Classic Bike FEATURE Hailwood v Agostini

best tt ever?
titanic TT
The 1967 Senior scrap between Mike Hailwood on a Honda and MV Agusta’s
Giacomo Agostini is rightly revered as one of the best TT races ever
Words: mike nicks Photography: fottofinders
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best tt ever?
H
as there ever been such savage spectacle, such
sensational, soul-shattering speed as in this 1967
Senior TT?” Those words introduced the Motor
Cycle News report of an event many have since
labelled the greatest TT race of all time.
But really you can’t compare situations that occurred in
different times and in different circumstances. In the case of the
’67 Senior, for example, the battle for the lead between Giacomo
Agostini on the three-cylinder MV Agusta and Mike Hailwood
on the four-cylinder Honda RC181 ended with more than a lap to
go, when Ago’s chain broke at Windy Corner. But the context of
the race and the intensity of the action certainly marks the ’67
Senior as among the most heart-stopping of TT spectacles.
For most of the eight years from 1958-65, the TT had been used
to seeing a factory MV triumph by minutes over riders on singlecylinder
Manx Nortons and Matchless G50s. Only in 1961 had
an MV not won, when Gary Hocking retired with a sticking
throttle and Hailwood took the chequered flag on a Manx.
In the smaller classes the action was much more dramatic, as
Japan entered Grand Prix competition for the first time. The result
was the greatest explosion of technical innovation of all time,
which saw V4 (Yamaha) and square-four (Suzuki) two-strokes, a
14-speed 50cc twin (Suzuki) and, from Honda, a 125 and 250
five-cylinder and 297cc sixes.
Honda then decided to go for the big prize: the 500cc World
Championship. Based on their previous approach – a chase for
higher revs via more cylinders – a five or a six was expected. But
Honda went conventional and produced a transverse four, as MV
and Gilera had previously done. On the new RC181, Hailwood
won the 1966 Senior TT easily from Agostini, who was in only his
second year on the Mountain Circuit.
By 1967, however, Agostini had the self-confidence and the tiger
in his tank. Pundits were predicting another Hailwood Senior TT
victory, but on the first lap Ago outpaced Hailwood on every
section of the 37.73 miles. Eight miles out, at Ballaugh, he led by
five seconds. By Ramsey his lead was nine seconds, and at the end
of the lap it was 11.8. The Italian, who was celebrating his 25th
birthday on that sunny June day, had pulverised Hailwood’s 1966
lap record by 15.4 seconds. See right for how the race unfolded...
Four New
Singles
Swingers
In 1967 achieving a
100mph lap on a singlecylinder
bike was seen as
a mark of TT macho, in
much the same way that
there is an unofficial
130mph-plus club today.
Derek Minter had achieved
the first TT 100mph lap on
a single on a Manx Norton
in 1960, at 101.05mph.
Seven years later, there
were four new initiates to
the clan.
Williams 101.32mph
Blanchard 101.14mph
Spencer 100.14mph
Uphill 100.02mph
n BELOW: Hailwood with
father Stan (right) before
the ’67 Senior TT
★ the race★
lap by lap
Lap 1
1 Agostini 20m 53.3s 108.38mph
2 Hailwood 21m 5.0s 107.37mph
From a standing start, Ago does the first 108mph lap of the
Mountain Circuit, and the first sub-21-minute lap. Mike
gives his pits a thumbs-down signal as he streams through.
Has he got a problem – or is the problem the entire RC181
package? The gap to Ago: 11.7 seconds.
Lap 2
1 Agostini 41m 45.2s 108.44mph
2 Hailwood 41m 53.8s 108.77mph
Mike betters Ago’s one-lap-old record with a stunning
108.77mph, a record that was to stand till 1975. But Ago is
still maintaining his lead – it’s 8.6 seconds.
Lap 3
1 Agostini 1hr 2m 48.8s 108.12mph
2 Hailwood 1hr 2m 50.8s 108.06mph
In this titanic battle of the speed gods, both riders are
averaging over 108mph – faster than Hailwood’s one-lap
record set only the previous year And he’s closed the gap
to Ago to just two seconds. But there’s an extraordinary
scene as they pit for fuel – Hailwood calls for a hammer
from his mechanics and taps a loose throttle assembly
back on to the clip-on handlebar. Meanwhile a mechanic
ties the twistgrip to the forks with a strip of white cleaning
rag before Hailwood gets back into the race.
Lap 4
1 Agostini 1hr 24m 51.4s 106.72mph
2 Hailwood 1hr 25m 3.0s 106.47mph
Mike’s stop cost him 47.8 seconds while Ago, who paused
only for fuel, lost ten seconds less. But the incredible
Hailwood, renowned for his tenacity, fights on with an illhandling
bike and a suspect patch-up to a vital component.
Ago leads, but it’s only by 11.6 seconds.
Lap 5
1 Hailwood 1hr 46m 3.8s 106.73mph
2 Williams 1hr 53m 29.2s 99.75mph
It’s barely believable – on the vicious twists and turns after
Ballacraine, Hailwood has cut Ago’s lead to just two
seconds at Ballaugh... and at Ramsey he leads by one
second! Ago responds, and leads the contest by 2.5s at the
Bungalow. Hailwood, who started 30s ahead of Ago on the
road, streaks through the pits to start his last lap. The
crowds are waiting for Ago – but on the scoreboard facing
the grandstand, the light to indicate that Ago has gone
through Signpost Corner hasn’t come on. There’s tension
while news of his fate is awaited... then the message comes
through, he’s stopped at Windy Corner with a broken chain.
