Slashing the 3 lap race record by over 3 mph, Siegfried “Siggi” Schauzu clinched an incredible eighth Sidecar TT victory in Monday’s 750cc 3 lapper, postponed from Saturday.

Schauzu and passenger Wolfgang Kalauch beat fellow West German Heinz Luthringshauser (BMW) by over 3 minutes. But the other hero was West German Rolf Steinhausen, who sensationally hammered the outright sidecar lap record from a standing start. On his 680cc Konig-4 2 stroke, he put the lap record to over 98 mph for the first time.

Without Klaus Ender’s the 750cc Sidecar race was more open than anticipated. The Champion’s withdrawal could even have boosted the chances of the first 2 stroke sidecar TT win, and sure enough, a Konig leaped into an early lead.

Rolf Steinhausen, who made an impressive TT debut in 1973, was leading by 11 seconds at Ballaugh, 17 miles from the start. And a second Konig, ridden by the Boret brothers, Gerry and Nick, was 2nd, 11 seconds down, but clear of the race favourite Schauzu.

By Ramsey, Steinhausen had increased his lead to 20 seconds, but Schauzu was closing the gap on Boret. At The Bungalow, Steinhausen’s Konig was up by 29 seconds, but Schauzu had overtaken Boret and pulled out a corrected time advantage of 24 seconds.

By the end of the first lap, Steinhausen had shattered the lap record. His standing start lap of 23 minutes 3.4 seconds was almost 19 seconds better than Enders’ lap record and over 98 mph.

The flying Steinhausen was 31.4 seconds ahead at the end of lap 1, with 2nd placeman Schauzu lapping 4.2 seconds faster than the Borets.

It was good for the West Germans, but bad for Britain. The Boret brothers pulled into the pits and lost 2 minutes 46 seconds changing a plug that oiled up at Ramsey.

Jeff Gawley was also out at Crosby. Mac Hobson stopped at Barregarrow with a broken suspension and George O’Dell had also retired.

There was drama all the way. West German Richard Wegener and English passenger Derek Jacobson crashed at Kerrowmoar. Pieces of their BMW were strewn across the road as Bill Currie and passenger Kenny Arthur approached. Currie clipped his right foot on a petrol tank. He carried on until Ramsey, he could not change gear anymore, so passenger Arthur took over the controls with Currie in the chair and rode the machine back to the pits, from where Currie was taken to the hospital for an X-ray.

At the end of lap 1, Luthringshauser was 4th, 18 seconds ahead of Dennis Keen and Mick Horspole. Steinhausen, on lap 2, wasn’t as fast as on lap 1. At the end of lap 2 he still led by half a minute. But at Ballacraine, Manx radio commentator Tommy Robb announced the dramatic situation Schauzu was ahead by 11 seconds.

At Ballaugh, Schauzu had upped his lead to 1 minute 10 seconds and the slowing Steinhausen was still 2nd. But after leading by 30 seconds going into the last lap his Konig gave up the ghost at Guthries on the final climb over Snaefell Mountain. After a historic ride Schauzu said: “It was one of my hardest TT wins. In the first few miles, I had a hard job getting past the Boret brothers, our starting partners. who had got off better than us.”

Runner-up Smoking a pipe with best British tobacco, passenger Kalauch relaxed and revealed that their one big anxious moment came at Ramsey’s Parliament Square on lap 2 when the whole plot turned sideways.

Runner-up Luthringshauser also reported a tough ride, but his ex-Max Deubel BMW wasn’t fast enough, he claimed. He pulled a high gear, but couldn’t rev over 9,000.

A further 3 minutes behind Luthringshauser came 3rd placemen, Mick and John Horspole, on John Bingham’s Weslake. They had finished despite a second lap burst head gasket. A cylinder head stud also broke just as he was dicing with Roy Hanks’ BSA on the mountain and the bolt hit him on the chin.

It was a two horse race. After two hectic laps leader Schauzu was 24 minutes ahead of 3rd man Luthringshauser and they were miles clear of John Barker, who was up to 4th on a Devimead BSA, with Horspole 5th and Boret still 6th, despite his pit stop.

Steinhausen was in trouble, for Schauzu had taken him on the roads and by Ramsey Luthringshauser was also ahead of the ailing Konig.

Of the other British topliners, Mick Boddice was touring over the mountain and Keen was out at The Highlander.

On his old Devimead BSA, which he borrowed back from new owner Chris Isbell when his Suzuki would not function properly in practice, John Barker finished 4th, 22 seconds behind Horspole. He was half a minute ahead of Bill Crook, who finished 5th for the second year in succession, despite his BSA seizing at the 13th Milestone on the first lap.

6th spot went to North East ace Ray Bell on his Konig, which lost the rev counter on the last lap.

In 7th spot the Moran Brothers reported a simple and enjoyable ride. Roy Hanks missed a leaderboard position when his BSA broke the conrod on the last lap. He and passenger Gerald Daniel pushed the outfit from Governors on the last lap. After finishing 17th Roy joked, “I thought the conrod was going and buzzed it for 5 seconds and it cost me 5 minutes.”

The Boret Konig finally expired on the last lap.

The husband and wife Fred and Lesley Lewin team crashed their Norton into the wall at Sulby Bridge. They were taken to Ramsey Hospital, but Mrs Lewin was later transferred by helicopter to Nobles in Douglas for further examinations.

From Kerrowmoar on the opening lap, four were taken to Nobles, but none with serious injuries. They were Wegener and Jacobson plus Roger Dixon and Frank Knights, who also pranged their Weslake.

