Top 10 British Grand Prix Champions

Tom Roderick
by Tom Roderick

There was a lot of hoopla last weekend over the accomplishment of Cal Crutchlow being the first Brit to win a premier-class Grand Prix race since Barry Sheene in 1981. Congratulations, Cal, don’t get cocky. Which is exactly what he did following the race referring to his competitors as “wimps” – an accusation basted with the decorum of his enrollment in “the Donald Trump School of Tact and Grace,” according to Bruce Allen’s post-race autopsy. So let’s put this in perspective; Cal won a race – a rain race due to lucky tire selection – not a championship based on skill and season-long consistency.

In the annals of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, some of the best champions have originated from the island nation and deserve modern recognition. Here’s our list of British GP champs according to their career accomplishments. Sorry, Cal, a lone MotoGP race win isn’t enough to earn a spot beyond the opening paragraph.

10. Freddie Frith

Being first is always worth something, and in 1949, the inaugural year of organized Grand Prix motorcycle road racing, Freddie Frith (#53 in above photo) won all five races to claim the 350cc championship that year on a Velocette. He also competed in the 500cc class, but wasn’t as successful. Born in 1909, Frith was already 40 in 1949, and only raced the one year in GP, but his racing career began years earlier. Frith won the Manx Grand Prix in 1930, and is one of only a few to compete in and win TT races before and after WWII.

9. Fergus Anderson

Fergus Anderson who was Scottish but is known as a British world champion (doesn’t seem fair to Scotland). Like many racers of his day, Anderson competed in numerous classes, winning races in the 250cc, 350cc, and 500cc categories, but only winning championships in the 350cc class – back-to-back in 1953 and 1954. Sadly, Anderson was killed in a racing incident in Belgium in 1956.

8. Cecil Sandford

Cecil Sandford nearly won three GP world titles but had to settle for second place in the 125cc class in 1953. However, Sandford brought MV Agusta its first world championship in the 125cc class in 1952, and, five years later, won the 250cc championship for Mondial in 1957. Sandford was also a two-time IOM TT winner.

7. Danny Kent

Crutchlow may have won a race in the more glamorous MotoGP class, but it’s only one race. Danny Kent won six of 18 races on his way to capturing the Moto3 championship last year. Unimpressed because of Moto3’s junior class status? Watch any Moto3 race and witness how competitive each race is, when a gaggle of riders – each with viable chance of winning – go at it hammer and tongs until the checkered flag. Kent is struggling some with his transition to the Moto2 class this year, but he might have a better chance of realizing a MotoGP championship than Crutchlow does.

6. Leslie Graham

Leslie Graham is the first 500cc Grand Prix world champion, winning the title in the premier class alongside the 1949 350cc world champion, fellow countryman Freddie Frith. This two-fer gives Great Britian the prestige of having two world champions in the inaugural year of Grand Prix competition. Frosting on the cake is both men won their respective championships aboard British machinery: Graham on an AJS, and Frith on a Velocette. Similar to compatriot Fergus Anderson, Graham tragically lost his life at the Isle of Man in 1953.

5. Barry Sheene

Barry Sheene won only two premier-class championships (1976, 1977), but he is what many consider a champion’s champion. His outspoken, flamboyant, gregarious personality coupled with intelligence and sportsmanship made him popular in the paddock and the envy of wannabe champions around the globe. He survived two horrific crashes, and many attribute his race against arch nemesis Kenny Roberts at the British Grand Prix at Sliverstone in 1975 to be the best race of the ’70s. Sheene died in 2002 from cancer at the age of 52.

4. Geoff Duke

Geoff Duke owns six Grand Prix world championships; three with Norton and three with Gilera. Aboard the one-lunger Norton, Duke won both the 500cc and 350cc titles in 1951, and followed those with another 350cc world title in 1952. Switching to the four-cylinder Gilera, Duke performed the first Grand Prix hat trick, claiming back-to-back-to-back 500cc titles in 1953, ’54, and ’55. Duke, who also owns six IOM TT race wins, lived a long life (especially for a motorcycle racer competing in the time period he did) dieing last year at his home on the Isle of Man at the age of 92. Geoff Duke: 1923-2015.

