Mike Hailwood
Mike Hailwood won nine Grand Prix world championships across four different classes during the 1960s, then walked away from the sport for over a decade before returning in 1978 to win the Isle of Man Senior TT again at 38, in one of motorcycle racing's most celebrated comebacks.
Mike Hailwood began racing motorcycles as a teenager in the late 1950s and quickly rose to the top of the sport, winning his first world championship, in the 250cc class, in 1961 for Honda.
Through the mid-1960s, Hailwood won titles across the 250cc, 350cc, and 500cc classes for MV Agusta and Honda, a run of success that established him as one of the sport's defining figures, before he left motorcycle Grand Prix racing at the end of 1967 to pursue a career in car racing, including several seasons in Formula 1.
In 1978, after eleven years away, Hailwood returned to the Isle of Man TT and won the Formula 1 TT race on a Ducati at age 38, a comeback victory still regarded as one of the most celebrated moments in motorcycle racing history. He retired for good the following year and died in a road accident in 1981.
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Between 1961 and 1967, Hailwood won titles in the 250cc, 350cc, and 500cc classes for MV Agusta and Honda, a breadth of success across categories that places him among the small handful of riders considered the greatest of all time.
After eleven years away from motorcycle Grand Prix racing — spent largely racing cars, including a season in Formula 1 — Hailwood returned to the Isle of Man TT in 1978 at age 38 and won the Formula 1 TT race on a Ducati, a result widely regarded as one of the most emotional and celebrated victories in the sport's history.
During his years away from motorcycles, Hailwood competed in Formula 1, finishing runner-up in the 1972 European Formula 2 championship and racing in F1 for several seasons, including earning a George Medal for pulling driver Clay Regazzoni from a burning car at the 1973 South African Grand Prix.
Hailwood ran into a burning Formula 1 car to help free fellow driver Clay Regazzoni, an act of bravery recognised with the George Medal, one of Britain's highest civilian honours for courage.
Hailwood died in a car accident near his home in England in 1981, alongside his young daughter, less than a year after his final retirement from motorcycle racing — a tragic end that added further weight to the legend already built around his career and comeback.