Mike Hailwood is considered by some to be the most naturally talented motorcycle racer ever seen. He started racing bikes competitvely in 1957 and won his first Grand Prix just two years later. His first World Championship came in 1961 and was quickly followed by eight other World Championship titles in three different classes. In 1968 the Honda factory pulled out of motor cycle Grand Prix racing and effectively  paid Hailwood not to ride for any other team.

He switched to car racing, winning the Formula Two championship and quickly moving into Formula One. Although never winning a GP race “Mike The Bike” was a popular, brave and determined driver. He is perhaps best remembered in F1 for pulling fellow driver Clay Reggazoni out of a burning wreck at considerable risk. Hailwood retired from F1 in 1974 after being injured in a crash at the German GP. He had competed in 50 Grands Prix and scored 29 championship points. During his car racing career he also scored a podium finish at Le Mans.

In 1978 Hailwood returned to motorcycle racing for another attempt at the legendary TT race, which he promptly won – his 14th victory on the 37 mile mountain circuit. He returned for another year before finally retiring at the age of 39.

On March 23rd, 1981 Mike Hailwood and his young daughter were killed in their road car when a truck made an illegal U-turn in front of them.

I was lucky enough to meet “Mike The Bike” during his 1978 “comeback” year and he was the epitome of a gentleman, and despite his enormous successes and legendry reputation, had time to chat with a young awe-struck race fan like me. He was a true class act.

The Official Mike Hailwood website.

Got up at 4:30am yesterday to watch the Australian GP (yes I know I’m mad). Glad to see Lewis Hamilton score another win, but was even more impressed by Sebastian Bourdais bringing back markers Torro Rosso up to 4th before his car expired just two laps from the end. And with all the millions F1 team spend preparing for a new season you think they could keep more than six cars running by the end of the race. The retirement rate was approaching farcical.

Having said that the removal of Traction Control has meant they need to be drivers again – well overdue in my opinion. Watching F1 cars slide about like that, and the occasional glorious four wheel drift, took me back to the 1970s and the likes of Ronnie Peterson and James Hunt (Boy that’s showing my age a bit).

Paul Frere, the celebrated racing driver and journalist, has died at the age of 91. The Belgian never fully recovered from an accident at the end of 2006 while he was road testing a Honda Civic Type-R at the old Nurburgring in Germany. Frere, 89 at the time, suffered a shattered pelvis, several broken ribs and punctures to both lungs.

Frere competed in 11 Grands Prix after winning the non-championship Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay in 1952. He was taken on by Ferrari and in 1956 finished second to Peter Collins in a Lancia-Ferrari at the Belgian Grand Prix. In addition to this in 1960 he shared a Ferrari 250TR with Olivier Gendebien to win the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Frere was also a celebrated automotive and race reporter and contributed to magazines all over the world. He published a number of books.

From Autosport.com and GrandPrix.com 

2008 marks the 50th anniversary of Mike Hawthorne becoming Britain’s first F1 World Champion. Hawthorne was a dashing figure and a natural talent in all sorts of cars. His tragic death in a road accident shortly after his title win only added to his legend.

 John Michael Hawthorn was, born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, England.  When he was small the family relocated to the South of England, close to the famous Brooklands track. From and early age Hawthorne was a regular spectator at the banked circuit. After leaving school Hawthorne started racing motorcycles eventually switching over to cars. By 1951 he was in Formula 2 and attracting notice.

He  made his Formula One debut in the following year’s Belgian Grand Prix, finishing an impressive 4th place.  He was signed by Ferrari for the 1953 and 1954 seasons scoring two Grand Prix vistories. However he was badly burned in a crash during the 1954 season and seriously considered retiring.

He was persuaded to join the Jaguar sports car team for 1955 and went on to win Le Mans despite being involved in the infamous accident that killed over 80 spectators. The Jaguar contract allowed him to drive for other marques so he campaigned a Vanwall for the first half of the season before rejoing Ferrari once more. Over the next few seasons he alternated between Jaguars in sports cars and Ferrari in Grand Prix racing.

Hawthorne’s World Championship in 1958 came at the expense of Stirling Moss who interceeded on Hawthorne’s beahlf and had a disqualification for Hawthorne pushing his car overturned. The reinstated points would cost Moss the championship at the season’s end.

With a world title won, Hawthorne announced his retirment from racing. Just a few months after the end of the season he was killed when his car went off  a wet road. How a driver of Hawthorne’s skill lost control is still something of a mystery.

The Official Mike Hawthorne Tribute site.

Three more Formula One teams have unvieled their 2008 Grand Prix challengers over the last few days. However, these have all been realtively low key affairs with the cars being unvieled on track at pre-season testing.

Red Bull RB4

Renault R28

Williams FW30