Neil Tuxworth
Sand racing, motocross, short circuit racing, ice racing, speedway and pure road racing – Neil Tuxworth really could do it all. And, despite a life-threatening crash, he came back to race once more before retirement. After hanging up his leathers (well, he did dabble in Forgotten Era later in life) he became one of Honda Britain’s main men, steering them to countless TT wins, British titles and taking the helm of Castrol Honda in World Superbike where they won three world titles too!
Neil Tuxworth has been involved in two-wheeled racing for 60 years, tackling disciplines as diverse as speedway, motocross, sand-racing and ice-racing, as well as short circuit and pure road racing, which almost claimed his life. Later, he became Honda Britain team boss, guiding riders to a multitude of TT wins and BSB titles, as well as being Castrol Honda boss and taking three world championships.
Aberdare Park, South Wales, June 28, 1986: Neil Tuxworth is battling with a young Carl Fogarty on the last lap of the 250cc race when disaster strikes. He loses control of his bike and smashes into a tree – it’s a bad one. Doctors and immediate family fear for his life, such are his injuries. He would eventually recover but it would take a full three years.
“I broke my pelvis in seven places and my left leg was wrapped around my neck as the hip had popped out, and it was shattered,” Tuxworth explains. “I also shattered my right femur, cut my stomach open, damaged my bladder, severed my urethra – I was very lucky to live.
“I was down to just four pints of blood at one stage. I think they had to give me 108 pints of blood before they could stop me bleeding. I was on life support for nine months, in hospital for two years, and couldn’t walk for nearly three years. I got totally addicted to morphine and it took me a year to get off that. I lost a lot of weight too. I was 11st 10lb when I crashed and 6st 9lb when I went home – I only survived because I was fit. I was a long distance runner back then.
“All the doctors and surgeons said my fitness saved my life – that I should have been dead but my body just kept fighting and fighting.”
By 1986, Tuxworth had already been involved in racing for 27 years, having first been a schoolboy marshal at a Cadwell Park scramble in 1959. Tuxworth credits an uncle who used to race in grasstrack events as the man who first sparked his interest in bikes, and racing in particular. Ten years after making his debut as a marshal, Tuxworth found himself on the other side of the tyre wall.
“Me and my mates bought a BSA Bantam between us with the plan to all go racing but the other two eventually backed out so that just left me. I entered my first race at Cadwell on March 15, 1969. It was only a novice race and was only for a bit of fun but I came second so I kept at it and started doing quite well.”
The following year Tuxworth displayed the kind of out-of-the-box forward thinking that would eventually serve him so well in a team management role. While everyone else was racing on old British bikes like the Bantam,
AJS and Matchless, he took a punt on a two-stroke Yamaha.
“I took a bit of a chance and bought a Yamaha 125cc road bike from a friend and turned it into a racing bike,” Tuxworth says. “Everybody was saying, ‘Oh, those Yamahas won't be any good for racing.’ But that was at the beginning of Yamaha’s domination in racing and I won about 70 races in 1970. Racing was just a bit of fun – but then a guy called Don Henstock sponsored me. Suddenly, somebody was helping me out and buying me bikes and I was travelling around a lot to go racing and that’s when it really all kicked off.”
With two more years’ experience and many short circuit wins under his belt, Tuxworth made his debut at the Isle of MANTT in 1972. Unlike most riders of that era, he didn't bother serving an apprenticeship at the Manx Grand Prix, preferring to jump straight in at the deep
end on the world’s most notorious racetrack.
“I went straight to the TT with a 250cc production bike and a 125cc race bike. I was lying eighth in both races but broke down both times with about a lap to go.”
Just one year later, the Louth rider took his first podium in the Lightweight 125 TT which was won by Tommy Robb. It remains one of the highlights of Tux’s racing career, as he explains: “Obviously the first time you get on the podium at the TT is a big thing, so my third place in the 1973 TT was massive for me – especially as it was only my second year. I've had four podiums at the TT altogether – one second place and three thirds. One race I particularly enjoyed was the 1975 Classic. John Williams won it and I finished fourth on my 350cc Yamaha. That was very satisfying because I was up against a field of 750cc bikes.
