Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Isle of Man TT erro • en en I • • nlor By M ick W oollett ISLE OF MAN . ENGLAND. J UNE 5 Ireland's Tom Herron (Suzuki) scored a record-breaking .win in Monday's 500 cc Senior TT. It was the 29-year-old Ulsterman's third Isle of Man success and his winning average of 111.74 mph is the fastest in the 72 -yea r h i ry 0 f t h I d' s lsto e wor most famous motor cycle races. " No problem , no problem at all. " laughed Tom. after leading th e ra ce from sta rt to fini sh on his own RG500 Su zuki . prep ared by Canadian W es Pratt and Pe ter Kell y. He started th e ra ce ca rrying ten gallons of fuel in h is enlarged ma in tank and a tank in th e rear of th e sea t. Behind him . fellow Ulsterman Billy Guthrie (Suzuki) made it a one-two for Irela nd . In fa ct . th e pa ir of them are near neighbours in Lisbon . County Antrim . living j ust four mil es apart . . Billy suffered because he opted for rain tyres and in the dry conditions found his Suzuki a handfu l. However . it was his best TT placing. im p ro ving on the two third places he took two years ago . But the race end ed on a somber note. Am erican Pat Hen nen . who on the fif th la p set a new absolu te lap rec ord with the first ever race la p at under 20 m inutes (his time was 19m 53 .2s. 113.83 m ph ) crashed whi le chasi ng Herron . He came off on the fla t-o ut section just beyo nd Bishopscou rt and was ta ken unconsious to : hospi ta l by helicop ter. Cro wd favo urite Mike H ailwood suffered an early blow on the second lap when . while chasing Herro n and H en ne n and John Williams. the steering damper of h is Martini Yamaha slipped a bu sh . He stopped a t the pits to repa ir it and restarted well behind. la pping very q uickly unt il on the last lap he had more machine trou ble . Chas Mortimer op ted to rid e a John Maxto n 350cc Yam a h a a n d was delighted wit h h is third place - only little 'un among t he Su zuk is on th e leaderboard . The big question before the ra ce was "Ca n H ai lwood do it again?" He proved on Sa tu rday tha t he had lost little. if a ny . of h is skill whe n he sha tte red th e oppositio n in the Formula One ra ce on a Du cati. Co uld he repeat the dose in the Sen ior ? H is mount on Monday 'was a works Ya m a ha. Not th e lat est type but th e m ach in e. raced by Giacomo Agost in i last year and beautifully prepared for th e TT by his tea m of three Ya ma ha works mechanics · Nobby Cla rk . J erry Wood a nd T revor H illb u ry. During practice Mike covered on ly four laps on the Yamaha and he ad m itt ed that he was still lea rning to ride it. His best lap was 21 ' m in utes 2 .6 seco nds . 107 .57 mp h - considerab ly slo wer than his best Du ca ti lap . even th ou gh th e Yamaha screame d out around 115 bhp - proba b ly 25 bhp mor e than th e Ital ian four-stro ke . Desp it e this re lat ively slow. b y Ha.ilwood standards. I p - it w ~s still .a qu ick eno ugh to put him fou rth rn th e practi ce leaderboard. Fast est l.ap had been set by Pat ~ennen a? his lat est type works Suzuki a t 2? m in utes 19.4 seco?ds . 1I I .38 my? - J~st 9.6 se~onds outsid e J oh n Wil liams Suzuki lap record. Ulste r's T om Herron had been next best on his sta nd a rd Suzuki . ~nl y 2.8 seconds slower. tha'.' H en nen wah Stan Woods (Suzuki) third , but Wo?