Tom Herron – Ireland’s most famous racer before Joey Dunlop took his mantle
Worshipped by thousands of road racing fans in his native Northern Ireland, Tom Herron was also loved by fellow racers. We remember his talent 40 years after his untimely death
Forty years ago road racing endured one of its bleakest days. Black Saturday at the 1979 North West 200 claimed the lives of three riders and ended the careers of two others. The dead were Irishmen Tom Herron and Frank Kennedy (of the renowned Armoy Armada, which also included Joey Dunlop in its crew) and Scot Brian Hamilton. Two other great talents – Kevin Stowe and Warren Willing – never raced again. Herron’s passing made the biggest headlines. The two-time TT winner, recently signed to Suzuki’s factory 500cc Grand Prix team, was one of the greatest bike racers Ireland ever produced, right up there with Dunlop and 1930s legend Stanley Woods. The man from County Down wasn’t only mega-fast between the hedges. After the first four rounds of his rookie works 500GP campaign in 1979 he had twice stood on the podium and lay third in the world championship, with only Kenny Roberts and Virginio Ferrari ahead of him. Behind him were Barry Sheene, Franco Uncini and Wil Hartog. It was next time out at Jarama that he sustained the hand injury that may have been a contributing factor to his fatal accident at the North West. Born in 1948, Herron started racing a few years before Dunlop (born in 1952) and helped his young rival in many ways. In 1975 Herron donated a set of leathers to Dunlop, whose own suit was falling to bits. Later that year he encouraged sponsor John Rea to help Dunlop. Most
importantly, during the 1977 Isle of Man TT he took Dunlop for a lap in his van, which taught the youngster so much that Dunlop cut his lap times by over 30 seconds and won his first TT two days later. Herron started racing in 1967 aboard a Greeves 250 and Aermacchi 350, just as Yamaha’s air-cooled twins were taking over. Two years later he bought his own TD twin and he was on his way, dominating road racing in Northern Ireland with wins at the North West, Tandragree, Cookstown, Killinchy, Mid Antrim and elsewhere. However, his rapid ascent was interrupted by two nasty accidents that threatened to end his career. During his TT debut in 1970 he badly broke a leg at Ballacraine and the following year he crashed at the North West, paralysing his left arm. The arm recovered and three years later Herron expanded his horizons, from Irish races and the TT to the Continent. Herron and his wife Andrea [sister of Peter Williams, daughter of AJS engineer Jack Williams and a former racer herself] knew he had the talent to go further and he quickly established himself as one of the fastest 250/350cc privateers, finishing fourth in both world championships in 1976 and runner-up in the 1977 350 series. He also won his first TTS in 1976. He was once again riding that rapid upward curve. “Tom’s speciality was determination; he was fast and he was so damned determined,” remembers eight-time TT winner Charlie Williams, who became a good friend. “The
‘TOM WAS FAST AND HE WAS SO DAMNED DETERMINED’ CHARLIE WILLIAMS
first time I met Tom was at Jurby airfield, on the Island, when we were both testing our bikes. There was this guy going up and down on a TD1C Yamaha with his jeans tucked in his socks and no helmet. We started chatting and right away I thought he was just great. Tom was very much his own man – great fun and very fast. Tom, myself and John Williams became venerable friends from 1974 onwards, travelling around Europe together. Tom and Andrea made a very good team. She worked hard and he made the right moves, got good engine preparation and so on.” Herron became a stalwart of the Continental Circus – that caravan of riders crisscrossing Europe, getting into all kinds of scrapes and looking out for each other. All those who remember him tell tales of his friendliness and his willingness to go out of his way to help others. “What you saw with Tom was what you got – he was a lovely, lovely man,” says seven-time TT winner Mick Grant. “We were at the TT one year, going around together on our 250s in practice, some way behind John Williams on a 750 Triumph triple production bike. We came to the jump after Ginger Hall and there was carnage everywhere – wheels, the petrol tank, a mess all over the road. I wouldn’t have stopped because it didn’t look like a thing you wanted to see, but Tom slowed, flagged me down and against my better judgement I stopped. I expected the worst, I really did. We couldn’t see John anywhere. We were shouting: ‘John! John!’ Eventually, we heard: ‘I’m here, I’m here!’ John had gone through some trees and was lying on this lawn with a broken foot. That was Tom – he stopped to help when I wouldn’t have done.” In 1978 Herron made friends with GP rookie ‘King’ Kenny Roberts, who took a hat-trick of 500 world titles. “I showed up in Europe in a motorhome with my wife and two kids and we didn’t know a goddam thing about Europe,” recalls Roberts. “The first people to offer to help were Tom and Andrea. Them and the other privateers kind of adopted me. You had Barry Sheene in his Roller and you had Johnny Cecotto in his Ferrari, both of them staying in hotels, so because I was staying in the paddock in the motorhome I got to know Tom.” Roberts has many fond memories of Herron, but his favourite one concerns the night and morning after the 1978 Dutch TT. “Andrea knocked on my door at three o’clock in the morning, saying: ‘I’m so sorry to ask, but could you loan me some money?’ I go: ‘Sure, what’s up?’ And she goes: ‘Tom and Jon [Ekerold] are in jail and I’ve got to go bail them out’. Tom turned up the next day and he was beat to shit. I said: ‘What the hell happened to you?!’ And he looked at me and said [Kenny adopts his best Northern Irish accent]: ‘I was talking when I should’ve been listening’. I’ll never forget that.” Herron and great racing friend Ekerold had gone on the lash after prize-giving on Saturday evening. While stumbling through the streets of Assen in the wee small hours they were stopped by two policemen, who made the mistake of opening their car door onto Tom, who wasn’t best pleased. A fight ensued, which ended with the overpowered policemen locking themselves in their car and calling for reinforcements. When six extra boys in blue arrived, they found the two racers standing on the roof of the police car, which had had its doors ‘panel beaten’ and its lights smashed. After an angry baton charge, Herron and the future 350 world champion were arrested and thrown in jail, waking up the next morning bruised, embarrassed and hungover. They
apologised, paid for the damage and promised tickets to the following year’s Dutch TT to the entire Assen police force. It was a promise neither would be able to keep.
In the autumn of 1978 Herron got his big break. Suzuki signed him to partner Sheene in the 1979 500 championship and contest the big road races, albeit on a miserly salary. Herron surprised some, but not others, with his immediate speed on his factory RG500S. He finished third in the season-opening Venezuelan GP and fourth at Salzburgring, then qualified on the front row at Hockenheim. At Imola he again climbed the podium, with Roberts and Ferrari. “Tom deserved to be on a factory 500 and he rode it well – he just jumped on it and took off,” adds Roberts. “He would’ve been a top contender – the guy honestly believed in what he did and that he could learn to be better.”
At Jarama Herron had his sights on pole position when he crashed at speed, breaking his right thumb. A few hours earlier he had climbed into Ekerold’s leathers to qualify for the 250 race on behalf of the South African, who was injured and desperately needed his start money.
This was the worst time for Herron to get hurt, because his two big paydays were coming up – the North West and the TT – which would boost his miserable Suzuki wages. His TT start money alone was worth £16,000, at a time when the average UK house price was 20 grand.
“I asked him not to go to the Isle of Man and the North West,” remembers Roberts. “But Tom said he had to – that was his money. He was good at the roads, but he was hurt.”
Herron’s first North West 200 as a factory rider was a big deal. He was Ireland’s most famous racer and was worshipped by tens of thousands, as Dunlop would be over the next two decades. He shouldn’t have ridden, he shouldn’t have been allowed to ride, but he knew he had to – for the money and for the fans.
Mechanics modified the throttle on his RGS – he had both 500cc and 652cc versions available – and he wore an oversize right glove, with the thumb heavily strapped. Herron retired shaken from the first race after riding through the flames and debris from the 160mph accident that killed Kennedy and grievously injured Willing and Stowe. In his next race he finished a steady seventh – and that should’ve been that, because he had told his crew two races would be enough. But at the last minute he decided to contest the superbike finale on the hard-to-handle, bored-out RG.
During the race someone blew their gearbox and dropped oil at the 140mph Juniper right-hander. On the last lap Herron crashed at Juniper, possibly due to the oil, and died later that day at Coleraine hospital, leaving Andrea and their twin daughters, Kim and Zoe.
“My everlasting impression of Tom is one of a lovely, kind, courageous and generous man who was always a better friend to me than I ever was to him,” wrote Ekerold in his autobiography The Privateer.