TT 1965
Italian Giacomo Agostini arrived in 1965 to partner Hailwood in the MV team, woo the Island girls and start a magnificent TT career, although his first Senior TT ended in disaster.
In poor conditions, with rain falling on certain parts of the circuit, Hailwood led the young pretender by 25 seconds at the end of the first lap. The damp track caught Agostini unawares at Sarah's Cottage, where he slid from his MV and, although unhurt, he was unable to carry on.
A lap later the crowd hushed with the announcement that Hailwood had crashed at exactly the same spot, but was continuing.
He kicked the MV straight, and pushing got the machine restarted, the MV looking very second hand, sporting a broken screen and flattened exhaust megaphones. His pit stop took 70 seconds as the mechanics straightened bent handlebars, but he went on to win, at the slowest speed for six years, with Norton mounted Joe Dunlop second and Mike (Michelle) Duff third on his Matchless.
Agostini's debut, a couple of days earlier in the Junior, had been much more impressive. Redman was chasing a hat trick of consecutive Junior victories and Hailwood was determined to stop him. He set a new record on his opening lap and led Redman by 20 seconds.
By the third lap he had opened the gap to 28 seconds, but he then dropped back after a long pit stop. The pressure on the MV proved too great, and Hailwood retired at Sarah's Cottage on the fourth lap, leaving the way clear for Redman to achieve his goal. Phil Read was second on the Yamaha two stroke, with Agostini third after Derek Woodman went out on the last lap.
Earlier in the week Redman had set up the first part of his unique 'treble double' by winning his third 250cc TT in succession. He gave the opposition, headed by the Yamahas of Read and Duff, no chance, although Read set the early pace with the first 100mph 250cc lap. Redman applied the pressure on the second lap, raising the lap record to 100.09mph, while Read's Yamaha broke at the Mountain Box. Duff chased hard but had to settle for second place in front of Frank Perris's Suzuki.
Read made up for his disappointment by winning a tremendous three lap 125cc race, just beating Luigi Taveri's Honda by 5.8 seconds. Phil led by 12 seconds going into the last lap, but Taveri gradually pulled back the advantage over the Mountain. The Swiss pushed Duff, Read's teammate, down to third, but could not catch the leading Yamaha before the finish.
Interest in the 50cc event was dwindling, as in damp conditions Taveri brought his Honda home to victory ahead of the Suzukis of Anderson and Degner.
Max Deubel and Fritz Scheidegger staged a mighty contest throughout the three-lap sidecar race. Scheidegger was first into his stride, but Deubel took over on the second lap and won by 14 seconds, establishing a new lap record of 91.80 mph. George Auerbacher was third, making it yet another BMW one-two-three.