~S ,,:as a n ~n - start er because of I~Jun es s~stamed when he crashed d u n ng th e Liege 24 -hour ra ce at th e weekend. Alex .George (Suzu ki) had ~apped just a sp lit second down on H allw ood and Charlie Williams on a 350cc Yamaha ro unded out th e top half-dozen . Of the favourites Hen nen at number three was firs t ~w.ay -j ust ten seconds a head of John W llhams . who ha? been loaned a works 54 /54 m m engme by Texaco Her on T eam Su zuki . . ~ ~rron ~as t e~ secon~s . be hind W illiams wah H a llwood . riding No . ' 12 in a ll h i~ fou r ra c~s . 20 secon ds astern and shghtl,Y warned by the fa ct tha t he was sta ru ng 0'.' new tyres. No doubt he was very ca utious at Braddan where a ne;-v fro nt tyre on his 25~cc YaC?aha shd out fr~m . u nd er h im ~unng ~atu rday m orn mg s extra practree penod. _ There ;-vas a breatht a king mo ment when H a llwood's Yamah~ ~efused to fire . After a gh~stl y hush ~t spluttered feebly and as his mechanic began to run down th e pit in case he pulled in . the works machine finally lit up a nd a sigh of relief went u p. J ust imagine the anti -climax if Mike had lost mi nutes changing a pl ug a t the start! The wea th er . which had looked doub tful ea rlie r on a fter a rainy Sund ay . had settled down and although sho wers were forecast. all the lOp men settled for slicks on the rea r wheel. J ap a n 's Ta k azu mi Ka tayama . sensa t ion of the 197 6 TT when. as a newcomer . he gai ned a second p lace. ha d decid ed to race his 350cc Ya ma ha twi n a nd not' th e 1977 four he uses in th e Gr ands Pr ix a nd Mick Grant . wit ho ut a fu ll-sized 500 . was out on his 350 cc Kawasaki twin - o ut he was soo n in tr ou b le a nd was reponed "l oo king dow n" at Ball acr ain e . Lea der t here was John W illiams. who ha d surprisingly overhauled Hen nen. In fact . th e Am erican was dow n in fourth place with He rron a nd .~ ~ ... • - . .. ." , Geo rge Fogany (Suzu ki) second a nd thi rd . Bu t th en Hennen . like Hailwood , h ad sta rt ed on new tyres and neith er would be flat ou t un til they h ad com plet ed half-a -lap - an d both knew it's a .very long race . The light flash ed on to ind ica te tha t the rid ers wer e a t Signpost just a mi le away. He n nen was first th ro ug h . then Williams but Herro n . third o n t he ro ad . was catching them and th en H ailw ood flashed through flat on th e tank and passi ng Charlie Will iams (Ya ma ha) and Bill Smith (Suzu ki) as th ey screamed t hrough th e start and awa y towards Bra y H ill. Yes. Herro n led. From a sta ndi ng sta n he had lapped at 20 minutes 27.8 seconds. less than 20 seconds ou tside the lap record. By Ba lla cra ine on th e seco nd lap Herron h ad ca ug ht Hennen a nd ·W illia ms. On time the Ulsterman led by eig ht seconds from Williams and Hennen with Ha ilwood 12 seco nds astern to the Am eri can. By Ballau gh , Williams led on the road again but H err on was on his ta il and well a hea d on tim e. H ailwood was losing grou nd a nd was reported to be 32 seconds down on th ird place Hen nen. At Ba lIa u g h the order was Williams. H erron and Hennen with Ha ilwood u p to fou rt h. fast overcoming tha t slow sta rt whic h must ha ve cost him 20 seconds. A t the famo us bri d g e R on H aslam (Ya ma ha) . wh o cras hed th ere on Sat u rd ay. had th e com me ntator speech less as he d id it all wrong once agai n - but co nt inued on his way un sca t hed . even tu a lly ea rning th e com m ent. "He's no m or e idea of how to ta ke Ball augh t han th e man in th e moon ," By Ramsey. Hennen h ad th e bit between his teet h a nd led on th e road havin g overt aken Williams. At the Bu ngal ow. high on the Mo untain . Herron was th e leader, six seco nds up on Hen nen and mighty Mike was u p to thi rd place just eig ht seconds down on Hennen . Mike was in trou ble . First he was reported to be touring and he