“Another special memory was when I rode a home-brewed bike called the British Wicks at the TT in the mid-eighties. The radiator was leaking and I kept losing water so I had to stop at every pub on the course and tip everybody’s beer into my radiator! I finished seventh which was quite an achievement, considering. I think I could have got on the podium if it hadn't been for the leak.”
Oh his short circuit career, Tuxworth is most proud of the fact that he was the first and only man to win both the Bill Ivy Trophy and the Bill Ivy Silver Helmet. “That was on myyamaha TZ750,” he says. “Bill Ivy was my hero when I was a young boy and Bill's widow presented me with one of the trophies which felt really special. I beat all the works bikes of Ron Haslam, Roger Marshall and John Newbold in the Race of the South at Brands Hatch to win the Silver Helmet and I won the Bill Ivy Trophy
at Cadwell Park the same year (1975), which no one had ever done before. That meant a lot to me.”
Most of Tuxworth's racing career was spent on private machinery but there was the occasional tie-in with the Honda factory, particularly as a development rider. “I rode for Honda in endurance racing. That was with RSC (Racing Service Centre) which was the forerunner of HRC (Honda Racing Corporation). Because I was leading the 125cc British championship in 1976 I was also chosen by Honda to do all the development work on their single-cylinder 125cc Grand Prix bike, which went on to be highly successful in the world championships. Honda also supplied me with a 600cc engine for the 1977 TT Formula II race and I finished second in that. But most of my support throughout the years came from dealers.”
Astonishingly, Tuxworth’s near-fatal crash in 1986 did not put an end to his racing career; he still had targets to meet and personal goals to achieve before finally hanging up his leathers. “I was 34 at the time of the accident but I did race again, three years after it. I came back to the TT in 1989 and finished fourth in the Supersport 400 race. I was in a lot of pain though, I have to admit. But I also went back to Aberdare Park, where I had my crash, and finished third in a Welsh championship race and then I did the Ulster Grand Prix and finished fifth and then one week later I joined Honda as team manager.
“I did those three races for very specific reasons. I did the TT because it meant so much to me, I did Aberdare because it was a way of fighting back, and I did the Ulster because the Irish people had always been so good to me.
“I retired from racing on August 14, 1989 and then one week later I joined Honda as race team manager.”
Tuxworth had been a popular and respected racer but he would make even more of a name for himself as a team manager, even though he never intended to become one. Instead, he was recommended for the role.
“I've been told it was Roger Burnett (former Honda rider and 1986 Senior TT winner) who suggested me to Bob Mcmillan so Bob contacted me and we met at a hotel in Nottingham just after the TT in 1989. He said: ‘Look, I'm not going to give you the job if
“I DIDN'T BOTHER WITH THE MANX GRAND PRIX AND INSTEAD WENT IN AT THE DEEP END WITH THE TT. I HAD FOUR PODIUMS THERE, BUT THE 1975 CLASSIC WAS VERY SATISFYING. JOHN WILLIAMS WON IT AND I WAS 4TH ON MY 350CC YAMAHA.”
you’re still racing bikes.’ So I joined after doing Aberdare Park and the Ulster.”
It wastuxworth's unique combination of skills that made him the perfect choice for the job. Not only was he an ex-rider who knew what riders needed to go fast, but he also had the intellectual and business sides covered. “I had a diploma in business management and I’m also an accountant by profession. People forget that 90% of my job as team manager was desk work – the amount of time I spent at race tracks was minimal: most of the time it’s budgeting, planning, dealing with riders and sponsors. So I had the experience on the office side of things and I suppose I had a vast knowledge of racing as a whole because I had done sand racing, raced for the England ice racing team for five years, and raced speedway for Boston for a year, as well as road racing. So I had competed in all different branches of the sport and Honda wanted someone to manage all their bike racing efforts, not just road racing.”
