Island Racer 2023

PEOPLE POWER

Back in February, news broke that many events in Northern Ireland would be cancelled for 2023, including short-circuit racing, trials and road-racing events.

Cancelled events included the Cookstown 100, Tandragee 100, Armoy Race of Legends, the Ulster Grand Prix and the Sunflower, held at Bishopscourt. Right from the start the organisers of the fantastically popular North West 200 race – held on the 8.9 mile course between ‘The Triangle’ of Portrush, Portstewart and Coleraine – were quick to say that they were ‘pursuing every avenue to make this year’s event happen…’

So why were they cancelled? Money: the cost of public liability insurance at such events is now north of almost half a million pounds – and that’s the tip of the iceberg as race organisers would be expected to pay out many hundreds of thousands of pounds on any claim made against them. The outlook was bleak, but then in came people power. By the middle of March and with many fans realising they’d enjoyed free racing for years, crowdfunding secured the various events’ futures.

Thankfully action at the Isle of Man TT was never in doubt but these recent events have shown the problems road-racing faces today. And when it comes to action, this year things are delicately poised, with the current Kings of the course still in action and favourites for wins while they are being pressed from behind by the up-and-coming riders. And of course we still have a few of the old guard, the likes of John McGuinness and Ian Hutchinson (who won his first Manx race 20 years ago now) who could still spring a surprise.

In this issue of Island Racer we’ve tried to give you the latest information on the entry list for 2023 while also giving you a number of historical features that we hope you enjoy. It goes without saying that ‘everything was correct at the time of going to press.’

As I write this, we’re just weeks away from experiencing all the thrills that the Isle of Man TT event can give us, so it’s just left for me to say, once more: ‘have a terrific, exciting and safe TT!’

Bertie

YOUR ISLAND RACER | EDITION 2023

008 FLASHBACK!

Feel the history of the Isle of Man TT through these eight pages of recollections from some of the legendary names that resonate through the annals of road-racing.

016 PETER HICKMAN

e man most likely to… add to his tally of big-bike wins at this year’s TT. We reveal how Hicky has become the fastest rider on the Isle of Man thanks to his winning ways on the UK’s short circuits.

026 WHO TO SEE IN ‘23? #1

e top runners and riders in the big-bike classes pro led – and will the domination of the front-runners such as Hickman, Harrison and Dunlop be challenged?

044 WHO TO SEE IN ‘23? #2

We check out the talent in the smaller classes such as Supersport and Supertwins that will be tackling the Isle of Man TT course.

048 WHO TO SEE IN ‘23? #3

With the sidecars celebrating 100 years of racing at the TT we check out the top drivers and their passengers at this year’s event.

058 HIZZY’S GREATEST HITS

20 years on from his untimely passing, we look at Steve Hislop’s greatest Isle of Man rides. Was he the greatest TT racer ever?

070 WHO WON WHAT IN ’22?

We have a quick look at what happened at last year’s Isle of Man TT races.

076 MAGICAL CHAIRS!

2023 marks the centenary of the three-wheelers debut on the Isle of Man – we look at the rich history of 100 years of sidecar racing at the TT.

080 DYNAS-TT-Y!

We check out four of Yorkshire’s nest – the Je eries clan. Allan, Tony, Nick and David tackled the TT and won. We re-tell their stories.

086 TRIUMPHAN-TT!

After many years in the road-racing wilderness, Triumph came back in style during 2003, when they won a TT race for the rst time in around 30 years. is is the story of Triumph on the Isle of Man.

092

HAMMER OF THE GOD!

The Manx Museum embarked upon a real challenge this year: get Mike Hailwood’s 1979 Suzuki RG500 running for the first time in around 40 years. And there’s the small matter of getting a ‘Mike the Bike’ mannequin on the Suzuki, too!

100 25 YEARS OF THE R-SERIES

Back in 1998 Yamaha produced the YZF-R1 – the first of many new ‘R-series’ race-replica bikes. The R-series family has won many a TT race and made a career. We take a look...

108 BEER SCOOTER

Bathams Brewery-backed Michael Rutter has a plan: take Yamaha’s latest R-series bike – the R7 – and make it into an effective Isle of Man TT racer. Can it win?

116 100 YEARS OF BMW BIKES

Before the Second World War, BMW was one of the powerhouses of TT racing and then… Well, things happened and times changed. Then they came back with a real bang – this is their story.

