Honda's 50th anniversary

Honda UK Media Resource :: Releases :: Honda (uk) Announces Isle Of Man Tt 50th Anniversary Of Racing Activities

Original 1959 image Isle of Man TT team

Original 1959 image from left to right: Junzo Suzuki (rider), Giichi Suzuki (rider), Kiyoshi Kawashima (team leader), Naomi Taniguchi (rider), Teisuke Tanaka (rider), Bill Hunt (rider), H Sekiguchi (mechanic), S Hirota (mechanic).

The original 1959 Isle of Man TT Honda team rode a 125cc RC142 motorcycle on the ‘Clypse Course’ and finished 6th (Taniguchi), 7th (G Suzuki), 8th (T Tanaka) and 11th (J Suzuki), with Bill Hunt retiring from the race.

The team’s leader, Kiyoshi Kawashima, went on to take over as CEO of the Honda Motor Co., Ltd from founder Soichiro Honda, following the team’s success at Honda’s inaugural TT.
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2009 re-enactment image

同じ場所(グランドスタンド裏)で、同じポーズをして撮ったそうです。
写真の傷も同じようにつけたとかw

2009 re-enactment image from left to right: Nick Crowe (HM Plant Honda sidecar rider), Mark Cox (HM Plant Honda sidecar passenger), Neil Tuxworth (Head of Honda (UK) Racing), John McGuinness (HM Plant Honda rider), Steve Plater (HM Plant Honda rider), Guy Martin (Hydrex Honda rider), Havier Beltran (HM Plant Honda team manager), Julian Boland (HM Plant Honda mechanic). The bike is John McGuinness’ 2007 130mph CBR1000RR Fireblade.
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Commemorative Stamps

Commemorative Stamps

The following riders appear on one of each of the six commemorative stamps:

1950s - Naomi Taniguchi (32p)

Naomi Taniguchi has the honour of being the first Japanese racer to compete in the World Championships, when – in 1959 – he became the first Honda rider and the first racer from his country to go out in practice for that year’s Isle of Man TT races. The 125cc race that year was held on the Clypse Course for the final time and he won a Silver Replica for an impressive sixth place. The Japanese rider enjoyed his best season ever in 1960 when he finished in joint 10th place in the 125cc World Championship aboard a Honda.

1960s - Mike Hailwood (33p)

Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood won 14 TT races, including Honda’s first ever victory in the 1961 Ultra Lightweight TT. He backed it up later that day with Honda’s second, in the Lightweight race aboard a 250cc machine. That year he took Honda to the 250cc World Championship, his first of five championships for Honda. His next Honda TT victory came in 1966, again on a Lightweight 250cc machine taking a new lap record in the process. That year he also won the Senior on a 500cc Honda. More wins for Honda came in 1967 with yet another Lightweight win, as well as the Junior and another Senior aboard the 500.

1970s - Alex George (56p)

Alex George’s best year on the Grand Prix scene was in 1975, when he finished seventh in the 500cc World Championship, but it’s as a pure road-racer that he is best remembered and, it was on Honda machinery that he recorded his best results. Three times George took victories – twice with Honda during his best-ever TT year during the 1979 Isle of Man races. In the Formula 1 race, Alex took over the Honda of the injured Mick Grant to win that race, and later in the week beat Hailwood himself to take victory in the Classic 1000cc race.

1980s - Joey Dunlop (62p)

Joey Dunlop is a legend and the most successful Isle of Man racer of all time – winning 26 times around the 37.73-mile course. His first event was the 1976 TT which he won in only his second year, in the 1977 Jubilee Classic Race. Joey won his second TT in 1980, before beginning an amazingly successful relationship with the Honda factory in 1981, which netted the remainder of his wins – including winning the Formula 1 race six years in a row between 1983 and 1988. In his final lap of the TT circuit – the sixth lap of the 2000 Senior Race which he won – he set his fastest ever lap at 123.87mph. Truly, he was the ‘King of the Roads.’

1990s - Steve Hislop (90p)

11-times a TT winner, Steve Hislop was inextricably linked with Hondas on the Isle of Man during his career. Steve took his first TT win on a Honda RC30 in the Production B race in 1988, beating fellow Scot Brian Morrison. The following year – and with Joey Dunlop out injured – ‘Hizzy’ took the Supersport 600 win and the Formula 1 race win, as well as recording the first 120mph+ lap of the Island. Later in the week he made it a hat-trick of TT wins with a victory in the Senior aboard the RC30. With factory Honda RVF power for 1991, Steve took another triple with wins in the F1, Senior as well as the Supersport 600 win aboard a CBR600. In his final TT year of 1994, Hislop took the RC45 to wins in both the Formula 1 and the Senior.

2000s - John McGuinness (£1.77)

The modern master of the TT course, John McGuinness currently has 14 TT wins to his credit, making him the joint second most successful rider in TT history. He took his first TT win in 1999 in the Lightweight 250cc category, a class in which he made his TT racing debut in 1996. Since then he’s gone on to become the man to beat on the mountain course, winning three races in a week in 2006, taking the lap record to 130.35mph in 2007 and taking his 14th career TT victory in 2008 with his win in the Senior aboard the outstanding Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. 2009 sees him looking to add to his victory tally to move ahead of Mike Hailwood in the list of all-time TT greats.
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