[275 GTB-4]

Mike Hailwood critically hurt in crash

By a Staff Reporter

Mr Mike Hailwood, former world motor cycling champion, was critically ill in Birmingham hospital yesterday after a road accident in which his daughter, Michelle, aged nine, died.

Mr Hailwood, aged 41, nine times world motor cycling champion, who was awarded the George Medal for bravery in 1973 after rescuing Clay Regazzoni from a blazing car during the South African Grand Prix, was in Birmingham Accident Hospital with severe head injuries.

The accident was on Saturday evening on the A435 near the Warwickshire - Worcestershire border when Mr Hailwood's Rover was in a collision with a lorry. His son, David, aged six, was slightly injured, but was discharged from hospital yesterday.

Mr Hailwood built up a reputation as a very safe rider in hundreds of motor cycly races; his only serious injury came when he switched from two wheels to four and crashed in the German Grand Prix in 1974. He gave up serious car racing after that accident when he had to be cut from his car and had a compound fracture of his right knee and leg.

In 1978, he returned to motor cycle racing and won the Isle of Man TT for the fourteenth time.

[London Times 23 March 1981]