Roberto Ravaglia
In2008, as the director of BMW Team Italy-Spain.
Nationality	Italian
Born	(1957-05-26)26 May 1957 (age 68) Venice,Italy
Previous series
1981-1982 1982-1983 1984-1988 1985-1992 1987 1990-1996 1993-1995 1994 &1996 1994-1995 1997	Italian F3 European F3 European Touring Car Championship Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft World Touring Car Championship Italian Touring Car Championship FIA Touring Car World Cup British Touring Car Championship Super Tourenwagen Cup FIA GT Championship
Championship titles
1986 & 1988 1987 1989 1990, 1991, 1993	European Touring Car Championship World Touring Car Championship Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft Italian Touring Car Championship

24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1990, 1997
Teams	Toyota TeamTom's,BMWSchnitzer Motorsport
Best finish	3rd (1997)
Class wins	0

Roberto Ravaglia (born 26 May 1957) is an Italian formerracing driver, who currently runsROAL Motorsport, who operate a Chevrolet operation in theWorld Touring Car Championship. Before retiring in 1997, he was one of the most successful touring car racing drivers, primarily for BMW, and won seven titles in four different championships.

He was twice Italiankarting champion and raced inFormula 3 in the early 1980s. In 1984 he made histouring car debut, becomingEuropean Touring Car Championship champion in 1986, and successfully defending the title in 1987 and 1988 (though in 1987 it was theWorld Touring Car Championship), with some races outside Europe including theMacau Grand PrixGuia Touring Car races and theJames Hardie 1000 inAustralia. Later in the 1988 season he was unable to defend his Macau win due to breaking a rib in a road accident driving hisFiat Uno. He switched with BMW to theDTM in 1989, and theItalian Superturismo Championship in 1990, winning both on the first attempt. He was also champion in 1991 and 1993. One of the few unsuccessful seasons of his career was 1996 in theBritish Touring Car Championship, despite finishing a credible 6th and picking up a win at the British GP support race. He also came in 4th at Supertourismo that year. He was now approaching 40 and did not win another championship as a driver.^[1]

Roberto Ravaglia was also successful in the famedSpa 24 Hours race at theCircuit de Spa-Francorchamps inBelgium, winning the race three times. He won his first 24 hours in 1985 driving aBMW 635 CSi partnered byFormula One driversGerhard Berger andMarc Surer. He followed that win with a 3rd place in 1986 and second in 1987 before winning again in 1988 in aBMW M3 partnered byDieter Quester andAltfrid Heger. His last win in theArdennes round the clock classic came in 1994. Again driving a BMW, this time theBMW 318is partnered byThierry Tassin andAlexander Burgstaller.

Ravaglia made three visits to Australia during his racing career, all to drive in theBathurst 1000. In his debut race in1985 he finished a fine second withVenezuelanJohnny Cecotto in the Schnitzer BMW 635 CSi which had earlier in the year finished 2nd at Spa, with both drivers sharing the "Rookie of the Year" award. The car, run by Australian Greg "Pee Wee" Siddle and under the name of "Goold Motorsport" and sponsored by retired Australian racer and successful tyre retailerBob Jane, was initially to be driven byFormula One driversRiccardo Patrese andGerhard Berger, but the race was run on the same day as theEuropean Grand Prix atBrands Hatch inEngland. Ravaglia and Cecotto's effort was all the more impressive considering that their Sebring Orange 635 CSi was down on power throughout qualifying and the race with a small electrical gremlin which the Schnitzer mechanics didn't manage to successfully cure.

He returned in1986, again in a Schnitzer 635 for Goold Motorsport, this time painted in BMW's famous cut-away paint scheme, and initially qualified a surprising 2nd before ending up 9th on the grid after the "Hardies Heroes" Top 10 run-off. To his credit Ravaglia stated his time wouldn't have been possible in qualifying proper without the tow he got from one of the fasterV8Holden Commodore's on the run up Mountain Straight and on the almost 2 km long Conrod Straight, and attributed that lack of a tow in the runoff for his falling to 9th. Partnering former ETCC champion Dieter Quester his race unfortunately ended early when he clashed on lap 2 of 163 with theJaguar XJS of 1985 winnerJohn Goss. In an uncharacteristic show of raw emotion, Ravaglia physically attacked Goss in the pits after Goss finished his opening driving stint believing the Australian to be totally at fault for the accident and had to be restrained by his team. He later apologised to Goss and professed regret for his actions. Goss, who said in an interview with race broadcasterChannel 7 that he was "astounded" about incident in the pits (but didn't name Ravaglia as the other driver), declined the option from race officials to have action taken against the Italian believing it to be just "one of those things".

