BLAST FROM THE PAST

"A Full House for MV Agusta" was probably the headline at the end of the 1958 TT Races. The Italian firm completely dominated the solo classes; no luck for British manufacturers in the sidecar race either with BMW taking the honours.

I suppose, of all Don Morley's photographs in this article, you'll be drawn to the wreck of John Hartle's 500 MV Agusta ….. practice times for the Senior Race suggested an MV one-two, but it was actually Bob McIntyre on his Norton, who was the immediate chaser of John Surtees, the MV team leader and not Hartle at the end of the first circuit. Hopes were high that the Scot would become the first rider to lap the Mountain Course at over 100mph on a British machine, but, alas, thus proved not to be the case as his machine expired on the third lap. Hartle then moved up to second position, but this state of affairs did not last long as. On pulling out of Governor's Bridge on his 4th lap, Hartle's engine caught fire. Quickly dismounting, the rider let the fire service take over. Surtees duly took an expected victory followed by eight single cylinder Nortons! Antipodeans Bob Anderson and Bob Brown grabbed the two remaining rostrum places ahead of short circuit ace Derek Minter, whose big TT moments were to come in the future …. he, indeed, was the pilot of the first ton-up lap by a British machine and also had the honour of beating a gaggle of full works machinery when he won the 250 Lightweight TT of 1962 aboard his Honda. Back to the '58 Senior …. following that host of Nortons was Dickie Dale on a BMW, which after a reluctant start improved steadily to finish 10th.

A non-finish was unfortunately recorded for the other famous name on a BMW - Geoff Duke, who retired from 11th place on lap two. 1958 was undoubtedly Geoff's least productive TT year - two non-finishes. He actually only started in twelve TT Races, winning five, finishing second on two occasions, 4th once with four retirements. Quite a record!

As expected, Surtees won the Junior Race, held earlier in the week, but there was real disappointment in that so many top-liners went out during the first lap - Duke, Hartle, Dale and Jack Brett - McIntyre didn't get much further, leaving the course at Quarter Bridge on lap 2. Alistair King held second position for much of the race before a misfire saw him drop to finish 6th - Dave Chadwick eventually took the runners-up slot, achieving his best TT result. Except for the Italian MV, Nortons occupied the top twelve positions with a young Mike Hailwood coming home in 12th place, gaining the first of his four replicas in his ever TT Week.

The two smaller solo classes, together with the sidecars, were run on the Clypse Circuit …. Tarquinio Provini had a ding-dong battle with Carlo Ubbiali in the early stages of the 250 Race, but eventually pulled clear of his MV team-mate to win by just over eight seconds. A similar battle took place for third position with Hailwood taking the honours from Bob Brown, both on NSUs. Fifth went to Falk on a German Adler, achieving that machines best ever IOM result.

The main interest in the Sidecar Race was not so much that Walter Schneider had a well-deserved victory over the ever-popular Florian Camathias, but was the skilful handling of the standard Norton Dominator with a Watsonian Monaco sidecar by Eric Oliver. His passenger, Mrs Pat Wise, remained seated throughout as the pair took tenth position at an average speed of 59.95mph, including a pit stop.
BMWs achieved a one-two; the main Norton challenge evaporated when first Cyril Smith, then Pip Harris retired whilst holding third place.

In the 125 Race the MV pair of Provini and Ubbiali faced a strong challenge from four new Desmodromic-valved Ducati mounted riders - Taveri, Chadwick, Ferri and Miller. The early laps saw the MV riders interchange for the lead with Taveri, until Provini took a tumble, fortunately without injury, at Nursery Bends whlst trying to consolidate his first place. From then on it was an Ubbiali benefit with the Ducati riders keeping line astern with the exception of Taveri who failed to complete the sixth lap. For the record, Ferri, Chadwick and Miller finished in that order in front of the MZs of Degner and Fugner, with Hailwood [Paton] in seventh place.

And so ended the 1958 TT, completely dominated by foreign machinery - at no point, sadly, did a British make lead a race. British machines were no longer at the forefront of motorcycle racing, but what was quite apparent in that particular TT Week, was that there was a British star in the making - Mike Hailwood would hold a massive presence in the sport for the next ten years.