1931 Isle of Man TT



The 1931 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy was again dominated by the battle between Rudge, Sunbeam and Norton motorcycles.

The 1931 Junior TT Race was run at a very fast pace by Jimmie Simpson riding for Norton who completed the first lap in 30 minutes and 49 seconds and was 6 seconds ahead of fellow Norton teammate Stanley Woods in 2nd place and 18 seconds ahead of Freddie Hicks in 3rd place riding an AJS motor-cycle. Although Jimmie Simpson was able to hold on to the lead for the next 5 laps, he was slowed by having to refuel every two laps because of carburetor problems. Fellow Norton teammate Tim Hunt recovered from a slow first lap with a loose plug-lead to set the fastest lap on lap 4 of 30 minutes and 5 seconds an average race speed of 75.27 mi/h and steadily moved up the leaderboard. Further, carburetor problems caused Jimmie Simpson to drop off the leaderboard; he eventually finished in 8th place. This allowed the 1931 Junior TT Race to be won by Tim Hunt riding for Norton, in 3 hours 34 minutes and 21 seconds, at an average race speed of 73.94 mi/h, from Norton teammates Jimmie Guthrie and Ernie Nott riding a Rudge motor-cycle.

The 1931 Lightweight TT was dominated by the works Rudge motorcycles and the race was lap 1 by Ernie Nott by 45 seconds from Rudge teammates H. G. Tyrell Smith and Graham Walker in 3rd place. By lap 6, Ernie Nott had a lead of 4 minutes over the rest of the field, until on the last lap he slid off just below the Mountain Mile and finished in 4th place steadying a damaged push-rod with his hand. This provided a first and only TT Race win for Graham Walker riding a Rudge at an average race speed of 68.98 mi/h.

The highly anticipated 1931 Senior TT Race which was again set to be dominated by Rudge and Norton motorcycles. However, it proved to be dominated again by Norton and Jimmie Simpson and Jimmie Guthrie. This time Guthrie led on lap 1 by 1 second from Jimmie Simpson and Norton teammate Stanley Woods by 17 seconds in 3rd place. On lap 3, the 1931 Senior TT Race produced the first 80 mi/h lap by Jimmie Simpson on a Norton motor-cycle in 28 minutes and 1 seconds an average speed of 80.82 mi/h. Despite taking over the lead from Guthrie, Jimmie Simpson crashed on lap 4 at Ballaugh Bridge and the bike, ending up in the river. Despite re-taking the lead, Jimmie Guthrie slipped off at the Governor's Bridge on lap 5, but continued to finish in 2nd place at an average speed of 77.34 mi/h. Fellow Norton teammate Stanley Woods finished in 3rd place with a glove in the petrol-tank filler. The fast-paced and incident-packed 1931 Senior TT Race provided Tim Hunt with a popular Junior/Senior double win in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 28 seconds for the 7 lap (264.11 mile) race at an average race speed of 77.90 mi/h. The winner of the 1929 Junior Race, Freddie Hicks, crashed on lap 5 at Union Mills and was killed.