The present Blackford’s Pre-TT Classic Road Races were first run in 1988 with a dour-race programme catering for 350cc, 500cc, and Unlimited cc solo classes along with the sidecars.

The total number of races started since the first Junior race got the now annual event underway stands at 215 at the end of the 2019 programme.

Some 27,490 racing laps of the Colas Billown Course have been completed during these 215 races, which adds up to 116,832.50 miles.

Currently Moreton, Wirral road racer Mike Hose heads the list of the most wins to date in the solo races with a total of 18 to his credit. The top three are completed by Huddersfield’s Bill Swallow with 16 and Walsall’s Bob Heath with 15.

Mike Hose first raced in the Pre-TT Classic Races in 1992, taking his first win the following year, 1993 in the Junior (350cc) Classic on a Garfield Honda.

A six-year sabbatical followed returning with a vengeance in Millennium year, 2000 to take the winners laurel wreath in the Senior (500cc) race, this time on a Gawthorpe Honda.

With no racing in 2001, due to the foot and mouth epidemic, Mike returned to his winning ways in 2003 taking not one but two wins at the opposite ends of the spectrum, the 350cc Singles race on a Bultaco and the 750cc race on a Seeley Weslake. Repeating the ‘double’ in 2004, this time in the Lightweight (250cc) race on the now famous Ariel Arrow and the Junior (350cc) on the Honda twin, repeating the 350cc win again in 2005.

Since 2009, the quiet dedicated racer has added another eleven race wins to his tally the most recent being the 2018 350cc Single Cylinder Race on the Ripley Land AJS 7R following that with the Lightweight (250cc) win on the Ariel Arrow making 18 in all.

The analysis shows six each Junior (350cc) and Lightweight (250cc); four Single Cylinder with one Senior (500cc) and one Unlimited win.

With no wins to add to his tally in 2019, Mike’s plans this year were thwarted with the Covid-19 pandemic causing the cancellation of the Pre-TT Classic Road Races, but no doubt Mike Hose will be on the grid endeavouring add to his present total of 18 wins.



(Photo courtesy of Richard Radcliffe depicts Mike Hose on his way to winning his 18th Pre-TT Classic Race, the Quine & Cubbon Lightweight (250cc) in 2018)