David Hailwood rides

Superb Silverstone

Well Silverstone was indeed superb, great weather, great people and great machines.

Roger Etcell, Allan Robinson and their teams of helpers created an extremely well organised event which was enjoyed by all.

It had been quite a while since I had been to the circuit, and I hardly recognised it, so many improvements have been made, especially to the paddock, and parking areas. Golf buggies were acting as taxis transporting people around the now vast area of facilities, and everything seemed to run very smoothly and efficiently. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Dave had a fantastic time. Resplendent in his fabulous new Lookwell Leathers and Arai helmet, he felt very proud and honoured to have the opportunity to ride his father's 1971 Daytona BSA 750cc Rocket, now owned, and beautifully prepared by Mike Braid. Mike also brought along another BSA Rocket 3 and a lovely MV 3 cylinder, which caused quite a gathering when he fired it up. Our sincere thanks to you Mike.

Not only were there great machines on show, but there were great people too, a wonderful bunch of guys, and an old friend from the USA, Gary Nixon, brought fun and colour to the proceedings. Just as in the good old days, there was open access for everyone to come into the paddock area and see everything close to, which clearly made it much more interesting for everyone there. Not like the Grand Prix bike and car events of today, which are completely closed to the public. Everyone was so friendly and helpful, it was a great atmosphere, and we sincerely hope that it will be repeated next year.

It was good fun for me too, meeting up with so many old friends. Also in guessing who would win the 'Mike Hailwood Trophy'. Run over the three days as it was, made it even more interesting, and everyone, so wanted to win. I wish I'd had a trophy for everyone.

It was wonderful to meet so many of Mike's fans who brought along photo's, programmes, scrap books and other pieces of memorabelia to show us. The stories told, were lovely to hear, and I thank you all for coming.

One special couple who came to see us were Roger and Alison Warner. Roger is a fan of Mike's and met him at Donington Park in 1978 after his triumphant TT victory. A couple of years ago, Roger unfortunately underwent serious brain surgery and was in intensive care and unconscious for two weeks after a burst aneurysm. During that time a close friend took a poster of Mike to the hospital, and put it on the wall over Roger's bed. The poster was of Mike pushing off his MV at the start of the 500cc Senior TT in 1962. This caused concern amongst some of the nursing staff, who had previously treated motorcycle injuries, but his surgeon thought it very positive. He said that when Roger came round and saw it, hopefully he would know who it was because of the great influence Mike had had on his motorcycling life. Thankfully, he did come round, and he did know who it was.

Since then, Roger has learnt the art of making Tiffany style lampshades, not the usual kind, but like full face helmets in coloured glass. At Silverstone, he brought along a fantastic one that he has made for me, in Mike's colours, and it drew alot of attention to our stand. It must have taken many many hours of painstaking work, and is a real work of art.

Roger will make your choice of helmet, to order for the price of £300, with just £100 of that covering the cost of materials etc. and the remaining £200 being donated to B.A.S.I.C. , the Brain and Spinal Injury Charity. We will be showing example and more information in our 'shop' very soon.

I would like to take this opportunity to send my thanks to the riders, John Pizany's sponsor, Grifcast Signs, and Don Griffin for the excellent model of Mike on the Honda 'six'. It was a lovely gesture, and much appreciated.

Immediately after Silverstone, Dave headed off for Oschersleben, Germany, and we'll have a report on that next.

Thanks for visiting the site, stay tuned.

Best wishes

Pauline & Dave

Click picture for close up view