Everything has a beginning – and so does MotoGP. In just under two weeks, the Dutch TT in Assen will be the 1024th Grand Prix weekend in the history of the World Championship. But it all began exactly 75 years ago on June 17, 1949. Back then, the Motorcycle World Championship held the first Grand Prix in history on the infamous Isle of Man – one year before the first Formula 1 Grand Prix in Silverstone. Motorsport-Magazin.com looks back on this historic event.
The first officially registered motorcycle races took place before June 17, 1949 in Great Britain. In Europe in particular, the first brave racers were already dueling on two wheels at the beginning of the 20th century. Parts of the public quickly took a liking to this spectacular showdown, which is why the first large national events were called Grand Prix races. However, these still took place completely independently of one another and sometimes varied greatly in terms of regulations and conditions of participation.
Motorcycle World Championship is created in 1949: FIM creates uniform regulations
When the world slowly recovered from World War II at the end of the 1940s and the economic recovery began, the founding of the FIM [zuvor FICM, Anm.] as the global umbrella organization for motorcycle sport in 1949, the opportunity to coordinate rules and regulations in the future. This meant that selected events such as the traditional Isle of Man TT could become part of an official world championship from 1949 – the first of its kind. With its start date in 1949, the Motorcycle World Championship is also the oldest motorsport world championship in history.
At the end of 1948, at an FICM meeting in London, it was decided that the newly created motorcycle world championship should be modeled on the Grand Prix races. The inaugural season would start in mid-June 1949, run for just under three months and include a total of six Grand Prix races. In addition to the Isle of Man TT, the Swiss GP, the Dutch TT, the Belgian GP, the Ulster GP and the Nations GP in Monza formed the first world championship calendar in history.
A total of five different categories could compete in these six Grand Prix: 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, 600cc sidecars and the 500cc premier class. However, the smaller classes in particular were not to be present every time in 1949, as the financial costs were still too high. Only the 500cc class completed all six race weekends. The best five drivers in a race were rewarded with world championship points for their performance, as was the driver with the fastest race lap. At the end of the year, a world champion was to be crowned in each category based on the points scored.
Isle of Man 1949: Leslie Graham fails shortly before the finish
After the regulations were finalized in the spring of 1949, everything was ready for the premier class’s first race on June 17th in the middle of the Irish Sea. The drivers who were eligible to start had to complete a total of seven laps around the notorious Isle of Man course, covering a distance of almost 425 kilometers. Unthinkable today, because with a lap time of just under 27 minutes, the first Grand Prix in World Championship history lasted more than three hours. Ultimately, it was the Briton Harold Daniell who crossed the finish line first after 182 minutes and 18.6 seconds, thus securing his place in the history books.
But it almost didn’t happen, because the Norton rider was only in second place for much of the Isle of Man TT. His compatriot Leslie Graham had led the race from the first to the last lap, before the magnetic drive of his AJS Porcupine 500cc Twin broke down in the final meters. He lost what he thought was a sure victory and had to push his defective motorcycle to the finish line, which he only reached in tenth place. He missed out on the points by a long way, but at least he had driven the fastest lap and so didn’t go away empty-handed. The first victory in the motorcycle world championship went to Daniell, who crossed the finish line just under a minute and a half ahead of second-placed Johnny Lockett. Ernie Lyons completed the first podium in history in third place.
This marked the beginning of 76 years of the Motorcycle World Championship. A total of 1,023 Grand Prix have been held since then, and 406 different riders have entered the winners’ lists across the various World Championship classes. 75 different tracks have become part of the Motorcycle World Championship, and 127 different world champions have been crowned. Graham (500cc), Frith (350cc), Bruno Ruffo (250cc) and Nello Pagani (125cc) were the first at the end of 1949, and Jaume Masia (Moto3) and Mattia Casadei (MotoE) were the latest to join in 2023. Will there be more riders in 2024?