1952 Clubman Senior TT

Course name: Mountain (post 1914)

Course length: 150.92 miles (4 laps)

Description: Race report from the Isle of Man Times 14 Jun 1952 (p. 10) below which is a full list of competitors:
1952 Clubman Senior TT
Hargreaves Triumphs on a Triumph
EXCITING AND THRILLING CLUBMAN’S SENIOR T.T.
60 Men Finish the Distance; One Accident

The Clubman’s Senior T.T. (run over four circuits of the T.T. Course on Wednesday) must surely rank as one of the most exciting events in its history.
B. J. Hargreaves astride a Triumph led from the first (and incidentally put up the fastest lap of the day in his first circuit, 27 mins. 16 secs., average speed 83.05 m.p.h. from a standing start), and ultimately finished the distance in 1hr.49 mins. 50 secs., an average speed of 82.45 m.p.h., ahead of Ken James (Norton), his runner-up, by 38.6 secs., whilst four seconds behind James came J.R. Clark with an average speed of 81.92 m.p.h. for third place.
The excitement of this race arose from the fact that seconds only separated the leading men, and Clark and Farrant stuck to each other “closer than brothers”; to such an extent, in fact, that spectators would not have been in the least surprised if their performances had resulted in a tie. However, as it turned out, Clark was able to get the extra “horse” out of his engine, and pulled away to romp home as third man.
The struggle between these two drivers started as they went away from the starting squares (in the Clubman’s Senior the competitors were despatched in groups of threes), so Nos.4 (Housleey), 5 (Farrant) and 6 (Clark) started together.
It was not to be Housley’s lucky day – he won the Clubman’s Junior on Monday afternoon, and race crowds had thought perhaps he would done a “Duke” act on Wednesday by pulling off a double, but it was not to be.
At the end of the first lap he retired at the Start with a broken oil pipe. At Handley’s Corner, the footrests of the machines of Housley and Clark were locked together for 40 yards. The drivers stuck on their mounts, and eventually the footrests were released.
To revert to Clark and Farrant, though. They both went past the Start with one lap completed almost wheel to wheel.
At the end of the second lap they pulled in for replenishments, again as close as brothers; they went away on their third lap simultaneously, and, for that lap, returned exactly the same time – 27 mins. 30 secs (an honour which was shared by D. Tye); and then on the final lap Clark pulled away from Farrant.
The winner’s consistent riding was remarkable. From a standing start he put up the fastest time of the race, 27 mins. 16 secs.; on his second lap he did 27 mins. 29 secs.; on his third 27 mins. 38 secs.; and on his fourth 27 mins. 27 secs.
Hargreaves stuck to his position throughout; so did James as runner-up, but there was a change in the other positions. Lap 1 saw Clark (Norton) as third; Farrant (Norton), fourth; D. Tye (Triumph) fifth, and H. Plews (Norton) sixth man. This order was maintained with half the distance over, but in the third circuit J. Bottomley (Triumph) came up “out of the blue” with a lap of 27mins. 37 secs. And “collared” third place, thus relegating the rest of the leaders (Clark, Farrant and Tye) to fourth, fifth and sixth men.
Even then the outcome was not sure, because at Handley’s Corner Tye (who had driven a remarkably steady race) had the misfortune to run out of petrol, and that let R.W.C. Kerr (Triumph) into sixth place.

Competitors

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