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1963 is the year that Honda does a step back. The racing over
the last 4 years has been an enormous drain on the company's resources,
and a lot of those resources are now needed to develop the formula
1 car. Honda retires from the 50 cc class, and the works riders
Redman, Taveri, Takahashi and Robb have to make do with last year's
bikes, plus production racers. After the Ulster GP, mechanics and
spare parts go back to Japan, leaving the works riders more or lesslike
privateers. (image at right shows the Honda team on Man, when the
mechanics and parts were still there).
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Competing with last year's bikes, which for lack of parts and
mechanics are definitely not in first class condition, shows in
the results. In the 125 cc the Suzuki's twins are faster than the
RC145s and win 9 out of the 12 races, giving Hugh Anderson the title,
with Taveri second and Redman third. In the 250 cc class Tarquinio
Provini with his fabulously fast single cylinder Morini gives Redman
a run for his money that's only decided in the last round of the
championship, which goes to Redman, with Provini second and Fumio
Itoh (Yamaha) third. Only in the 350 cc class there are no problems.
Redman takes the title, ahead of Hailwood (MV) and Taveri on a CR77.
The fact, that Honda still win the world championship in two
of the three classes they compete in, and are second and third in
the class they don't win, with machines that are last year's and
are sadly lacking in maintenance, shows the superiority of the original
designs, and the outstanding reliability and longevity of the engines.
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