On a welcome dry clear morning, 100 riders dressed in black leather jackets and trousers sporting pudding basin style helmets lowered their goggles and prepared to make history. The very first race in the World Motorcycle Racing Championship was about to start. They were right and the TT races on the Mountain circuit continue to this day. There could have been no better or worthy venue to stage that first World Championship race, a year ahead of the Formula One Championship that started at Silverstone in 1950. In so many ways that very first 350cc TT race summed up what lay ahead for the next 72 years. The World Championship was up and running but there was one big change from today. The seventy-five machines that finished that marathon 350cc seven lap race on that historic day were all British built – times have changed!.

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