CLASSICALLY REPLICATED
Ride it like…
Mr Hailwood, that’s who!
In 1978 the buzz in the UK and around the world with road racing fans was Mike Hailwood’s return from retirement. This wasn’t any return though, Hailwood would be back at the Isle of Man, where he was a god. And it wasn’t a few months either, it had been 11 years since the great man had retired, when Honda had pulled the pin on racing.
A man like Hailwood, a man who embraced risk for reward, couldn’t sit still for long so he went car racing instead. A massive crash put him out of that game and he moved to New Zealand with his family to open up a business. A dabble back in bike racing had Mike thinking he could go back to the game that made him a household name in the UK. No-one really thought he could succeed, except maybe Hailwood himself, but history shows he won the Formula One TT, with his Sports Motorcycles Ducati 900SS based bike exploding its engine as he crossed the line for the win. The great man was back!
AN IMPRESSIONABLE YOUTH
“I guess it was when I bought a Ducati sew-on badge at a swap meet