Ravaglia returned to Australia for two rounds of theinaugural World Touring Car Championship. The first being the 1987 James Hardie 1000, which was a disaster for the Schnitzer team and Roberto. After crashing his BMW M3 at the top of the mountain during qualifying he suffered heavy bruising to his ribs which required strapping. Following his final stint at the wheel during the race he was taken to the tracks medical centre after collapsing from exhaustion and dehydration from the physical effort of having to drive the little car around the 6.213 km longMount Panorama Circuit with bruised ribs that were reportedly strapped too tight, making it hard for him to breathe. His last race in Australia was a week later in theBob Jane T-Marts 500 at theCalder Park Raceway inMelbourne, a unique track that combined the 2.280 km (1.417 mi) road course with the then new 1.801 km (1.119 mi)NASCAR style high banked "Thunderdome". Again teamed with ItalianEmanuele Pirro, the pair qualified their M3 9th, but would enjoy a much better race than at Bathurst, finishing 2nd behind theSteve Soper /Pierre Dieudonné TexacoFord Sierra RS500.

Roberto Ravaglia was also successful in other 24-hour races, twice winning the famousNürburgring 24 Hours. His first win came in 1989 driving a BMW M3 with another F1 driver (and regular ETCC/WTCC co-driver)Emanuele Pirro andFrenchmanFabien Giroix. His last 24-hour win at the famousNürburgring was in 1995 driving aBMW 320i withMarc Duez and Alexander Burgstaller.^[2]

In 2001, he founded his own racing team,Ravaglia Motorsport (nowROAL Motorsport), with Aldo Preo. The team took part in theEuropean Touring Car Championship with support fromBMW Motorsport, and their driverPeter Kox won the Super Production class championship in the first season. The entry name of the BMW squad wasBMW Team Germany in 2001, but it changed toBMW Team Spain in the next season and has beenBMW Team Italy-Spain since 2003.^[3] The team currently competes in theWorld Touring Car Championship.^[4]

1985

Winner of the24 Hours of Spa

1986

European Touring Car Championship champion

1987

World Touring Car Championship champion

Winner of theGuia Race

1988

European Touring Car Championship champion

Winner of the24 Hours of Spa

1989

Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) champion

Winner of the24 Hours Nürburgring Nordschleife

1990

Italian Touring Car Championship champion

1991

Italian Touring Car Championship champion

1992

Third inGuia Race

1993

Italian Touring Car Championship champion

1994

Winner of the24 Hours of Spa

1995

Winner of the24 Hours Nürburgring Nordschleife

2001

FIA European Super Touring ChampionshipSuper Production class champion forPeter Kox (Ravaglia BMW)

2005

Italian Superturismo Championship champion forAlessandro Zanardi (Ravaglia BMW)

Results sourced from Driver Database.^[5]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Results sourced from History of Touring Car Racing.^[6]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	DC	Pts
1984	Schnitzer Motorsport	BMW 635 CSi	MNZ Ret	VAL Ret	DON Ret	PER Ret	BRN	ZEL 18	SAL 8	NÜR 8	SPA Ret	SIL Ret	ZOL Ret	MUG 1			NA	NA
1985	Schnitzer Motorsport	BMW 635 CSi	MNZ Ret	VAL 5	DON	AND	BRN 3	ZEL	SAL 8	NÜR 4	SPA 1	SIL	NOG	ZOL 4	EST 3	JAR 7	20th	104
1986	Schnitzer Motorsport	BMW 635 CSi	MNZ Ret	DON 2	HOC 2	MIS 1	AND Ret	BRN 6	ZEL 3	NÜR 1	SPA 3	SIL 2	NOG 1	ZOL 2	JAR 1	EST 9	1st	211
1987	Schnitzer Motorsport	BMW M3	DON 7	EST	AND	ZOL	ZEL DNS	IMO	NOG								NA	22
1988	Schnitzer Motorsport	BMW M3	MNZ 6	DON 1	EST 2	JAR 3	DIJ 3	VAL 2	NÜR 4	SPA 1	ZOL 1	SIL 7	NOG 2				1st	297

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts
1987	BMW Motorsport	BMW M3	MNZ DSQ	JAR ovr:1 cls:1	DIJ ovr:2 cls:1	NÜR ovr:2 cls:1	SPA Ret	BNO ovr:4 cls:2	SIL ovr:2 cls:2	BAT ovr:12 cls:5	CLD ovr:2 cls:1	WEL ovr:2 cls:1	FJI ovr:3 cls:1	1st	269

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts
1988	Courage Compétition	Cougar C20Porsche	JER	JAR	MNZ 7	SIL	LMS	BRN	BRH	NÜR	SPA	FUJ	SAN	61st	8

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1997	Schnitzer Motorsport	McLaren F1 GTR	GT1	HOC Ret	SIL 1	HEL 11	NÜR 4	SPA 4	ZEL Ret	SUZ 8	DON 5	MUG 5	SEB 2	LAG 11	8th	26

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded all races 1996 only) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1985	/Goold Motorsport	Johnny Cecotto	BMW 635 CSi	C	163	2nd	2nd
1986	/Goold Motorsport	Dieter Quester	BMW 635 CSi	C	2	DNF	DNF
1987	Schnitzer Motorsport	Emanuele Pirro Markus Oestreich Roland Ratzenberger	BMW M3	2	150	12th	5th

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