Result (after six laps/226.38 miles)
1 Mike Hailwood (Honda)
2hr 8m 36.2s
105.62mph
2 Peter Williams (Arter Matchless)
2hr 16m 20.0s
99.64mph
3 Steve Spencer (Norton)
2hr 17m 47.2s
98.59mph
4 John Cooper (Norton)
2hr 18m 20.4s
98.20mph
5 Fred Stevens (Hannah Paton)
2hr 19m 34.8s
97.32mph
Hailwood saw signals from spectators that Ago had retired,
but pressed on until Ramsey, where he got a sign from his
mechanic Nobby Clark saying that his rival was out. He
toured home, holding onto the loose throttle. Into second
place, nearly eight minutes behind, rode Peter Williams, the
fastest of the single-cylinder riders on the Arter Matchless.
“I was lucky,” said Hailwood. “If Agostini’s chain hadn’t
broken, I don’t think I could have won. The second lap was
just about as fast as I could go. I made up quite a bit of
time, but lost it all at the pit stop when I had to fix the
throttle. It started to work loose again on the fifth lap and
on the last lap I was riding virtually one-handed. I almost
had to stop once to push it back on, and I was holding it on
for most of the lap.”
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best tt ever?
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The Riders
Mike Hailwood
27 years old and already
the winner of seven world
championships and 11 TT
races. The race favourite,
especially after a stunning
107.73mph on the 297cc
Honda six when he won the
Junior TT two days earlier.
Giacomo Agostini
25 on the day of the race,
the underdog Italian was
the holder of one world
championship, and winner
of one TT (the ’66 Junior).
The Bikes
Honda RC181
An unwieldy beast from
an era when Honda
prized power above
handling
499cc four-cylinder
85bhp @ 12,000rpm*
Gear-driven dohc
Four-valve heads
Air-cooled
330lb (149kg)
Top speed 153.8mph
* 1966 version
The Eye-witness at the
Centre of the Storm
Robin Miller was a 27-year-old local newspaper reporter
who scored a dream job in the late 1960s – he became
Grand Prix reporter for Motor Cycle News during the era
of the first Japanese technical wars. He worked among
and socialised with the great figures of the period,
including Hailwood, Agostini, Bill Ivy and Phil Read.
“It was an amazing time, because the engines of the
factory bikes were very sophisticated, and ahead of
Formula One at that time in terms of bhp per litre
(Denny Hulme won the 1967 F1 title in a three-litre
Repco Brabham V8).
“There were five-cylinder 125s and twin-cylinder 50s. Formula
One wasn’t there. The TT was still a world championship race,
and every rider had to be there. I remember after one early
morning practice coming back into the Castle Mona hotel in
Douglas and seeing Mike there at 8am playing the piano – he
loved music. He was obviously recovering as he’d had a narrow
escape that morning. He was saying: ‘F*** me, that was near’.
“The morning practice sessions then started at about 6am, so
the riders would be out of bed by 5.30am. There might be mist on
the course, and the problem of the sun right in their faces
approaching Sulby Bridge and other places, where they could
barely see. Evening practice started at 5 or 6pm. Riders would get
to bed at 11pm and get up at about five. Six hours sleep is quite
enough for most people.
“Wrestling that big Honda around was physically
extraordinarily demanding for Mike. It was a notoriously bad
handler. They went through all sorts of iterations with frames by
Ken Sprayson and Colin Lyster, but they never did get it right.
“It had so much power that it was a wrestling match that entire
season, and Mike was very unhappy with the bike at many of the
circuits. At the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, which was another
highly dangerous track, he almost threw the bike at the pit wall
and said: ‘F***ing useless thing.’
“It was especially bad in the rain. They didn’t have wet and dry
n Robin Miller saw it
all with his own eyes
MV Triple
Developed from MV’s
350cc triple, the 500
was compact with
better handling than
the Honda. In two years
of competition in the
500cc class, Honda
had failed to snatch the
rider’s title from this bike
491cc three-cylinder
78bhp @ 11,600rpm
Gear-driven dohc
Four-valve heads
Air cooled
320lb (145kg)
Top speed 155.2mph
Top speed figures from
MCN speed trap on the
drop between Creg-ny-
Baa and Brandish
corners (1967 Senior)
tyres then – they rode with the same tyre compound in wet or dry
conditions, and at the TT the tyres had to last for six laps because
there were no changes at pit stops.
“Did the riders love the TT? In some ways they did. But I
remember Mike in his low moments saying: ‘I wish they’d pull the
plug on this place and let it sink into the Irish Sea’. It was so
dangerous and so difficult. But he loved it really.
“He and Ago were the greatest of friends, but it was also a very
confrontational situation. It was always Hailwood v Agostini in
the big race. No one else would get near them – there was a race
for the multis between those two, and another one for the singles.
“I’d take copies of MCN out to the Grands Prix, and when I
knocked on Mike’s caravan he’d say: ‘Oh Miller, have you got a
copy?’ I’d put the paper through the window and go and talk to
him. I enjoyed going to the after-race parties and getting drunk
with the rest of them.
“I’m afraid I can’t remember exactly what we did on the night
of the 1967 Senior TT. I think I drove out to someone’s party that
was being held at a house somewhere outside Douglas with Mike
and some others in a hire car. There was plenty of boozing going
on. Then they flew to Mallory Park on the Saturday for the Post-
TT races on the Sunday.”
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