Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Tom Faulds piloted the 1967 Honda 250cc six cylinder. Stuart Graham and the Honda 500cc four. -- Gianni Perrone and the 500cc Manx. Mike Hallwood Day "The greatest exhaust note ever heard .. ." By Al an Cathca rt The Donington Park racing ci rcui t in Eng land played host to a nostalgic reunion of classic racing machinery and riders from the go lden age of postwar mo torcycle racing last month as friends and fans of the late Mike Hailwood gath. . e!ed to pay tnbute to.the m~ltI nrne World Cham p ion , kIlled 22 in a tragic road acc ident together with his yo u n g daughter last year. Organized by T o m Wh eat croft, owner of Donington track , o n beh alf of Mike's wi dow Pa uline, the su n drenc hed day saw the fines t coIleetion of H o nda works machi nery from the sixties ever assembled in recent years. Star of the show was undou btedly the fab ulous 250cc six -cylinder bike which Hail wood rode in the 1967 Canadian GP. P resen t guardia n, T o m Faulds brough t the bik e a ll the wa y from Canad a for the day a nd d el i g h t ed an i a a k e r s wit h a lengthy co ncert fea tu ring th e gr ea test exh a ust note ever heard: th e scream of the four-stroke six on a gr id full of other exotica co m p letely dro wn ed o uteY.,e the two Suucc Honda fours ridden by former teamsters Stu art Graham and .T ommy.Robb,.orLuigi ~ The MV Agusta 500cc with John Surtees aboard . Taveri's 250 four. Rival ing th e 250/ 6 for star billing were th e two MV Agusta 500s bro ugh t sp eciall y from It a ly for o ne of th eir increasingly rare appear ances- sp are p arts ar e ap parently very limi ted ridden by form er wo rk s riders J o hn Surtees, Phil Read an d Bill L o m as. G iaco m o Agostin i was schedu led to appear a lso, bu t was una ble to be there at the las t m inute due to testing commitments with his current GP team. Bu t Read and Surtees more tha n made up for h is a bsence, as they put o n a scintillating show that left observers agape; each obviously determined to o u tdo the other. The way th e 4-cylind er mounted Surtees caught and p assed Read o n the 3-cylinder bik e left no doubt as to the ta lents of th e on ly man to ha ve won Wo rld Championships on two and tour wheels, as well as ca using former MV tea m m ana ger Art uro Magn i, in . charge of th e two mach ines, to become visibly agit a ted for h is charg es' well ~ _beiDg: _•• " ".• • _. • ••• ~ __. • The Velocette KTT 500 and Bill Lomas. O th er delec table machinery in cluded the sale surviving AJS Porcupine still in run ning order, now owned by tuner Tom Arter and ridden by Ca nadian Mike Duff, who gave it a new lease of life in the midsixies. Mike's riding was remarked on by more than one observer as quite the most stylish on display. America n Ian Gunn brought over the little 125cc DOH C Pat on, o n which Hail wood finished seventh in his first 'TT race on the Isle of Man, in 1958. The RG500 Suzuki on which he won his last Senior TT in 1979 was there too, as well as the 900 'TT FI Ducati on which Mike scored his amazing comeback victory in the Island in 1978, ri dden on the day by Steve Wynne, the man responsible for Hai lwood's ret urn to the T'T, Gunn's Pa ton had two even t-lo ng ba tt les in the pair of 3 0~mi n u te parades wit h the brace of DOHC .125cc CZs fro m Swi tzerla nd, ridde n by Peter Podesser and Kurt Peyer. Represen ting th e larger Czech machinery wa s th e ir re p ressi ble Franta Stas tny, who took five day s to get to Doni n g ton from P rag ue in a n old Sko da va n, to ri de th e su ber b-so u ndin g 350ccJaw ahecompeted onin th e heyday of the Continental Circu s in ' the sixties. O th er C ircus regu lars p resent at the Hai lwood Da y incl uded Sou th African Pa dd y Driver . who came a ll the way from J ohannesbu rg to ride a 350cc Manx Norton, It a lian Gian n i Perr o ne o n a simi la r bi ke, a nd British stars Joh n Cooper, Geoff Duke, Derek Minter, Dave Degens and ma ny others. Fo rm er trails ch a mpio n Samm y Mill er-once a topline road racer for facto ry teams as well - rode a full yfaired NSU Sportmax, while MV's fir st World Cham pion, Ceci l Sandford, was reunit ed with the 125cc MV Ag usta on wh ich he wo n hi s 1952 ti tle - one of a half do zen of th e smaller ca pacity, M V: s.J h ~te., ::rhe.2J)0 _ Guiseppe Ascarelli on a 12 5 cc Due. Alan Shepe rd on a 125cc M Z. . Mondial o n wh ich he scored his second cha mpio ns hi p i n 1957 was al so on view - la ter ridden by H a ilwood, of course. Simil a rl y, Al a n Sh epherd ro de an ex-works 125cc MZ for the fir st time sin ce he raced so successfull y for th e East German factory over 15 years a go. The Mik e H ail wood Day was a su perbly nostalgi c gathering which is unlikely to be repea ted o r mat ch ed in th e concei vable future. The onl y sad note was tha t the ma n for whos e memory th e day was held co uldn't be th ere - th e vic tim of a stupid an d unnecessary road accide nt that robbed th e motorcycle world of one of its finest .a!J1 bassadors., . . . . •

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