Fascinating insights tonight from someone who was there. It was not so much that Mike Hailwood was a mechanical klutz but more that Honda would not respond to any changes he suggested. Thus Suzuki were stumped when they asked him what he wanted to be done to the bike and he said - nothing - as Hailwood presumed they would have the same attitude as Honda.
Another one. It turned out that Sheene overplayed his hand at the end of his time with Suzuki. He rejected a £200k contract offer and thought Suzuki were bluffing when they walked out. It also transpired that Akai and other sponsors of his subsequent Yamaha ride thought he would be on works bikes. When it turned out he was on customer bikes that deal rapidly went sour. Another one. Kevin Schwantz turned up at Suzuki for the Transatlantic Donington races at the track asking for a bike to race. No one knew who he was. Under duress from the track management Suzuki bought a road bike from a local dealer, did what they could to it in the 18 hours they had - then sent Schwantz out to race it. The rest is history.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
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