Lightweight TT


The Lightweight TT is a motorcycle road race that is a part of the Isle of Man TT festival - an annual motorcycle event traditionally held over the last week of May and first week of June.

History

The Lightweight class was first present at the 1920 TT races, as a category in the Junior TT. However it was not until 1922 that the first time the Lightweight TT took place, won by Geoff S. Davison riding a Levis, at an average speed of 49.89 mph for 5 laps of the Snaefell Mountain Course.
Between 1949 and 1976, the Lightweight race was part of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.
The event was dropped from the 2005 race calendar due to lack of entries. The Lightweight TT and the Ultra-Lightweight TT were later reinstated to the 2008 & 2009 race schedules, but were held on the 4.25 mile Billown Circuit in the south of the Isle of Man. For the 2010 races, the Lightweight TT was again dropped from the race schedule on cost grounds.
The event was re-introduced for the 2012 races on the Mountain course, with a change to water-cooled four-stroke twin cylinder engines not exceeding 650 cc and complying with the ACU Standing Regulations.

The Lightweight category

There have been several different categories of motorcycle that can compete in this event. In the 1950s and 1960s, the principal TT solo events were the Senior, Junior, and Lightweight. The 125 cc class was occasionally called the "Ultra-Lightweight" class.
Currently the Lightweight class comprises road-based "Super-Twin" solo machines with liquid-cooled four-stroke engines of up to 650 cc engine capacity.

Eligibility

Entrants

The 2012 specification for entries into the Lightweight TT race are defined as;-
The lap record for the Lightweight TT is held by Michael Dunlop in a time of 18 minutes and 26.543 seconds, at an average speed of set during the 2018 race. The race record for the 4 lap Lightweight TT is a time of 1 hour, 15 minutes and 05.032 seconds, at an average race speed of, also held by Dunlop during the 2018 race.

List of Lightweight TT Winners

Race winners (riders)

RiderWins
Joey Dunlop6
Charlie Williams5
Mike Hailwood, Jim Redman3
Fergus Anderson, Manliff Barrington, Kel Carruthers, Michael Dunlop, Ivan Lintin, Ian Lougher, Phil Read, Tarquinio Provini, Eric Twemlow2
Dario Ambrosini, Bruce Anstey, Maurice Cann, Syd Crabtree, Ryan Farquhar, Gary Hocking, Jimmie Guthrie, Wal Handley, Werner Haas, Dean Harrison, Tom Herron, James Hillier, Bill Ivy, Ewald Kluge, John McGuinness, Ted Mellors, Derek Minter, Jack A. Porter, Richard Quayle, Jimmie Simpson, Omobono Tenni, Carlo Ubbiali, Graham Walker, Stanley Woods1