The Man Called Mike

Isle of Man, 1978 and 1979 - Comeback and Farewell of a Legend

Mike Hailwood at the 1978 Isle Of Man TT

Imagine this; the greatest bike racer of his generation – some would say all time - has been retired from 2-wheeled racing for 11 years. He stopped at the peak of his profession and went car racing instead. He didn’t do too badly, either. Then a bad accident at the Nurburgring in his Yardley McLaren crushed his right foot and that was the end of his racing career.

Hailwood as he was in the sixties, riding the 250cc, 6-cylinder Honda

Four years later rumours start to circulate that he is going to make a comeback at the greatest, most difficult, most deadly circuit there is; The Isle of Man TT. The rumours turn out to be true. He does come back. And he wins; beats some of his old adversaries and all the new bloods who have assumed his mantle in the intervening years.

To prove it wasn’t a fluke, he comes back again the following year – without having ridden competitively in the interim – and wins again. This could only be the story of one man; Mike Hailwood.

At the end of the 1967 season, Honda, for whom Hailwood was riding, announced their decision to pull out of competition; they had achieved all their goals, won everything. They paid Hailwood to not ride for any other manufacturer and thus drew the curtain on a stunning career; 9 world championships and 12 TT wins across all capacities.

With the bike world closed to him he turned to four wheels. He was good, too; in Formula 1, Sports Cars, and Formula 2. Then came the accident at the Nurburgring in ’74 which smashed his right foot and ankle and that was it.

He retired first to South Africa and then further south to New Zealand. But living in New Zealand bored him to tears, and when that happens to a man, he starts dwelling on times past and unfinished business. And so the seed of a mad idea started germinating in his mind. He was still fit, young – only 38 – and possessed of a desire get back to what he did best. There was only one place to do this; the Isle of Man, where the legend had been built all those years ago.

 By 1976, the Isle of Man TT was gasping for air. Top GP riders, such as Agostini and Sheene, had boycotted the race due to the danger involved. Somehow it never seemed fair that a win at the Isle of Man earned the same points as a win at some of the more antiseptic circuits on the calendar.

This was the time when riders were making their voices heard about track safety and the FIM finally revoked the TT’s World Championship status, leaving it a shell of its former self. The organizers were quick to realise that the re-appearance of Hailwood would be the lifeline they sorely needed and lost no time in agreeing terms for his return.

Mike at the official launch and announcement of his comeback, posing on the 350 Yamaha.

With a minimum of fuss, wheels were set in motion. Bikes had to be found as a matter of first importance. The year before, 1977, a Ducati 900cc twin had come within a whisker of winning the Formula 1 event, entered by a small Manchester bike shop called Sports Motor Cycles. They were denied victory only by the poor timing of a decision by race stewards to halt the race following torrential rain. When the race was stopped Roger Nicholls, on the big Ducati, had already made his pit stop whereas Phil Read on the Honda had yet to stop so consequently was ahead as the flag fell.

Cautiously, Sports Motor Cycles were approached; would they be interested in providing a bike for Hailwood? You bet they would and it would be the best decision they ever made. Yamaha were also approached and agreed to supply a 350cc, a GP 500cc two-stroke and a fearsome OW31 – the TZ750 two-stroke.

News of Hailwood’s comeback spread like wildfire and record crowds made their way to the Island for TT week. Hailwood’s appearance had already paid off, no matter how he did in the races.

But, whilst there were those who knew he could still do it and would win, there were just as many who feared that he was going to make a fool of himself. The bikes had changed out of all recognition since he last raced; the power they developed; the handling; massive advances in tyres and brakes. Even the circuit had changed. He might as well have been riding on another planet.

Until official practice on the Island, no-one, except perhaps Mike himself, knew if he could pick up where he left off – winning. ‘If he finishes any higher than fifth in any of the races against the current lot of TT riders, I’ll be very surprised,’ said Steve Parrish, Barry Sheene’s team mate at Suzuki. Tommy Rob, one of Mike’s old adversaries, had a different view; ‘He’ll go well, I’ve no doubt. And I fancy him to take the Formula One race on the Ducati.’

After the first practice sessions all doubts were dispelled and his rivals knew they were up against it. On the 500cc Yamaha he broke the official standing start record by nearly a second; on the Ducati he lapped nearly two seconds faster than main rivals Tom Herron and Phil Read, both on Hondas. Neither rider felt they could go any faster without sticking their necks out further than they wanted. It was almost as if he had the race won there and then.

