VOL. 51 ISSUE 9 MARCH 4, 2014 P33
Americans Colin Edwards and Nicky
Hayden completed the three days in
14th and 15th, respectively. Both of their
fast laps came on the final day. While
Edwards has some hope in the form of
his teammate Espargaro riding to the
fourth fastest time, Hayden left the test
disgruntled with the performance of his
new Honda.
MICK WOOLETT PASSES
C
alm, resourceful, determined
and infinitely well-connect-
ed, Mick Woollett, who passed
away peacefully in his sleep at
home in Britain on February 18 at
the age of 84, was for more than
three decades one of the world's
most experienced and widely
read motorcycle sports journal-
ists. His race reports provided
the only link for generations of
road racing fans in those pre-in-
ternet days with the events of the
previous weekend in race pad-
docks around the globe.
From 1956 onwards, Wool-
lett was a professional Grand
Prix sidecar passenger, initially
with 1952 World Champion Cyril
Smith, then with Belgian Jack
Wijns and later with Swiss Edgar
Strub, with whom he finished
fifth in the 1959 Isle of Man Side-
car TT. By then Woollett had be-
gun supplementing his meager
earnings as a sidecar swinger by
writing reports of the GP events
he attended, and phoning them
in to the newly launched MCN/
Motor Cycle News weekly news-
paper. He also began writing fea-
ture articles on GP paddock life,
leading him to retire from racing
and in 1961 become sports edi-
tor of Britain's oldest magazine,
Motor Cycling; and, when the
two merged in 1967, its competi-
tor Motor Cycle.
In due course he became edi-
tor of its successor Motor Cycle
Weekly when it became a tab-
loid paper, before anticipating
the subsequent boom in two-
wheeled nostalgia by becoming
founding editor-in-chief of The
Classic Motor Cycle in 1981.
Woolett was a fine photog-
rapher as well as reporter, and
many of his action photos taken
during the golden age of GP rac-
ing in the 1950s and '60s have
become iconic images of an un-
forgettable era.
Woolett was uniquely respect-
ed by riders because he'd done
it all himself, and was personal
friends with many of them. That
in turn led to countless scoops
and insider tips. He was also as-
tute enough to repeatedly be in
the right place at the right time
to take a rare unclothed photo
of a Japanese or Italian factory
racer without the bodywork on,
revealing its inner workings to
his countless readers all over the
world, but especially in Britain.
Woollett was also the first to
cover the Daytona 200 for non-
American readers, and reported
on its growth into a major world
motorcycle event in the 1970s.
Woolett also wrote eleven books
that have become the standard
work on many topics, including
Norton, Mike Hailwood, Honda
Racers in the Golden Age, and
The Grand Prix Riders.
He is survived by his wife Peta,
and three children, Joanne, Paul
and Guy.
Alan Cathcart
Motorsports writer Mick Woolett
(right) passed away on February
18. Here the former sidecar racer is
pictured with driver Edgar Strub.
