MY THANKS TO MY PARENTS
HARRY AND LILIAN HUNTLY
My father Harry already had an impressive number of TT visits to his name (his first was in 1928) and as soon as the War was over he and Mum decided to continue their visits but now with me in tow.
My Father / Me / My Mother
MY FIRST YEAR--1947
My Uncle George, Aunty Eileen and Cousin Lee came this time and we had a fine old time. However, I could not understand why grown men disappeared out at very, very early hours to go to what they called "the practicing", returning to the hotel to eat enormous breakfasts and then going back to bed for a "short nap"..........I frankly was not impressed by the noise (I was just tall enough to get the exhaust note from a Norton right in my ear), the mad bustle and the strange oily smells, so my Cousin and I spent more time on the Douglas beach than "at the TT" and this was to the great dismay of my father who probably thought he was raising a real wimp who would not be continuing the love of MOTORCYCLING in the Huntly family!
THE TT COURSE-FROM 1948 to 1953
*1/ BRAY HILL
*2/ BUNGALOW
*3/ KEPPEL GATE *4/CRONK-NY-MONA
NOTE THE CROWDS IN THOSE DAYS !
Buses used to take us to limited and set vantage spots only.
Today you can get to your chosen spots by your own transport.
JACK BRETT
However, after that strange first ground-breaking year, we returned, this time as a family threesome, but still met up with the people from 1947 in the hotel and up at the paddock so my Father now took on a very easy task. He took time to show me around and introduce me to the participants. I converted easily to being a TT addict and the interest grew and grew. Over the following few years I met the big names of the day---Geoff Duke, Bill Doran, Chris Horn, Louis Carr, the Brett Brothers (Jack and Charlie) plus TT officials Tommy Ryan, Bill Lisle and Alan Jefferies, all of whom helped to show me the TT from the inside. I was allowed into areas not normally seen by the general public and was able to appreciate just how the TT was the supreme event. Riders and officials became my good friends and met up with us each year, so it seemed natural to be on the Isle of Man in June every year !!!
We had our favourite vantage points on the course and before each race the human content of our hotel was transported by bus to fill a long stretch of banking at such spots as
CREG-NY-BAA, THE BUNGALOW AND HILLBERRY. The races in those days were seven laps long and because the hundred mile per hour laps were well into the future, it was literally a whole day out at the races. We travelled by special bus to set vantage spots and the bus parked among dozens of other buses while we watched the race. When the race was over we found our bus easily using the large identifying numbers or letters afixed to the drivers window. The bus then carried us back to the hotel for the very welcome evening meal. Our only sustenance between Breakfast and Dinner was the hotel-prepared PACKED LUNCH, a veritable cornucopia of ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit, biscuits and a selection of "home-cooked" cakes plus the "pop of the day". (I was reared on VIMTO !) Each sea-front hotel had a prize draw when, at breakfast guests bought folded tickets with a riders numbers pencilled on them. The hotel generally had enough guests to allow two tickets per person, so after the race, when we had all arrived back for the evening meal, the tickets covering the first six riders, would gain for their owners a share of the substantial "KITTY". It would be a special treat when the Brett brothers or Geoff Duke popped in to see us and shared a drink..(I grew up on VIMTO !!!)
A full day at the races (in those days it was the Junior on Monday for 350cc machines, Lightweight on Wednesday , for 250cc machines and on Friday the big race of the week, the Senior for machines of 500cc capacity plus a series of races for "Clubmen") and we went to bed quite sunburnt, very tired, but with a feeling that we had seen some unforgettable racing between works teams and the many, up-and-coming top privateers.
Geoff Dukes Actual Back Number A SOUVENIR INDEED (from the VAST COLLECTION)
THE YEAR OF THE TON LAP !
THE MAN WHO DID THE TON
SOME FAMOUS NAMES TO IDENTIFY
In the late 40's and throughout the 1950's the works teams were racing, at ever increasing speeds, Nortons, B.S.A.s, Velocettes, Triumphs, A.J.S.s, Matchlesses, and the awesome M.V.Augustas, Gileras, Moto Guzzis, N.S.U.s and FB Mondials from the continent. Thrown in for good measure was a selection of development privateers on specially prepared machines.Some of these privateers were good enough to become works riders in the years to come.
(Who will ever forget Bob McIntyre, Dickie Dale, or Mike Hailwood ?)
Bob MacIntyre retiring at Sulby Glen Hotel after just missing the 100 mph lap on his 250-4 Honda in 1961 (Original photograph taken by Ian Huntly and subsequently autographed by Bob in the Castle Mona Hotel.) When he saw the picture he said "Oh, that's when I broke it"
When school exams loomed on the horizon, my parents flew on ahead (for the practice week) and I joined them (for the races) once that curse of every schoolboy had been completed. My Father enjoyed briefing me about what had happened but little did he know that I had invested in one of the early battery-powered portable radios and excused myself from class to go and listen to the B.B.C. practice reports in the loo ! I often wonder what people thought when they heard the beautiful noise of a Gilera or the brattle of a fully mega'd Norton on full song emanating from a locked toilet....
