Mike Hailwood. British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
N 52° 19.936 W 001° 49.997
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Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood, MBE, GM
(2 April 1940 – 23 March 1981) was a British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
He is regarded by many as one of the greatest racers of all time.
Waymark Code: WMPGW5
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/30/2015
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Hailwood was known as "Mike The Bike" because of his natural riding ability on bikes with a range of engine capacities. Later in his career he went on to compete in Formula One and other classes of car racing, becoming one of the few men to compete at Grand Prix level in both motorcycle and car racing.
He died following a road traffic accident in Warwickshire, England.
At his funeral Hailwood's pall bearers included James Hunt, John Surtees and Giacomo Agostini. His abilities on his bike can be measured in titles, 12 times a winner in the Isle of Man – "the scariest race in the world" – and nine times the Grand Prix Motor Cycling champion, as well as the less quantifiable but no less obvious esteem in which he was held by the sport.
Hailwood revelled in the "here today, gone tomorrow" attitude that pervaded motorsport in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a dangerous game, and it was treated as a game. "He was a little bit wild," said his wife, Pauline. Walker put it another way: "He was a party animal." Legend has it Hailwood taught Hunt how to party.
For a time Hailwood swapped two wheels for four. He drove in Formula One, competing in 50 Grands Prix. He finished on the podium twice, as he did once at Le Mans, making a decent fist of driving for lesser teams, believed Jackie Stewart.
Motorcycling was his true love and in 1978, after more than a decade out of the sport, he got back on his bike for another go at the Isle of Man TT, a race he had first ridden as an 18-year-old in 1958.
He was unfit, "pot-bellied" Walker suggested, and out of touch with the sport and its developments. He was given no chance; sure enough he won. A year later Hailwood had one last go around the island before giving up his sport for good. Two years later he was dead.
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