Bill Ivy

BILL IVY d1969. English professional GP motorcycle racer and film stuntman. His big break into Grand Prix racing came towards the end of 1965 when he was selected as a stand-in and flown to Japan in October by Yamaha due to regular rider Mike Duff crashing in practice for the Japanese GP, suffering a broken thigh. He finished fourth in the 125cc race and third in the 250cc class, the highest-placed of the Yamahas. In 1966, he won his first race as a regular rider for the works Yamaha team in the first race of the year at the Spanish Grand Prix and then took three further wins—not quite enough to win the title. In 1967 he dominated the 125cc championship winning eight out of twelve races to claim the World Championship by 16 points over Phil Read. On top of this, he won two 250 cc races in France and Belgium. In 1968 he and teammate Phil Read controlled both the 125 and 250cc championships. In the process Bill Ivy also became the first 125cc rider to lap the famous Isle Of Man TT Mountain Course at over 100mph. As the season progressed, Yamaha ordered them to win one title each (with Ivy scheduled to win the 250cc championship and Read the 125cc championship).  After securing the 125cc title, Read ignored Yamaha's orders to tie with Ivy on points. The tie break was decided on overall race times and Read took the title. Ivy announced his retirement from motorcycle racing, stating he would race F2 cars during the next season. Despite showing some impressive results in Formula Two (in order to further fund his car racing) he was enticed back to motorcycling by an offer from Jawa in 1969 to race their 350cc machine. The season started promisingly, as he took two second places behind Giacomo Agostini. However, during practice for the fifth race in East Germany on July 12th 1969, his motorcycle's engine seized due to the breaking up of the lower left hand connecting rod bearing cage. He was thrown from the bike and his helmet came off. He and the bike slid off the track where he impacted an unprotected fence post before bouncing back to the edge of the racing surface. Bill Ivy died from injuries sustained at the age of just 26