Barry Wood Wrote:Interesting thread! SMGP Racing were, as correctly stated, a group of gentlemen who drank in The Foresters Arms and who were all big road race fans. The letters SMGP are the initials of their surnames ie; Ritchie Stevenson (postman and well-known in Manx Athletics/fell running) Ritchie McNicholl, works for the MEA, Douglas Town Councillor and a past Mayor of Douglas (and my pit crew for 15 years!), Billy Galloway, a Scottish lad, I'm not too sure where Billy works these days although I think he was at Marown Engineering or Kenmac last time I saw him but I haven't seen him for ages, and Steve "Sparky" Parkinson, another postman and a long serving TT and MGP marshal in the Rhencullen/Bishopscourt area, along with Ritchie Stevenson and Billy.
These guys collected money throughout the year to help a couple of riders in the Manx Grand Prix. Usually a Newcomer, plus one or two others. Their method of choosing a lucky recipient changed occasionally over the years, but many local riders were fortunate enough to avail of their generosity. Indeed, I did so myself on several occasions, the first time being 1988 when I was a Newcomer, the other rider being Greg Broughton.
On the matter of who owned the bike, I'm pretty sure it was Billy Galloway's bike. I seem to recall Billy riding a GT 550 some years back, and he would have had the stickers on his bike. These were issued to the riders chosen for assistance to display on their bikes during that years' Manx, and I can well remember Sparky having SMGP stickers on his bike too.
Many local riders were helped out by SMGP (They used to say that it could also stand for Sponsors of the Manx Grand Prix.) I still have a couple of their T-shirts that they issued to us with the stickers, I often wear them in the gym and one of the shirts has a list on the back with the names of all the riders they had assisted up until that time. Some of the names are Ashley Gardner, Chris Kneen, Phil Hogg, Norman Kneen, Paul Hunt, Eric Moore, Ian Large, Chris Cannell, David Collister, Sean Collister, Dean Harrison, Dave Cretney, Richard Milky Quayle, Rob Alton, Mike Cain, Dave Black, Vince McMahon, Graham Taubman and several others I can't recall. I would say that it started around 1985 and continued until the late 90's or even a bit later.
Sadly those days are gone, like so many other aspects of the sport. Certainly the Foresters is no more, totally disappeared, probably to make way for yet more flats that few can afford. But great times while they lasted, and for sure, the SMGP lads helped to make my MGP expenses that bit more bearable.