1937 Isle of Man TT

The 1937 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy saw Freddie Frith break the 90+ mph lap for the first time during the Senior TT with a speed of 90.27 mph on his Norton beating Stanley Woods by only 15 seconds. Frith also beat Wood in the Junior TT but only with a second placing.

Senior TT winner Freddie Frith at Quarterbridge (pictured during the Junior TT, in which he finished 2nd)

The popular Jimmie Guthrie, who was killed during the German Grand Prix later that year, won Junior race but retired in the Senior TT at the Cutting, where a memorial was erected. The location, on the uphill climb from Ramsey to the Bungalow, on the Mountain Course, is now known as the Guthrie Memorial.^[1]

Harold Daniell who had been a works rider for AJS entered the 1937 TT with a three-year-old Norton tuned by his brother-in-law, Steve Lancefield which gave him a fifth place, a finishing position he also achieved in the Junior TT.

In the Lightweight TT Omobono Tenni becomes the first foreigner to secure a victory in an Isle of Man TT race on his Moto Guzzi.^[2]

Senior TT (500cc)

Rank	Rider	Team	Speed	Time
1	Freddie Frith	Norton	88.21	2.59.41.0
2	Stanley Woods	Velocette	88.09	2:59.56.0
3	John H. White	Norton	83.97	3:08.44.0
4	Ted Mellors	Velocette	86.68	3:09.24.0
5	Harold Daniell	Norton	83.61	3:09.33.0
6	Jock West	BMW	81.5	3:14.28.0
7	Johnny Galway	Norton	80.26	3:17.28.0
8	Les Archer	Velocette	76.96	3:25.55.0
9	Noel Pope	Norton	76.73	3:26.22.0
10	Jack Williams	Norton	75.62	3:29.35.0

Junior TT (350cc)

Rank	Rider	Team	Speed	Time
1	Jimmie Guthrie	Norton	84.43 mph	3.07.42.0
2	Freddie Frith	Norton	83.29	3:10.17.0
3	John H. White	Norton	82.54	3:12.00.0
4	Stanley Woods	Velocette	82.33	3:12.30.0
5	Harold Daniell	Norton	78.77	3:21.12.0
6	Ernie Thomas	Velocette	78.63	3:21.34.0
7	Henry Tyrell-Smith	Excelsior	77.25	3:25.10.0
8	George Rowley	AJS	76.82	3:26.18.0
9	Johnny Galway	Norton	75.98	3:28.25.0
10	Jack Williams	Norton	75.4	3:30.11.0

Lightweight TT (250cc)

Rank	Rider	Team	Speed	Time
1	Omobono Tenni	Moto Guzzi	74.72 mph	3.32.06.0
2	Ginger Wood	Excelsior	74.5	3:32.43.0
3	Ernie Thomas	DKW	73.17	3:36.36.0
4	Les Archer	New Imperial	72.98	3:37.09.0
5	Siegfried Wünsche	DKW	72.47	3:38.42.0
6	Chris Tattersall	CTS	69.25	3:48.52.0
7	C. V. Moore	New Imperial	67.39	3:55.10.0
8	Stan Smith	Excelsior	66.3	3:59.03.0
9	Les G Martin	Cotton	65.1	4:03.26.0

Only 9 finishers

Notes

• Stanley Woods has an incident with a dog at the bottom of Bray Hill on the 1st lap of the 1937 Junior TT Race and also loses the rear brake at the same place.^[3]
• During lap 1 of the 1937 Junior TT Race, H.Pinnington riding a Norton crashes at the Windy Corner and Marcel Simo riding a Terrot motor-cycle crashes at Glentramman on lap 3. On lap 4, J. Illichmann riding a NSU is disqualified for illegal refuelling.^[3]
• Omobono Tenni is called "Tombone" by fellow competitors who cannot pronounce his name. On the first lap of the 1937 Lightweight TT Race, Omobono Tenni slips of at Governors Bridge on lap 1 and leaves part of his exhaust of his Moto Guzzi behind. On lap 5, Ewald Kluge retires his DKW at Ballaugh with a broken throttle wire and Stanley Woods on lap 6 his DKW retires at Sulby. H.G.Tyrell Smith breaks down at Creg-na-Baa when his Excelsior breaks a connecting-rod on lap 6.^[3]
• On the last lap of the 1937 Senior TT Race, Freddie Frith and Stanley Woods are posted as a dead-heat.