Isle of Tourist Man Trophy
ISLE OF TOURIST MAN TROPHY
THREE SECONDS ROBBED Jim Redman of the chance of joining Mike Hailwood as a triple winner during Isle of Man T.T. week, for that was the amount by which his Honda teammate Luigi Taveri beat him in the 125cc race. But by the time this happened, on Wednesday of race week, we had gotten used to drama and surprises. It was Taveri who started it all on the 125 Honda four-cylinder device at the first practice session when he was credited with a lap at 94.59 mph, as opposed to the lap record of 91.32 mph. Was it true? The answer had all enthusiasts divided but the timekeepers stood firm. Others with stop watches said no, and perhaps the most emphatic of all in denying the possibility was Taveri himself. In any case, practice times are unofficial so the answer was left to race day.
Count Agusta refused permission for Mike Hailwood to ride the Suzuki entries, giving Jack Ahearn, the veteran Australian, his first truly works ride when he was offered the 250 Suzuki four. His only previous works experience was developing the Matchless G-50 in the Isle of Man in 1958, his first T.T. having been in 1954. He will probably ride the 250 at the Dutch and Belgian meetings together with a 125 if available. Tommy Robb, sacked by Honda two weeks before, was booked by Yamaha for the T.T. and will also ride for them at Dutch and Belgian meetings for which it is strongly rumored they will have a 125 two-stroke twin as well.
Fumio Ito was present in the Island but never practiced and left before race week for a month in Miami, so he said, despite having proclaimed his fitness after that Malaysia Grand Prix crash. Alan Shepherd was not allowed to practice by the doctors until Thursday, after his collarbone injury sustained at the French Grand Prix; he qualified immediately. John Hartle, however, was a non-starter, still suffering headaches after his Imola prang. There was no need to look for a substitute for the Gilera though, for there was a strike at the factory which prevented any solo machines being available, and disap pointed enthusiasts were denied the chance of seeing Benedicto Caldarella for the first time. The Camathias Gilera sidecar outfit was nearly a non-starter, too, for Florian had been in a crash with his transporter which resulted in him getting four cracked ribs, but it takes more than that to stop him racing. Another crash vic tim was the Benelli race van, traveling to the Island with three machines on board. An old single was a write-off, the brand new model four was damaged, but the practice four virtually unharmed; a mech anic suffered a broken collarbone. Mike Hailwood, suffering from tonsilitis, recov ered sufficiently to practice and on Thurs day took a look at his horoscope to find that his stars foretold "a first class day for forcing the pace." He promptly went out and recorded a lap at over 102 mph, the only one over the ton during practice. Which brings us to the weather, for that governs speed in the Isle of Man more than most things. It was a little unkind this year, often giving wet roads and mist
B. R. NICHOLLS
aplenty on the mountain during practice, and one morning session was so wet and foggy it was cancelled - no one could remember such a thing happening before. Regrettably two sidecar passengers were killed. The first, Brian Cockell, died from injuries after a practice crash at Braddan Bridge and the second, Lawrence Essery, from injuries received in a race crash at Bal1au~h Bridge. Never has there been such a massacre of machinery as in this year's 250cc race. Out of 64 starters, 45 retired, 11 took so long that they were classed as non-finishers, and a mere eight were left to take the flag. This was the race that had been written up as the finest ever and the one when we expected to see the first 100 mph average by a 250. The nearest we got to it was from Phil Read. He rushed his Yamaha round at 99.42, compared with the record set by Bob Mclntyre on a Honda in 1961 of 99.58, so Phil failed by less than two seconds to gain a record. Jim Redman, in winning on the Honda four, set a new race record of 97.45 mph. But what happened in those six laps to nearly a dozen works entries, let alone the private runners that went astray? The answer must surely be that the pace was too hot and the Honda won on the merit of its reliability and the skill of its able and seasoned rider, Jim Redman. At the end of the race the only man anywhere near him was Alan Shepherd (M.Z.). Questioned on his fitness, Alan said that he was not quite 100 percent but was quick to add that had he tried any harder he might have blown it up.
