Stanley Woods
| Stanley Woods | |||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Irish | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 1903 Dublin |
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| Died | 28 July 1993 Castlewellan, County Down |
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Stanley Woods (1903 – 28 July 1993) was an Irish motorcycle racer famous for 29 motorcycle Grand Prix wins and winning the Isle of Man TT races 10 times in his career. He was a past pupil of The High School, Dublin. Stanley started racing in 1921 on a Harley-Davidson. He was also a skilled trials rider competing in the 1940s.
Woods was born in Dublin. His début on the new Isle of Man Snaefell Mountain Course in 1922 was 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 and he completed the race without brakes. He won it the following year. His association with Norton spanned the years from 1926 until 1934 during which he won four of the 1927 Grands Prix, two more in 1928 and several more in the following years. He 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 (the first being an Indian, ridden by Oliver Godfrey in 1911).
Described by the motor-cycle press at the time as the "Irish Dasher" his stylish riding style was influenced from watching fellow TT competitor Alec Bennett Over the years many scraps took place between the likes of Jimmie Guthrie, Jimmie Simpson, Charlie Dodson, Harold Daniell, Freddie Frith and Wal Handley during these races. Stanley 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. Stanley was president of the TT Riders Association.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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