For one practice lap, Mike pushed off the line in company with Mick Grant, holder of the lap record and favourite to take the Classic on the 750 Kawasaki. Grant was following closely in Mike’s wheeltracks when, approaching the sharp right at Ballacraine, Mike suddenly sat up and grabbed the brake a good thirty yards before he needed to. Grant was so surprised he nearly rammed him. Something must be wrong, thought Grant, but it happened again and again; ‘It took me some time to realise that he had no idea of braking points,’ said Grant later. ‘He was riding as if the machine still had drum brakes, and here we were on the most sophisticated discs, the best stoppers you could get.

‘It suddenly dawned on me just how good his riding had been all week if his braking was so bad…..I couldn’t get over how he had got round so quickly….on machinery worlds apart from that which he used to ride. All of it underlined to me just what a genius of a rider he was.’

TT week involves several races across all capacities; the Senior for bikes of 500cc – Grand Prix class; the Formula One race for bikes up to 1000cc; the Classic, which is a free for all plus several smaller capacity and sidecar races. The Formula One race was first on the agenda and was the setting for one of the best races in TT history.

The one and only Mike Hailwood on his way to winning the Formula 1 race at the 1978 IoM TT

A TT race is not like a short circuit race. Riders set off in pairs at 10 second intervals and race against the clock, not side by side on the track. Mike was due to set off 12^th, with main rival and reigning Champion Read, on the factory Honda, setting off first, 50 seconds ahead. Immediately, it was obvious that Read couldn’t match his practice pace, but Herron, on a privately entered Honda was looking threatening. Hailwood played himself in gently, but not too gently; he was the fastest man on the track from lap one! Then, as they crossed the start/finish line for the second time, the news everyone yearned for came from the timekeepers; Mike was 9 seconds ahead of Read, albeit 41 seconds behind him on the road.

By now, Hailwood was flying and at Ramsey, halfway round the third lap, the crowd got what they wanted; Read and Hailwood within yards of each other. Read had no idea Mike was so close, but when he saw the crowd at Parliament Square erupting in mad delight, he knew it could only be one man.

‘To say I was surprised when he caught up with me,’ said Phil, ‘is putting it mildly.’

Mike’s comment was; ‘It was lovely to see him just ahead of me…I followed him uphill out of Ramsey towards the mountain. We passed and re-passed each other [but] I wasn’t too bothered about rubbing it in or trying to get away too far.’

He had no need to. He was now effectively 50 seconds ahead of Read and, although Tom Herron had closed to within 4 seconds of Hailwood, he was out on the next lap with mechanical troubles. The race was Mike’s unless the bike let him down.

‘I couldn’t see anything to stop him,’ said Read. ‘I could not have gone any quicker…I was right on my limit and there was nothing, not a mile an hour more, left.’ The only way to stop Mike was to try and break him. In a last desperate bid to force the Ducati to go faster than it wanted, Read sent the tacho needle of the Honda way past the red-line and dragged a burst of speed out of it that it was not designed to give. An oil seal blew and the bike clanked to a halt, spewing oil and blue smoke. Hailwood was too old a campaigner to fall for Read’s tricks and went serenely on his way. He crossed the line 2 minutes ahead of second placed man, John Williams.

‘[That last lap] was by far the longest lap I’ve ever known at the TT,’ said Hailwood afterwards, ‘I couldn’t wait for it to end…as I got closer to the chequered flag the tears started to stream down my face. I was so full up with the emotion of it all… I couldn’t help myself….I’ve had some wins, here and in the rest of the world, but for sheer emotion this beats them all.’

Not one of his rivals begrudged him the victory; all were magnanimous in defeat; ‘It’s a pleasure to be beaten by a man like that,’ shouted John Williams, stepping up onto the podium. Phil Read; ‘He deserves it; there was nothing lucky about it. Even if I’d kept going there was no way I’d have got away from him.’

Ducati capitalised on the victory and honoured
 Hailwood with the 900SS MHR Replica

After the excitement and emotion of the Formula 1 race, the Senior was an anticlimax. At Mike’s suggestion, the mechanics had fitted the steering damper from the big Yamaha 750 onto the 500, convinced it would help the handling. Running fourth on lap two, the damper seized and he could only trundle back to the pits, falling two minutes behind the leaders in the process. He rejoined, but ran out of fuel on the last lap, eventually finishing 28^th. 

He had achieved more than anyone dared hope and repaid all the faith shown in him, but still the failures rankled (the big Yamaha had broken in the Classic just as the predicted battle with Mick Grant on the Kawasaki was heating up) and it didn’t take Mike long to determine to return in 1979.

