Isle of Man TT Winners
A set of stamps issued by the Isle of Man Post Office in 1974 with beautiful artwork by the Manx artist John Hobson Nicholson.
3p; The 1935 Senior TT is regarded by many to be one of the greatest seniors in TT history. Competitors had to put up with lack of gas, electricity and public transport due to the general strike. In addition George Formby was on the island making the most of his cinematic success ‘No Limits’ portraying the exploits of George Shuttleworth and his home made Shuttleworth Snap.
Stanley Woods riding a Moto Guzzi had taken half a minute off the Senior lap record in practice and looked good for the race win. The 1935 Senior became the first to be postponed to the Saturday due to the weather and when it finally got started Woods found himself starting at number 30, fifteen minutes behind his rival Jimmy Guthrie. Norton mounted Guthrie held the upper hand early on but Woods employed a ‘dummy pit stop’ at the end of lap six to out fox Guthrie’s works Norton team. As a result of Woods starting position, Guthrie was declared the winner by the press who had to reverse their decision when it emerged that Woods had won by 4 seconds and had smashed the lap record by 4 mph to make a new record of 86.53mph.
31/2p; Norton mounted Freddy Frith’s first Senior TT win partly resulted from his teammate Jimmy Guthrie’s breakdown at the Cutting on lap five although Frith had to complete the first ever 90mph lap to beat Stanley Woods. It was to be Guthrie’s last ever TT race as he was tragically killed two months later while leading the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring circuit. Scotsman Guthrie was commemorated by a memorial on the TT course at the Cutting which is now known as Guthrie’s memorial.
8p: The 1961 sidecar race was won by Max Deubel and passenger Emil Horner on a BMW with a fastest lap of 87.97mph. BMW would take all three podium places but the race was marred by the death of passenger Marie Lambert who was killed at Creg-ny-Baa, tragically her husband Claude was the driver.
10p: Although not part of the official Honda squad, Mike Hailwood was to ride for the Japanese factory in both the 125cc and 250cc races. Hailwood broke the 125 cc lap record from a standing start and held on to win from Luigi Taveri to secure his first TT win, it was also Honda’s first win on the island. Hailwood went on to win the lightweight 250cc race for Honda and record a hat-trick of wins when he won the Senior TT on a Norton. Hailwood’s win in the Senior TT made history, he became the first ever rider to win three TTs in a week. This feat became more achievable in later race programmes when more races were added, Hailwood won three out of the four races he competed in and repeated the hat-trick in 1967 ( the TT hat-trick would be repeated by the great Joey Dunlop 24 years later in 1985). In addition, Hailwood was the first man to win a TT on a single-cylinder machine (Norton) at an average of over 100mph.
Isle of Man TT Winners
A set of stamps issued by the Isle of Man Post Office in 1974 with beautiful artwork by the Manx artist John Hobson Nicholson.
3p; The 1935 Senior TT is regarded by many to be one of the greatest seniors in TT history. Competitors had to put up with lack of gas, electricity and public transport due to the general strike. In addition George Formby was on the island making the most of his cinematic success ‘No Limits’ portraying the exploits of George Shuttleworth and his home made Shuttleworth Snap.
Stanley Woods riding a Moto Guzzi had taken half a minute off the Senior lap record in practice and looked good for the race win. The 1935 Senior became the first to be postponed to the Saturday due to the weather and when it finally got started Woods found himself starting at number 30, fifteen minutes behind his rival Jimmy Guthrie. Norton mounted Guthrie held the upper hand early on but Woods employed a ‘dummy pit stop’ at the end of lap six to out fox Guthrie’s works Norton team. As a result of Woods starting position, Guthrie was declared the winner by the press who had to reverse their decision when it emerged that Woods had won by 4 seconds and had smashed the lap record by 4 mph to make a new record of 86.53mph.
31/2p; Norton mounted Freddy Frith’s first Senior TT win partly resulted from his teammate Jimmy Guthrie’s breakdown at the Cutting on lap five although Frith had to complete the first ever 90mph lap to beat Stanley Woods. It was to be Guthrie’s last ever TT race as he was tragically killed two months later while leading the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring circuit. Scotsman Guthrie was commemorated by a memorial on the TT course at the Cutting which is now known as Guthrie’s memorial.
8p: The 1961 sidecar race was won by Max Deubel and passenger Emil Horner on a BMW with a fastest lap of 87.97mph. BMW would take all three podium places but the race was marred by the death of passenger Marie Lambert who was killed at Creg-ny-Baa, tragically her husband Claude was the driver.
10p: Although not part of the official Honda squad, Mike Hailwood was to ride for the Japanese factory in both the 125cc and 250cc races. Hailwood broke the 125 cc lap record from a standing start and held on to win from Luigi Taveri to secure his first TT win, it was also Honda’s first win on the island. Hailwood went on to win the lightweight 250cc race for Honda and record a hat-trick of wins when he won the Senior TT on a Norton. Hailwood’s win in the Senior TT made history, he became the first ever rider to win three TTs in a week. This feat became more achievable in later race programmes when more races were added, Hailwood won three out of the four races he competed in and repeated the hat-trick in 1967 ( the TT hat-trick would be repeated by the great Joey Dunlop 24 years later in 1985). In addition, Hailwood was the first man to win a TT on a single-cylinder machine (Norton) at an average of over 100mph.