Tommy Robb

1934-2024

Motorcycle dealer, British road race champion, and winner of Grand Prix, TT, and North-West 200 races, Tommy Robb, has died aged 90. He was among the first works riders to put Honda on the world map, winning the inaugural Japanese GP 50 and 125cc races in 1962.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Thomas Holmes Robb – ‘wee Tommy’ to his intimates – was apprenticed to aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers and Harland as fitter, turner and later technical illustrator and salesman.

Aged 16, in 1951, with parental approval he took up trials, scrambles and grass track, on James, Dot, and similar two-strokes, his talents attracting various sponsors and resulting in several Irish grass track championships.

Good at football, he was spotted by a Manchester United talent scout but decided that his career would ride on two wheels.

Belfast dealer Bertie Mann recognised and encouraged his riding skill. Together, they opened Mann & Robb Motorcycles in Belfast in 1955. That year Robb, aged 20, moved on to road racing. His backers would include Terry Hill (NSU) and Geoff Monty (GMS and Bultaco).

He made his world championship debut at the 1957 Ulster GP (250 NSU), held at his local track on the edge of Belfast, and finished third.

In 1958, he tackled the Isle of Man TT for the first time, finishing eighth in the Lightweight 250 (NSU). In 1967, but for a fraction of a second, he would have won the inaugural 250 Production race, dicing with fellow Bultaco rider Bill Smith neck-and-neck on the roads in a three-lap thriller.

His perseverance at the TT, spanning 16 years, resulted in a win in 1973 (125 Yamaha), the TT still counting as a world championship race in those days. Tommy was 38 at the time and in his final year as a pro rider. His TT rides included two seconds, and four thirds.

In 1959, he scored the first of five wins at the ultra-fast North-West 200 in Northern Ireland, and his last was in 1965.

He was recommended to Honda who signed him as a works rider for 1962 and 1963, initially riding 50 and 125cc machines, and later on 250 and 350cc mounts. He won the 250 Ulster GP, the 350 Finnish GP, and the inaugural 50 and 125cc non-championship Japanese GP races in 1962, and at season’s end he was third in both the 50cc and 350cc world series for Honda.

In 1963, he won the British 250 championship. His best GP placing that year was second in the 250 German GP.

Switching mainly to Spanish Bultaco two-strokes, he continued to be competitive, keeping fit by riding winter trials and the occasional motocross, including an Irish international in 1967 on a Bultaco.

In 1970 he finished fourth in the 500cc world series on a single cylinder Seeley Matchless, a surprise performance. His season against the big guns included two third places, thus proving that he could handle big bikes as well as the smaller machines to which he was more suited.

He started the Dixon-Robb road race school in 1971 using 250 and 450cc Honda twins with fellow Irishman David Dixon, a journalist-racer and importer of Yoshimura tuning parts. Three years later (1974), he published his book From TT to Tokyo (republished 1999), charting the ups and downs of his exciting years as a road racer.

In 1978, he started Tommy Robb Motorcycles in Warrington, Cheshire, which was officially opened by eight-time world champion Phil Read. Leading Honda dealer Bill Smith in Cheshire, helped with the start-up.

Robb added a Honda Five-Star workshop in 1981, which was due to be opened by his great friend, ten-time world champion Mike Hailwood. Tragically, Hailwood died from injuries in a road accident the week before.

Robb later added the Triumph, Piaggio and Yamaha agencies, and was one of the first to take on Hinckley Triumph.

Deciding to retire at 65, he sold the business in 1999 but remained on the race and event scene as a parade rider, speaker, occasional race commentator, and columnist.

In 2012, aged 77, he was badly injured in a parade ride accident at the Festival of 1000 Bikes, Mallory Park, Leicestershire, suffering a punctured lung, broken ribs and fingers. His worst racing accident had been a broken neck in practice at the 1960 TT, an injury he would never fully recover from.

The Mallory incident finished his parade riding years, but he was back on the show scene and speaker circuit in 2013.

Armed with enthusiasm, a great sense of humour, a friendly nature, and typically neat engineer handwriting, Tommy Robb was good company.

As TT Riders Association president in 1996, his speech at the TTRA annual luncheon included a series of amusing anecdotes and jokes that had everybody laughing. He will be fondly remembered by all who met him.

“Great loss. Great man. Great rider,” said trials and road race legend Sammy Miller MBE. “We were old school friends, Tommy and I. We went all the way through life together.”

“He liked everybody, and everybody liked him,” said road racer Mike Edwards, who briefly worked for him at Tommy Robb Motorcycles.

Twice married, Robb had four children, seven grandchildren and a great-grandson. His funeral took place on 30 December in Bangor, North Wales. It included two laps of Anglesey’s race circuit. Daughter Natalie, wearing Tommy’s crash helmet on her Honda Rebel, led the hearse to the circuit and onto Bangor Crematorium. She was joined by 50 motorcyclists. As they arrived at the circuit, rays of sunshine burst forth. A fitting tribute to the man who was sunshine personified.