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SMB HAILWOOD. MBE (MIKE THE BIKE)
My thanks to
| JIM BLANCHARD |
(Been there, done that on a bike) for the print of Mike. Visit his site for much more.
I was fifteen when I met, or should I say, was in the same pit area as Mike. The father of my best friend (we used to do a bit of scrambling in a forest ( Belvoir Forest, on the outskirts of Belfast ) near where we lived ) was a marshall for the ULSTER GRAND PRIX at DUNDROD, he was one every year. In 1966 he was assigned to the pits and had said to us to come and see him and we could watch the riders preparing for the races. In between the races we did, Phil Read, Bill Ivy, Giacomo Agostini. I seen and met them all but the man that stood out was Mike, to me a giant of a man, so 'laid back'. A short distance from the pits we rejoined our party for the 500. We had slept in tents the night before and my friend's brothers had erected a scaffold to aid our view. We could hear the bikes throttle down as they approached the hairpin, accelerate to a gentle right hander. Then we would see them exit the right hander and dart up the short distance to a sharp left, where we were standing, accelerating through the gentle right that led to the start/finish line and the Grandstand that overlooked it. It was a good spot to watch from. It was from this vantage point that I witnessed a remarkable moment of drama that will stay with me to my dying day and immediately installed Mike as my 'numero uno'. He was aboard 'the Beast', the handling problems of the Honda Four are well documented, and I truly believe that was the attraction for many of the spectators, to see how 'Mike the Bike' dealt with it. Irish crowds have always favoured the road race to the track and the DUNDROD circuit is the fastest surviving road race track in the world. However, I digress. We could hear the deep throated roar of 'the four' as it sped away from the hairpin to the right hander, we could see him now---'god that looks fast'. Mike cranked it over to take the left hander below us but it did not want to 'lie down' and the crowd hushed, ( believe me the crowd fell silent instantly ) convinced as one he would crash. Now most Irish country roads have a raised soil bank at their edge. Mike's machine mounted the small bank at speed. Did he brake? Did he hell. On the contrary, he twisted the throttle open and 'gunned' it away from the grass and soil and back on to the tarmac, mud spurting from the back wheel ( he was cranked over as if he was on the 'Wall of Death ). Spontaneous applause transpired as he sped off into the right hander and on to the straight. PHENOMENAL--UNFORGETTABLE.............................. YOU JUST HAD TO BE THERE!!
Between 1961 and 1967 the pic above signify's the view that most riders got of Mike. It was during this period that he scooped nine World Championships, 3 X 250cc, 2 X 350cc and 4 X 500. _________________________________
Mike Hailwood, born 2nd April 1940 had no need to risk his life tearing around a road circuit or race track. His father was a millionaire who loved his son dearly. Most sons would allow themselves to be groomed to take over their father's successful business, no doubt BE SEEN at all the fashionable events. During the sixties it was trendy to shop at Carnaby Sytreet, go to a Beatles concert, watch Twiggy on the catwalk and Motor Cycling was IN. So a young man with plenty of money in his pocket could quite easily fritter his time away with all the HIP young things. None of this for Mike. His ambition was to make his own way and he took to motor cycles, racing them not watching them race. It was in 1957 that Mike started, the youngest competitor to take part in the Scottish Six Days Trial. Trials and scrambling was fun but Mike wanted to get into road racing. Enter family friend, Bill Webster who lent him a 125cc single overhead camshaft MV. First race at Oulton Park and he got left on the line but later Webster told Mike's dad, Stan, that he was well impressed with his riding style and how he did so well to make up lost ground after the initial setback. Still only seventeen and he won his first race at Cookstown in Northern Ireland, breaking the lap record as he did so in the 250cc event on a 196cc MV (bored out to 240) that his dad provided. After a brief sojourn in South Africa, where he gained valuable riding experience, Mike returned the the British scene. He competed in ALL four classes in the TT, finishing 3rd, 7th, 12th and 13th. His first classic win followed when he was nineteen on a Ducati, the 125cc Ulster Grand Prix. A year later he lapped the TT course at over 100mph, only the second ever to do so after Derek Minter. He finished third in the 125cc World Championship of 1959 on a 'uncompetitive' Ducati but two years later, 21 years old, he became World Champion for the first time on a 250cc Honda. It was during this year that he made history, being the first rider to win THREE TT races in a week, only his AJS breaking down fifteen miles from home in the Junior prevented him from winning all four. His winning of the 250 title was all the more astonishing as he lacked the works support that Honda's contract riders, Jim Redman and Tom Phillis, had. Mike, following recommendation from Bill Webster (British MV distibutor) to Count Augusta, was chosen to ride the 500MV the following year. Four successive 500 world championships followed. Mike moved to Honda for the 1966 season, Count Augusta wnting a native Italian on his winning bike. Enter Giacomo Agostini (AGO). Honda needed a serious challenger to Yamaha (Phil Read). Mike obliged by taking the 250 and the 350 titles on the Honda in1966 and 1967.
With Honda dropping out of sponsorship Mike, to the consternation of his many fans worldwide, retired from the motor-cycling scene. His fans had to wait ten years before they would see him racing on a motor-cycle again. What a return to the track. In 1978 he returned to the Isle of Man to win the Formula 1 race on an 860 Ducati and then returned the following year to win the Senior TT on a 500cc Suzuki. That made a total of 14 wins on the most gruelling motor-cycle circuit in the world.
STANLEY MICHAEL BAILEY HAILWOOD WAS AWARDED THE BRITISH EMPIRE MEDAL IN 1968 AND THE GEORGE MEDAL IN 1973. HE DIED TRADGICALLY WITH HIS YOUNG DAUGHTER MICHELLE IN A DOMESTIC ROAD ACCIDENT IN 1981. I CRIED. HIS EPITAPH: 'TOO YOUNG IN LIFE TO BE FORGOTTEN IN DEATH'
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for the latest book about Mike written by Mick Woollett and 'AGO'
