SAINT MICHAEL’S MOUNT!

Not only was Mike Hailwood one of the most successful riders in road racing history, he was also one of the most versatile. For Mike not only raced a huge variety of machines throughout his 23-year career, but he often competed on three or four different makes, capacities and/or types in a single day – from a 125 two-stroke single to a 500 four-stroke in-line four. And in true Hailwood style, he won races on most of them.

Yet at the outset of his career, it seemed that Mike would forever be dogged by the undeniable advantage of being a rich man’s son.Time after time, after he’d proved his riding superiority by winning up to four races in an afternoon in the late 1950s, the critics would scoff that ‘he’s only winning because his dad can afford to buy him the best bikes’. See our feature on page 72 for more. Stan Hailwood had a well mapped out plan for his son’s racing career, which involved him learning the ropes first on smaller bikes whose hairline handling and relative lack of power decreed careful, precise riding, and a high degree of concentration.

Accordingly, Mike Hailwood’s racing debut came at Oulton Park on April 22, 1957, just 20 days after his 17th birthday, riding a Bill Lacey-prepared 125cc MV Agusta to an unremarkable 11th place in his first event.

But June 10 saw the first of countless Hailwood victories, in the 125cc race at Blandford on the same bike. Mike had gone from newcomer to race-winner in just seven weeks, and five races…

Satisfied that his son had what it took to further his ambitions for him, Stan’s plans to progress Mike’s racing career involved him spending the winter racing in South Africa, alongside the experienced Dave Chadwick and mechanic John Dadley.

For machinery, besides a newly purchased 350cc Manx Norton, SW (as Stan was known) used his friendship with rising star John Surtees’ father Jack, against whom he’d raced in prewar sidecar grasstrack events, to ‘borrow’ the 250cc NSU Sportmax on which John had been undefeated in the UK in the 1955 season, winning 20 races in all. John had continued to race the NSU in weekends off from his MV Agusta factory GP rides, winning four races on it in 1957 at