Freddie Frith

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A 350 cm³ Velocette from 1948, as also driven by Frith.

Frederick Lee "Freddie" Frith, OBE (also "Freddy" Frith ; born May 30, 1909 in Grimsby , England ; † May 24, 1988 there ) was a British motorcycle racer .

During his active career, Frith was known for his elegant driving style. He won the European Championship twice , the Tourist Trophy four times, and in 1949 became the first world champion in the 350 cm³ class of the motorcycle world championship .

Career

The trained stonemason Freddie Frith was one of the many racing drivers who had to interrupt their motorsport career because of the Second World War , and one of the few who could win the Tourist Trophy both before and after the war . In total, he was successful five times in the legendary race on the Isle of Man .

Frith won the Manx Grand Prix in the junior category in 1935 and came second in the senior race. For the 1936 season he was hired as a Norton factory driver. He won the Junior TT (350 cm³ class) race after his teammate Jimmie Guthrie , one of the best racing drivers of the time, fell behind after a chain failure . In the senior TT run (500 cm³ class) he came third behind Guthrie and the Irishman Stanley Woods . At the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring , where the European championship was held this year , Freddie Frith won the 350cc race ahead of the German NSU factory drivers Oskar Steinbach and Heiner Fleischmann and became European champion .

The following year Frith won the Senior TT after Jimmie Guthrie retired with engine problems. With one lap to go, he was second behind Stanley Woods. Frith completed his final lap in 25 minutes and 5 seconds, an average speed of 90.27  mph , and was the first racer to lap the circuit at an average speed of over 90 mph. In addition, he was runner- up in the classes up to 350 and up to 500 cm³ at the Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten , behind his team mate Jimmie Guthrie .

During the Second World War, Frith and his racing driver colleague John "Crasher" White served as a driving instructor at the Infantry Driving & Maintenance School in Harrogate and later at the D&M School in Keswick .

After the Second World War, Frith competed again on the Isle of Man and was able to win the race in the 350 cm³ class again in 1948, this time on a Velocette . In 1948 he was also victorious again in the 350 European Championship, which was driven out at the Ulster Grand Prix at the Clady Circuit in Northern Ireland .

In 1949 , Freddie Frith competed in the newly created motorcycle world championship on a Velocette . He won all five races in the 350 cm³ class and drove the fastest lap in each case . With 54.5 of 55 points to be achieved, he was superior to Reg Armstrong, the first 350 world champion in history. He was also able to win the Tourist Trophy again in this class.

After the 1949 season, Freddie Frith ended his racing career.

statistics

title

Isle of Man TT victories
year class machine Average speed
1936 Junior (350 cm³) Norton 80.14  mph (128.97  km / h )
1937 Senior (500 cm³) Norton 88.21 mph (141.96 km / h)
1948 Junior (350 cm³) Velocette 81.59 mph (131.31 km / h)
1949 Junior (350 cm³) Velocette 83.15 mph (133.82 km / h)
In the motorcycle world championship
season class motorcycle run Victories Podiums Points Result
1949 350 cc Velocette 5 5 5 33 World Champion
500 cc Velocette 1 0 0 5 11.
total 6th 5 5 38

References

literature

  • Leslie Ronald Higgins: 50 Years of TT History . Sir Joseph Causton & Sons, London 1957, OCLC 22185268 , p. 31 .

Web links

  • Freddie Frith on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
  • Freddie Frith on the Isle of Man TT official website.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ivan Rhodes: Velocette: Technical Excellence Exemplified . Motorbooks International, 2003, ISBN 0-7603-1693-7 , pp. 120 .
personal data
SURNAME Frith, Freddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frith, Frederick Lee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Grimsby
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1988
Place of death Grimsby