sto pped in Ra msev and the news from there was that ' h is steering damper had broken . At the end of lap two' W illi ams flashed through with Herron in h is slips tre am . The tough Ulsterman was sitting pretty - he had on ly to stick close to W illia ms to win . Ha ilwood p u lled int o t he pits . A bus h ha d pu lled ou t of on e end of th e da m per. H is p it cre w unscrewed th e da m pe r. p ut on a la rge wash er to hold the b ush in pla ce and away went Mike who sa t perfectly ca lm . co llected a nd unworried whil e the wor k was done. The slips from th e timekeepe rs ca me up co nfirm ing th e o rder as Herro n , W illia ms and Hennen with Fogarty a fin e foun h ahead of Charl ie Mort imer. who was flying on his 350ec Yamaha and ke ep in g ah e ad of '-4 ' ~ ' J ~ . • "'. " " ". ... ....... '" • .. , , Ir ela nd 's Billy Gu thri e (Suz). The la p record had go ne . As expected both Herron a nd Williams had broken it clock ing 20 min ut es 6.6 seco nd s. 112 .5 7 mph. The three leaders were all d ue to refuel at the third la p ha lfway stage . H e r ro n was first in . Willi a m s passi ng him to get to h is pit further . dow n t he road as the Ulste rrnan b raked . The qu ickfil ler s were in a nd ou t in a m atter of four seco nds . very 'd ifferent from Saturday's 40 -second stops when the sta nd a rd issue tri ckle fillers were compulsory! Herron was first away but Williams had him in sig ht as he gunned his Suzuki towards Bray hill . just clearing th e pit as Hennen scre am ed in to use th e same q uick filler . The record had go ne again . Desp ite slowing for his pit sto p. Herron go t round in 20 minu tes l. 8 seconds. ll3 .02 m ph. Steve Manship (Suzuki). Aus tralian Jeff Say le (Suzuki). Mick Chatterton (Yamaha) and Clive Hort on (Yama ha) all dropped out with machine tro uble as the list of retirements continued to grow . Rou nd th e course Fog arty a nd Martimer, dispu ting fourth spot. were toge ther on the road and having a great di ce. And th e weather , doubtful at the early stages. was clea ring to gi ve perfect con ditions. Up a t th e Bunga low on the fo urt h lap Herron and W ill iams. ba tt ling for th e lead on th e ro ads. passed a nd re p assed in th e sight of th e commentator there as they cont inue d to pull away from Hen nen . It was H erron lead ing as th ey flashed through in b rill iant sunshine to sta n th eir fift h la p . most of th e ra ce . compla ted. Would th ey and the ir Suzukis las t the pac e? Who wou ld crack first? Hennen had closed th e gap sligh tly and ha d th e two leaders ·in sight as they too k Ba lla cra ine for th e fif th time. Back at th e pits Mort im er flas he d through but his rival Fogarty had to stop for a second fill -up - a big hand icap. W illiams out of the racel A sudden , dramatic announc em ent th at he ha d stop ped on t h e Cro nk -y-V odd y straight. This left H erron out on his own see mingly comfortably a hea d of Hennen a nd Mo rti mer. on th e littl e Yamaha twin . moved u p to thi rd. an incredible ride. Ne ws of W illiams filtered through ; he was to uri ng back to th e pits a nd got a big chee r as he passed th rou gh Ram sey. There Herro n led Hen nen by 23 seco nds on co rrected tim e. . Dr ama at t he Bu ngalow followed . Hen nen ha d ca ught Herron on the Mountai n a nd was tryi ng to pass h im . T he America n had gai ned seven seco nds on the climb from Ra msey and had to p ass Herron a nd ga in over 20 seco nds to peg back his starting in terval and win the race! The Signpost light flashed . Hennen 27

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