Phillip William Read (1 January 1939 – 6 October 2022) was an English professional motorcycle racer. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Championships from 1961 to 1976. Read is notable for being the first competitor to win world championships in the 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc classes;50 Years of Moto Grand Prix (1st edition). Hazelton Publishing Ltd, 1999. Read won seven World Championships, took 52 Grand Prix victories and stood on a Grand Prix podium 121 times during his professional motorcycle racing career.
In the 1979 Birthday Honours, Read was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to motor cycle racing". In 2013, the F.I.M. inducted Read into the MotoGP Hall of Fame.
Early years
Born in the Bedfordshire town of Luton on 1 January 1939, Read was a keen road-rider and worked as an apprentice fitter at Brown and Green, a Luton manufacturer of industrial machinery. His first road machine was a Velocette KSS which he started on at the UK legal-minimum riding age of sixteen in 1955, followed by a BSA Gold Star DBD32.Classic Bike, September 2002, p.16 Phil Read Column. Accessed and added 23 August 2014 He started amateur short-circuit racing in 1958 on a Duke BSA Gold Star. In 1960 he won the Junior Manx Grand Prix on a Manx Norton at record speed followed by a victory at the 1961 Isle of Man TT 350cc Junior TT where he defeated Gary Hocking on the more powerful MV Agusta. He became one of the few riders to win a TT race at his very first attempt.
Read placed second in the 350cc and 500cc races at the 1961 North West 200 in Northern Ireland on Manx Nortons. Official NW200 Results 1961 Results Retrieved 2 June 2013
Read was a two-time winner of the Thruxton 500 endurance race in 1962 and 1963 riding Syd Lawton's Norton Dominator 650SS machines.
In 1963, the up and coming Read was temporarily drafted-in to fill Derek Minter's absence in the Scuderia Duke Gilera Grand Prix team, as Minter had been seriously injured in May at Brands Hatch after a last-lap accident when dicing for the lead with Dunstall rider Dave Downer, after which Downer died.Mick Walker, The BSA Gold Star. Accessed 13 May 2013Mick Walker, Geoff Duke: The Stylish Champion. Accessed 13 May 2013
The 1963 Isle of Man Senior TT was won by Mike Hailwood on an MV Agusta, while the Duke team came second (John Hartle) and third (Read). In the following Dutch TT at Assen, the finishing order was: first (Hartle), second (Read), with Mike Hailwood's MV retiring in the 500cc class. Read came second to Hailwood in the 500cc Belgium Grand Prix race. Minter recovered and returned in time to reclaim his team place for the next event, the Ulster Grand Prix at Dundrod in August. Read scored two second-place finishes to end the season ranked fourth in the 500cc World Championship despite riding six-year-old machines that were no longer competitive. The Scuderia Duke Gilera Grand Prix team disbanded at the end of 1963.
Two stroke years During the mid-1960s, Yamaha had prolific riders in Read, Canadian Mike Duff and later Bill Ivy. In , Read gave Yamaha their first world title when he won the 250cc class.
He dominated the 250cc World Championship with seven Grand Prix victories. Read made history at the 1965 Isle of Man TT when he set the first ever 100 mph lap on a 250cc machine although he was forced to retire with mechanical problems. For , Yamaha introduced a new, four cylinder 250cc motorcycle; however, teething problems with the new engine meant he would lose the crown to Hailwood. In he would battle Hailwood on his six-cylinder Honda RC166 all the way to the final round. They would end up tied but, Hailwood took the crown due to having five wins to Read's four. Read took over from Frank Perris in 1967 as representative for the Grand Prix Riders' Association.Motor Cycle, 16 February 1967, p. 209 Racing Line by David Dixon. Read takes over from Perris. "Speaking from his Guernsey home, where he has a boat retailing business, Phil is just as anxious as Frank to keep the association going. Copies of the constitution are available from Phil Read, Hakone, Pleinmont Road, Tortegal, Guernsey, Channel Islands. Accessed and added 1 November 2014
The season proved to be controversial for Read. The Yamaha factory had wanted Read to concentrate on winning the 125cc title and teammate Bill Ivy to take the 250cc crown. After winning the 125cc championship, Read decided to disobey team orders and fight Ivy for the 250cc title. They finished the season tied in the points and Read was awarded the championship based on elapsed times. It proved a costly decision for Read, as Yamaha would never offer him another ride.
In January 1969, Read lent his support to a project intended to provide racing engines to the general public – dubbed Read Weslake, it was a prototype Weslake four-stroke 500cc vertical twin, with four valves per cylinder and gear-driven camshafts. Initially the engine was installed into standard Rickman Street Metisse frame intended for a Triumph Bonneville engine.
Read was to be rider and development consultant. He decided that the Metisse frame was too heavy, and despite intentions to manufacture a lighter race frame, he decided to abandon the Rickman frame in favour of a Reynolds frame built by Ken Sprayson for Tom Arter and his rider Peter Williams who had a project to replace their ageing Matchless G50. Read was to be based at Weslake in Rye, England to develop the project further, releasing Peter Williams for his Norton work, but Read pulled out in November. The engine project continued, enlarging the capacity to 700cc in 1970 with some race entries sponsored by Geoff Monty before finally folding.
