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Ducati Test |
History on Wheels (page 1) June 3, 1978 is a day that has gone down in motorcycle history, with enough words written about Mike Hailwood's legendary return to the TT that Manx summer day exactly 20 years ago, to fill several books. Mike the Bike's fairytale Isle of Man comeback, in which he rode to decisive victory at record speed over the works Honda team in the Formula 1 TT race aboard his Sports Motorcycles Ducati 900 V-twin, eleven years after he last raced on the Island and seven since he rode a bike of any kind in international competition, is rightly considered one of the most remarkable feats in the history of motorcycle racing, and is deservedly now part of the folklore of our sport. If on that day you'd told me, as I hung over the fence on the outside of the Creg in the Manx sunshine and watched my greatest hero winning his comeback race on my favourite bike, that almost exactly 20 years later to the day I'd be thrashing round Mallory Park on that very same motorcycle, I'd have reckoned that a potent combination of the atypical warmth and the Manx ale had got to you. Yet thanks to the generosity of the present day owners of Hailwood's TT-winner, American brothers Mark and Larry Auriana, and the man who made Mike's feat possible by providing him with the bike in the first place, Steve Wynne, that's exactly what happened: thanks, guys. In doing so, not only did the dream of every ducatista - to ride Mike Hailwood's TT winner - come true, but on a personal note I answered some questions that had been left unresolved for two whole decades. See, back at the start of practice week in that '78 TT, Mike the Bike had boomed past me on the Duke going into Schoolhouse Corner in Ramsey, waving a nonchalant left hand to an unknown, much slower rider, as he cruised to a ton-up lap on his desmo V-twin. The earth moved - my hero waved at me!! Then, as I grappled with the weave caused by the dip in the road surface just as I peeled into the left hander, I realised that his Ducati had thundered through there as if on rails, shrugging off such minor inconveniences as the Manx road system could throw at it. "Wow, wish I was riding that!", I remember thinking: well, now I have done. . . Perhaps because of the supportive presence at the '78 TT of factory mechanics Franco Farne and Giuliano Pedretti, many have felt that Steve Wynne received less than his due credit for not only preparing but also developing the TT-winning Ducati, into a works Honda-beater. Especially when they jumped on the promotional bandwagon with such alacrity by bringing out the best-selling Mike Hailwood Replica street clone later that same year, the Ducati factory always managed to convey the impression that Hailwood won the race (and, in so doing, Ducati's first-ever World championship) on a 'tricolore'-painted full works machine - but while it's true that the engine fitted to the bike at the last moment for the race was indeed an Italian-built one, this is far from being entirely the case. Not only did Wynne have to agree to buy the two 900TT1 bikes for Hailwood and his teammate in the Sports Motorcycles team, Roger Nicholls, to ride, but it was he who painted them in red and green colours in recognition of Hailwood's main sponsors, Castrol! What's more, by the time they reached the Island the Sports Ducatis incorporated a host of Wynne-developed improvements to their original semi-works specification, which Mike's bike today - exactly as raced by Hailwood to his follow-up short circuit victory in the Post-TT Meeting at Mallory Park a week after his TT win - still incorporates. * * * * * |
