A star is born
In a year which witnessed the opening of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which has run continuously since the February 6 passing of King George VI (Covid-19 apart); John Cobb establishing a water speed record of 206.89mph, on October 5 at Loch Ness,; Dwight D Eisenhower winning a landslide US presidential election; and the accession of Queen Elizabeth II, the IoM again hosted the fastest MGP motorcycle racing on record.
Earlier, in June, the 1949 Senior MGP victor Geoff Duke (Norton) scored his fourth TT win at 90.29mph, leading home team-mate Reg Armstrong (almost one-and-a-half minutes adrift) with New Zealander Rod Coleman bringing home the factory AJS in third.
Buoyed by his Junior win, Duke bumped his works Norton off for a hoped-for Island double. And for four laps the Lancashire lad from St Helens looked on course for his fifth TT victory. Leading Les Graham’s four-cylinder MV Agusta by over 45 seconds, he pitted after three laps, the factory Norton bellowed as he powered off for Bray Hill after a quick stop to extend his lead to almost a minute-and-a-half over Graham who’d pitted and slowed. But as Duke should have turned the taps full on as he completed Governors Bridge and made the Glencutchery road to power past the pits, his ohc single was creeping along in near silence.
Minutes later Geoff removed his helmet, handing the lead to Les Graham, but with Duke’s team-mate Reg Armstrong hunting him down, halving the gap from 24 seconds after four