It was more like the sidelined TT than the Sidecar TT in the Isle of Man on Tuesday when an endless stream of mechanical failures ripped the 500cc World Championship entry to shreds. A retirement list totalling 32 outfits outnumbered the finishers by seven and the possibility of the first 100 mph sidecar lap was dashed before the first of three climbs up the Mountain for World Champion Klaus Enders and the fastest sidecar driver in the Island, Rolf Steinhausen was out of the running.

Their exits left Heinz Luthringshauser and Siegfried Schauzu in front on the roads and Jeff Gawley with a 1 second lead in the race at the end of the first lap. But Gawley’s Konig was also destined to join the machine fatalities and as Schauzu’s BMW got slower and slower 43-year-old West German Luthringshauser and passenger Herman Hahn finally claimed what Luthringshauser has sought since his first visit in 1961, victory in the TT. “It is something I never really expected,” he admitted as he sank a can of beer in the winners’ enclosure.” “I suppose it could be said I was lucky this time, but we kept up a steady pace with a machine that gave no trouble and this often leads to victories in the Isle of Man,” he said.

With drama right up to the last seconds of the race, it was a surprised George O’Dell who found himself being hustled into the winners’ enclosure for the 2nd place. “I can’t believe it,” he said, “another few miles and I am certain the outfit would have fallen to pieces.” His ride with passenger Bill Boldison was certainly eventful. O’Dell hit his foot on the curb at Greeba Bridge on the first lap and had to be helped from his machine at the finish. “It seems to be only bruised, but it’s a bit painful,” said the 28-year-old diesel fitter from Hemel Hempstead. “The machine troubles started on the first lap when the brakes ceased to function. Then it lost 1st gear and the gauze filter on top of one of the carburettor air intakes got sucked inside. The fairing came loose and the exhaust pipes only just managed to hang on,” added O’Dell. “The engine was perfect, but the rest was dropping apart.”

Brake problems also troubled 3rd finisher Mac Hobson and passenger Jack Armstrong. From the first lap Hobson had to pump the back brake on his Yamaha-4 powered outfit. “It was a bit of a worry really and caused a couple of excursions down slip roads,” he said. He also had trouble keeping the engine, fitted with 500 barrels just before the race, buzzing. “I almost stalled it coming round the Governor’s Dip on the last lap,” he said.

Bill Hodgkinson and passenger Peter Sales were taking a pre-race nap and almost missed the start. Luckily someone at their “digs” heard a Manx Radio appeal for their whereabouts and they made the start line with only minutes to spare. They then went out on lap 3 at Ginger Hall while in 11th place when the Norton struck trouble.

While Mick Boddice, destined to go out of the race at Ginger Hall on lap 2 with a broken primary chain, pulled into the pits and lost half a minute changing crossed plug leads.

Dennis Keen became the first retirement when his Konig blew up at Quarter Bridge.

Shortly after Roy Woodhouse started a lengthy and noisy stay in the pits trying to get his Honda under way. He was rewarded with only 1 lap before retiring.

But that was better than Brian Mee who failed to get his Konig wedge out of the warmup area.

By Ballacraine Enders was in the lead on his Busch BMW, but by only 1 second from Steinhausen. 10 seconds behind him came Jeff Gawley, followed by Luthringshauser, Schauzu and Trevor Ireson, the surprise man of the day on his Joe Henderson Konig, completing the leaderboard.

The race lost part of its sting as early as Ballig when Steinhausen’s Konig struck engine trouble and another certain leaderboard contender, Gerry Boret who worked until 4am on race day morning on his Konig, was out after a few miles with spark plug problems.

Enders got no further than the climb out of Ramsey before his machine was struck down with gearbox trouble leaving Schauzu and Luthringshauser with 10 yards separating them leading on the roads, but Gawley was leading the race.

Schauzu was leading on the roads at the end of lap 1, but Luthringshauser had reversed the position at Ballacraine.

Ginger Hall claimed yet another member of the sideline club on lap 2 when Gawley’s Konig seized while almost 2 seconds ahead to leave Schauzu in the lead by about a second.

Derek Plummer’s Konig boosted to 4th place never got the chance to show this on the lap 2 leaderboard for the machine spluttered to a halt at the Graham Memorial.

Schauzu had pulled out 18 seconds on Luthringshauser by The Bungalow as Ireson set about establishing 3rd place and was actually lapping quicker than the leading BMWs. At the end of the lap, he was 26 seconds behind Luthringshauser in 2nd place.

Otto Haller, with Pauline Goddard as reserve passenger, stopped at Crosby with clutch failure on his BMW just after companion Helmut Schilling seized his BMW at Quarter Bridge.

Alan Sansum’s race ended at the pits and so did Keith Graham’s for his BSA was leaking petrol at a most expensive rate.

Into lap 3 it looked as though Schauzu was heading for his ninth Sidecar TT victory, but there were signs of a problem, for Luthringshauser, 22 seconds in arrears at The Bungalow on lap 2, had reduced the gap to just 5 seconds at Ballacraine. Then on the Cronk-y-Voddy straight it happened. Schauzu’s BMW, never in peak form, started to slow and he toured round to finish in 9th place as Luthringshauser was left completely out on his own.

Ireson came to within 16 seconds of the leading German, but over the mountain he pulled further ahead for Ireson too was in trouble. His outfit, with a 7.5 gallon fuel tank, was running short of its lifeblood and he had to slacken the pace. But even that was to no avail for he ran dry at Governors and had to push in. But to the cheers of the crowd he held 5th place.

O’Dell was next in line, but well over 3 minutes behind Ireson.