Oxford motorcyclist Mike Hailwood won a record 14 TT races

The city-born star was one of the country’s top competitors for many years, gathering a crop of trophies on the way.

We were reminded of his success when writer and illustrator David Langford sent in this painting, right, of him winning his last Isle of Man TT race in 1979 on his 500cc Suzuki.

David Langford’s painting of Mike Hailwood winning his final Isle of Man TT race in 1979

Mr Langford completed the painting in 2019 to mark the 40th anniversary of the event.

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In a career spanning 21 years, ‘Mike the Bike’ won nine world championships and a record 14 TT races over the notorious mountain course on the Isle of Man.

Racing was in his blood from an early age.

His father, Stanley, a director of King’s Motors (Oxford) Ltd, was a leading motorcyclist and car driver on the racing circuits in his younger days.

Mike, right, with his father Stanley and the 250 trophies he had won by 1961

Young Michael was churning up his father lawn at the age of seven on a motorbike specially built for him.

He made his debut as a 17-year-old at Oulton Park on Easter Sunday, 1957.

Less than two months later, he won his first race, a 125cc event. He never looked back.

Mike Hailwood at Stowe Corner at Silverstone in 1960

He won the 250cc world championship in 1961 and was double 250cc and 350cc champion in 1966 and 1967.

In between, he won the supreme title, the 500cc championship, four times in succession.

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Having won virtually everything, Hailwood quit full-time two-wheel racing in 1968 and turned to cars and although he became a competitive Formula 1 driver, he never achieved the success he sought.

Mike with the Mellano Trophy he won at Silverstone in 1960

A 100mph crash brought his car career to an end at the Nurburgring circuit in 1974.

This was two years after he had been awarded the George Medal for bravery in pulling fellow driver Clay Regazzoni from his blazing car during the South African Grand Prix.

His fans, however, had not seen the last of Hailwood.

Ten years after being awarded the MBE for services to motorcycle racing, he entered the 1978 TT, just for fun.

Jim Adams, left, and Mike Hailwood with Vic Willoughby, a reporter from The Motorcycle magazine

Amid jubilant scenes never seen before on the Isle of Man, he won the Formula 1 race after an 11-year absence.

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A year later, he won the senior TT and ended his career a few days later with a win at Mallory Park.

Sadly, Hailwood died in hospital, aged 40, after his car and a lorry collided at Portway, near the Warwickshire-Worcestershire border, in 1981 as he was fetching fish and chips for his family.

One of his many admirers was Les Belcher, of Botley, who saw many of his victories.

At Silverstone in 1959, left to right, Mike Hailwood, Irish rider Tommy Robb and mechanic Jim Adams

He told the Oxford Mail’s Memory Lane column in 2012: “You cannot praise this great man enough for what he did for motorcycle racing and I feel privileged to have seen most of his victories.”