TT greats and World Champions will line up for Classic Racer Lap of Honor parade

This year’s Classic Racer Magazine Classic TT Lap of Honour is set to be one of the highlights of the Classic TT presented by Bennetts with the entry packed with both legendary riders and iconic, and exotic, machinery.

This year’s ‘lap of honour’, which takes place on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August, is a celebration of some of the UK’s finest ever road racers, as well as the career of TT legend Geoff Duke, and the line-up includes riders with a combined total of no less than 95 TT victories and 209 TT podiums.

Fifteen former TT winners will be on the grid out of a total field of over 150 riders who will take to the Mountain Course. Twenty-three time TT Race winner John McGuinness leads the way with the ‘Morecambe Missile’ fresh from his win and new outright lap record in this year’s PokerStars Senior TT. McGuinness will ride his own 600cc Triumph Daytona, the same machine he rode at the 2003 TT Race meeting.

Bruce Anstey, another 2015 TT winner who will be appearing in the parade is now third on the all-time list of podium finishers. Anstey has 10 TT wins and 35 rostrums to his name following this year’s races, which saw him win his first Superbike race and take three runners-up spots. The Kiwi will ride a 500cc Manx Norton in the parade as part of the tributes to Geoff Duke.

The evergreen Jim Redman MBE, a six time World Champion, returns to the Isle of Man where he achieved a unique hat-trick of double Junior and Lightweight wins in 1963, 1964 and 1965. He will be riding a 500cc Honda in the parade, similar to the bike he rode during the 1966 season.

Four past and present Northern Ireland TT legends - Brian Reid, Phil McCallen, Con Law and current star Michael Dunlop will appear. Reid’s memorable TT career included being the first rider to lap the Mountain Course at more than 112mph on a 250cc machine, in 1985, and he took his first of five TT wins in the 1986 Formula Two race. McCallen’s highlight was undoubtedly his four wins in 1996 and he’ll take part in the parade on board one of his race winning RC45 Hondas while Law’s short five year career included consecutive Junior TT race wins in 1982 and 1983.

Dunlop has already matched McCallen’s 11 wins and while 2015 wasn’t as successful as previous years, he still stood on the podium in the RL360 Superstock race and became the second fastest rider of all time with a lap of 132.515mph.

Three great Scottish riders, Ian Simpson, his father Bill and Alex George – all TT race winner’s – will grace the Mountain Course again. Five time British Champion Ian Simpson took TT three victories including a superb F1-Senior double in 1998 and eight podiums in his 21 race TT career, following father Bill’s 750cc production race win in 1976. Alex George is best remembered for his double victory in 1979 when, deputising for the injured Mick Grant at Honda Britain, he took both the F1 and Classic races, the latter coming after a titanic battle with Mike Hailwood which saw him come out on top by just 3.4s.

Close friends Steve Plater and Mick Grant, who worked together in Norton development, will parade Norton’s SG3 and SG2 respectively. Plater’s three-year career included victory in the 2009 Senior TT while multiple British Champion Grant has seven TT victories to his name.

Charlie Williams, one of Mick Grant’s contemporaries in the 1970’s and 80’s will parade on his own 350cc Yamaha. Williams, who finished a superb ninth in last year’s 500cc Classic TT, has an impressive nine TT wins to his name including two TT race wins in a day - the Junior and F2 races in 1980.

Matt Oxley and Malcolm Wheeler, two riders who have swapped their leathers for journalism, will be temporarily putting their pens down. Oxley’s undoubted highlight was victory in the 1985 250cc Production race, becoming the first rider to lap the Mountain Course at more than 100mph on a 250cc Production machine while Wheeler, who will ride his own Ducati TT2, achieved three podiums in the 1980’s.

Dave Roper will add a transatlantic flavour to the lap. Roper became the first American to win a TT with victory in the 1984 500cc Historic race. He returns to the Island riding an AJS Porcupine, one of the more exotic machines that will be appearing during the Classic TT Festival.

Other star riders taking part in the Lap of Honour include Ian Richards, who unluckily broke down on the last lap of the 1980 Senior while leading, Glen English, Ian Mackman, Tony Duncan, Rex Butcher, James McBride, Mike Seward (the first rider to lap at more than 110mph at the Manx Grand Prix), the Isle of Man’s Nigel Beattie. David Cretney MLC and Derek Crutchlow, father of current MotoGP rider Cal are also participating in the parade while Peter Duke will ride a 500cc Gilera in memory of his late father and six times TT winner and World Champion Geoff Duke.