Can any of you remember returning from the 1976 TT to find that the FIM had stripped the TT of its world championship status......???

It was said that the Mountain Circuit was too dangerous and that the TT would subsequently grind to a halt !!!

Perhaps this year we should remember the loss thirty years ago, and then celebrate that the TT managed, with the help of Mike Hailwood and Phil Read and others, who returned in 1977, to last as long as it has and is still going on fairly strongly !!!!

Raise your Glasses !!

Yes due to a series of tragic circumstances, I can also remember in the following year at the TT that true gentleman secretary of the ACU, Derek Jackson doing a lot of cajoling to get us to ride at the first British GP at Silverstone, I think that place is were the planners got the idea for the M25.

Derek, a great bloke died at a very young age of a brain tumour, a man who would jump through hoops for the benefit of riders.

Sadly Ian, "to last as long and still going fairly strong" I think is a sad but very true reflection of the TTs former glorious and halcion days.

Hair raising battles like the wheel to wheel, side by side, start to finish duel through the mountain mist in the 350 Junior of Hailwood and Hocking on MVs, the like of which spectators are unlikely to see again

I think the accident involving Gilberto Parlotti was a major contribution to the TT losing its status as Ago was his friend and was exremely saddened.