Monthly Archives: June 2024

It could only happen at the Cathedral, not once but twice. Imagine telling the Moto3™ riders lining up on the Assen grid on Sunday, that after this race you have to compete and win in the forthcoming Moto2™ and MotoGP™ races on the same day. The legendary Assen Van Drenthe circuit has rightly earned the title as the Cathedral of Grand Prix racing, for many reasons. Some are obvious, others not. Of course, it’s the only circuit remaining on the MotoGP™ calendar from that original 1949 schedule. Not so well known, is that Assen staged the closest ever 500cc finish in 1975 and two great World Champions won three Grand Prix races in a single day.

Six-time World Champion Jim Redman was the first to pull off this incredible feat of both skill and endurance. In 1964 he won the 125, 250 and 350cc Grands Prix riding the works Hondas on a rather busy Saturday June 27^th, 1964. Two years later Mike Hailwood, once again on Honda machinery, won the 250, 350 and 500cc races on the same day. Nine times World Champion Hailwood raced for over three hours on his 440-kilometre adventure. It’s a unique record that will surely never be equalled

I like to think, and certainly tell my friends, that I played a part in the outcome of that closest-ever premier class finish in 1975. Around 25 of us rather boisterous fans arrived in Assen on the Saturday morning to support our hero Barry Sheene. The Suzuki rider who had recovered from that horrendous Daytona crash earlier in the year. It was a scorching hot afternoon. The cold Dutch beer was welcome and fully consumed by the time the 16-lap race got underway. We flew a large Union Jack and cheered on Sheene as he shadowed Giacomo Agostini’s Yamaha until the very last corner of the race. The 135,000 crowd, led by us, was going wild.

Lap after lap Barry had feigned to go left in that final bend and then stayed in Ago’s slipstream. He moved to repeat the manoeuvres for the last time, Ago positioned the Yamaha to block him and Barry was through on the right. They crossed the finishing line absolutely side by side and nobody knew who had won. Barry’s Dad Franco was running up and down pit lane celebrating, trying to convince the finish line judges that his son had grabbed his first 500cc victory. We joined in at a much higher pitch of both noise and excitement. At last, the Tannoy announced what we all wanted to hear. Sheene was declared the winner although for the only time in Grand Prix racing the two riders could not be separated on time. Both riders were credited with a race time of 48.01.00s. A long night of celebration followed in Amsterdam en route to the ferry home. I’m sure our support of Barry and Franco made no difference to the judges, but it made a very good story and my very first News Editor always told me, never spoil a good story with the facts. It also summed up my love of such a special place.

My first ever Grand Prix visit outside the Isle of Man in 1973. Watching Phil Read win on the MV Agusta while enjoying the delights of chips with mayonnaise, cold beer at 8 am and so many bicycles and windmills. My first assignment as a Grand Prix reporter in 1980 was witnessing Jack Middleburg claiming the last Dutch home 500cc victory. Since then, great memories from the commentary box. The Rossi/Marquez battle at the final chicane in 2015. The Doctor’s last Grand Prix win in 2017. Jack Miller’s win and celebrations a year earlier. We all felt the bitter disappointment of Colin Edwards, when he crashed in the chicane with the chequered flag in sight in 2006. If anybody deserved a Grand Prix victory it was Colin.

Finally, I loved Assen because up to 2016 the Grand Prix was always held on a Saturday. I could get home for a rare Sunday lunch with the family.

The Cathedral is the greatest Grand Prix venue in the world, for so many different reasons.

Facts are facts. Manipulate them as much as you like, juggle them to your own advantage, but you will always return to the same answer in the end. Certainly, this is the case in the 75-year history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The fact is that Giacomo Agostini is the greatest rider of all time and the King of our sport.

It sounds like stating the obvious but some may not agree. Fifteen world titles and 122 Grands Prix wins are surely enough. More world titles and Grands Prix wins than any other rider, but there is so much more to the Italian who graced our racetracks for 14 glorious years. Where do you start

It was the dream team for MV boss Count Agusta. A young Italian who could win him world titles. Before he had turned to the likes of John Surtees, Gary Hocking and Mike Hailwood, but at last a young handsome Italian to take on the world. Ago did not let him or Italy down. He finished second to teammate Mike Hailwood in the 1965 World 500cc Championship, winning his first premier class Grand Prix round the streets of Imatra. Jim Redman and Honda had dominated the 350cc class for the last three years but Ago, riding the new three-cylinder MV, pushed him to the limit. Only a mechanical problem at the final round in Japan prevented him from taking his first world title.

Hailwood left MV to spearhead Honda’s considerable efforts to win their first 500cc title. MV with Ago at the helm were ready to take on the might of Japan in one of the greatest duels ever witnessed. Two great riders, friends and former teammates, fighting it out for the most prestigious prize in Motorcycle racing. In 1966 and 1967, Ago fought off Honda and Hailwood to keep that 500cc crown in Italian hands after some classic battles to stir the blood. Honda withdrew from the battle in 1968 leaving the track clear for Agostini to totally dominate Grand Prix racing in a way never witnessed before or after.

Yes, for a few years he had little opposition to challenge his and MV Agusta’s domination of the 350 and 500cc classes, but he never took his hand off the throttle. Ago smashed lap records and won by record margins on fast dangerous road circuits such as the Isle of Man, Reika, the Nürburgring and Imatra. Across the 1968,1969 and 1970 seasons he competed in 54 500 and 350cc Grands Prix, and won every one.

In the 1968/69 season Ago won a record number of 20 successive 500cc Grands Prix. It could not last and new challengers and the two-strokes arrived, but he met them head-on. He held them off for a couple of years retaining both titles, especially after a tremendous battle with Jarno Saarinen on the 350cc two-stroke Yamaha, but the writing was on the wall. His new team-mate Phil Read won the 500cc title in 1973 and Ago realised that his future lay on two-stroke machinery. He made the headline switch to Yamaha in 1974.

Ago was crowned the first two-stroke 350cc World Champion and finished fourth in the 500s. A year later in 1975 he was re-writing the history books once again. He became the first rider on two-stroke machinery to win the 500cc World Championship. He is still the only rider to win a 500cc Grand Prix and world title on both two and four-stroke bikes. Ago is the only rider to win the 350cc World Championship on both two and four-stroke machinery.

In 1976 Ago was campaigning both a two-stroke Suzuki and four-stroke MV Agusta in the 500cc Championship. At the last round at the legendary Nürburgring circuit he practiced on both. The crowd willed him to compete on the MV in the race. A legendary combination that wrote such a massive chapter in the history books. Ago duly obliged putting in a classic performance leaving the two strokes in his wake. It was the last of those 122 Grands Prix wins and the last four-stroke victory in the 500cc class.

It was the only way for a true King to end his reign. Facts are facts.