Hated Hailwood!
Such is the love for Mike Hailwood now, almost 40 years after his untimely death, it’s easy to forget things weren’t always that way. Hailwood had to earn that love the hard way, by his skills on a motorcycle and by the humility of his character because, for the first few years of his career, he was hated in UK race paddocks.
Don Morley remembers the anti-Hailwood feeling well and saw, at first hand, how it came about. Morley is one of the most respected photographers in the world: he was friends with Muhammad Ali (and took some of the most iconic pictures of him), he photographed The Beatles on their first UK tour, was caught up in the murderous Munich Olympics in 1972, has been shot at in war zones, was head-hunted by Margaret Thatcher and witnessed the shooting of US president Ronald Reagan. He was also great friends with Mike Hailwood and was tasked to take some pictures of him in his first ever race at Oulton Park on April 22, 1957.
“I was working for Motor Cycle News and an old chap came up to me and
