1978 Castrol 6 hour video

This was the second year Mike Hailwood raced a 750SS in the Castrol 6 hours, just a couple of months before his TT comeback - full story in issue 7 of Benzina. Thanks to Andrew Gray for reminding me about this video

When BMW twins weren't flat

This great shot of Cook Neilson chasing Reg Pridmore at Riverside in 1976 might have a whiff of Photoshop about it to Ducati fans, but Reg and the Beemer could really fly. Up until the R90S (in Daytona smoked orange, please) BMWs were seen as fuddy old bikes for flat capped old men. Once ex-pat Brit Pridmore showed that the flat twins were anything but, folk realised the R90S was more than a fancy paint job and was the only bike that could be seriously considered as an alternative to the Italian superbikes of the era. More of this motor art at the MotoJones Gallery

RIP Mick Walker

Mick Walker, famed lover, importer and racer of Italian motorcycles has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Rest in peace, Mick, you'll be missed.


All who knew Mick will remember an ever-helpful, ever-smiling man who was always willing to help fellow enthusiasts. One time Ducati and Cagiva importer, he actually tried to buy the old Aermacchi factory when Harley wanted out (for the first time!): after Cagiva stepped in to buy it, Mick supported them and helped develop their products.

His knowledge and memory was legendary. When Ducati had a shuffle about in their factory and realised their usual lack of records meant nobody knew what all the old spares amounted to, it was Mick who went to Italy to sort out the mess and tell them what they had. No wonder he was far and away the most prolific motorcycling author the world has ever seen. Thankfully he finished his biography a little while ago; I last spoke to him in January, asking what he knew of the little Aguzzi featured at the back of Benzina #7. As always he was happy to chat and help out, even though he was obviously exhausted and very poorly. Didn't stop him talking positively about his next book, a definitive listing of every Italian marque ever built. Sadly that will never see the printing presses, but luckily we can all enjoy his autobiography, "The ride of my life" published by Redline books

Mike Hailwood's real comeback

Parochial fans too often talk about the 1978 TT as Mike Hailwood’s comeback. The familiar story goes that he returned after years away from racing, his Isle of Man victory made even sweeter by unexpectedly choosing to ride a Ducati rather than returning to Honda. Some people even gild the lily with tales of Hailwood arriving on the Island and having to come to terms with a left-foot gear change and a big Desmo twin when he’d last raced a right foot-changing 500 multi. Yet like so much of the received wisdom on Mike’s comeback, it’s all wrong. After the Nürburgring crash that mangled his right leg and ended his F1 career, Mike might have moved to New Zealand, but he certainly didn’t give up on bikes. The story of his real comeback to racing, and his journey to the Isle of Man was via the race tracks of Australia. The truth involved racing a Ducati 750SS in the Castrol Six Hour Race at Amaroo Park, a properly scary, knarled little race track where rock faces and concrete walls count as run off. Spookily prescient of Mike's return to the TT, his first attempt in 1977 went very well; third in the 750 class, and sixth overall. But like Mike's 1979 TT with Ducati, the following year just about everything went against him. Didn't stop him trying though.Mike followed this up by racing a Yamaha TZ750 at the legendary Bathurst circuit months before his 1978 TT win.

But how could the history books have such a huge gap in them? Simple: Australia’s a long way from Europe and the US, and racing there’s easy to overlook when you discover the way news was reported by even the mainstream press back then. Think: no internet, faxes or even reliable international telephone lines. A journalist would have to fly there and back, writing copy on the flight home. Once back in his home country that copy needs typing up, typically by calling into the office from a public telephone at your home airport. For the big US races that were seen as important to Europeans budgets would get busted, but the Australian market was seen as self-contained: you win in Australia, you tell the Australians. The rest of the world doesn’t need to know. Until now. In researching it I’m indebted to many Australians and particularly ace snapper Phil Aynsley who took the photograph and Mike's fellow Ducati racer (at both Amaroo park and the 1978 TT) Jim Scaysbrook, who went on to be a famed writer and these days edits Old Bike Australasia The full story's in issue #007 of Benzina

Trending in Top Gear

Funny how more and more petrolheads claim to hate Top Gear, and watching last night's latest Top Gear I can understand why - it ceased to be a car show years ago. But so what? Dr Girlie Nice-Smile and the kids laughed out loud, and it's one of the few TV experiences the teenagers will share with Mum and Dad. So perfect Sunday evening family viewing, despite leaving most 40 and 50-something blokes as grumpy as presenters Clarkson's stage personae.


