Isle of Man Tt Practice

ISLE OF MAN TT Practice

B. R. NICHOLLS IVAN WAGAR

FOR SIXTY YEARS motorcyclists have been making the annual pilgrimage to the Isle of Man, with the exception of the war years, for the TT races. Held on the most famous of all road race courses, the 37-3/4 mile mountain circuit is the greatest test of man and machine.

It started back in 1907, when the race was run over the St. John's circuit in the west of the Island, now familiarly known as the short course, as it covered only 15odd miles and traversed the triangle encompassed by Peel, Ballacraine and Kirkmichael. That first race had 25 starters divided into 18 singles and seven twins with their biggest hazard being the unsurfaced roads and consequent puncture risks.

If you want to know what happened in the intervening 60 years, two excellent publications will give you the story. The first is "60 Years of Speed," written by Charlie Rous and the second, "TT Races Diamond Jubilee 1907-1967," edited by Peter Arnold, both available from CYCLE WORLD Books.

From 25 starters in 1907, the entry for 1967 was a record at just over 500, this figure being achieved with the addition of three extra races under the heading of a production class and subdivided into 250, 500 and 750 capacity classes. This was the appetizer held on the Saturday evening before race week, and very popular it proved to be.

Because of the production event, practice had to be extended and started on the Thursday morning instead of the more usual Friday evening. However, the additional three periods were poorly supported, though Giacomo Agostini started off well in the first session on the "old" 500cc MV four, by putting in a lap at 100.46, and Heinz Rosner, MZ, headed the 250 class at 90.31, which was better than any of the 350s. Hailwood had not arrived in time for the first session, but immediately made his mark in the evening by taking the 250 Honda 'round at 101.27, only fractionally slower than Agostini's 101.33 on the 350 MV.

Friday morning again saw Ago the dominant rider with 102.71 on the 500 and 99.36 on the 350. Bill Ivy came into the picture with a lap on the 250 Yamaha four at 98.99.

Friday evening was restricted to the 50, 125 and 250 classes, and was completely dominated by Hailwood, who rushed the 250 Honda six around to crack his lap record by more than 10 seconds with a speed of 105.12. To see this in its true light, it must be remembered that it was from a standing start and with a braking finish. Then overnight came a change in the weather, and those who crawled out of bed for the 4:45 a.m. start found that the effort was in vain, for visibility on the mountain was down to 20 yards in places, so after hanging around for an hour, the session was canceled.

Monday morning for 50, 125 and 250s (Continued on page 78) was reasonably quiet. Then, in the evening, came the first practice for the production machine class. This had all the enthusiasts on their toes, as arguments had been going on all day as to what speed they would lap the circuit. Few reckoned on much over 90 mph until they saw John Hartle out on the Geoff Duke-entered 649cc Triumph Bonneville, riding on top of his form to turn in a stunning 94.76, with similarly mounted Rex Butcher getting a 90.74. Also on a Triumph. Percy Tait was best 500 at 89.18, and Bill Smith with a 250cc Bultaco Metralla, complete with expansion chamber, sounding every bit a real racer, did a lap at 86.68 mph.

Tuesday morning the 350 and 500 boys had the course to themselves, and Hailwood and Agostini continued their ton-up ways with Renzo Pasolini, also impressive, on both Benellis lapping at over 96 mph in each class. In the evening. Hailwood rolled off another 100 mph plus in the 250 class and Bill Ivy whistled the 125 Yamaha around at 98.52 mph, just a whisker outside his own lap record.

It was up in the morning early Wednesday for the production classes, but speeds were not up to the previous standard, though Steve Spencer on a Bonneville lapped at 94.50. In the evening, the sidecars had their first outing with Georg Auerbacher's 88.66 mph some six seconds faster than Colin Seeley, both on BMWs.

Thursday morning brought a milestone for Ralph Bryans on the 250 Honda six. as he did his first-ever lap 'round the Island at over 100 mph. With a speed of 100.85 he was over four mph quicker than second place Phil Read on the Yamaha. That was the highlight of the morning session, and in the afternoon it was John Hartle who had the crowds talking, for in the solo session he lapped at 98.43 on the Kirby Metisse loaned to him by Tom Kirby. But even this was outshone by Mike the Bike, who broke the 350 lap record on his 350 Honda six with a speed of 103.24. the old figure being 103.09. Siegfried Schauzu was best of the chairs with a lap at 87.10.

So we came to Friday, the last full day of practice, and with it some very quick laps, indeed. Agostini headed the 500 class with 106.28, compared with Hailwood's 104.56. Pasolini got the Benelli 'round at 98.41, and John Blanchard on the Seeley Matchless at 98.29 was .01 mph quicker than Bill Ivy on the 125 Yamaha. Klaus Enders led the chairs with 89.54. Friday evening and Saturday morning would be spent scuffing in tires, or so we thought; but production racers had other ideas, for Tommy Robb lapped at 86.11 on the Bultaco Metralla and John Hartle on the Triumph and Paul Smart on the Dunstall Dominator both lapped at over 96 mph. Then, in the final session. Auerbacher did the fastest sidecar practice lap at 90.34. So, at the end of practice, the leaderboards were as follows:

(Continued on page 80)

During practice 2,168 laps had been completed by competitors covering a distance of almost 81,800 miles. A tragic note was hit in the final session when 51-yearold Alf Shaw crashed his 500 Norton on the mountain near Black Hut and was killed. There were other minor incidents during practice, and an end-over-end prang for Jack Findlay at Quarter Bridge meant that he will be sidelined for a few weeks. Findlay was due to ride Francis Beart's immaculate Nortons, so these were taken over by Malcolm Uphill, an extremely capable rider who achieved a Manx Grand Prix double in 1965. At the end of practice he was the only non-works rider to appear on both 350 and 500cc leaderboards.

The appearance of the 500cc Benelli was a great thrill for the crowds, as it had only been raced in Italy previously. And the song of the seven-speed, four-cylinder model from Pesaro revving up to 12,000 rpm made a welcome addition to the sounds being recorded for this year's CYCLE WORLD discs.

A rumor went around that Peter Williams would be offered a Benelli in the Island, but it was without foundation. However, there is little doubt that Williams is the most talented non-works rider around at the moment, though, if I were a team manager, it would be very difficult to choose between Peter and John Hartle.