New Year’s Honours Southern 100 Stalwart Awarded MBE

Southern 100 Stalwart Phil Taubman has been awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for services to Motorcycle sport and the Manx Community.

Phil Taubman got involved with the first running of the Southern 100 in 1955, assisting in setting out the now famous Billown Course for what the then media called an ambitious three-race programme, which was successfully run on Thursday 14th July.

At that time the races were run by the Southern Motorcycle Club Committee which Philip joined in 1961 and followed on by becoming a member of the Southern MCC Race Committee in 1964.

In 1968 he became the Club Catering Officer and he still cooks a good bacon and egg breakfast !

Other positions held by Philip were in 1970 he was Paddock Marshal and in 1975 became Chairman of the Race Committee and then in 1978 he was made Clerk of the Course for the Billown Course.

1981 saw the Southern 100 Motorcycle Racing Club take over the organising of the July races with Phil still in position as Clerk of the Course, which he stepped down from at the end of 2015 after 38 years.

In 2002 Phil was made Chairman of Southern 100 Racing a position he still holds today.

Since 1955 up to and including 2015, Phil has seen the Southern 100 grow from a fledgling ‘Club Meeting’ to a fully FIM authorised International Road Race – one of only four full International Road Race Meetings held in the British Isles annually.

Away from the Southside Billown Course, Phil Taubman has been involved with the TT Races, the Manx Grand Prix and latterly the Classic TT for many years, including being Clerk of the Course for the Manx Grand (now the Festival of Motorcycling) 2008 - 2015. He his also involved with the short circuit road races organised by the Andrea Racing Association at Jurby Autodrome.

Phil has dedicated over 60 years of his life to the sport of motorcycle road racing and is just as passionate about ‘his’ sport today, if not more so, as he was when he first got involved back in 1955 with his best mate the late Gordon Clague.

Southern 100 Racing congratulate Phil Taubman MBE on his well deserved award, but he will not have much time to rest on his laurels as the three races being run on the Billown Course in 2017 need to be organised and the course set-up once again the ‘the friendly races’.