Harold Daniell
Harold Daniell (29 October 1909 – 19 January 1967) was a British motorcycle racer who also competed in auto racing.
Isle of Man TT highlights
- Competed in 10 Isle of Man TT races (1934–1939, 1947–1950).
- Won three TT races, including the 1938 Senior TT and the 1949 Senior TT.
- In 1938 he set the first sub-25-minute lap of the Snaefell Mountain Course: 24 minutes 52.6 seconds at about 91 mph, a record that stood for 12 years. He beat Stanley Woods by 14.4 seconds.
- In 1936 he rode a supercharged AJS V4 in the Senior TT with George Rowley, but both retired with mechanical problems.
Grand Prix and 1949 season
- In 1949 he raced a 500cc Norton in the new world championship and finished sixth overall with 17 points, while the top two were Leslie Graham and Nello Pagani.
- That same year he won the Isle of Man Senior TT and finished fifth in the Junior TT.
- Daniell’s Senior TT victory made him the first race winner in the 500cc class (the forerunner of MotoGP).
Norton and the Featherbed frame
- Daniell rode for Norton and helped popularize the “Featherbed” Norton frame, which he described as like riding on a featherbed compared with riding a “garden gate.”
Later career and life
- After motorcycle racing he moved into auto racing, competing in Formula 3 with an Emeryson car.
- He later owned a Norton motorcycle dealership in Forest Hill, London.
Harold Daniell died in 1967 at the age of 57.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:29 (CET).