Cw 25 Years Ago

CW 25 YEARS AGO

September, 1965

OKAY. HERE'S A QUESTION FOR the ages: Could Ringo Starr beat Mike Hailwood? Hey, who knows? And besides, beat him at what? At being rhythm-meister for the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band? Definitely. But around, say, the Isle of Man’s Mountain Circuit? No way, mate.

A goofy question, in any case, but one raised on the contents page ofOTs September, 1965, edition in reference to a story titled, “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” which profiled the doings of a rocker/ racer named AÍ Krupa. Just how Ringo and Mike the Bike got involved isn’t clear from a reading of the story 25 years after the fact, but one thing does ring true. Krupa told author Joe Scalzo that in order to play his kind of music, he had to be “little crazy . . . just like racing a motorcycle.” But what exquisite craziness.

The 1965 running of the Isle of Man was profiled in this edition, with Honda-mounted Jim Redman winning the 250 and 350cc races, and with Hailwood winning the 500cc race aboard an MV Agusta in spite of an 80-mph get-oif.

Also in this issue was a story on an unlikely, but very sanitary, twin-Triumphengined dragster which was turning 9.7 -second times at 155 miles per hour, and articles on various other GP, flat-track, and sidecar races. But no other mention of Ringo. That’s okay. Even without him, the CW beat was still loud and clear. —Jon F. Thompson