in the European Shellsport F5000 series 1969-71 and was 2nd in the 1972 Tasman F5000 series in which he drove a 5000 engined TS8 F1 chassis. Hailwood was recognised for his bravery when in the 1973 South African Grand Prix he went to pull Clay Regazzoni from his burning car after the two collided on the third lap of the race. Hailwood's driving suit caught fire, but after being extinguished by a fire marshal he returned to help rescue Regazzoni, an act for which he was awarded the George Medal, the second-highest gallantry award that a British civilian can be awarded. In 1974 he drove a works Yardley-sponsored McLaren M23 and sometimes outpaced team leader Emerson Fittipaldi. He left Formula One after being injured badly at the 1974 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring and retired to New Zealand, where he was involved with a marine engineering business together with former McLaren manager Phil Kerr. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1975 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Comeback In 1977, Hailwood had travelled to Australia to ride large-capacity Ducatis in long-distance races and a 30-lap event on a Yamaha, together with historic race machines. Achieving some success, he entered a 3-hour long-distance event in April 1978, as before with Australian co-rider Jim Scaysbrook. Also in April, Hailwood rode at the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, for the first time on a 750 Yamaha that he was later to ride in the Classic TT race. In May 1978, Hailwood rode a demonstration to spectators at a Donington Park national motorcycle race day of the Yamaha XS1100 with full fairing in Martini colours, which he was to use to re-acquaint himself with the TT course, including any subsequent alterations since he raced at the Isle of Man in the late 1960s. Martini was to sponsor most of his TT race machines provided by the UK Yamaha importer Mitsui. He stayed on for the following Monday to test his Yamaha TZ750, TZ500 and TZ250 race machines together with his F1 TT Ducati which he had previously tested in the rain at Oulton Park. On 3 June 1978, after an 11-year hiatus from mainstream motorcycling, Hailwood made a comeback at the Isle of Man TT in the Formula I race, a World Championship class based on large-capacity road machines first introduced for 1977. Few observers believed that the 38-year-old