Back in the room

At last, life gets back to normal. A CD that represents Benzina#007 is in the post and the actual magazines should be with me within 10 days: late again...sorry. And the of course they've got to be bagged and sent for the post office to work their magic. Absence from the blog (and everything else) is due to the sheer workload involved in layout, proofing and wondering why InDesign changes things back to defaults when merging documents: apparently it's trying to be helpful.


But the main delays have been in trying to get things right: the brilliant debut of Ducati's Desmo 125 at Hedemora I've already owned up to, but even more challenging was getting to the bottom of Mike Hailwood's racing success on a Ducati 750SS in 1977. Yes, 1977 - in Australia, repeatedly, and well before that '78 TT comeback. He also raced at TZ750 at Bathurst, a properly hairy-chested circuit that the Isle of Man TT folk want included in a new world series for street racing.

The pic shows Mike's 750SS in Easter '78 livery (again before the TT): co-rider in the Castrol 6 Hour was Jim Scaysbrook, who deserves more recognition over here: he's been successful in most motorcycle racing disciplines and is regarded as Australia's #1 motorcycle writer, with a slew of books to his credit (including the one below): bizarrely his books are largely unknown (well, to me..) in the UK. Jim helped me no end, largely via Phil Aynsley without whom neither this story or the Desmo 125 piece would have ever got finished. Phil rang people, got things straight and pointed me in the right direction more than once. Please buy his photographs and book (if you can still find a copy). More soon, including a fab pic of Mike wheelieing the big Ducati...