Motorsport Memorial -

Bill Ivy

Complete name: William David Ivy

Birth date: 27.Aug.1942

Birth Place: Maidstone, Kent, United Kingdom

Death date: 12.Jul.1969

Death Place: Hohenstein-Ernstthal, East Germany (now Germany)

Nationality: United Kingdom

Gender: male

Age at death: 26

Event date: 12.Jul.1969

Series: Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) World Motorcycle Championship - 350 cm³

Race: Großer Preis der DDR

Event type: practice

Country: Germany

Venue: Sachsenring

Variant: 8.730-kilometer public roads course (1949-1989)

Role: rider

Vehicle type: motorcycle

Vehicle sub-type: sports bike - from 251 cm³ up to 350 cm³

Vehicle brand/model: Jawa 350

Vehicle number: 61

Notes:

There have been many cases of riders who have made the switch to cars and been very successful. In the Grand Prix circus, John Surtees was the most remarkable example, but also Jo Siffert, Johnny Cecotto, Mike Hailwood, Patrick Depailler, Jean-Pierre Beltoise were successful Formula 1 drivers with two-wheel background. Other riders such as Giacomo Agostini or Wayne Gardner, Didier de Radigues and Eddie Lawson moved to four wheels just near the end of their careers, and didn't get the same success in motorsport. And then, there is Valentino Rossi who loves rallying.

Bill Ivy's Biography
by Nanni Dietrich

There was no doubt that the career of Bill Ivy was likely to follow the same pattern, for in the small amount of motor racing that he had done, he had shown that his motorcycling prowess more than made up for his lack of experience, and his racing debut in a Formula 2 race at Thruxton, on 07 April 1969 caused a considerable stir. Although he loved Formula 2 racing, his primary job was still riding bikes, and thus he had to miss the Austrian rounf of the European Formula 2 Championship, the Flugplatzrennen at Tulln-Langenlebarn, scheduled to be contested in the same weekend as the Großer Preis der DDR, his fatal motorcycle race. His works contract with Czechoslovakian Jawa sent him to the East German race at Sachsenring instead of Tulln-Langenlebarn.

It was there, during Saturday's final practice session on the 8.730-kilometer circuit that a piston seized on his 350 cm³ V4 two-stroke Jawa as Ivy was coming through the long fast corner after the start/finish straight, on the way into the village of Hohenstein-Ernstthal. According to eyewitnesses, shortly before the accident Ivy was adjusting his glasses or even removing his helmet and he could do nothing when his rear wheel suddenly jammed. It was also rumored that he was riding with his left arm resting on the fuel tank so he couldn't get to the clutch when the engine seized. All these versions have not yet been confirmed.

Bill Ivy came off and was thrown from his bike into a wall and an unprotected post. His helmet was knocked off by the force of the impact resulting in severe head and chest injuries, from which he died three hours later at Hohenstein-Ernstthal hospital, after being placed into a iron lung for a form of medical ventilator therapy. His fatal crash occurred at the same circuit in which another British riding star, Jimmie Guthrie lost his life 32 years earlier, on the downhill section near the end of the lap.

Bill Ivy was only a little bloke, five feet four in the old coinage, but he had a huge heart and enormous skill on racing motorcycles and cars, he had long hair that at the time put Jackie Stewart to shame, and was a much loved, mischevious character, whose jovial manner and working-class style never got in the way of his serious desire to race and win. He motored around Europe in a metallic red Maserati Ghibli or in a dirty red Ferrari 275 GTB4 with the side bashed in where he had wiped it along a wall in the Isle of Man Mountain circuit, and was one of the genuine idols for the young racing enthusiasts in the mid-1960s. With his friends "Ago" Agostini and "Mike the Bike" Mike Hailwood he always competed over who could collect the most ladies.

Ivy's motorcycling career started in 1957, when he was just a 15-year-old boy infatuated with motorcycles since childhood. He raced a 50 cm³ Itom and in 1964 he won the 125 cm³ ACU Star. In 1965 he won the British 500 cm³ Championship, which at the time was decided by a single race, riding a Matchless and by the end of the year he was signed up by team Yamaha to ride a 125 cm³ works bike, lighter and more agile than his previous machines. Ivy won four Grands Prix in the season - Dutch TT, Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, Spain and Japan - finishing second to Luigi Taveri's Honda in the Championship. In 1967 he was declared the World Champion in the 125 cm³ class, dominating the season with eight outright wins, and two other victories in the 250 cm³ class. In 1968 he obtained eight wins, and was second to his team mate Phil Read in both 125 and 250 classes.

During his motorcycle career "Little Bill" Ivy made 50 World Championship Grand Prix starts, scoring 21 wins, 14 in 125 cm³ class and 7 in 250 cm³; 18 times he was author of the fastest lap and 42 times took a podium finish! His first Grand Prix start came in the 1965 Netherlands Grand Prix, he had works rides for Yamaha - 125 cm³ and 250 cm³ - from 1965 to 1968, and in 1969 after he had announced his switch to cars and his retirement from two-wheels, he was enticed back to motorcycle racing by an offer by the Jawa team to ride their 4-cyclinder bike. He was signed up by the Czechoslovakian factory, alongside the local veteran rider František "Franta" Št'astný to race in the 350 cm³ class. Ivy's 1969 season had a promising start, with two fine second places behind Giacomo Agostini's MV Agusta, in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim and in the Dutch TT at Assen, after a furious duel against the Italian.

