Between the years 1958 and 1967, Mike Hailwood was recognised as one of the greatest grand prix motorcycle racers of his or any other era. During his career he won 76 grand prix races as well as 14 Isle of Man TT victories – not to mention nine world championship titles.
MIKE HAILWOOD – SURTEES TS10 – FORMULA 2
In 1963 he accepted an offer to race on four wheels and took part in the British grand prix driving a Lotus 24 for the Reg Parnell team. He came home eighth and followed this with tenth-place finish in the Italian grand prix. However, motorcycles remained his priority although he accepted the occasional offer to drive sports cars, his first exerience being the 1966 Daytona 24-Hours, co-driving a Ferrari with Innes Ireland. His most notable success came at the 1969 Le Mans 24-Hours where he finished third overall, co-driving with David Hobbs, in a JW Automotive Ford GT40. Mike ended his relationship with Reg Parnell in 1965 and it was 1971 before he returned to Formula 1 when he reached an agreement with John Surtees to be part of his team that competed in Formula 1, Formula 5000 and Formula 2. He enjoyed a successful year in Formula 5000, winning four of the eleven races entered to finish second in the championship. His first grand prix for the Surtees team was at Monza where he came within 0.18 seconds of winning. Despite that fine margin he was still only fourth in the closest finish ever recorded, a feat that might never be repeated as five drivers finished within 0.61 seconds of each other. That was the closest Mike would get to winning a grand prix; he raced for two further seasons for Surtees but over half the races ended in retirement. A move to McLaren in 1974 saw an improvement but his highest placing would be one third place.
Mike Hailwood’s greatest success on four wheels came in 1972 when he claimed the European Formula 2 title, winning twice and finishing second in four of the 14 races. He was designated the number one driver in the team, racing a Surtees TS10 (chassis 01). The car was a narrow monocoque design with inboard rear brakes and outboard fronts; a Brian Hart-prepared 1850cc Ford BDA engine was mounted to the bulkhead behind the driver. It was fully sponsored by the Matchbox toy company and painted yellow and light blue. At the end of the season the car was sold and for much of the following decade it was hillcimbed by several owners before it was shipped to California in 1991 where it occasionally appeared in historic races in the hands of Gary Nickel. The car took part in over 70 recorded races prior to Nickel’s death in 2003 and it remains with the family collection at his Far Niente Winery in Oakville.
The photograph above shows Mike Hailwood driving the Surtees TS10 to second place at Crystal Palace, 29th May 1972, on his way to winning the championship title. He had recorded the fastest lap during practice but the McLaren M21 of rising star Jody Scheckter beat Mike to the finish by two seconds.
From ‘Moments in Motorsport’ by Trevor Legate.
