Who won the 1939 Senior TT on a supercharged BMW?

Georg Meier won the 1939 Senior TT on a supercharged BMW. Riding BMW’s 500cc Type 255, the German became the first foreign winner of the prestigious Senior race.

Meier completed seven laps of the Mountain Course at an average speed of 89.38 mph, finishing in 2 hours 57 minutes 19 seconds. His BMW team-mate Jock West was second, while Norton rider Freddie Frith finished third.

The result was especially significant because British riders and manufacturers had dominated the TT for much of the pre-war era. BMW’s supercharged flat-twin represented a major technological challenge to the established British machines. The 1939 meeting was also the last TT before World War II; racing did not resume until 1947.

A common mix-up is Stanley Woods, who won the 1939 Junior TT and finished fourth in the Senior. Harold Daniell did not win this race either: he won the first post-war Senior TT in 1947, after the 1939 trophy had been carried to Germany and later recovered.