Ducati were again keen to supply a bike but Yamaha, asked for a current 500cc machine, said no, stating that they felt their machinery would not be equal to the talent of Hailwood. As Kenny Roberts had just clinched the ’78 World Championship on one, it was hard to follow their reasoning, but they were not to be moved.

Where Yamaha feared to tread, however, Suzuki were only too happy to be given the chance and a 500cc GP machine was made available.

It was clear that development of the Ducati had not only been non-existent, but the bike had actually regressed – it was slower and just could not be made to handle; it was a real dog and not a machine that Mike relished riding to try and repeat last year’s triumph in the Formula One race. The build-up didn’t go well; testing the Ducati in Italy, the bike spat him off, Mike breaking several ribs. By contrast, after testing the Suzuki at Donington, he told the mechanics to put it away and leave it alone – it was perfect.

If 1978 had been the comeback, then 1979 was the farewell. After the emotion of ’78, 1979 promised to exceed all expectations as Hailwood again stepped forward to do battle with the Island. This time, people knew he could win and he was taken all the more seriously; not that he had been underestimated the year before but, this time, the novelty and uncertainty had gone and he was seen as a very real threat.

Hailwood was really up against it for the Formula One race and could only manage fourth fastest time in practice with Scotsman Alex George breaking Mike’s lap record of the year before, claiming he hadn’t pushed himself or the Honda to their limits.

In the race it was all George. There was nothing Mike could do but, typically, gave it everything he had, even on a bike as bad as the Ducati was.  On the last lap his battery box came adrift and, despite stopping out on the circuit to fix it, he still came in fifth. ‘Well, that’s one to forget,’ he said after the race. ‘I’m bloody glad it’s behind me. I tried as hard as I could, but it was pointless.’

His best lap at 109.39 mph might not have set the world alight – George’s best was 112.45 – but it moved one insider to comment; ‘That must have been one of his finest laps of the TT. On that Ducati, handling as bad as it was, and being so way behind in power, it was an heroic performance. I just don’t know how he did it.’

Prospects for the Senior were much brighter, as he would be riding the Suzuki. However, things were about to get a bit tense! On a late visit the night before the race to the mechanics, who were still working in the garage underneath the hotel, he was dismayed to find the engine on the workbench in a thousand pieces. When they had started the engine that afternoon, great plumes of smoke came out of the exhaust – it was burning oil at a huge rate and wouldn’t have lasted a lap. There was nothing for it but to strip it down. It took them all night to find the problem – a coil spring had flicked off an oil seal - and when the bike went to the line the next day, it had not turned a wheel in anger since they had finished, although they had entertained the guests by starting it up at 5 in the morning to see if it was still burning oil.

At the end of the first lap Mike was third, behind Grant and George. But then Grant retired with a broken crank, and Mike simply blitzed the rest of the field, raising the class lap record to 114.02mph in the process. It may not have been as emotional a win as ‘78’s Formula One but, as a demonstration of skill, it left his rivals floundering and wondering why he ever retired in the first place. It was his 14^th TT victory.

The Classic that rounded off the week was just that. It was a straight fight between Hailwood and George and both men dug deep and performed miracles, riding as hard as they knew how. Mike knew what the Suzuki was capable of, but George’s Honda had 500cc’s more and was fantastically fast.

They set off, Hailwood first and George 15 seconds later. Despite being so close on the road, they were not to see each other again until the end of the race, so evenly were they matched. George eased ahead by a few seconds, but could not make the break stick. They both rode faster and faster. On the penultimate lap, Mike put the hammer down and clawed back to lead by one second. Alex put everything into his last lap, clipping banks, running wide, wringing every last ounce of speed from the Honda. Mike had appalling luck with back markers who put him off line and delayed him. At the line he was but 3.4 seconds adrift.

He was gutted; ‘…I tried so hard. I was sticking my neck out all over the place, far more than I wanted to. …I wouldn’t want to go through a last lap like that one all over again.’ By the time he got to Alex on the podium, the disappointment had been replaced with praise and admiration for what his rival had achieved. The curtain had come down on the career of a TT legend but still his first thought was to give the winner his due and say nothing about himself.

Never comfortable with praise himself, Mike would always try and find a way around any compliment. Vernon Cooper, the man responsible for setting up the deal for Mike to return to the TT, emphasized the value of having Mike there. ‘When we shook hands on Mike’s comeback, it was probably the most important symbolic gesture in the long history of the races,’ he said.

Mike could only reply; ‘Well, it did me a favour, too. I got a second place; I’ve never had one of those on the Island before.’