MONDAY, JUNE 8th
Although termed race week in the Isle of Man, racing in fact takes place only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This gives the opportunity to race on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday should any one day's racing have to be cancelled because of the weather. Nowadays the sidecar race is first of the week and all the aces were on the line anxious to gain another eight points toward the world champion ship. The battle was between Camathias on the Gilera, handicapped by injury, and Deubel, using his secondary engine since his best had been blown up in the final practice session. Halfway through the first lap Camathias led by five seconds, but lost all chance of leading at the end of the lap when he missed a gear and used the escape road at Signpost corner. This let in Deubel, who never relinquished his lead despite difficulty with a petrol filler cap; he went on to win at a record average speed of 89.12 mph, failing to improve on his own record lap set up two years ago. Camathias, however, was in real trouble on the last lap. He suffered fuel starva tion as well as bother with fourth gear, then spun at Creg fly Baa, smashing the windscreen. His passenger suffered abras ions to the arm, but they pushed in to finish fifteenth. Second man home, ironi cally, was Cohn Seeley on the ex-Cama thias F.C.S. outfit, over two minutes be hind Max Deubel, and Cohn also had gearbox trouble, with second cog. Third was Georg Auerbacher (BMW), who has been riding very steadily and now lies second in the championship table, five points behind Deubel.
250cc RACE
On the first lap Duff (Yamaha) retired at Union Mills, a couple of miles further up the road Perris (Suzuki) was out and Kaseya (Honda) had spilled without injury, the same happening to Jenkins (Enfield). Schneider (Suzuki) dropped it at Ramsey hairpin but continued, while at the end of the first lap Read came in for a plug change, then motored like blazes on his second and third laps to gain fourth place. Ahearn (Suzuki) went out on the second lap and Schneider on the third, so Suzuki had no runners left. With Redman stopping for fuel at the end of the third lap Read took the lead, only to lose it at the end of the lap when he refueled, changed plugs and then had to retire with an engine seizure on Bray Hill. So Yamaha had one left in the race
and that was Tommy Robb who could almost write a book on his troubles.
On the final lap Provini dropped one of the valves in the Benelli and Malina on the C.Z. stopped to make adjustments, then continued. Redman steamed on to victory, followed 41 seconds later by Shepherd. But then it was a staggering wait of 13V2 minutes for third man home, Alberto Pagani (Paton). The speeds of the first six tell the story. Perhaps the most interesting facet of the 250 class this year is that so far we have had four different riders and four different makes of machine win a championship meeting and Redman and Shepherd top the table with 14 points out of a possible 32. M.Z., Benelli, Yamaha, Honda have won so far; who will gain the big advantage at the Dutch and Belgian meetings?
WEDNESDAY
Expected battles have a habit of fizzling out almost before starting and exactly that happened in the first of Wednesday's two races, for the 125 class. Last year's winner Hugh Anderson (Suzuki) was due to start alongside Luigi Taveri, whose Honda four -headed the practice board with a 94.59 mph lap ahead of Suzuki mounted Bert Schneider, credited with 92.38 mph, both times beating the lap record. Taveri made a perfect start but Anderson's machine was smoking badly
and failed to reach quarter distance of the first lap. It was an omen of ill fate for none of the Suzuki team were to finish. Perris, only 1/5 of a second behind race leader Redman at the end of the first lap, went out at Ramsey on the second, and third member, Schneider, retired at Sulby.
With Redman leading Taveri at the end of the second lap it looked as if Jim would win three races in a week, but Taveri put in a cracking last lap to break the record Redman had set on the previous lap. Redman's 92.88 was bettered by Taveri's 93.53, just over 16 seconds slower than was necessary to get that practice figure of 94.59 mph. Honda newcomer Ralph Bryans came third to gain Honda a convincing team award whilst Stanislav Malina (C.Z.) was fourth, as in the 250 race, and so gained the award for the best overseas newcomer to the races.