127 THE KNOWLEDGE

Facts, figures, lap records and all the data from races and years gone by.

146 WHAT’S ON

WHEN?

What’s on and when it’s on during the TT event in 2023: two extra races, for a start!

EDITOR: BERTIE SIMMONDS

ART EDITOR: CRAIG LAMB

AD MANAGER: CHARLIE OAKMAN

PRODUCTION EDITOR: DAN SHARP

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: PETE FARAGHER, BILL SNELLING/TT RACE PICS, STUART BARKER, PHIL WAIN, JOHN WATTERSON, JOHN MCAVOY, CIARAN BROAD, GARY D CHAPMAN.

PUBLISHER: STEVE O’HARA

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: DAN SAVAGE

TT 2023 ISLAND RACER

ISBN 978-1-911703-19-8

ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT MORTONS MEDIA GROUP LIMITED, 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS

PICS: MORTONS ARCHIVE

SEVENTH HEAVEN!

Tony Rutter scooped his first of seven Isle of Man TT races 50 years ago.

Tony – who passed away in March 2020 –enjoyed a long career: three decades riding a wide range of different machines. Many felt Rutter was one of the most underrated riders of his generation. He would ride small and large capacity machines, two-strokes and fourstrokes and on short circuits (he won the ACU British 350 title in 1971 and the 250 in 1973) and road circuits.

Born in the West Midlands, Tony started racing aged just 20 and was soon heading to the Isle of Man TT in 1965 for the first time. The Island was to be the home of some of his biggest successes, the first coming with a podium alongside Giacomo Agostini in 1972 in the Junior TT. He would snatch his first win on the course in 1973 in the same class with an average speed of 101.99mph. He would take his second TT win in the same class in 1974, taking the Formula 2 win in 1981, the Senior 350cc TT win in 1982, a further Formula 2 win the same year, repeating this again in 1983 before his final Isle of Man victory in the 1985 Formula 2 event.

Tony would more importantly become Formula 2 world champion with Ducati in four successive seasons from 1981-1984 thanks in part to those F2 TT wins. He would also be a leading light at the North West 200, taking nine NW200 wins, the first of which came in 1973. He would famously tie for a win at the event in 1977 with Ray McCullough – a dead heat! Rutter would also take five Ulster GP wins during his long career.

Sadly, a big crash at Montjuïc circuit just a month after his final TT win in 1985 saw him badly injured and while he made a comeback, things were never the same. Tony raced on until 1991 – mainly on the roads – by which time his son Michael was also racing – who would also go on to considerable short-circuit and roads success.

This year Michael (tied with Tony on seven wins) will take part in TT 2023 where his start tally should surpass that of his father.

BY GEORGE!

We’re not quite sure how even hardened racers like George Fogarty felt when they rounded Signpost Corner to be confronted with a man with a camera, sat on the actual pavement taking snaps…

We will take a wild guess that – in the 1970s – it was pretty much a case of ‘anything goes’. But, while most spectators for the 1978 Senior TT were amassed up on the banks as per usual, one intrepid (we’d take a guess at amateur) photographer wanted to get something from a different angle.

George, of course, is famous for being father of TT winner and four-time World Superbike champion Carl, as well as being the man who it could be argued cost Barry Sheene the win at Silverstone in the 1979 500cc Grand Prix against Kenny Roberts. George baulked Sheene on the final lap of the circuit and the American would beat the Brit by threehundredths of a second.

But let’s not forget that George was a handy enough road-racer as well, in his time, so much so that in 1977 he came 2nd to Joey Dunlop in the Jubilee TT and earned himself a place as Mike Hailwood’s team-mate on the Ducati for the legendary Formula 1 race. For the Senior race, as seen here, he was Suzuki mounted and would come home a creditable 4th in the legendary 1978 Formula 1 race, behind winner Tom Herron and podium finishers Billy Guthrie and Chas Mortimer.

1983 would be George’s last TT and in 1984 he would also indulge in his last season of short-circuit racing, which would coincide with Carl’s first. At the same meeting together it was fitting that George would win his last ever race, while Carl would take 11th on his dad’s old Formula 2 Ducati. George would help out his son as much as he could in the youngster’s early career, one that would see young Carl win the 1985 Lightweight Newcomers Manx Grand Prix before taking three TT wins.

As to what happened to our photographer here, we’d love to know. Was he collared, cuffed and put in a Manx cell or did he just get some amazing shots?

WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: MORTONS ARCHIVE