. In the first two years of the Superbike Championship, Honda won, but in 1990 Ducati won the first World Superbike Championship in a long series. Roche himself was the rider of one of these sensational triumphs. Like Marco Lucchinelli in 1988, he also came from MotoGP championship, where he had been on the podium nine times. 

In his long career Roche has ridden a lot of bikes, but moving on to the Superbike he took a significant professional opportunity.

In 1990 Roche won eight races, taking the podium seventeen times and winning the title of SBK World Champion ahead of Fabrizio Pirovano, Yamaha Belgarda rider, and Fredo Merkel, twice SBK World Champion with Honda. What allowed Ducati to win was both Raymond's ability and great competitiveness, but also the great competitiveness of the 851. 

Roche finished 24 of the 26 scheduled runs, with only one abandonment, in New Zealand, when the title was already won.