Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125996
Will "Sl ippery Sam's" last big win be the International Production race on the famed island circu it? Say goodbye . . . " Farewell ·to TT week! By Chr is Carter ISL E OF MAN, ~I A Y 3 1-JUNE 6 With the future of the Tourist Trophy still very much in the lurch a record crowd travelled to the Isle '0 f Man to watch the seven race pro gram. Hut more imp ortan t th an th e opin ion o f th ose th ousands will be th e th ou ghts o f o ne man : Sign or Paglia, presid ent of 12 the Fll\l's ro ad ra cing co m mitt ee, the St eward o f the meeting. What will be de cided a t October's FIl\1 co ngres s in Berlin remains to be seen, but two mo re fatalities . grand prix newco mer Peter l\lcKin ley who was killed at Miln e To wn in p rac tice , and young Ph il Gu rn er, who died at the same spot in Wedn esday 's Senio r TT. mus t raise still more ques tio n marks. Yo rk sh rre rnan Mick Cran t aboard a water cooled, Kawasaki 750 tripl e sha ttered Mik e Hailwood 's 1967 lap record by 12 seconds, wit h a lap at 109 .8 2 mph in Friday's Open Classic. C ran t broke down on the next lap wi th a sp lit chain , whil e m o re tha n 4 0 seco nds ahead o f J ohn Williams (Yam ), who wen t on to win. Siegf ried Sch auzu came w itnm nine seco nds of the 100 mile an ho ur lap on the way to winnin g Wedn esday 's 100 0cc Sidecar TT. h is ninth win at t he Isle of Man, R olf S t einhau sen with his Busch-Konig, beat Brit ain 's sidecar world cha mp io nship hope M ac H obson (Yam ) by fo ur seconds In T ues day 's postponed 50 Ucc Sidecar 'IT . Mick Grant gave t he virtually untried 500cc Kawasaki a win in th e 500cc Senior TT, to give the Japanese factory their first ever 500cc world champio nship race win ! Ch as Mortimer collected maximum po in ts in the 250cc race with a record breaking win, and Charlie Williams, hitting top fo rm after a very poor season so fa r, won the 35 0cc Junior TT. But t his year's races opened with an 10 lap Production ex perime n tal Machine Race. It was th e lo nges t eve r race in the his tory of the Island , and 90 machin es rid den by a tw o m an team, were entered fo r th e intriguing ba ttle . Race distan ce fo r 5 UOs and 750s was 10 lap s, while 25 0s had to co mp lete n ine , A ride r co uld not do more th an th re e laps a t a tim e , and it was 'an ticip ated th at it would tak e aro und fo ur hours of racin g fo r the winne r to cross th e finish lin e. The co mb ina tion of riders and mach ine that emerged victorio us from this challenge was Dave Croxfor d an d Williams at the Bridge. Alex Ge orge , riding t he age in g 750cc Triumph Trident know n as Slippery Sam . They beat th e 25 0 Yam aha ridden by Chas Mortimer an d Billy Gu th rie by t wo and one -ha lf minutes , with Geor ge; o n t he final lap cho pp ing 15.8 seconds o ff the production machine lap reco rd se t by Ray Pickrell in 1972 on th e same machine. But the Triumph trailed t he 900 ridden by Hel mut Dah n e and Werner Dieringer fo r th ree laps u ntil Dahne came in to hand over to his B~IW pa rtn er. It seems th at Dahne's hig h speed co rnering had worn a hole in the roc ker box cover of the right cylinder, the oil had ru n o ut, and the B1\IW seized before Werne r had gone further than Quarter Bridge on the fou rth lap. Dahne had been ahead of Gor d on Pantall o n a Z 1 Kawasa ki at the end o f the first lap by 49 .6 seconds, and though Croxfo rd passed Pan tall, and re d uced the gap, Helmut was still 26.2 seco nds clear at the p it sto p. The Triu mp h p it refueled a nd changed rid ers quic ker th an the C erman p air, th o ugh , and it loo ked se t fo r a great race before d isaste r str uc k t he B ~IW . Werner 's retirem ent pUI Alex George (Tri) int o the lead, with ano th er 9UO BMW sha red by Mar tin Sha rpe and Abe Alexander in seco nd spo t. But the machi ne was slippi ng ou t o f third gear, and at t he end o f th a t lap Selwy n Cri ffi th an d David William s were second o n another Triu mp h T ride nt. After five lap s Croxfo rd and Geo rge sti ll led th e 750cc class well cle ar of th e ot he r Triump h, , v·hich was two m inutes ahea d o f th e B:>IW. Another Bl\IW, ridden by Darryl Pen dl e b u ry and Tom Dickie was fourth , but was suffering gearb ox problems , and it led the Pantall /Newell Kawas ak i by just one seco nd. With a lap and a h alf to go the Pendlebury rDickie BMW stopped ne ar Ram sey , o ut of fuel! Even though each class had started in Le Man s style, the lead ing Triumph was five rn in'u tes clear of the Griffiths /Williams T riu mp h st arting thc last lap , wh ich in tum was three mi nutes ah ead of the Sh arp e/Alexander BMW in th ird spo t. Bu t Croxford and Geo rge wer e still no t the race leade rs ! The 250s, given one lap start had bee n trying hard to keep th at adva n tage. Starting t he last lap Chas Mo rtimer was still leading the race, overa ll, bu t o n the Cro nk-y-Vo ddee straigh t Alex Geo rge swep t thro ugh to grab th e lead o n his record breaking lap . Firs t 500 hom e was Charlie Williams and Eddie Ro berts o n a CB500 Honda, in eighth p lace. But several other ma chines led th at class d uri ng the race, before fall ing by the wayside .