Yahoo News Vote for your favourite motorcycle racing hero
The Motor Sport Hall of Fame celebrates the biggest and best names across Formula 1, motorcycling, sports cars and other disciplines. Now in its seventh year, twelve of the greatest motorcycle names have been shortlisted and voting is open to the public to decide who will be the next inductee.
The winner will join the likes of John Surtees, Valentino Rossi, Giacamo Agostini, John McGuinness and Barry Sheene amongst many other sporting greats.
The 2018 motorcycling nominees are:
Mike Hailwood MBE: With 14 Isle of Man TT wins and nine Grand Prix world championships to his name, Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood ruled the tracks throughout the 60s and 70s.
Geoff Duke OBE: Duke won three world titles with Norton, before moving to Gilera and repeating that success in the 50s. He also won six TT races, and cemented his name as a TT hero.
Soichiro Honda: Without him, Honda would not exist. As founder and President, he had a huge impact on Hondas success in motorsport.
Casey Stoner: The Australian motorcycle racer could handle the Ducati better than anyone. In 2007 he took his first world title with the Italian manufacturer, and followed that up in 2011 with Honda.
Wayne Rainey: He took a hat trick of championships; 1990, ‘91 and ‘92, and his fierce rivalry with Kevin Schwantz lit up the racing scene.
Kevin Schwantz: Schwantz won 25 Grand Prix races and became the 500cc world champion in 1993 on the Lucky Strike Suzuki.
Freddie Spencer: ‘Fast Freddie’ made motorcycling history when he took both the 250cc and 500cc titles in 1985 and was named as a ‘Grand Prix Legend’ by the FIM in 2001, as well as being inducted into three American-based halls of fame.
Kenny Roberts: Roberts became America’s first world champion in 1978 and won a further two titles, with his final being in 1983 before retiring two years later.
Joey Dunlop OBE: Possibly one of the most recognisable names in motorsport history, ‘Yer Maun’ still holds the record of most TT victories, taking 26 wins over 23 years.
Eddie Lawson: Lawson won four 500cc world championships, three with the Marlboro Agostini Yamaha team and one with the Rothmans Kanemoto Honda team.
Mick Doohan: From 1994, Doohan secured five consecutive 500cc titles, staying loyal to Honda from the start to the end of his GP career in 1999.
Jim Redman MBE: The six-time world champion achieved a hat trick of double wins in 1963, ‘64 and ‘65 in the Isle of Man TT Lightweight and Junior races.
Voting is also open for the Formula 1 category.
The 2018 nominees are:
Gilles Villeneuve:Racing heroes are not to be measured on just statistics. Villeneuve competed in six seasons of Formula 1, five of those with the Scuderia Ferrari team. His best finish was 7th overall in 1981, but he captured the public’s hearts.
Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth: Costin and Duckworth created Cosworth Engineering, producers of the ‘Cosworth DFV’, the world’s most successful F1 engine.
Mika Hakkinen: Two time F1 champion for McLaren-Mercedes, Hakkinen worked hard for his victories before retiring from the paddock at the end of the 2001 season.
Emerson Fittipaldi: Fittipaldi had won two F1 titles by the age of twenty eight, and was a trailblazer for Brazilian racing drivers. He controversially joined the team run by his brother in 1978, before leaving the paddock completely in 1980.
Bernd Rosemeyer: Rosemeyer’s racing career was brief, running for only three years before being tragically killed while attempting a world speed record. He won the 1936 European Championship in only his second season as a GP driver.
Ronnie Peterson: Fast and spectacular, Peterson brought pride to his home country of Sweden. Although fast, he never won a title, but was blisteringly quick over one lap. He raced with Lotus in F1 for four seasons, before leaving and rejoining in 1978, the year his life was tragically cut short.
Nelson Piquet: Piquet won his first F1 Title in his third full season of competing, and went on to win two more titles. He left the sport in 1991 but continues to support his son, Nelson Piquet Jr, who now competes in Formula E.
Jochen Rindt: Formula 1’s only posthumous champion, Rindt’s only title came after the accident that ended his life. Four weeks after his death in 1970, his replacement Emerson Fittipaldi won the United States Grand Prix to bring home the title for the Austrian.
Mike Hawthorn: Hawthorn became the first English Formula 1 champion in 1958, clinching the title by one point from Stirling Moss. He retired from racing after three starts in the World Sportscar Championship, and was killed in a road accident one year later.
Gordon Murray: Top Formula 1 car designer Murray has achieved 56 Grand Prix wins, five World Drivers’ Championships and three Constructors’ Championships with his creations, mostly Brabhams. He continues to design cars for the road.
John Cooper: Cooper became an auto legend after with his rear-engined chassis design that powered racing cars across the classes. He formed the Cooper Car Company with his father, and their cars were the starting point for an abundance of F1 legends.
Jenson Button: From 2000-’16, Button raced in Formula 1 with scattered success. On his debut, he finished 8th overall, but in 2009 clinched the title with the Brawn F1 team. In 2016, Button bowed out of the paddock but came back for the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix to replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren while he competed at the Indy 500.
You can vote for your chosen hero by visiting the Motor Sport magazine website, and the inductees across all categories will be announced at the Motor Sport Hall of Fame awards dinner on June 4 2018.
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