This rather patronising Pathe newsreel tells the story of Mrs Beryl Swain and her racing her Itom in 1962. This was the first year in which the 50cc ultra lightweight class had been granted world championship status, quite possibly making Beryl the first woman to enter a world championship solo motorcycle race as well as being the first to race at the TT. The two lap 50cc TT was initially predicted to be nothing but a parade of no hopers by some cynics, but they were quickly proved wrong in the battle that developed between Suzuki, Honda and Kreidler especially. Defecting East German Ernst Degner won the race riding the two-stroke single-cylinder Suzuki with an astounding second lap of 75.52mph that handed Suzuki their first TT victory. The twin cylinder four-stroke Hondas of Luigi Taveri and Tommy Robb followed Degner home to complete the rostrum. Beryl was 22nd of 25 finishers (with 8 DNFs) at an average of 48.33mph. The climb from Waterworks must have hurt, because her Itom could hit 80mph on Sulby Straight.
Beryl was smitten by the challenge and thrill of racing in such company and quickly announced plans to return the following year. But her International racing licence was revoked almost as quickly, the FIM unbelievably changing the rules because “women are too petite to control a racing motorcycle”. Even in these early days of feminism the old guard knew how to manipulate the rulebook to their own ends. Although the consequent minimum rider weight restrictions were deliberately aimed at her they also required Suzuki’s first World Champion Ernst Degner to gain weight for the following year. There are even stories of riders filling their helmets with gravel and nonchalantly holding onto them at weigh ins while scrutineers looked the other way in an unspoken pact you suspect wouldn’t have been extended to female entrants. Unsurprisingly Beryl felt she was beaten, so hung up her leathers and went back to a successful career with Sainsbury’s supermarkets, never to race again. The full story’s in Benzina 17, available at [ Ссылка ]
