Senior T.T. Of 1954 Ends After Four Laps Covered

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27396, 8 July 1954, Page 8

Senior T.T. Of 1954 Ends After Four Laps Covered

(From the London Correspondent of “The Press”)

London, June 21.—The senior T.T. motor-cycle race - around the Isle of Man ended in a fiasco this year. For the first time in its 37 years’ history, the race came to a sudden and sensational end when it was abandoned after four of the seven laps had been run because of mist on the tricky mountain course.

The race started 90 minutes late in heavy rain. In spite of the appalling weather, with greasy roads and visivility reduced to 20 yards in some places, the leaders were lapping at more than 85 miles an hour. When the race finally ended after 151 miles had been run, one rider was dead, eight were injured, and 22 out of the re--7? competitors had retired. With last year’s fatal crashes in mind , r J^ ei s a P d one steward were killed then) the course stewards decided to stop the race and declare the leading rider the winner as provided by the rules. But before they reached this decision 27-year-old Simon Sandys-Winsch, riding a Velocette, had crashed into a wall at 100 miles an hour and been killed. The junior world champion, Fergus Anderson, on a Guzzi, had also crashed at 100 miles an hour but escaped with a broken bone in his foot.

The New Zealand champion, Rod Coleman, who won the junior event, three days before, had to retire on his a™™ h a 9? h t P tank. Ray Amm, riding a Norton, who was leadat the end of the fourth lap, was declared the winner at an average s Peed of 88.12 miles an hour. Riders were bitter about the decision to abandon the race. Nearly all claimed f" at never should have started but that as the weather was improving by

the time th 6 fourth lap was reached it should have been allowed to continue.

The winner, Ray Amm, said after the race: The race should definitely never have been started. The conditions were shocking. It was the most difficult race I have ever had.”

The former world champion, Geoff Duke, who rode an Italian Gilera, and who was placed second, described the race as a “fiasco.” “It would have been better not to have started than to have a fiasco/’ he said. “I think the people responsible for starting the race under such appalling conditions are doing and nave done an awful lot of harm to the T.T. and to motor-cycle racing in general.”

Duke was particularly unlucky. Planning his tactics for the full race, he had stopped to refuel after lap 3 and lost 33 seconds filling his tank, inis stop cost him the race as when the race finished at the end of the next lap he was 66 seconds behind Amm. Amm, however, would not have lost any time on fuel stops as his Norton had , a nine-gallon tank and could have finished the race without refuelling. Mr Gilbert Smith, the managing director of Nortons, told reporters that ne had pleaded with the stewards not to start the race in the appalling weather. “We should not be parties to risking men’s lives unnecessarily,” he said..

The chairman of the stewards, Mr Norman Dixon, said the stewards had done what they thought was best in the interests of the riders’ safetv. ,Th e official results were:—l, R. Amm (Norton), Ihr 42min 46.8 sec, 88.12 m.p.h.; 2, G. Duke (Gilera), Ihr 43min 52.65ec, 87.14; 3, J. Brett (Norton), Ihr 15-2 sec, 86.04; 4, R. Armstrong (Gilera), Ihr 45min 45.65ec, 85.63; 5, R. Allison (Norton), Ihr 48min 6.6 sec, 83.85; 6, G. Laing (Norton), Ihr 48min 47.25ec, 83.41.