1977 Formula TT Season

Isle of Man TT Mountain Course

The 1977 Formula TT Season was the first event in the history of Formula TT and was announced by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme as the official world championship in those categories.

The Formula TT was founded in 1977 by the Isle of Man government and the Auto-Cycle Union to compensate for the FIM's withdrawal of the Tourist Trophy's world championship status and at the same time to popularize racing with production-based machines.

The winner of each class's race at the 59th Isle of Man TT also became the TT World Champion in that category.

Class-System

• The Formula TT was divided into three classes in 1977.
  • The TT-F1 class allowed four-stroke engines with engine displacements of 600 to 1000 cc and two-stroke engines with displacements of 350 to 500 cc.
  • The TT-F2 class allowed four-stroke engines with displacements of 400 to 600 cc and two-stroke engines with displacements of 250 to 350 cc.
  • The TT-F3 class allowed four-stroke engines with displacements of 200 to 400 cc and two-stroke engines with displacements of 125 to 250 cc.

TT-F1 Class

The TT-F1 race was ironically won by Phil Read, one of the riders who had campaigned most heavily for the TT to lose its World Championship status. Read had vowed in 1972 never to return to the island. However, he did so in 1977, having been signed by Honda Britain for the Tourist Trophy.

The race itself caused controversy. It was stopped after four laps due to deteriorating weather conditions. After three laps, Ducati rider Roger Nicholls led by 22 seconds. After the fourth lap, he pitted for refueling, while Read crossed the finish line and was declared the winner.

(Snaefell Mountain Course; 4 laps = 242.8 km, the top-ten finishing riders)

Pos.	Rider	Machine	Time	Avg. Speed
1	Phil Read	Honda	1 h 33 min 19.3 s	97.02 mph
2	Roger Nicholls	Ducati	+ 38.7 s	96.36
3	Ian Richards	Honda	+ 1 min 26.7 s	95.55
4	Stan Woods	Honda	+ 3 min 49.7 s	93.20
5	Malcolm Lucas	BSA	+ 5 min 02.1 s	92.06
6	Michael Hunt	Laverda	+ 5 min 49.7 s	91.32
7	Roger Corbett	Triumph	+ 6 min 32.9 s	102.89
8	Ian Tomkinson	BSA	+ 8 min 21.9 s	89.05
9	John Kirkby	Laverda	+ 9 min 53.9 s	87.72
10	John Wilkinson	Suzuki	+ 9 min 59.9 s	87.64

TT-F2 Class

The TT-F2 race was won by Honda rider Alan Jackson sr. after the leader Bill Smith retired on the last lap.

(Snaefell Mountain Course; 4 laps= 242.8 km, only eight riders reached the finish)

Pos.	Rider	Machine	Time	Avg. Speed
1	Alan Jackson sr.	Honda	1 h 31 min 08.0 s	99.36 mph
2	Neil Tuxworth	Honda	+ 1 min 24.6 s	97.84
3	Denis Casement	Honda	+ 3 min 50.4 s	95.34
4	John Crick	Honda	+ 11 min 23.2 s	88.32
5	Dennis McMillan	Triumph	+ 12 min 5*.4 s	87.38
6	Terry McKane	Honda	+ 15 min 45.0 s	84.72
7	Alistair Copeland	Benelli	+ 16 min 44.8 s	83.93
8	Richard Arain	Honda	+ 22 min 41.0 s	79.56

TT-F3 Class

(Snaefell Mountain Course; 4 laps = 242.8 km, the top-ten classified riders)

Pos.	Rider	Machine	Time	Avg. Speed
1	John Kidson	Honda	1 h 37 min 04.4 s	93.28 mph
2	Brian Peters	Suzuki	+ 5 min 15.0 s	88.49
3	Abe Walsh	Honda	+ 5 min 23.6 s	88.37
4	Graham Bentman	Honda	+ 6 min 04.8 s	87.78
5	Fred Launchbury	Maico	+ 7 min 14.2 s	86.83
6	Mal Kirwan	Honda	+ 7 min 53.0 s	86.27
7	Nev Watts	Honda	+ 10 min 34.6 s	84.11
8	Richard Stevens	Yamaha	+ 11 min 27.6 s	84.43
9	John Riley	Yamaha	+ 12 min 06.6 s	82.98
10	Paul Feist	Yamaha	+ 12 min 26.6 s	82.68

See also

• 1977 Isle of Man TT

Weblinks

• Vincent Glon. "FIM TT Formula Cup 1977" (in French). racingmemo.free.fr. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
• "Isle of Man TT 1977". www.iomtt.com. Retrieved 5 April 2022.