Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood
April 2, 1940 - March 23, 1981




We've heard the news, it's hard to bear,
He was the one respected by all,
We weren't expecting the final call.
Memories of the past come flooding back,
Dicing with Ago lap after lap.
78, the TT and he did it again,
The Island alive with the sound of his name.
Alas, no more will see his face.
Alas, no more will we see him race.
The end of an era, but a legend forever,
Perhaps God is getting a team together.
It matters not how a man dies,
But how he lives.
The act of dying is of no importance,
It lasts so short a time.

Author Unknown





The King

Hillberry was the place I chose, to sit in the hedgerow with a rose.
The countryside was strangely still,
We sat in silence til.....
A noise was heard up the hill from Kate's,
to cause in crowd debates.
Was it Gary? Was it is Mike? A noise I've never heard the like.
Down to Creg to the hands that wave.
Up four gears then down five, out of Brandish to the dive.
And down to Hillberry flat on the tank, the noise was like a wine you drank.
A Honda Six on full song, like an arrow through the throng.
Cronk ny mona no respite, keeping the throttle cable tight.
Skipping like a stone on pond, round to Signpost, Governors beyond
It was Hailwood, first on the road, an experience time will not erode!
Ambition is a funny thing, I'd been to Mecca and seen the KING.
And this is how I'll remember the man, fate had a wild unruly plan.

Author Unknown

What is your favourite memory of Mike?

thewitch Wrote:What is your favourite memory of Mike?

I have many favorite racing memories of Mike.
Mostly on Honda fours and sixes.
At Brands and the TT especially.
I will never forget seeing him go through
the slow bends at Governors on the 500 4
in the 1967 Senior.
Then there was the magical return on the Ducati!
Eat dust Mr Read!
I watched him from Cronk y Voddy.
His line down through the 11th is still etched in my memory.
Everythng tucked in and he flew round with hardly a downward
gear change!

But my own personal favourite was when I created
a t-shirt for the TT supporters club
"Mike the Bike Rides On Water!"

I approached him in a paddock and asked for
his approval, and did he like the t-shirt?
"I love it!" said the great man.

Yes there ARE other great and legendary riders, but
for me , and I suspect many others,
SMB is and always will be

SIMPLY THE BEST

I have many memories of Mike, surely one of the most versatile riders ever to straddle a racing motorcycle. From 125 two stroke singles, through 250 two stroke twins, four stroke singles, twins, fours and sixes he could get the best out of them all. My memories of Mike in the Island are many and include watching him hit the bottom of Bray Hill on the Honda 500 four and disappearing stood on the rests in a full lock slapper! (No shutting off of course)

Rounding Creg na Baa on a Manx in probably his first TT. I had never seen a Manx cranked over that far, and everything tucked in too.

Riding the MV with broken screen, flattened megaphones, and certainly at Greeba, a sticking throttle!!!! the mind boggles.

Going through Keppel Gate on the Duke looking as though he had never been away!

But perhaps my most personal memory was in 1963? when he was up against John Hartle & Phil Read on the Gileras.
My mate and I were in the paddock one morning practice helping Peter Richards, and I was warming up Peters 350 Manx when into the paddock came a Mercedes convertable driven by Mike.
He got out, and walked past us, huddled in a camel coloured duffle coat, shoulders hunched looking half asleep.
Aturo was already lined up in the pit lane with the MV and Mike stood at the side of him until it was his time to go, when he took his duffle coat off put it round Aturo's shoulders and shot off towards Bray Hill.
A lap at 103mph and then a lap on the 350 MV at 101 and he was back in the paddock walking back to his car, still looking half asleep.
As he passed us he stopped smiled and confided that "It's too bl**dy cold out there"

That Honda six in last years parade took me back to Sarah's Cottage and Mike chasing Bill Ivy on the Yamaha, getting well out of shape and getting within inches of the bank on the exit every lap.

Such a nice guy, a great ambassador for the sport and so much talent, I feel privileged to have seen him ride and to have spoken to him on several occasions.