Phil Read in July 1968, two months before the title fight that made him the sport's villain.. Photo: Anefo, Nationaal Archief (CC0)
Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1968. Phil Read has just clinched the 125cc world title for Yamaha, with three races still to go. That was the plan: Read takes the 125, his teammate Bill Ivy takes the 250. Yamaha had decided it before the season began.
Now the two Englishmen line up for the 250cc race. Ivy has been telling the paddock he will beat Read for the title. Read leans over and tells him the arrangement is off: if Ivy thinks he can beat him under team orders, he can try it in a straight race. Read wins. Ivy is second.
By the last round at Monza the pair were level on points, wins and second places. The title went to aggregate race time across the season, and Read won it by two minutes and 5.3 seconds. Yamaha never hired him again.
Who Phil Read was
Phillip William Read was born on 1 January 1939 in Luton, Bedfordshire. He started racing in 1956 on a 350cc BSA, encouraged by his mother, herself a keen motorcyclist. In 1961, at his first world championship race, he won the Junior TT on the Isle of Man.
At the end of 1963 Yamaha signed him. In 1964 he gave the company its first world title, in the 250cc class, and in 1965 he kept it, winning seven of the nine 250cc Grands Prix and finishing second in the other two, according to MotoGP.com.
Read was nothing like the gentleman champions before him. He wore rock-star sunglasses and fur coats, drove a Rolls-Royce, flew his own plane, and liked being the bad boy. He also admitted he was often physically sick before a race, so strong was the rush of adrenaline on the street circuits where one mistake could kill.
Phil Read and Yamaha's two-stroke arms race
In the mid-1960s Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki fought the most extreme engineering war in Grand Prix history. Honda built a five-cylinder 125cc and a six-cylinder 250cc. Yamaha answered with V4 two-strokes in both classes. Read and Ivy were, in effect, test riders on machines that could seize at any moment.
Read later remembered taking Yamaha's engineers out to a corner at Suzuka during testing so they could watch the bikes handle. After two laps, he said, the engineers were standing on the track waving at them to slow down.
At the end of 1967 Honda and Suzuki withdrew. That left Yamaha alone in both small classes for 1968, with two British stars and only two titles to share. Before a wheel turned, the factory divided them up.
The 1968 title fight with Bill Ivy
Phil Read followed orders through the 125cc season and won the title at Brno. Then he broke them. According to the Isle of Man TT's own tribute, he had heard that Yamaha was about to pull out of racing, and decided to take what he could while the bikes were still there.
The 250cc fight went to the final round at Monza and ended in a dead heat on points. Read took the title on total race time. Most fans sided with Ivy, a popular, flamboyant rider, and Read became "Rebel Read".
Ivy never had a rematch. Ten months later he was killed when his Jawa seized during practice for the 1969 East German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
By then Yamaha had quit Grand Prix racing, as Read had expected. He went back to being a privateer, and in 1971, on a Yamaha he ran himself, he won his fourth 250cc world title.
1973 and 1974: Phil Read beats Agostini on an MV Agusta
In 1972 MV Agusta signed Phil Read to help Giacomo Agostini fight off Yamaha's two-strokes, led by Jarno Saarinen. In 1973 Read rode MV's new four-cylinder 500 alongside Agostini, and refused to play second fiddle. He beat his teammate to the 500cc world title, ending Agostini's run of seven straight titles.
Agostini left for Yamaha. In 1974 Read won four of the ten rounds and kept his title. It was the last 500cc world title won by a four-stroke until the MotoGP era, and the last world title of any kind for MV Agusta.
What Phil Read left behind
Phil Read quit Grand Prix racing halfway through the 1976 season, aged 36. He had already made himself unpopular in Britain by boycotting the Isle of Man TT with Agostini after 1972, saying it was too dangerous for a world championship round. In 1977 he went back, for £6,000 in appearance money, won the Formula 1 TT world title, and was booed at the prize-giving.
In 1978 he and Mike Hailwood fought one of the most famous duels in TT history, swapping places for laps and waving at each other as they passed. Read's Honda broke down, and Hailwood won on his comeback.
Read was the first rider to win world titles in the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc classes, a feat since matched only by Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez. He won 52 Grands Prix and eight TTs, and was made an MBE. He died in his sleep at his home in Canterbury on 6 October 2022, aged 83.
He was never the most loved champion of his era. He never seemed to want to be. He just wanted to win, and in 1968 he made sure everyone knew it.
Quick answers
Who was the first rider to win 125cc, 250cc and 500cc world titles?
Phil Read was the first rider to win world titles in the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc classes. He won the 125cc title in 1968, the 250cc in 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1971, and the 500cc in 1973 and 1974.
What happened between Phil Read and Bill Ivy in 1968?
In 1968 Yamaha ordered Phil Read to win the 125cc title and leave the 250cc to Bill Ivy. After clinching the 125cc, Read raced Ivy for the 250cc. They finished level on points, and Read won the title on total race time.
How many world titles did Phil Read win?
Phil Read won seven Grand Prix world titles: one in 125cc, four in 250cc and two in 500cc. He also won the 1977 Formula 1 TT world title on the Isle of Man, which some sources count as an eighth championship.
Why was Phil Read called the Prince of Speed?
Phil Read was called the Prince of Speed because he raced in the era of Giacomo Agostini, known as the King. Read beat Agostini to the 500cc world title in 1973 when they were teammates at MV Agusta.
