Pauline Hailwood, wife of Mike, passed away after a long illness, on Saturday, June 13.
Pauline and Mike were married in 1975, after Mike had retired from car racing, the couple having two children, Michelle and David, both born before Pauline and Mike were wed – though Pauline had already changed her name by deed poll. After they married, they settled in New Zealand.
But it didn’t last long, mainly as Mike was bored, and missing motorcycle racing – cue his 1978 fairy tale comeback, before he established a motorcycle business and retired from racing again. Then in 1981, Pauline’s world was blown apart, when Mike, and their daughter Michelle, were killed in a car crash. Son David was the only survivor.
Pauline first met Mike in 1962, at Snetterton, not far her Essex home; she was dared to go and ask for some spare plugs for a racer friend she’d accompanied. Mike and Pauline met again in the Isle of Man during the TT and even went on a date, but it was five years before they met again, during which time Pauline had worked a as a model, an actress, air stewardess, and in a hairdressers. She’d also got married. And Mike was dating her friend.
By 1968, Pauline had divorced and Mike (who got her phone number through Bill Ivy) and she became a couple, having daughter Michelle in 1971 and son David in 1974. Mike and Pauline married in Maidenhead registry office, on June 11, 1975.
After Mike’s passing, Pauline was still a regular at motorcycle events. She never remarried. David announced his mother’s death on twitter, closing with the words; “Now she is with her beloved Mike and Michelle.”
