EXTRACT FROM SLICK #12 – released April 2021
In the bend before the finishing straight on the Montjuich road circuit in Barcelona, where the Spanish GP was held in the 1960s, there were some painted crosswalks on the ground. All the riders when they passed that spot instinctively lightened the throttle, because the wheels slid. Mike Hailwood, however, was the only one who did not. Spectators stationed at that spot in 1966 could distinctly hear the engine of his Honda RC166 revving up the moment the rear wheel lost grip and began to drift. Not once, but every lap. Even when the race now had no history, because he was in the lead and his pursuers had all been lapped by then.
Pure talent, absolute control of the bike in every situation, no regard for danger. In that gesture is all Hailwood, one of the most important riders in the history of motorcycling.
Impossible to compare him to other champions of our sport, wondering if he was the best. Mike Hailwood was simply Mike Hailwood. Indeed “Mike the Bike” as he was nicknamed by fans around the world to emphasize his total fusion with the bike. Never an awkward gesture in his riding or a wrong movement in the saddle, even if they were means – such as the tiny Honda 125 he rode to victory in the 1961 Tourist Trophy – decidedly ill-suited to his build.
He is not the rider who has won the most world titles or Grand Prix titles, but he has been able to dominate with all kinds of bikes-even the least competitive ones-and in all kinds of conditions. Demonstrating an extraordinary ability to adapt and always managing to get the most out of what he had at his disposal. In this he was the best.
Just as he was the best at winning in two different motorcycle eras. From his first success in 1957 in an unknown Club race in the south of England riding an MV Agusta 125, to his triumphant ride in the 1979 Senior TT with the Suzuki XR23B, a whopping 23 years have passed. A very long time, during which the bikes-brakes, frames, tires, suspension and engines-have changed, but so has Hailwood.
Lent momentarily to motor racing – again with excellent results – he was halted by an accident that ended his F1 career and his dream of becoming, like his mentor John Surtees – world champion on two and four wheels – leaving him with his right leg restricted in his movements.
Mike Hailwood was not only an immense driver, but also a complex character. Shy especially with women and seemingly fragile, he was actually the greatest Latin lover of the Continental Circus and on more than one occasion showed courage and determination like few others. Heedless of the rules, Mike loved to party, raised his elbow even on the eve of a GP and never took himself seriously. It was his way of dampening the tension that would otherwise eat away at him. The same one that at thirty-five had deeply furrowed his face with pronounced wrinkles that made one believe he was at least ten years older.
And when excess was not enough for him, Mike found refuge in music. A lover of jazz, he could spend hours locked in a room with his clarinet or saxophone, instruments he had taught himself to play along with piano and guitar.
Hailwood came from a wealthy family about which he spoke very little, almost embarrassed by his affordability, which early in his career allowed him to always have the best bikes. But especially of the cumbersome presence of his father Stan, who was willing to do anything to see his son become a champion.
DADDY’S SON?
Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood was born April 2, 1940, in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, the son of Stan William Bailey Hailwood, a prominent businessman and owner of King’s of Oxford, England’s largest motorcycle and accessories sales network.
Stan is a libertine authority figure. He works twelve hours a day giving himself a break only on Sundays, has a keen business sense, and is always looking for adventure. An affable charmer his employees call him, who can motivate people and almost always get what he wants.
Very little has always been known about his mom. She left the family when Mike was still a baby and he, like his older sister Chris, grew up in boarding school. First in Ipswich and then in Pangbourne, where future midshipmen of the British Merchant Navy study.
When he was sixteen he asked to leave his studies and be hired at one of the “King’s of Oxford” stores, but Stan sent him to cut his teeth at Triumph in Meriden, making sure he got “the filthiest job there is in the company,” because he sensed that his son did not really want to work.
Mike in fact tells everyone that when he grows up he wants to be a racer, and Triumph indulges him by having him join the official team that participates in the 1957 Scottish Six Days Trial, where he is forced to retire due to ignition trouble. Off-road riding, however, was not for him, and on April 22 of that year we find him already on the track, eleventh at Oulton Park riding an MV Agusta 125 that his father got him, making his debut in a speed race.
The first victory came a few months later at Blandford Camp, Dorset, a road course that runs along the outer perimeter of a Royal Navy military base, decommissioned in the 1960s because of its dangerous nature.
Stan, wants his son to get to the top, as fast as possible and at any cost. He gets him the best motorcycles and mechanics and even goes so far as to try to bribe opponents to let him win. Mike is often embarrassed by his ways, but he suffers from his personality and only in adulthood will he finally succeed in breaking free from him.
In the winter of 1957 after procuring from John Surtees an NSU Sportmax 250 and a second-hand Norton Manx 350, Stan sends him to race in South Africa and Rhodesia where Mike is measured for the first time against Jim Redman, Gary Hocking and Paddy Driver, who a few years later will land in the World Championship. And he meets Nobby Clark, his future mechanic in his Honda days.
