Phil Read

Phillip William Read, (1 January 1939 – 6 October 2022) was an English professional motorcycle racer.

Born in the large Bedfordshire town of Luton on 1 January 1939, Read was a keen road-rider and worked as an apprentice fitter at Brown and Green, a Luton manufacturer of industrial machinery.

In the following Dutch TT at Assen, the finishing order was: 1st (Hartle), 2nd (Read), with Mike Hailwood's MV retiring in the 500cc class.

Read came second to Hailwood in the Belgium GP 500cc race.

Minter recovered and returned in time to reclaim his team place for the next event, the Ulster GP at Dundrod in August.

His first road machine was a Velocette KSS which he started on at the UK legal-minimum riding age of sixteen in 1955, followed by a BSA Gold Star DBD32.

He started amateur short-circuit racing in 1958 on a Duke BSA Gold Star.

In 1960 he won the Junior Manx Grand Prix on a Manx Norton at record speed followed by the Junior (350cc) TT race in 1961.

During the mid-1960s Yamaha had prolific riders in Read, Canadian Mike Duff and later Bill Ivy.

He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1961 to 1976.

Read is notable for being the first competitor to win world championships in the 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc classes.

Although he was often overshadowed by his contemporary, Mike Hailwood, he won seven FIM Grand Prix road racing world championships.

He placed second in the 350cc and 500cc races at the 1961 North West 200 in Northern Ireland on Manx Nortons.

He was a two-time winner of the Thruxton 500 endurance race in 1962 and 1963 riding Syd Lawton's Norton Dominator 650SS machines.

In 1963, the up and coming Read was temporarily drafted-in to fill Derek Minter's absence in the Scuderia Duke Gilera Grand Prix team, as Minter had been seriously injured in May at Brands Hatch after a last-lap accident when dicing for the lead with Dunstall rider Dave Downer, after which Downer died.

The 1963 Isle of Man Senior TT was won by Mike Hailwood on an MV, while the Duke team came 2nd (John Hartle) and 3rd (Read).

The Scuderia Duke Gilera Grand Prix team disbanded at the end of 1963.

In 1964, Read gave Yamaha their first world title when he won the 250cc class.

He would repeat as champion the following year.

For 1966, Yamaha would introduce a new, four cylinder 250cc bike.

Teething problems with the new engine meant he would lose the crown to Hailwood.

In 1967 he would battle Hailwood on his six-cylinder Honda all the way to the final round.

They would end up tied but, Hailwood took the crown due to having five wins to Read's four.

Read took over from Frank Perris in 1967 as representative for the Grand Prix Riders' Association.

The 1968 season proved to be controversial for Read.

The Yamaha factory had wanted Read to concentrate on winning the 125cc title and teammate Bill Ivy to take the 250cc crown.

After winning the 125cc championship, Read decided to disobey team orders and fight Ivy for the 250cc title.

They finished the season tied in the points and Read was awarded the championship based on elapsed times.

It proved a costly decision for Read, as Yamaha would never offer him another ride.

In January 1969, Read lent his support to a project intended to provide racing engines to the general public – dubbed Read Weslake, it was a prototype Weslake four-stroke 500cc vertical twin, with four valves per cylinder and gear-driven camshafts.

Initially the engine was installed into standard Rickman Street Metisse frame intended for a Triumph Bonneville engine.

Read was to be rider and development consultant.

He decided that the Metisse frame was too heavy, and despite intentions to manufacture a lighter race frame, he decided to abandon the Rickman frame in favour of a Reynolds frame built by Ken Sprayson for Tom Arter and his rider Peter Williams who had a project to replace their ageing Matchless G50.

Read was to be based at Weslake in Rye, England to develop the project further, releasing Peter Williams for his Norton work, but Read pulled out in November.

After sitting out most of the 1969 and 1970 grand prix seasons when the major Japanese factories all withdrew from Grands Prix racing, he concentrated on the major British and European international meetings.

The engine project continued, enlarging the capacity to 700cc in 1970 with some race entries sponsored by Geoff Monty before finally folding.

Read returned full-time to the Grands Prix circuit in 1971 on a very special privateer production Yamaha developed under the direction of the Dutchman, Ferry Brouwer with twin disc brakes, improved horsepower and aerodynamics together with help from Eric Cheney (frame), Helmut Fath (dry clutch) and Rod Quaife (six speed transmission) but no factory support.

On this bike he was able win the first three Grands Prix of the season and go on to claim his fifth world championship.

In the 1979 Birthday Honours, Read was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to motor cycle racing".

In 2013, the F.I.M. inducted Read into the MotoGP Hall of Fame.