Stanley Woods was an Irish motorcycle racer famous for 29 motorcycle Grand Prix wins in the 1920s and 1930s, winning the Isle of Man TT races ten times in his career, plus wins at Assen and elsewhere.
10 Facts About Stanley Woods
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Stanley Woods was a skilled trials rider, competing in the 1940s.
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Stanley Woods started racing in 1921 on a Harley-Davidson and made his debut on the new Isle of Man Snaefell Mountain Course in 1922 as a promising seventeen-year-old, finishing fifth in the Junior TT on a Cotton, even though his machine had a fire at a pit stop, after which he completed the race without brakes.
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Stanley Woods became disillusioned with the Norton and rode for Moto Guzzi in 1935 giving them their first victory at the TT Races, only the second time a non-English motorcycle had won.
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Stanley Woods was a toffee maker and in the Isle of Man TT history it states that he would bring a couple of boxes of toffee with him for the Scouts who manned the scoreboards on which the grandstand audience relied to follow the races.
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Commandant Stanley Woods is credited with the task of training some of the first Irish Army 4 Cavalry Squadron's Motor Squadron personnel during The Emergency as the presidential Escort of Honour.
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Stanley Woods's standing in the history of the TT was so high that in 1968 a panel of experts named him the greatest of all the island's competitors.
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Stanley Woods began competing in race sprints and handicap races with his father's Harley-Davidson motorcycle, used in his father's business as a commercial salesman for Mackintosh toffee, and called the pre-war Rudge rider Tommy Green his mentor.
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At Sulby on lap 2, Stanley Woods slipped off the motor-cycle and got up and continued, but hit the same kerb again at Governor's Bridge, losing part of the exhaust.
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Stanley Woods won the Dutch TT six times on the early Assen circuit.