3. Phil Read

A decade separates Phil Read’s first and last Grand Prix championships. Read won his first 250cc GP title in 1964 aboard a Yamaha, and doubled-down the next year with a second 250cc title. Three years later, in 1968, Read won both the 125cc and 250cc titles still aboard Yamahas. Read’s last 250cc title, and his last aboard a Yamaha was earned in 1971. Switching to MV Agusta in 1972, Read won his first 500cc title the following year. In 1974 Read claimed his second and last premier-class title, the last world championship for MV Agusta, and the last premier-class championship for a four-stroke racer until the modern four-stroke era began with the MotoGP class in 2002.

2. John Surtees

Like Phil Read, John Surtees owns seven GP world titles. And like Geoff Duke, Surtees pulled off another hat-trick of titles. Surtees’ accomplishments, however, were more impressive than either Read or Duke. Surtees owns four 500cc titles, and three 350cc titles. His first 500cc championship came in 1956 aboard an MV Agusta. Beginning in 1958 Surtees would win both the 500cc and 350cc GP world titles for three years running, ending in 1960, also aboard the dominant MV machines. Surtees is the only racer in history to leave a successful motorcycle GP career and flourish in the auto-racing world, winning the Formula 1 world title for Ferrari in 1964, becoming the only racer in history to win world championships on both two wheels and four.

1. Mike Hailwood

Similar to a certain Valentino Rossi, Mike “The Bike” Hailwood is a nine-time Grand Prix champion – the most decorated British GP racer in the history of the sport. In the span of only six years Hailwood managed to attain three 250cc titles (1961, ’66, ’67), two 350cc titles (1966, ’67), and four consecutive 500cc titles (1962, ’63, ’64, ’65); the sport’s first four-peat. All four 500cc titles were aboard MV Agustas, while the smaller-displacement titles came aboard Hondas. Hailwood also owns 14 IOM TT victories, the most notable in 1978, when after 11 years of retirement from motorcycle road racing, he returned aboard a Ducati 900SS, and won the Senior TT that year. Maybe most tragic of all, Hailwood was killed by an illegal-turning truck while driving with his children getting take out in 1981, age 40. All hail the king.

Tom Roderick
Tom Roderick

A former Motorcycle.com staffer who has gone on to greener pastures, Tom Roderick still can't get the motorcycle bug out of his system. And honestly, we still miss having him around. Tom is now a regular freelance writer and tester for Motorcycle.com when his schedule allows, and his experience, riding ability, writing talent, and quick wit are still a joy to have – even if we don't get to experience it as much as we used to.

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  • Ian Parkes Ian Parkes on Aug 29, 2016

    I have a tenuous link to one of these greats. Geoff Duke used to ride in tweeds, like everyone else. Leather coats offered more protection but were too flappy to race in, so he visited a local tailor - the father of my mother's best friend - and asked him to make him a leather suit. Pop Barker said "Ee lad, right you are, but leather doesn't give lark tweed. Bring your bark in, sit on it lark how you do in th'race and I'll measure t'suit oop around ye." Or similar. I'm regretting this already.

    Anyway, when Geoff turned up at the Isle of Man that year everyone had a quiet chuckle at his funny suit with the baggy arse, knees and elbows - until he sat on his bark. And thus racing leathers were born. Sadly, Pop Barker didn't patent his invention.

  • Ian Parkes Ian Parkes on Aug 29, 2016

    Good of you Tom to go into bat for your colleague but I thought Bruce had conceded Cal was just having a laugh. It's humour, Jim, but not as we know it. (What am I saying?! Please, MOrons, continue to pick on Cal. That's funny too.)

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