(27-01-2015, 08:46 PM)V Twin Mechanic Wrote:

(25-01-2015, 05:38 PM)ian charlton Wrote: Thanks,VTM,and that,s straight from the horses mouth,so to speak.You will have many great memories of Mike,so easy to work with.Did he really just hop on and ride round any problems as we are told?

It is hard to think of any other rider who could race and win on Two strokes, four strokes, single cylinders, twin cylinders and multi cylinder machines, also ride and win in 2 or 3 Gp's on the same day.  Mike to adapt to almost any situation, apart from his win in the 1978 IOM F1 TT one of his other outstanding rides was at the " Mr Topps" F1 race at the post 78 TT event at Mallory park in 1978. This event was a round of the British F1 championship and the cream of British short circuit "scratchers" were competing. Mike was riding the SMC F1 TT winning Ducati, a machine that many said would be, because of it's low revving V twin engine and long wheel base,  Un- cometitive, well Mike Hailwood that day out paced, out braked and out thought everybody, top flight Japanese works machenery was made to look normal and slow.

I was there that day pat we knew we were seeing something special, there  was a story going around that day that after practice Mike said to steve to lop a couple of inches off the footrests as they were grounding everywhere, don't know if that was the case or not.