But I do understand this; after years of being left alone with my love of Italian bikes in general and Ducati in particular in 1995 I succumbed to the urge to buy a 916. Fantastic bike (as long as you could take the riding position. And grumpiness in traffic...Or town. And the services costs.) except for one major failing - both the usual sportsbike brigade AND their detractors assumed I'd bought it because some magazine said it was the latest hot-shot must-have. Oddly enough if I was to buy a race-rep Ducati today, I'd get a 999 just to climb back into a hole to hide in while enjoying a bike nobody else appreciates. Like the Manic Street Preachers sang, there's a certain joy in Motorcycle Emptiness

Lessons from history

Sitting for three days on the Benzina stand at Race Retro gave plenty of time to reflect on the bikes around me, including "our" Mondial Piega and NCR rep as featured in Benzina #004 courtesy of Made in Italy Motorcycles. When Ducati/NCR beat Honda's RCBs at Montjuic Park's 24 hour race in 1980 even the biggest Duke fan must have accepted the mighty Big H would go on to rule the two wheeled world. Laid out in front of our stand was a Hailwood 350/4, a replica 500/6 and Ron Haslam's mighty 1100cc superbike. These were the racebikes fantasies of my embryonic love of motorcycles, and while I was one of the few people I knew who thought Mrs T could wrestle control of the UK from the big unions, I accepted Honda would probably kill Ducati the way they'd already killed Triumph. How wrong can you be?


I've blogged before on the heroic rebirth of Triumph under John Bloor, but who'd have thought back in 1980 that in 2012 a new Ducati would be hailed as the world's finest sportsbike? Or that a biking superstar like Rossi would be riding for Ducati in MotoGP? Or that 2012 might be the year when the Chinese sell more bikes in the UK than the Japanese? How did the Japanese get caught napping in exactly the same way as the British bike industry did way-back-when?

Sorry to any of my old economics and business studies tutors for being so succinct (for once), but the parallels are spooky. The Japanese rose to dominance, but fail to establish a premium brand. Just like the Brits even Honda have been (mainly) happy to let the Italians build the low-volume high-end motorcycles. And just like the Brits, they let another country pinch the low-value commuter and newcomer bikes, laughing at the poor quality of their early efforts. Did these people not learn this stuff while studying for MBAs? Worse, they built bikes in China just to benefit from artificially low wage and currency exchange rates, the later also a device used by Japan to protect her nascent motorcycle industry. Apparently no-one thought that the Chinese might copy not just the bikes, but also the production lines.

But there is another lesson here, especially for those who think our current woes can be brushed aside with some good old fashioned Keynesian tax-and-spend. When the world economy last crashed in the late 1980s the west chewed slowly, let over-borrowed households and businesses go bust, and moved on. It was horrid - and as the guy often collecting keys from bailiffs, believe me I know the heartbreak of watching a kid pulled out his home by a weeping mum on his fifth birthday. Japan did what people want now, but reflect on this; Japanese asset values are largely still below (often well below) 1988 values, and Japanese bikes have barely moved on from the early 1990s models that would have come from the R&D momentum of Japan's 1980s boom.

Shows and sales

Great fun catching up with people at last weekend's Bristol classic bike show and to think of the year ahead rather than the gloom of winter. Best stand for me was the Morini riders' club: they had three Tresettes, a cut away 250 single (I think...) and Hugo Wilson's Camel that should have been covered in mud from the Exeter Trial but instead looked very shiny and not quite complete. Glad I'm not the only one missing deadlines

The results of Bonham's auction were about right; most stuff selling at or above estimate; the tidlers were making strong money especially and only one lot went unsold.
But my biggest smile was reserved for the club stand pictured; it was called "she's gone away for the weekend." Me too - will be at the Race Retro show this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Hall 3 by the interview stage. On display will be a Mondial Piega and NCR900 Replica courtesy of Made in Italy Motorcycles and Neil of MiIMC (who built the NCR) will be around Sunday to answer any questions or bamboozle you into buying one of them