You reckon ...... he probably won't remember it .. written or not

By his own admission, his lack of setup skills hurt him badly on 4 wheels, and was probably the main reason he failed to realise his full potential in F1. One must remember, sophisticated telemetry like they have nowadays didn´t exist then, so a driver´s input was essential.
In those days the mechanics relied almost solely on driver feed back, and Mike really wasn´t sure what was happening with the car, or why.
The scope of adjustment on a motorcycle in his day was very small, so it effected him far less, and anyway, he was able, with his supreme skills, to ride around most of the problems he wasn´t able to cure. I watched Mike ride several times, and even rode in the same race as him on one occasion, where I had the great honor of being lapped several times by him.
He was, in a word, brilliant.

p.m.'d ya Graham, merci beaucoup !

(Sorry to go OT guys)

He played a mean Saxaphone though and had a personality that money could'nt buy...sod the mechanical ability/understanding

I seem to recall he set his best grid position in the Surtees F1 car after tiptoeing into the pits after an all-nighter, begging mechanics to "don't tell John".....

When did you ride against the great man Rhodie ?

Russell, he came to South Africa in the summer of, I think, 1968/9, and brought the 296 Honda 6 out to show us jungle bunnies what a real motorbike went like. I had an entry for the event in Cape Town, and Mike, God bless him, came down there for a ride so that guys like me could one day tell their grandchildren they raced against Mike "The Bike" Hailwood, which of course would be a gross exaggeration. What we were actually doing was competing in the same race as him. A subtle difference.
I think I´ve already recounted on here somewhere how, when he lapped me for the first time, I sat up to brake for the corner at the end of the back straight, called BP bend, and he came past me still on the tank travelling about 30 kph faster than me. Believe me, any thoughts I may have had of being a half way decent exponent on 2 wheels were rudely dashed right there.

A great achievement to be in the same event as Mike, it puts one's abilities, however, in perspective. When I saw him in 1967 at Brands, he just simply rode away from the field.

Real quiet on here recently , is everyone over looking at the N A T S website or something?


Lambo

I bet Mr Fu has run out of photos! it is quiet, I always check this thread, because such brilliant photos are posted

Hope not , one of the things that I look forward to each day, if they are posted.

What ,What there are traitors in our midst ( not moi of course )

Cooooeeeee Young Nigel i've just had a peek at your thread ' bikes we had ' elsewhere have you joined the Aussie Site by Greg Bennett as well ???

N A T S ......... Rottweiler heaven.....

And joint home of the Schirtfinkle

What site is that phil? could you PM me the site name, so as to not offend the administrators on here.

Cheers mate,

Nigel

You must be getting forgetful in your old age or are you nuts or nats

Ps what site do you want me to PM you on ???

You're right about the age (40), I'm catching you up fast!

The Greg Bennett site, please

Ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh I think we have a guest lurking I think Mr Fu is about at last

Crash hats ready guys, there will be some "scuds" flying around cyber space!

Should be OK , we've been talking about him -- not to him :\

oi...I am not far away from Graham, he is in the next county to me.......maybe just 15 miles as the crow flies, ok for the rest of you!

Your silence has me looking out of the window Graham

Greg Bennett..(Google)..guitar and ukelele sales...rocket scientist...Scouse comedian....

It must be me...

Yes , he's just -- like Elvis -- left the building --could be on the way round with a piece of 4x2 prowling , lurking

yikes.........

Out all yesterday, then 200mile drive home through freezing fog down to less than 25 yards in places...not nice!! Home 3.00am, so knackered!! But glad you missed me!!?
WWW?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by picblanc
[B]
Out all yesterday, then 200mile drive home through freezing fog down to less than 25 yards in places...not nice!! Home 3.00am, so knackered!! But glad you missed me!!?

Missed who ?? Did somebody say something ??

Careful Phil Graham will try & post five in a row to make up for yesterday :yawn:

I'm not sure Mike , I think the old chap's to tired !!!! :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn:

Oh well, :yawn: Andy B just sent me some jokes. I like this one.

Paddy takes his new wife to bed on their wedding night. She undresses &
lies on the bed spreadeagled & says 'You know what I want dont you?'

'Yeah,' says Paddy. 'The whole friggin' bed by the looks of it!'

Welcome back Graham, never has there been so much text written in this thread, half a page and no photos Hope you are well rested now :yawn:

Thanks Sterling, yes in the News/media world, it would of been described as a slow news day!!

But YOU were the news --we nearly had to send out a search party for you

In the forces Graham you would be on a charge matey! AWOL

Perhaps he is thats why he has so many aliases !!!

Ps did he visit you earlier ??

No, not guilty your honour, I was out with the Clerk of Works, shopping, absolutely rivetting it was, I would not have missed it for the world, all that carrying

If no one else is going to take it, andy watts, druids 1983?

Hooray!! indeed Andy Watts 1983 I think is right also.

His great nemesis though, at least in early sixties, was the brilliant Derek Minter ; Hailwood often lavished praise on the abilty of this guy. And as Brucie would say - he was my favorite.

Minter was a Kent lad also? Was he anything to do with Minters Catering, which had outlets at Brands? Some of the names I remember seeing from back then, Owen Greenwood in the special Mini thing and Helmut Fath. Names I remember, Joe Dunphy, Colin Seeley, Jim Redman (?), as a youngster when attending (and not reading MCN) I had little or no idea if these guys were local or what (obviously Fath was not!).

Was Florian Carmathias another sidecar guy? (Swiss) and Fritz Scheidiger (SP).

I have a Barry Sheene book, which was a great read, any recommendations for others? (in the great period 1960-70)

Sterling

Yes sterling, he was from Whitstable way. He was quicker than many of the guys to have been given full factory rides and therefore the opportunity of GP wins and tittles. The story goes that he he was extraordinary good at upsetting the wrong people. He also talked and looked like a carrot cruncher. He would never have got so much as a sniff nowadays..... He did get factory rides but never properly competive bikes or those with full support. Dont think he had anything to do with the Caterers. There is a interview wth him on Youtube (I can't do that link thing) from about ten years ago when he was having the occassional trot on a Manx Norton.

No Fath wasn't from our green and pleasant land, although he was probably of that generation who aspired to be. Redman was a Rhodesian who left Greenford Middlesex when around eighteen. He returned in 1958 and was later Honda's muliple world champ. Yes, both Camathias and Scheidigger were Swiss, and both were killed in UK crashes. The other guys were local in that they were Englishmen. I havent read any of the books since I was a kid or at least much younger. Alan Peck's book on Bill Ivy was from memory a good read. There are loads of them, although it might be difficult to get hold of them now .

The Bill Ivy book "No Time To Lose" has recently been reprinted, and is a good read.

Sterling, Camathias and Brit Harry Winter? around 1962. As about a tweleve year old I asked him to sign this around the same time.



And Max Duebel/ Emil Horner.

got a copy few years back on e-bay

was signed by author and Bill's mum too

Interesting that Florian Camathias used the "English" left hand sided chair?

WWW?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Nearly 3000 posts all ready!

Chas Mortimer?

Chas Mortimer, TZ, 1977, Snetterton.

Great photo Russell, Max was another guy that I remember, going to school just a few miles from Brands bred a few young petrol heads and we often talked about the heros of the day! Thanks for the tip on the Bill Ivy book, I will look it up, it was such a tragedy to lose him in that F2 race, he was so very talented.

The sidecar outfits have changed just a bit from the early days :\