The Royal Automobile Club has awarded its Torrens Trophy to Padgett’s Motorcycles, the Batley, West Yorkshire, dealership and race team that has backed British riders for more than 60 years.

The trophy recognizes an outstanding contribution to “the cause or technical excellence of safe and skillful motorcycling” in the United Kingdom. The club created it in 1979 and awards it only when it judges an achievement worthy; years often pass between recipients. Recent winners include 6-time World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea, 14-time Isle of Man TT winner Peter Hickman, 10-time Women’s Trial World Champion Emma Bristow, and Triumph Motorcycles.

Padgett’s has been one of the most successful privateer teams in road racing. It has won Isle of Man TT races with Bruce Anstey, John McGuinness, and Ian Hutchinson, whose sweep of all five solo TT races in 2010 has never been matched.

Hutchinson said his 2010 season was only part of it. “They’ve been there for me through the good times and the tough ones,” he said. “They’ve given so much to riders like me and to motorcycle racing.”

McGuinness called Padgett’s “more than just a team, it’s a family. They’ve been at the heart of British racing for decades, and I feel privileged to have been part of that story.”

The team has also been a fixture in Irish road racing, British Superbikes, and Grand Prix racing, with early ties to Mike Hailwood and Phil Read. The Royal Automobile Club said no other organization has supported as many British riders across as many events and championships.

Royal Automobile Club Chairman Duncan Wiltshire said Padgett’s “played a pivotal role in shaping British motorcycle racing, supporting and developing generations of world-class riders while maintaining an unwavering commitment to performance and safety, and establishing standards and relationships that have endured across generations.”

Clive Padgett, who runs the family team, said the award “is recognition not just of results, but of decades of hard work, passion and commitment to doing things the right way.”

“On a personal level, this means a huge amount to me, and my family,” he said. “My father, Peter, dedicated his life to building Padgett’s into what it is today, and it’s something I know he would have been immensely proud of. To receive this in the same year that we lost him makes it especially poignant.”

“Grandad” Peter Padgett died earlier this year at 94. He and his brother, Don, opened the business in Batley in 1958 and invested early on in Japanese brands, taking on Yamaha in 1959, Honda in 1960, and Suzuki in 1963. The three showrooms still sit together on Bradford Road, and the 1974 building was billed as Europe’s largest purpose-built motorcycle showroom. Honda named Padgett’s its first HRC race shop outside Japan in 1993, and the shop remains the only place in the world to buy a crated RC213V-S. A 10,000-square-foot Honda showroom is due to open there this year. Peter’s granddaughters, Helen and Fiona, run the retail operations.