Mike Hailwood competed in his first motorcycle race in 1957 at Oulton Park in Cheshire, England. Bill Webster, then MV’s ‘British team manager’, supplied Mike with the bike and took him around the circuit in practice to showing him the racing lines. Bill was impressed with the way Mike came through to finish 11th on the day and convinced his dad, Stan, that his son had potential. He wasn’t wrong!
Stan and Mike at the TT in 1958
Wind the clock on 53 years and it was the end of another British racer’s career. Neil Hodgson, winner of the 2000 British Superbike Championship and 2003 World Superbike champion, announced his retirement from British Superbikes and competitive motorcycle racing due to the shoulder injury he picked up in a motocross accident during the previous AMA Superbike season. Hodgson had aggravated the injury in the first round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.
