EIGHT times TT winner and Radio TT commentator Charlie Williams returns to the Isle of Man for his 41st consecutive TT when he arrives this weekend.
And this time the legendary rider is being honoured with a place in the ‘Milestones of the Mountain’ parade lap amongst an elite group of 18 riders celebrating 100 years of racing on the mountain course.
Williams will ride a bike which won TT races in the mid to late 70s when he was at the peak of his TT career, most notably in the 250 class.
“I’ve never lost touch with the TT and always look forward to going back,” said Williams, who since making his final TT appearance in 1981, has run motorcycle accessories shop in Chester.
“I had a lot of success throughout Britain, Europe and beyond but I was always a bit of a TT specialist and had a lot of my success there and I always looked forward to racing the circuit. It was and still is a very tough course.
“I’ll be riding the bike from the mid-to-late 1970s which will be nice as that’s when I enjoyed the
majority of my success.”
Williams enjoyed a hugely successful motorcycling career, winning his first of eight TT titles in 1971 and the Formula II class of the Formula TT World Championship in 1980.
Williams looks back fondly on his appearances in the Isle of Man and points to the 1979 event and an encounter with the late Mike Hailwood – regarded by many as one of the greatest riders of all time – as being particularly poignant.
“The most enduring memory of the TT for me was in ’79 when I won the 250cc race,” said Williams, who presents a morning chat show on Radio TT during his time on the Isle.
“Mike Hailwood had won the 1,000cc race and Alex George had won the 500 so we all took part in the Classic race at the end of the event.
“I raced the fastest lap at the TT on a 250, which still stands, and finished third while Hailwood and George had a real ding-dong battle for first which George just won.
“At the end, Mike Hailwood complimented me and praised me for my achievement which, to hear from a legend like him, was just fantastic. He was the Valentino Rossi of his day.”
But it could have turned out so differently for Williams, who, thanks to his late father’s love of football and Chester Football Club, was a talented goalkeeper.
“I was a pretty good goalkeeper when I was a kid and my dad always used to take me to Sealand Road to watch Chester as he was huge fan,” said Williams.
“I was never that interested in the game, though, and I had complete tunnel vision when it came to motorbikes.
“Being from Kelsall originally, me and my friends used to go on our push bikes to Oulton Park and watch the races. I was just totally enthralled by it and used to think ‘I want to do that’, but I never thought for one moment it would be my career.
“From then on that was all I wanted to do and I’m thankful that I have been able to do it professionally and enjoy all the success that I have.”
(Extracts from an interview by Dave Powell, Chester Chronicle).
