HAILWOOD MONDIAL TO BE OFFERED AT LAS VEGAS AUCTION

Mike Hailwood’s Mondial GP racer and Dick Mann’s Matchless G50 racer and BSA Gold Star flat-tracker have been added to a scintillating line-up for Bonhams Las Vegas auction.

As previously reported, the Herb Harris British Collection and motorcycles from Peter Fonda and the estate of Dennis Hopper are also going under the hammer on Thursday, 8 January at Bally’s Hotel and Casino on The Strip.

Now the world’s leading auctioneers of motorcycles is pleased to announce the addition of some very important racing motorcycles campaigned by some of the greatest names in the sport.
 
In 1959, under his father’s Ecurie Sportive team, Hailwood competed in the British championships on an ex-works Mondial. Clinching second place in the Ulster GP put him in fifth place in the world championships and helped him earn the British championship – a title he won easily. Now his race-winning 1957 FB Mondial 250 Bialbero Grand Prix Racer – that was later under the stewardship of Reg Dearden and featured in Classic Bike – will be offered on the open market for the first time in decades. With incredible provenance, history and rarity, this genuine, matching numbers and fully functional masterpiece is in a league all its own.
 
From Dick Mann, one of the most versatile racers to throw a leg over a motorcycle – winning on a national level in motocross, flat track and road racing – are two of his former motorcycles: the AMA Championship-winning 1962 Matchless G50 Road Racer and 1965 BSA Gold Star Flat Track Racer. The grand slam-winning, two-times Grand National Champion won eight of his 24 national victories aboard a Matchless, and this G50 – a very desirable machine in its own right – is the one that helped carry him to his first national championship. The BSA is a highly specialised and tuned bike that Mann personally customised for his flat-track races, and both motorcycles come with signed letters of authenticity from the American champ himself.
 
Francis Beart was one of the best race bike builders and tuners of the 20th century. The motorcycles he personally prepared for his race team, primarily for the Isle of Man, are the stuff of legend and instantly recognizable in their iconic shade of green. Beart’s 1961 Norton Manx 350 Manx GP Racer – the last and best he ever built – was campaigned in the Manx GP numerous times during its tenure before it became part of the Stanford Hall Museum Collection and then later raced by Alan Cathcart, a Beart-sponsored rider. And now, Bonhams will offer this rare, authentic British racer in Las Vegas.
 

Bonhams.com/Vegas