Bill Ivy was considered a legend at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. His battles against Read certainly livened up the smaller classes at the Snaefell Mountain Circuit. He won just two races over 13 starts, the 1966 Lightweight 125 and the 1968 Lightweight 250 cm³ riding Yamaha machines. But on finishing second in the 1968 125 cm³ race he made history, the first man to lap at over 100 mi/h (160 km/h) on a 125 cm³ motorcycle.

The car racing career of Bill Ivy lasted only months but during that time he impressed the motorsport community. Jackie Stewart said about him: "Bill Ivy who was smaller than me... had more natural ability than anyone I've seen coming into motor racing". He was attracted by four wheels since 1968, when he made a lot of testing laps at Brands Hatch. One or two driving offers came, and he once practised the Formula 3 works Lotus 41 at Oulton Park but he didn't drive it in the race because the meeting was snowed off.

In the beginning of 1969, Bill Ivy came into motor racing with a bang. He bought an ex-Winkelmann Racing Brabham BT23C - Cosworth, the Formula 2 car Alan Rees drove during the previous season, and after a minimal test at Goodwood and an Oulton Park practice shunt, he took the car, entered by the Paul Watson Race Organisation, into the Easter meeting Wills Trophy Formula 2 at Thruxton, the opening round of the 1969 European Formula 2 Championship. He was an incredible second fastest in practice, in his very first automobile race, behind Jochen Rindt, but equal with Jackie Stewart and ahead of no less than Graham Hill, Piers Courage and Jean-Pierre Beltoise! Even Ivy was a bit surprised, and it seems he asked the organizers if he could start from the back of the grid because he had never been in a four-wheel race before. According to Alan Peck's book "No time to lose, the fast moving world of Bill Ivy", the Thruxton commentator interviewed the diminutive 26-year-old: "You only look about fourteen... how old are you?" and Bill replied: "Fourteen!".

Came race day and he finished fourth in his heat, behind Stewart, Beltoise and Hill, and after holding fifth place in the final race his engine blew. Two weeks later in the non-championship Gran Prix Automobile de Pau, he suffered a jammed throttle, and then he entered the car in the Internationales ADAC-Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring, where after setting third best practice time on a damp track, he had a huge 200 km/h (125 mi/h) accident, emerging cheerful and unhurt.

At Zolder for the non-championship race "Grote Prijs van Limborg" on 08 June he was again fourth in one of the heats and seventh in the other, finishing fifth on aggregate. He had been faster than Graham Hill, Kurt Ahrens, Jr., and Johnny Servoz-Gavin in practice. In the Rhein-Pokalrennen at Hockenheim one week later, he was second fastest in practice, and led a race for the first time from the start, only to retire with only five laps to go with a broken gear selector rod.

On 22 June 1969 at Monza for the "Gran Premio della Lotteria", Bill Ivy had one of the incredible days of his life. He arrived for the first time to run the fast Italian circuit in a car and after a few laps on Friday practice session he formed the impression that Monza was a very dangerous track. Nevertheless he was prepared to start and presented his car in the pit lane at the beginning of the Saturday's session. It was reported that there was some confusion over paperwork, so Bill ran back to his van to collect the necessary docket. When he returned, he was jostled by an official, resulting in an exchange of blows. Witnesses agreed that the first move was made by an Italian marshal, and the upshot was that Ivy refused to race, especially when he was forced to undergo a second medical during which he was informed that he was being examined to check whether or not he was under the influence of drugs! The test, of course, proved negative, and once tempers had cooled it looked as though Ivy would be permitted to practise, but he told his mechanics to take the car away and disappeared in search of some sunshine.

This was his last appearance into the Formula 2 continental circus. His double activity in motorcycle Grand Prix forced him to go to Sachsenring.

After his death, his memory was perpetuated by the annual much-sought-after "Bill Ivy Silver Helmet Challenge Trophy", organized in UK within the 1,000 cm³ solo championship formula.

Sources:

Book "I Giorni del Coraggio - Storia dei Motomondiali 1949-1969" by Ezio Pirazzini, Edizioni Calderini, Bologna 1975, page 360 and 423.
Book "No time to lose, the fast moving world of Bill Ivy" by Alan Peck, Motor Racing Publications, 1972 [L1]
Magazine Autosport, issue 18 July 1969.
Magazine Motorcycle Sport, issue of March 1973, page 109.
Magazine MotorSport, issue of October 2009.
Magazine MotorSport, issue of December 2009, page 34.
Website The World of Classic Motorcycling, by Murray Barnard, chapter Classic Motorcycling Memorial Tribute, page http://www.ozebook.com/gpwin/gpmem.htm .
Website Isle of Man TT, page https://www.iomtt.com/TT-Database/Events/Races.aspx?meet_code=ALL&ride_id=2203 .
Website Le Mans & Formula 2 Register by Stefan Örnerdal, page http://formula2.vargarnaspeedway.se/F269_Index.html .
Website Racing Memory by Vincent Glon, page http://racingmemo.free.fr/MOTO-GP-1969.htm .
Website Yamaha Motor, page https://global.yamaha-motor.com/race/wgp-50th/race_archive/riders/bill_ivy/ .
Website Motorsport People, page http://www.teamdan.com/people/i.html .
Website Racing Circuits, by Daniel King, page http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/racingcircuits/Germany/Sachsenring1961.html .
Website EggersdorferNet, by Rolf Eggersdorfer, page http://www.eggersdorfernet.de/ivy-bill.html .
Website Find A Grave, page http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12872634 .
E-mail by Chris Hall, dated 04 May 2004.
E-mail by Andy Marlow, dated 01 January 2005.
E-mail by Herman Looman, dated 28 August 2006 citing [L1].
E-mail by Graham Houlihan, dated 02 November 2017.