After sitting out most of the and grand prix seasons when the major Japanese factories all withdrew from Grands Prix racing, he concentrated on the major British and European international meetings.
Read returned full-time to the Grands Prix circuit in on a special privateer production Yamaha developed under the direction of the Dutchman, Ferry Brouwer with twin disc brakes, improved horsepower and aerodynamics together with help from Eric Cheney (frame), Helmut Fath (dry clutch) and Rod Quaife (six speed transmission) but no factory support. On this bike he was able win the first three Grands Prix of the season and go on to claim his fifth world championship.
Read began the 250cc season with victories in France and at the Isle of Man TT but failed to score consistently as Yamaha factory team rider Jarno Saarinen won four of the last six Grand Prix races to clinch the 250cc World Championship, after a season-long battle with Renzo Pasolini and Rod Gould.
Read also had 'guest' rides as part of the JPS team Norton for 1972, finishing fourth in the Daytona 200 mile race. Other riders were Norton factory employee Peter Williams and Tony Rutter as third rider. Rutter was soon replaced by John Cooper
Four stroke years In , Read accepted an offer to ride for the MV Agusta factory racing team in the 350cc class to help the defending World Champion Giacomo Agostini fend off the increasing threat presented by Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. By the early 1970s, advancements in two-stroke engine technology were made obvious as Yamaha and their top rider Saarinen began to challenge Agostini and the dominant MV Agusta team for the first time in years. Saarinen won three races in the 1972 350cc World Championship, including a victory at the West German Grand Prix where he gave Agostini his first defeat in a head-to-head race since the 1967 Canadian Grand Prix. Read took the victory at the 350cc East German Grand Prix after Agostini and Saarinen retired with mechanical problems, then finished second to Agostini at the 350cc Swedish Grand Prix to help Agostini successfully defend his 350cc World Championship. The threat from Yamaha's performance was so strong that the MV Agusta factory was forced to produce a new 350cc motorcycle.
In , Read would compete for MV Agusta alongside Agostini in both the 350cc and 500cc classes. Yamaha developed a new 4-cylinder two-stroke Yamaha YZR500 motorcycle for Saarinen which he rode to an early lead in the 500cc world championship with victories in France and Austria. Read scored his first victory of the year at the third round in West Germany when Saarinen's chain broke while he was challenging Read for the win. Yamaha and Saarinen were leading the World Championship when an accident at the 1973 Nations Grand Prix claimed the lives of Saarinen and Pasolini. The loss of Saarinen caused Yamaha to withdraw their team from the World Championship out of respect for their fallen rider.
Without any other significant opposition from other manufacturers, the MV Agusta team dominated the remainder of the season. Agostini took three victories to Read's two victories however, Agostini was unable to overcome an early season points deficit allowing Read to win his first World Championship in the premier 500cc division. Read's victory made him the first competitor to win world championships in the 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc classes, a feat only matched by Valentino Rossi. His victory also marked the first time that a World Championship had been won by a motorcycle equipped with disc brakes. Read also won the prestigious Mallory Park Race of the Year in 1973.
Agostini was frustrated with MV Agusta's lack of development and the growing threat of Japanese two-stroke technology, so he made the decision to join the Yamaha factory team for the season leaving Read as the top MV Agusta rider with Franco Bonera as his teammate. Read successfully defended his title with four Grand Prix victories as Agostini suffered from injuries and mechanical problems with Yamaha. The 35-year-old Read was the oldest 500cc World Champion since Leslie Graham won the title in at the age of 37. His victory would mark the last world championship for the legendary Italian marque as well as the last time that a four-stroke machine would win a title until the advent of the MotoGP class in .
In the 500cc World Championship, Read battled Agostini in a season-long battle that was not decided until the final race of the season. Agostini took the early lead with victories in France, Germany and Italy but then he suffered two consecutive mechanical failures in Belgium and Sweden. Read won the Belgian Grand Prix then finished second to Barry Sheene (Suzuki) in Sweden to take the championship points lead. Agostini recovered to win the Finnish Grand Prix and retake the points lead as Read's motorcycle failed to finish the race.
Read still had a mathematical chance to win the title going into the final round in Czechoslovakia where, he needed to win the race with Agostini placing no higher than eighth in order to win the championship. Read did win the final race however, Agostini finished in second place to clinch the World Championship for the Yamaha team. Read actually scored more points than Agostini during the season but fell victim to FIM scoring rules at the time which only recognized the top six of ten results. Read placed second in the final standings.
The MV Agusta factory racing team withdrew from the World Championships following the 1975 season. The last remaining manufacturer to compete with four-stroke machinery, the team had struggled to remain competitive as advancements in two-stroke engine technology by Japanese manufacturers were becoming evident. Once the dominant manufacturer with a streak of 17 consecutive 500 Class World Championships, the company's focus had turned to the aviation industry following the death of Count Domenico Agusta in February 1971. The Count's passion for motorcycle racing had been the driving force behind the MV Agusta team, and without his presence, the racing team's importance within the company began to wither.