Product Description

Steve Hislop was one of the most famous motorcycle racers in the world. He had always been a controversial and outspoken character having had many famous clashes and splits with teams and riders over the years, not always to his advantage. Season 2003 was no different. Steve's life was incredible, funny and ultimately tragic. Hislop made his debut in 1979 on a bike paid for by his father, but when the latter died of a heart-attack, he embarked on a self-destructive quest that resulted in more crashed bikes and cars than he can remember. Three years later his brother Garry was killed racing at Silloth. It looked as if he would never race again but while on holiday at the Isle of Man TT races in 1983, he was mesmerised by the sight of Joey Dunlop and he knew he had to try it. He took to the roads immediately, amassing an amazing career record of 11 wins and was the first rider in history to lap the course at an average speed of over 120mph. Hizzy's TT victories over big name rivals like Joey Dunlop and Carl Fogarty made him a living legend beyond the confines of just the UK. He turned his back on the Isle of Man in 1994, claiming it was too fast and dangerous for modern superbikes. However, he had already proved he was just as fast on purpose-built short circuits having won the British 250cc championship in 1990 and then went on to win the British Superbike (BSB) title in 1995 and 2002. Defending a title is always difficult and made even harder when your current team doesn't give you a new contract. However, season 2003 started positively for Steve, inasmuch as he found a new team, but he was sacked half way through the season after a string of poor results on an uncompetitive bike. These events, however, paled into insignificance when Steve was killed in July 2003 when the helicopter he was flying crashed in a remote Scottish border region. His book is a fitting tribute to a motor racing legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177712 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
/ 'As a racer, he could be close to genius. As a man, he will be much missed.' Mac McDiarmid (Independent) / 'Hizzy became my friend and he was one of the most genuine, open and honest people I've ever met'. Stuart Barker

About the Author
Steve Hislop was one of Britain's most successful bike riders, winning the British 250cc championship, the British Superbike title twice and the Isle of Man TT a record 11 times. Stuart Barker is a freelance journalist and regularly writes for MCN. He is also the co-author of Niall Mackenzie's autobiography.

Customer Reviews

Hizzy - The fastest man on the planet
What a fantastic book - having never really liked the man when I met him, reading this book gave me an insight to the kind of person that Steve Hislop really was. A true and genuine person who endured so many things in his life, but this never stopped him from what he loved doing most - Motorcycling.

The 2004 season of racing will not be the same without his unique style.

If you think life has treated you badly - read this book and you will realise that whatever life throws at you, there is always something to look forward to. Inspirational writing.

A masterpiece
This is the best autobiography I have read so far. Once you start reading it you cannot put it down. It is a tragic story. The number of people he knew who lost their lives is unbelievable yet he still soldiered on. It is an incredible story, of an incredible rider. He mastered the most dangerous circuit on the earth, the TT, won on the rotary norton in 1992 which was said to be impossible. Beat the worlds best on a motorcycle. This man was a legend and one of the best men to have ever swung his leg over a motorcycle. This is his story. This is an absolute must read for any bike racing fan. RIP hizzy. We will miss you

A good record of a fine racer
One of the hardest jobs I have ever had to do in journalism was to write an obituary for Steve Hislop. I did not know him well - we only met a few times during the years that I covered the British Superbike Championship for Race24 - but he was always approachable, friendly and helpful, not the image always given of him by the media at large.

This was also a man who could really ride a bike. Setting a lap record - beating none other than Valentino Rossi - is an achievement. But taking the record away from a full-specification GP bike, when riding a year old Superbike? This just doesn't happen. Only a truly special racer could do that. And when he was in the mood, Hizzy was a very special racer.

So what was the man really like? Hizzy: The Autobiography of Steve Hislop goes a long way to filling in the gaps.

The book covers the standard "We were little oiks" stuff that seems to be a requirement of character-building for any bike racer to begin with, but once Steve and his brother are first introduced to bikes, the story picks up with an evident passion.

It is remarkable how Hislop kept on with his racing career after losing a number of friends and indeed his brother at such an early stage. But persevere he did. With remarkable results - first as a TT rider where his achievement in winning on the rotary Norton could quite possibly not have been achieved by anyone else and then moving into short-circuit racing where he recorded titles at British Superbike and World Endurance.

The tales of racing, both on the Isle of Man and then around Britain, Suzuka and his exploits in the World Endurance Championship are great reading and give a real feel for what it is like when you are an up and coming rider, struggling for sponsorship and living out of the back of a van, through to hitting the "big time" with factory backing and all that comes with it, both good and bad.

And the bad is something that seemed to happen to Hizzy... a lot. A constant complaint throughout the book is how he was never paid enough, how people claimed he had a fragile psyche and so on and how if things had worked out differently, he should have been getting the best rides and the same kind of money as Carl Fogarty etc. Sadly, there is no smoke without fire.

Steve had run-ins with so many team managers and owners over the year that by the end, there were precious few teams left that he hadn't burned his bridges with - something he acknowledges in the book without ever really wondering why other people (such as Fogarty, no wallflower when it comes to expressing his opinion) could open their mouths without getting fired.

Whatever the reasons, it is sad to think about "What If"? What if Hislop had been able to play the game and keep teams, manufacturers and sponsors happy? Would he have made it to the very top of the pile? We will never know. But what this book does is to show just how bike racing was at the core of this man, how it saved him from a self-destructive pattern he had fallen into as a young man. But does it show the real Hislop?

I think it does. There is a passion in the writing, especially when dealing with racing, that is obviously Steve. He had an almost photographic memory when it came to track layouts and he clearly had fantastic recall of the rest of his life... even if he didn't always appreciate the reasons why other people saw him the way they did.

Ultimately, the book is a reflection of the man himself. Passionate, motivated, but ultimately flawed. If you can filter out the complaints about money and the treatment he got and focus on the man, both racer and human being, then this is a fitting memorial to a fine man and racer.