Features

And it was much more so way back in 1966 too. Speculation was that TT 1966 promised to be a memorable one, and Motor Cycling’s headline in May proclaimed, ‘TT Week Attracts a Record 499 Entries. All classes had record entries, with the six-lap Junior race boasting 114. Read more in the May/June edition of…

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Erv Kanemoto looks tense during a Daytona pit stop. During that 1983 season, it became clear we were limited on how much further Honda could take the three-cylinder. We’d suspected that the Yamaha would be strong. When Barry Sheene got on it and had them put the engine further back that’s what immediately made it…

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The youthful duo of Jock Taylor and Lewis Ward regularly made the long trek south to take on the best English sidecar men. Fergus Anderson won the solo 350cc world title in both 1953 and 54, riding a factory Moto Guzzi. He lost his life at an international meeting at Floreffe, Belgium, in May 1956…

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Derek Ennett – winner of the first 350cc race in 1955. As a result of a double win at the Manx, the club members decided there should be a race in the south of the Island and to hold a meeting on what was to become known as the Billown circuit. In the early 1950s,…

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Mick Grant during qualifying for the ill-fated Silverstone outing. Despite the disappointment Grant says he ‘wouldn’t have missed the experience for the world’. Grant had already decided that, after years in green, it was time for something different – and the Yorkshireman would certainly find out what different meant in Honda’s book. “Gerald said that…

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Fans vent their anger at Sheene’s financial demands MCD, owners of Brands Hatch, Mallory Park, Oulton Park, and Snetterton, had reportedly failed to match the start money that Sheene commanded from Cadwell Park and Donington. “I did my best to come to terms with MCD but when I finally managed to contact Chris Lowe in…

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From the first round, Le Mans in France, Villa made his intensions known, taking the chequered linen first, ahead of his Harley-Davidson team-mate Gianfranco Bonera. Villa continued where he left off when the Continental Circus moved on to Mugello for round two, with another win and fastest lap. It was from round three in Yugoslavia,…

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In a memorable day’s racing Cadwell Park got its first sight and sound of Jim Redman and the factory Honda four, who unsurprisingly dominated the 250cc race, romping home 43 seconds ahead of NSU mounted Dan Shorey and Norman Surtees aboard the Hailwood Mondial. It was runner-up spot again for Shorey; this time on the…

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While the large Dutch contingent in the 100,000 crowd went wild as their hero stormed to victory, with a 16 second lead over the American, Hartog’s Suzuki team-mate, Barry Sheene, was less pleased. Drafted in to the factory Suzuki team to replace Pat Hennen after the American’s Isle of Man TT crash, the intention was…

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Honda RC181 race replica But even on the reps that fall into the good or less category it’s relatively easy to make them sound a little like the original thing, with four open meggas, but it’s quite another to make them feel like a real race bike. Ronald Agoston has achieved just that, and the…

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