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The Crashes
Grand Prix, Silverstone 1979
riding the Mochek Honda (shown above). The bike was immaculate and was the one Phil Read rode. The Mochek mechanic, Steve Baynham was up from London with Manager Ian Tay who ran the business. Ali took the machine out in practice and went down on some oil at club Corner. The bike crashed into the safety fence, caught fire and completely wrecked the bike, £1500 damage - an embarrassing moment! Nevertheless Ali qualified 2nd row behind Rod Haslam on this bike at Donington National, later retiring with valve trouble.
Staverton
Worst crash. Ali broke his elbow, snapping the bone. He had to have it pinned and wired - 5 weeks off racing (painful).
Mallory Park
Crashing into the barriers on the hairpin. The most embarrassing moment of Ali's race career as one of the track marshalls carried him to safety, Ali looked like a baby in his arms!
Near Miss at the IOM !
In Ali's own words
"On the Mocheck Honda, when approaching the flat out
double right hander at Glenvine, all you have to do is sit up and stick your arms
out into the airflow; which is just enough to give you the right amount of entry
speed. Going down the fast straight towards the double entry the cylinder head
gasket was blowing. On hearing this I pulled up and coasted into a driveway just
before the first of the very fast corners. I looked down to see that the gearbox
sprocket nut had unscrewed itself and had dropped onto the top of the swinging arm.
At this point I am thinking that the gearbox could have locked on entry if the
sprocket had fell off the gearbox shaft with the chain (a lucky
escape from what could have been a disaster)."
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