1951 Clubman Senior TT

Course name: Mountain (post 1914)

Course length: 150.92 miles (4 laps)

Description: Race report from the IOM Weekly Times 9 Jun 1951 (p. 3) below which is a full list of competitors:
Wins Senior Clubman’s After Crash

Signal upsets Wicksteed’s calculations

Manx Competitors Sixth and Twelfth

After he received a misleading signal from his timekeeper on his last lap Ivan B. Wicksteed slowed down and lost the Senior Clubman’s Race on Wednesday by only twenty seconds. He had led the field for over three laps.

Thirty-four-year old Kenneth Arber, astride a Norton, won a few seconds after he crashed at Governor’s Bridge on his last lap. He dogged Wicksteed from the start, and completed the four-lap 151 miles race in 1 hr. 53 mins. 37.6 secs., over a minute slower than the record of 1 hr. 52 mins. 29.6 secs. returned by J.D. Williams in 1948. Record speed for the race when it was a three-laps event in 1949 was put up by Geoff Duke (82.97 m.p.h.). Arber’s speed was 79.70 m.p.h.

Wicksteed (32 years) a married man with two children, at the end of the third lap, astride his Triumph, was leading by 63 seconds. But helpers waved a board with the cryptic message “plus 90”, and this misled him to believe he was 90 seconds ahead.

Third man was George John Draper (Triumph), 22-years-old unmarried farmer, of Cheltenham. He finished in 1 hr. 55 mins. 17 secs. at a speed of 78.56 m.p.h., to bring off a double third in one week. He took third place in the Junior Clubman’s Race on Monday. Draper won the Scottish Six Days Trial this year.

Fastest lap of the race went to Wicksteed, who failed to smash the record – set up by Duke in 1949 – by 53 secs. from a standing start. His time for this lap was 27 mins. 56 secs.

MANXMAN SIXTH

Three Manxmen competed, and one of them, John Joseph Wood, 21, of 33 Peel Rd., Douglas, captured sixth place on a Norton in 1 hr. 56 mins. 53 secs, only 3 mins. 15.4 secs. slower than the winner. Twelfth man was W. A. Harding, also of Douglas, while the third local rider, R. Mawson (Norton), was thirty-eighth.

Although many crashes took place, only one rider needed hospital attention. So far as visibility was concerned, conditions were perfect. Of the 69 starters 45 completed the course.

D. A. Gadd (Norton), crashed at Governor’s Bridge, remounted and continued. He later dropped his mount at the pits, but persistent fellow that he is, he had the handlebars straightened and set off again. He finished twentieth.


When two bikes converged at Greeba, the handlebars touched. The result? Both riders were thrown, but neither suffered serious injury. They were A.J. Hart (Norton) and P. Shepley-Taylor (Norton). Both retired.

Machine goes on fire.

Clouds of smoke and shouts of “Fire!” from the pit brought spectators to their feet on the Grandstand at the end of the second lap. Firemen rushed to a blazing B.S.A. and extinguished the flames quickly and without fuss with portable extinguishers. Cause of the fire was a burst tank, and the rider of the machine, A. Bates, was burnt out of the race, so to speak.

Lap four brought surprises with the damaging message for Wicksteed and Arber’s last minute spill. Despite his mishap Arber pipped Wicksteed on the post to win the race.

Other Casualties.

Among those who came off was D. R. A. James (Triumph) whose scene of misfortune was Kate’s Cottage. He suffered minor abrasions and retired. E. J. Bowman (Triumph) sustained scratches in a spill at Laurel Bank and retired. Staff of Ramsey Cottage Hospital treated W. Wilshere (Norton) for a cut nose after he crashed at Ramsey.

The Winner.

Thirty-four-year old bachelor Ivor Kenneth Arber, of 162 London Road, Kettering, is a steelworks technician. Although this was his first T.T. win, he came fourth in the 1950 Senior Clubman’s Race, and pushed his mount in to finish 27th in the 1949 Senior Clubman’s event.

He served in the R.A.F. from September, 1939, to June, 1947, and became a Flight Lieutenant.


Manx Riders’ Times.

For Manx folk here are the lap times of local riders:- J. J. Wood of Douglas entered by the Peveril M.C. and C.C. on a Norton 29m. 37s., 28m. 47s., 29m. 59s, and 28m. 30s. W. A. Harding of Douglas, entered by the Ramsey and D.M.C. and L.C.C. on a Norton 30m. 22s., 29m. 58s, 30m. 28s., 29m. 34s.. R Mawson entered by the Peveril Club 34m. 46s., 33m. 0s, 33m. 5s..32m. 17s.. Harding’s blue helmet with silver wings was one of the most striking in the race.

Twenty-one-year-old Wood finished his National Service in March. He was a bombardier teaching Physical Training in the Royal Artillery. Since his demob. He has figured conspicuously in Trials Riding for the Manx Regiment. Only previous Racing Experience was in the 1950 M.G.P. in which he finished 26th.

Competitors

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