Over the next 27 years, Tuxworth would guide Honda riders to an astonishing 68 TT wins, making him the most successful team boss in TT history. “And that’s not counting the Padgett's wins either! Some of those wins were with the likes of Mick Boddice and Dave Molyneux in the sidecars though, so it wasn’t just solos. That means that the Honda team, in all its guises from Honda Britain, Castrol Honda, Silkolene Honda and Honda Racing, is tthe most successful in TT history. I think Honda has won 178 TT races in tottal and we’ve won 68 of them.”
Many of those wins were delivered byy all-time TT greats such as Joey Duunlop, Carl Fogarty, Phillip Mccallen, Stteve Hislop and John Mcguinness, buut who does Tuxworth view as the grreatest of the greats?
“Without question, the most skilful TTT rider I have ever worked with was
Steve Hislop. He was an absolute genius – a flawed one – but a genius nonetheless. The one other flawed genius I worked with was Ryuichi Kiyonari (former BSB champion and WSB racer). Steve could be the greatest rider in the world or the worst rider in the world but on the TT circuit he was absolute poetry in motion.
“There are only two riders who come close to him at the TT and that’s John Mcguinness and Joey Dunlop. Steve was so precise you could put a penny on the circuit and he’d hit it every time. The only reason he didn’t win more races is that he didn’t do the TT for many years. What a fabulous, beautiful rider to watch. Hislop, for me, was the best. No question about that.”
It was Steve Hislop who delivered one of the greatest rides of all time at the TT according to Tuxworth – despite the fact that, on that day, he was actually a rival. “One of the greatest achievements I ever witnessed at the TT wasn’t a Honda win – it was Steve Hislop’s win on the Norton in the 1992 Senior. As a Honda man I shouldn’t really say this but that was one of the greatest TT wins in history. That bike was an absolute camel to ride, and far from being the best bike out there, but Hislop managed to win that race and it was absolutely phenomenal.
“If you’re talking about Honda wins there’s so many that have given me great pleasure. Mcguinness’ win in the 2015 Senior after everybody had completely written him off was hugely satisfying. So many of Joey Dunlop’s wins were special too: his last Formula 1 win in 2000 was astonishing. I worked very closely with him that year to sort the bike out. He hadn’t won a Formula 1 race for 12 years so that was an amazing win. I think Carl Fogarty’s Formula 1 and Senior double in 1990 was quite incredible in those awful damp conditions too. These wins stand out for me personally.”
Tuxworth wasn’t just a team boss for Honda at road racing events; in his time he has run teams in the World Superbikes, World Endurance and the British Superbike Championship, as well as in motocross, British
Touring Cars and even powerboat racing. But it was the challenge and the great personalities involved that always made the TT stand out for him.
“The TT will always rank as a special event for me,” he says. “As a child I used to read all about it and I still maintain a great interest in the history of the event. Freddie Frith (five times TT winner and the first ever 350cc world champion in 1949) was a great friend of mine and to have known him and Stanley Woods (10 times TT winner in the 1920s and 1930s) and Geoff Duke (six times TT winner and six times world champion in the 1950s) was a real honour.
“Sadly, I never got to know Mike Hailwood, although I admired him tremendously, but I’ve worked with all the TT superstars since Mike’s day which has been an absolute privilege. I just think it’s such a fascinating event. If you tried to start the TT today it would never happen but it’s an established event and no one is forced to do it – it’s down to the individual. I never tried to make any rider do the TT who didn’t want to do it. It’s just so unique. I mean, where else do you have a near 38-mile circuit that goes through towns and woods and over a mountain? It’s just an incredible event and even people who know nothing about motorcycle racing know about the TT.”
Neil has ‘been there done that’ but it was the riding, not the managing, that he looks back on most fondly.
“I did enjoy being a team boss but not as much as being a rider. Being a rider was the most enjoyable part of my life. You’re very selfish as a rider and only have yourself to look after, but when you become a team boss you’re not just looking after riders, you’re also looking after mechanics, hospitality staff, sponsors – there’s so many aspects to it that it becomes more work than pleasure. Don’t get me wrong, being a team boss has given me a great life and taken me round the world and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, but being a rider was just the best.”