Mitch, if you're still interested in doing a story on Pat, would be glad to put u in touch with him. I'm his older brother. Also re the Isle of Man, the previous posting re what actually happened to cause his accident at the IOM is pretty much correct. Of course, the story we were told by the IOM officials immediately after accident was very different and completely bogus. Some years ago Pat met a woman who actually witnessed the accident. She told Pat that he and Tom Heron entered the corner where he crashed side by side. She sd Heron was "leaning" on Pat as they went thru the corner, forcing Pat against the curb. The normal line thru the corner was about 2 feet away from the curb, not up against it. Pat's bike's rear wheel barely touched the curb, but at 170-plus MPH even slightly touching a curb will cause serious problems. Tom Heron was on a "black" list of riders my brother and I kept of riders who could potentially be dangerous on the track. That was a result of a couple of incidents on the track as well as a story one of his mechanics had told us about him. Heron's career was doing only so-so at that time and he was starting to get a little desparate on the track at times. We had put him on our black list maybe 2 or 3 months prior to Pat's accident principally because of a story one of Heron's mechanics told us. In truth, it never entered our minds that Heron and Pat could end up side by side on the track during the IOM races. In previous races Pat rarely saw him on the track. Had Pat not had his accident, he almost certainly would have gone on to win the 1978 GP World Championship. He and Kenny Roberts were only 2 points apart in the 500cc GP standings at the mid-point of the season, and the 2nd half of the season was going to be much tougher, principally because of having to race on circuits like the old Spa Nurburing circuits. Also, since Pat was nearly 3 years younger than Kenny, he certainly would have gone on to win many more GPs and titles. He had also started an open-wheel car racing career and was tipped as the hottest young driver of his era by the car racing experts. Like Hailwood, Pat was as fast in car as he was on a bike. Of course, that's all history now, and the future belongs to the kids on the GP circuit today. Reall amazing to see how far GP racing has progressed thru the years. - chip hennen <A HREF="mailtochennen@msn.com">(chennen@msn.com</A>)