To the general amazement, he won back-to-back victories and continued to do so once he returned home. In 1958, when he was just eighteen years old, he made his debut at the Tourist Trophy by immediately going on the podium in the 250 and in the same season won three British championship titles. In fact, he won the 125, alternating between riding his MV Agusta and a Ducati, while with the NSU and Norton he got from Surtees he also won in 250 and 350. In the latter class he surprisingly bends the resistance of two already established riders, such as Scotsman Bob McIntyre – vice world champion in this class with Gilera the year before – and Derek Minter, the king of Brands Hatch.
Only the half-liter title eluded him, but this was remedied by Mike Hailwood the following year, when he reclaimed champion in all three classes and also in the 500, winning a total of 34 races.
1961: WORLD CHAMPION, WITH HONDA
The negotiations are conducted with his usual unscrupulousness on the eve of the Tourist Trophy. Having learned the name of the hotel where the Japanese delegation was staying on the Isle of Man, the “Grand Old Man” asks for and obtains an interview with Kiyoshi Kawashima, Soichiro Honda’s right-hand man and head of the team.
The two know each other because they had already met two years earlier in the pits of the Tourist Trophy, and already in the previous meeting Kawashima had been impressed by Stan’s mannerisms. Who again on this occasion gets straight to the point: Mike is already using in the 250 class one of the first “customer” twin-cylinder bikes that went on sale at the beginning of the season, already managing to get on the podium (he finished second behind Australian Tom Phillis at the French GP), but it could be done better. If Honda entrusted him with an official 250 and popped out a 125 as well, King’s of Oxford could become the Japanese manufacturer’s most important sales network for the U.K., buying a substantial batch of motorcycles.
Kawasashima has everything put in writing, and Stan Hailwood returns to his son with two somewhat remedied motorcycles: the quarter-liter was quickly assembled from available parts, while the eighth-liter is Taveri’s mule, forced to give it up to the newcomer.
Although the bookmakers don’t take him into consideration at all, Mike amazes everyone and finishes his first two races as an official rider with as many victories, giving Honda its first successes on the Isle of Man.
Hailwood a few days later also leads the Junior TT with an AJS, but is forced to retire on the last lap by the breakage of a connecting rod, when by then his lead over Phil Read has now exceeded two minutes and he feels victory in his pocket. The disappointment is great, but he immediately has a chance to make up for it in the Senior TT.
The duel that year was all between him and Gary Hocking with the MV Agusta. The Italian four-cylinder was timed in practice with a top speed 16 mph higher than his three-year-old Norton prepared by Bill Lacey. On paper there is no history, yet Mike does not start off beaten and from the first kilometers puts pressure on the Rhodesian rider. Who in fact runs into a mistake, coming long in a corner and losing the race lead. His desperate forcing is then thwarted by a problem with the spark plugs that forces him to make an unscheduled pit stop, leaving the way clear for Hailwood, who thus goes on to win his third race in a week on the Isle of Man.
The British press goes into a frenzy: it is the first time in the history of the TT that such a thing has happened, and Mike Hailwood’s star from that day shines with its own light in the firmament of British motorcycling.
By the 1961 Tourist Trophy Mike was no longer the rich, talented son of a daddy’s boy, but a genuine outlier who at the end of the season became 250 world champion with Honda ahead of teammate Tom Phillis. With the title comes a new contract as an official rider but with MV Agusta, which in 1962 signs him up in place of John Surtees – who has now switched full-time to motor racing – and pairs him with Gary Hocking.
The cohabitation between the two young talents is immediately difficult but lasts only a few GPs because it ends at the Tourist Trophy in June. Hocking sees the newcomer in a bad light and does everything in his power not to pass him any technical information about the tuning of the four-cylinder MV 500.
The straw that breaks the camel’s back is Hailwood’s request – who in his entire career has asked the mechanics very few times for modifications to his motorcycles – to mount the same hydraulic steering damper that the Rhodesian rider uses exclusively after developing it throughout the previous season. Faced with Hocking’s refusal, Mike had an identical one built by an acquaintance and promised battle in the Senior TT.
Two days before the race is the Junior TT, which offers a taste of their rivalry. Hailwood, best time in practice, gets off to a strong start and imposes an unsustainable pace for everyone else, setting Hocking and the Czechoslovakian Stastny on the Jawa at the finish line. Tom Phillis, on the other hand, with the four-cylinder Honda, in an attempt to keep up with the MV riders crashes during the second lap, losing his life.
At the finish line Hocking, Phillis’ fraternal friend, is desperate. He wants to pack his bags immediately and go home but is persuaded to enter the Senior TT. Which he wins, dedicating the victory to Phillis, while Hailwood finishes twelfth after burning out his clutch and stopping in the pits for thirteen minutes to replace it. At the end of that Tourist Trophy, Hocking announced his retirement from motorcycle racing and returned to Rhodesia, leaving Hailwood alone in MV Agusta.
CONTINUES ON SLICK#12