Isle of Man’s Formula TT compromise kept the TT alive after MotoGP exile

The Isle of Man hosted its last round of motorcycling’s world championships – now known as MotoGP – 50 years ago this June. To help explain the TT’s demise as a grand prix event, the 1976 Senior TT, counting towards that year’s MotoGP world championship, was won by Tom Herron, chased home by fellow Irishman Billy Guthrie (third) and Englishman Ian Richards (second).

At that time the TT was very much a local thing, viewed elsewhere with increasing repugnance due to its soaring death rate. Motorcycle racing’s governing body – the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme – finally lost patience in the 1970s.

During the two weeks of the 1970 TT, six riders lost their lives tackling the 37.73-mile street circuit. Among the fatalities was Spaniard Santi Herrero, contesting his third TT and hoping to protect his lead in that year’s 250cc championship.

Two years later, Italian newcomer Gilberto Parlotti suffered the same fate, trying to extend his advantage in the 1972 250cc world championship. He was the 99th rider to die on the Isle of Man.

Herrero fell at the tricky 13th milestone, suffering multiple injuries. Parlotti crashed while leading his race in heavy rain, ploughing into a concrete fence post. There’s no way any TT newcomer can know the circuit’s 200-plus corners, which is why current lap-record holder Peter Hickman didn’t win a race until his fifth TT.

“During the two weeks of the 1970 TT, six riders lost their lives on the circuit”

Herrero and Parlotti were the first Spaniard and Italian to die at the TT, causing an outcry from their national federations and ultimately sealing the TT’s fate as a grand prix meeting. Riders petitioned the FIM to remove the event from the world championships, so they would no longer be obliged to risk their lives there.

When their number was joined by reigning MotoGP champion Giacomo Agostini, a 10-times TT winner between 1966 and 1972, the event’s future was bleak.

The event’s fate was sealed in the spring of 1975 during an FIM meeting that proposed the sport’s first proper safety code. Among the new rules was a maximum circuit length of 6.2 miles, one sixth of a TT lap.

However, the FIM couldn’t bring itself to fully kill off the meeting that had been bike racing’s biggest deal since the early days of the 20th century. Working with the hugely pro-TT British federation, the FIM created a series of single-race world championships specifically around the TT. This solution wouldn’t make the course any safer, but it ensured that only those riders who actually enjoyed the island’s unique challenges would contest these new championships.

The new series was christened Formula TT, with three classes: Formula 1, for 1000cc motorcycles, and Formula 2 and 3, for 600s and 400s. All Formula TT machines were powered by production engines, reconnecting the event to its roots. The inaugural 1907 TT was christened the Tourist Trophy because riders rode touring machines, not specially prepared racing motorcycles.

Ironically, the inaugural 1977 TT F1 race was won by former grand prix rider Phil Read, who had joined Agostini in boycotting the races following Parlotti’s death. Read was in the twilight of his career and fancied the generous start and prize money on offer. The 37-year-old thereby became an eight-time world champion, adding to the seven titles he had won in the 500, 250 and 125cc grand prix classes, riding against the best in the world.

Was Read’s latest crown worth the same as those earlier successes? Obviously not, but Formula TT did allow the Isle of Man to at least retain an aura of prestige.

Read’s latest Isle of Man success didn’t only lack significance, it was also unpopular, because most TT fans still hated him for having turned his back on the event.