Who is Mike Hailwood Motorcycle Racing Legend

He was cool before we invented the word
He was a master of psyching his opponents
He always gave his all and often won on inferior machinery
After being paid by Honda to retire - he came back 10 years later to win at the Isle of Man TT

Photo from
http://www.appeldephare.com/pilots/hail.html

Come back with me first to June 78. My goodness its over 30 years ago!.

We would be sitting on a wall as we always did. A rough, dry-stone wall built on top of an earth rampart and topped with grass and moss. A soft, crystal clear summer's evening. We'd be looking down over the fields to the sea and in the distance we'd see a little bit of Ireland. Waiting, in the surprising silence that descends on a road now forbidden to traffic, we could hear the growing murmur of conversation all the way along the wall.

Twenty minutes after the last family car had gone from the road we would hear a distant engine. Some sort of electronic ripping sound.

Along the Cronk-y-Voddy and through Handley's Bends, ascending up to ten and a half thousand in four gears and then down again. Now we had seen this before but there was still a nervous tension in the air.

As a matter of fact we would be both excited and frightened. Half cranked over to the right we were given to believe that a man on a motorcycle would arrive at the top of the hill at 140 mph or so, flick the machine to the left and vanish down the hill.

We all knew what's at the bottom.

A blind left hand bend of just more than ninety degrees with the corner of a house for its apex. If he got it right, the motorcyclist would hit the bottom, lose every inch of suspension travel, shoot across the apex within inches of the wall and continue on his way.

That's if he got it right.
This particular rider would. This was Mike Hailwood.

Mike was a legend. Winning nine world championships and twelve TT races at the Isle of Man he deserved his reputation then as the greatest rider ever. This particular year, after an absence of ten years, he was back on the island. The wise voices in the paddock said he shouldn't be there - too old - past it.

Lets just look at this logically. That's what we do when we pick out our heroes. This "circuit" is 37 and a quarter miles long and to ride around it once is to forget every single inch of it. Many riders have died here and its a serious challenge.

The great thing about this particular circuit is that you and I can get to ride around it as fast as we choose on Mad Sunday.

Lets get on board. For the first 24 miles there is not a bend you can see right around and on your bike you can feel pretty pleased at your progress if you keep it smooth through the gears. Past the Highlander Inn you can see ahead for a good half-mile or so and maybe hit 120 if you care to trust no one limps out of the car park.

On the fourth and fifth times around you start to recall the stone walls, the curbs and the bridges and really pick up the pace. Because you are a fast rider you will average over 70 between the Grandstand and Ballacraine. That feels fast to mortals.

And then someone points out that just last year (1977) John Williams averaged over 120mph for that section. Coming down the mountain Mick Grant's Kawasaki was timed at 191mph and these are basically public roads. That's why you are impressed enough to get up at 4am for morning practice.

I'm back to watch Hailwood with my friends. The legend is back on the Island and I'm sad because he surely will fail. It's the logical thing after all.

That's what I did six years ago when I listened to logic. I had to decide to do this motorcycling thing for real or give up. I had no money, no social life, a fast bike and some talent but part of me said "not enough". And I gave up. It was the logical thing to do and every season since then I have been sick wondering what might have been.

Photograph
{http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Bike%20Directories/Racingpictures/pages/Mike-Hailwood-3.htm}

We all wanted the legend untarnished but the predictions of the great and good suggested that he was a once great rider now outclassed. Some years ago Honda paid Mike to retire and not ride for anyone else. They refused to lend him a bike this time around although with impressive condescension they suggested he could try one for a demonstration lap.

Logic doesn't always work.

Hailwood's victory was the sweetest anyone could remember in the history of racing. It was the kind of fairytale you could use with an imaginative infant. The pundits were silenced. Honda were absolutely crushed and the crowds ecstatic. He walked away with tears in his eyes. So did I. He had slain his dragons.

I followed him to Mallory for the post TT race and for the first time in my life I realised that mastery was not about struggle.

On the line waiting for the race to begin Mike spots his wife and child close by. He sits astride the machine with his leathers open at the chest. His posture seems relaxed compared with the others on the line. His rival Phil Read appears tense in contrast.

You could feel the grin behind his facemask and with a twinkle in his eye he starts to wave to his family at track side. A wave from the wrist. You know, one of those wobbly wristed efforts we reserve for young children.

In a few seconds he's going to be hurtling into one of the toughest no-quarter bends in motor sport with two-dozen nerveless men who would happily crucify him to slake their thirst for competition. Him, the legend, in particular. And here he is waving as casual as you like with his long-term greatest rival Phil Read along side him. No wonder Read was always psyched out when it came to the push. On an inferior bike Mike the Bike made the win and changed my view of life.

I know that I can no longer race but I once gave up on a dream and regretted this more than anything else since. Returning to bikes now is an emotional anchor to remind me of the life lessons I needed to learn. Well-meaning folks still tell me to grow up and be sensible. Why don't I ride horses?
Well horses don't have handlebars and they are far too dangerous.

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Doesn't that feel good?