THEY CAME, THEY SAW, THEY CONQUERED
TANAKA SAN 
HONDAS CELEBRATION IN 1999
ACTUAL HONDA ENTRY 1959 
TROPHY WINNING 125 HONDA TEAM In 1959 a team of motorcyclists came from Japan to challenge the TT course. What happened is now history and there are plenty of excellent books on the subject.....I am very glad that my Father was actually present at the beginning of the onslaught from the East that set new standards in TT racing.
Unfortunately, because of a new work committment, 1960 was my Fathers last full year so he was clearly emotional and very disappointed when we sailed home that year. However he found that he could now rely upon my vivid reports which I wrote to him from the Island.
I so enjoyed writing these extensive "son to father" first hand reports that I sent similar ones to magazines and this started off my freelance reporting. My Father only returned to the TT a couple of times in the 70s but these visits were with motorcycle club/magazine organised daytrips or on one day flightovers.
So now I began organising groups of friends to come to the TT with me.
Most had never seen a motorbike, never mind a race----However I did what my Father did for me----I explained everything about the ISLE of MAN and the races. My pals learned about Okells Ales, Joes Bar, Devereus Kippers, Making Rock, The Glens, the Horse Trams and then all about the TT. As a consequence a very high percentage of these "first-timers" returned with me in subsequent years, bringing other friends, so we eventually took over a large sea-front hotel for the full fortnight-
SOME OF US IN JOES BAR
We hired cars during that era and explored the Island from top to bottom. Those bus trips used by my parents were less attractive by now, and besides, we could go to places not covered by the set tours. Everybody was introduced to
GEORGE FORMBY in "NO LIMIT"
George Formby and co-star Florence Desmond We took up a complete row in the Douglas cinema---a packet of "Sweet Afton" cigarettes came back empty when passed along the group !! This film is still highly recommended as an adjunct to the TT learning programme (It is on Video now----so contact Duke Marketing for YOUR copy!) Don't be put off by those who don't understand its relevance....
I met and interviewed Florence Desmond not long before she died a few years back--She remembered making the film and related many stories about it and kindly autographed the photograph seen above and corresponded with me for a short while.
CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST OF DUKE VIDEOS INCLUDING "NO LIMIT"
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" Ee,Mother,-- I can't stop!" Stills from
"NO LIMIT" George Formby Society
c/o Dennis Taylor,
12,Bonnington Rise,
Maltby,Rotherham,S66 8QP  GEORGE FORMBY SOCIETY WEBSITE |
ABOVE, ON THE LEFT, IS ONE OF THE GLEN ENGLISH PEWTER MODELS SERIES OF GEORGE FORMBY RIDING THE SHUTTLEWORTH SNAP
COMEALONG AND SEE MERIDING IN THE TT RACES
The old vantage spots were still the best, but during this period we took taxis one way and then walked back through the fields bordering the course during the race, to the start and finish. We eventually arrived at the Grandstand just in time to see the winner of the race take the "chequered flag"
Ralph Bryans
From 1962 to 1975 was an era when my large group of people, all of whom really had had no initial interest in racing, became truly avid TT fans, and some still make the TT their Mecca, year after year.
IN OUR ADOPTED DOUGLAS PUB
I married Carole in 1968 and my son Simon was born in 1969 so I thought these personal events might have restricted my TT visits somewhat--However my wife ACTUALLY came with me until my new son was old enough for school and then the rule was "you go to the TT and we WILL have a family holiday later in the year". This arrangement is still in place and we go to America each September (What a great arrangement--for I have also been re-enacting the American Civil War between hurricanes for the last four years as yet another hobby !)
General Robert E.Lee and Me in Sharpsburg, USA (Of course, the bathroom must be painted,the garden dug and all the other chores done before you go to the TT------
OH--YES--OF COURSE, DARLING !!! )
Unfortunately, after 1975, my large group began to break up--Their new wives were not quite as understanding as the memsahib---But those who were left eventually concentrated into today's party of a surprisingly wide age group which still makes the supreme effort to be there each year all at the same time. We go "HOMESTAY" now and take over a large house just on the outskirts of DOUGLAS.
Just a few years back we took over a farm on the side of the course at a famous vantage spot associated with a humpedback bridge.Superb place-we could stay in one place for EVERYTHING !
Unfortunately one of our party accidentally ran his car over the farmers prize goose coming back from Douglas late one evening with the Chinese Takeaways so we were not welcome back there Shame--It was a super place to stay !
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