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Ray Amm aboard Norton number 61, winner of the 1954 Senior TT (Tourist Trophy)

Date(s): 1954

Scope & Content: In 1951 Ray Amm, a motorcycle dealer from Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, was the first official Rhodesian representative to ride in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) races. He won the Junior and Senior races in 1953 and the Senior in 1954.

During the 1953 Senior race Amm broke the lap record at 97.41mph. During the seventh lap, Amm crashed at Sarah's Cottage, losing a footpeg, but he remounted and went on to win in 2 hrs. 48 mins. 51.8 secs., an average speed of 93.85mph, breaking the race record set up by Duke on a Norton in 1951 by five seconds. This meant that Amm had created both lap and race records. Also in this race Les Graham crashed on his second lap on Quarterbridge Road and was killed instantly.

In the 1954 Senior the Stewards decided to stop the race at the end of lap 4, the first time the Senior race had been interrupted. Conditions were so bad, with visibility at Windy Corner down to 20 yards, it was decided that in the interests of safety the race should be stopped.

Ray Amm said after the race, ‘they should never have started the thing at all, under these circumstances.’ (Isle of Man Times, 19 June 1954, pp. 1, 10.)

Language: eng

Item name: photograph

Collection: Photographic Archive

Level: ITEM

ID number: PG/7403/1

Subject tags : #TT&MOTORSPORT

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