NEVER AGAIN
It was becoming more and more obvious that as long as the Grand Prix stars all stayed away, that even by 1972 the TT was already becoming an irrelevance in World Championship terms. In fact, many actual title contenders had already decided on their own personal TT boycott for several seasons before Messrs. Agostini, Read and Gould bowed out so publicly. Riders like Gould’s eventual Yamaha teammate, Sweden’s Kent Andersson, for example. He was chasing 250 and 350cc titles on private and semi-private Yamahas from 1969 through 1972 but still didn’t compete in the TT, even though it would have in those years given him a chance of earning some valuable points. To him it simply wasn’t worth the time, the expense and the risk. Not even in 1969 when he finished second in the 250cc World Championship, just five points behind Kel Carruthers who had gone to the Island and scored the maximum 15 points by winning the TT for Benelli. And by the time Kent won his two 125 world titles for Yamaha in 1973 and 1974, his thinking was even more aligned with that of his erstwhile teammate, Rod Gould and the rest. He was another World Champion of the early Seventies who never saw the need to spend two weeks on the Island in search of points. British motorcycle racing’s last Grand Prix superstar, Barry Sheene, was another, although when he made that decision he was just a champion-in-waiting. He contested the 1971 125cc TT on his way to second place in the World 125 Championship with his ex-works Suzuki and, after failing to finish, said “never again”. As did the all-time superstar in the small GP classes, Spain’s Angel Nieto. That was after only one outing on the Mountain Course in 1968, when he failed to finish the 50cc race on a Derbi. Later on, the death of his fellow Spaniard and 250cc title challenger, Santiago Herrero, on the Island in 1970 was more than enough to convince Angel that the TT was one World Championship race that he didn’t need to contest. Finally, the TT never figured at all in the future plans of another legend of the sport, the late and much-lamented Jarno Saarinen. As a semiprivateer in 1972, he had been content to stay home and allow Rod Gould and Phil Read to briefly close the gap on his eventual World Championship lead. And when he signed with Yamaha as a full factory team rider for the 1973 season, he had a clause written into his contract that he would never have to compete in the Isle of Man. However, such was the emphasis and focus placed on the TT by the British press and public back then, it is more than likely that relatively few people in the UK had taken on board the fact that there was growing discontent about the necessary two week long commitment to the TT and that fewer and fewer Grand Prix riders were taking part. These full-time professionals knew that, unless they were contracted to ride there by a factory, or in with a real chance of the world title and badly needing the points, then all they would be doing was risking their lives for the privilege of almost certainly losing their hard-earned money. The gap between the considerable risks involved in competing and any financial reward at all was a ridiculously huge one. It cost so much to get to the Island with machines and mechanics and then stay there for two weeks that even a TT winner back then would be lucky to make enough of a profit to justify being there for that length of time. “As far as money was concerned, the best year I had at the TT was when I finished second to Kel in 1970 and I only lost 200 quid on the fortnight!” says Rod Gould “And that didn’t take into account the two complete engine rebuilds (250 and 350) that I had to pay for when I got back to base. Thankfully I at least got a bikes and spares contract with Yamaha in the subsequent years so the TT was then less of a financial crippler overall.” The question of not providing reasonable rewards for World Championship riders was not restricted just to the TT, of course. With the tacit approval of the faceless bureaucrats of the FIM, all Grand Prix organisers took advantage of the fact that any would-be World Champion had no choice but to compete in their events. Quite honestly, the situation was a disgrace with the prize money and meagre rider expense fund totally out of line with the huge crowds of paying customers at all Championship races.