Mike Hailwood was a non-starter in the 350 race, still suffering from tonsilitis. This was a big disappointment to the crowd, but worse was the prospect that he would not be fit for the Senior race on Friday. In Mike's absence the 350 proved to be a walkover for Jim Redman on the Honda four; he won with over seven minutes in hand. At the end of the first of six laps, five different machines were in front, Redman (Honda), Shepherd (251!cc M.Z.), Minter (Norton), Read (A.J.S.) and Stastny (Jawa), a state of affairs almost equal to the finish of the 250cc race that had six different makes. But on the second lap Shepherd retired and Stanstny leap-frogged into second place. The Czech walks with a stick and has a very bad limp, though it does not seem to affect his riding, but his luck left him when a rear suspension unit broke at Union Mills on the fourth lap when he was in a secure second place. On the fourth lap Mike Duff (A.J.S.) leapt into second place from fifth, doubtless due to the fact that he was having a non-stop run whereas the others were stopping for fuel. But he lost on the last lap to Phil Read, who put in a quick dash to take second place.
FRIDAY
Making what can only be described as a miraculous recovery and gaining last minute medical permission to ride, Mike Hailwood turned out for the Senior T.T. and won it as expected, even though not really fit. But before the largest capacity race came the smallest, that for the fifties. With the complete eclipse of the Suzuki teams in the previous races, the big question was would the little Honda twin make it a clean sweep of all the solo classes they entered? Not if Hugh Anderson could help it, for he was anxious to make amends for the 125 race and take another step toward retaining his world title. He set about promptly and at the end of the first lap had eight seconds over last year's winner, and teammate, Mitsuo Itoh. But less than two seconds separated Itoh from Harao Koshino (Suzuki) in fourth place, with Anscheidt (Kreidler) sandwiched in between them.
"Old man" of the Honda team Naomi Taniguchi, who came with the first Honda team to the Isle of Man in 1959, was lying sixth and finished in that spot. The second lap saw Ralph Bryans making an effort and then on the last lap he really pulled the stops out to finish second, just over a minute behind Anderson. So there was some joy for Suzuki, who took the team prize, and for Honda in their second place, but Kreidler could do no better than fourth in the person of Anscheidt. His teammates, Taveri and Provini, finished seventh and eighth. Anderson set the record lap at 81.13; old figure 79.10 mph.
500cc RACE
Before the race was a couple of minutes old, Sid Mizen had dropped the Dunstall Dominator at Quarter Bridge and was joined pretty quickly by Bill Sharp (BSA) from Grenville, Delaware, who finished 37th in the 125 race; neither was hurt. To those of us fortunate enough to see last year's senior race, when Hailwood was up against the Gileras and set a race speed of 104.64 and a lap record of 106.41, it was obvious that, with no opposition and the effects of the illness still with him, he was going to take it easy.
Four more very good men were out on the first 37-mile lap — Read, Conn, Gunnarsson and Hunter — but Mike Duff was going well in second place, with Minter third and Jimmy Rae fourth. Rae looked good in the Junior but had to retire, and then he went out on the fourth lap of the big race. Not Duff's week either for he retired on the second lap; this let in Minter who held that place to the end. Ahearn was third for the second and third laps but after a pit stop which failed to cure a misfire, finished 14th, so Paddy Driver moved into third place but only for one lap; his Matchless got clutch trouble and that was that. By the fifth lap things had settled down to Hailwood, Minter, then Fred Stevens and Derek Woodman (both Matchless) with Roy Ingram (Norton) fifth and last year's Senior Manx Grand Prix winner, Griff Jenkins (Norton), sixth. Jenkins improved this by one place on the last lap when Ingram took a toss in Ramsey, so Billy McCosh, the Irish rider, finished sixth.
