Jim Redman and Giacomo Agostini in the 500cc class at Assen, 1966.. Photo: Anefo / Nationaal Archief, CC0
Heavy rain stopped only minutes before the start of the 500cc race at the 1966 Dutch TT, on 25 June. Jim Redman, Giacomo Agostini and Mike Hailwood lined up on the front row at Assen: Redman and Hailwood on Honda's new four-cylinder RC181, Agostini on the MV Agusta. Redman got his Honda going first.
Hailwood made a slow start and dropped into a pack of privateers. He fought his way back towards the front and crashed, unhurt. Agostini and Redman were left to race each other, and on the cold, wet afternoon it took most of the race to settle. Redman won. It was only the second 500cc race Honda had ever entered, and its second win.
Cycle World's reporter described tremendous applause from the crowd and excitement in the Honda pit. Nobody there knew it would be the 45th and last Grand Prix win of Redman's career. Eight days later, at Spa, he was out of racing for good.
Jim Redman and Honda's first 500cc season
Jim Redman was born in London in 1931. MotoGP.com's biography notes that he lost both parents young and looked after his younger brothers. He emigrated to Rhodesia in 1952, where he started racing. By 1966 he was the senior rider at Honda. He had won the 250cc and 350cc world titles in 1962 and 1963, the 350cc title again in 1964 and 1965, and six Isle of Man TTs.
He had also been on the losing side of one of Honda's great moments. At Hockenheim in 1961 it was Redman, on pole, whom Kunimitsu Takahashi passed at the last corner to become the first Japanese rider to win a Grand Prix.
In 1966 Honda entered the 500cc class for the first time. The RC181 was an air-cooled four-stroke inline-four of 499.6cc, with twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. Honda rates it at more than 85 PS at 12,000 rpm, with six gears, 151 kg (333 lb) and a top speed over 260 km/h (162 mph). Honda's own history admits that it handled poorly but was fast on high-speed circuits.
Redman was not the team's only star. Mike Hailwood, 500cc world champion with MV Agusta every year from 1962 to 1965, had joined Honda, and Agostini had taken his place at MV. Honda's 500cc effort therefore had two leaders, with Redman the more experienced on Honda machinery.
Redman opened the campaign at Hockenheim on 22 May, beating Agostini by 26 seconds, according to Honda. For Assen, Crash.net reports, MV Agusta answered with an overbored version of its 350cc three-cylinder.
The 500cc race at the 1966 Dutch TT
The race was run on the 7.7 km TT Circuit Assen, a closed road course in the Drenthe countryside. The factory riders shared the grid with privateers, amateurs and semi-professionals on their own British singles; Ron Chandler led them on a Matchless. Redman led away, and at the end of the first lap Agostini was tucked into his slipstream, the pocket of still air behind a leading bike that lets a follower save effort on the straights.
Behind them Hailwood was charging. Accounts of what happened next differ. Crash.net says Hailwood crashed while leading; Cycle World, reporting from Assen, says he went down trying to catch the leaders and "had tried too hard but escaped unhurt." Anefo's photographers caught him just before the fall, and then walking back to the pits.
At the front, the lead changed hands. On lap three Redman passed Agostini at the Kniebocht, the tight "knee bend" corner near the end of the lap; Agostini took the lead back on lap four. By mid-race the MV was about eight seconds clear. Eight seconds is a large gap to close on a circuit as fast as Assen.
Redman did not let it go. He closed the gap lap by lap, and by lap 16 he was on Agostini's tail. He passed him and held on to win, with Agostini second. Cycle World gave no winning margin, but noted the applause the Italian earned for his own race.
Hailwood's day was not wasted. He won the 250cc and 350cc races at the same meeting, beating Agostini in the 350cc. Luigi Taveri won the 50cc race on another Honda, Bill Ivy took the 125cc for Yamaha, and Fritz Scheidegger won the sidecars, his third straight win of the season. But in the class that mattered most to Honda in 1966, he left Assen with nothing.
After the flag
The next round was the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on 3 July. The 500cc race started in a thunderstorm, and mechanics rushed to the grid to drop tyre pressures as the rain began. Deep puddles formed on the bumpy surface. Within two laps Redman's Honda aquaplaned, skimming on a layer of water with no grip, and he fell at more than 250 km/h (155 mph). He broke his wrist.
He tried to return five weeks later, according to MotoGP.com, but could not race, and he retired to South Africa. Hailwood led at Spa until gearbox trouble stopped him, and Agostini won. Stuart Graham finished second, a result Cycle World thought could earn him Redman's Honda ride.
Hailwood took over as Honda's 500cc leader and won three races, in Czechoslovakia, Ulster and the Isle of Man. It was not enough. Agostini won the 1966 500cc world title with 36 points to Hailwood's 30, the first of his 15 world championships.
Under the rules only a rider's best five results counted, and Hailwood had scored in only four races. A win at Assen would have taken him past Agostini's total [⚠ VERIFY: Hailwood's 1966 500cc results race by race, against MotoGP.com]. Crash.net makes the same point about the final round at Monza, where Agostini won. Honda still took the 500cc manufacturers' title in its first year, part of a season in which it won the manufacturers' championship in all five solo classes.
Why it still matters
Honda's premier-class history did not begin with Hailwood, its most famous rider of the decade. It began with Redman, who won the first two 500cc Grands Prix the company ever entered, at Hockenheim and Assen, on a bike its own makers admit was difficult to handle.
It also shows how thin the margins were. A crash at Assen, a puddle at Spa and a gearbox decided the first 500cc season Honda contested. Honda would not win the 500cc riders' title until 1983.
Redman was 34 when he stopped, with six world titles and 45 Grand Prix wins. The last of them came at Assen, on a bike Honda had built to win the one class in which he never took a title, and for a few weeks in 1966 he led that championship.
The FIM named Redman a MotoGP Legend in 2012, and he published his autobiography the following year. He had won the first two 500cc races Honda ever entered. He never finished another.
Quick answers
Who won the 500cc race at the 1966 Dutch TT?
Jim Redman won the 500cc race at the 1966 Dutch TT at Assen on 25 June, riding Honda's four-cylinder RC181. He beat Giacomo Agostini's MV Agusta after recovering an eight-second deficit, while team-mate Mike Hailwood crashed. It was Redman's 45th and final Grand Prix win.
Why did Jim Redman retire in 1966?
Jim Redman retired after crashing in the rain-soaked 500cc Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on 3 July 1966. His Honda aquaplaned at more than 250 km/h and he broke his wrist. He tried to return five weeks later but could not race, and retired to South Africa.
What was the Honda RC181?
The Honda RC181 was Honda's first 500cc Grand Prix machine, raced from 1966. It used a 499.6cc air-cooled four-stroke inline-four with twin overhead camshafts, producing more than 85 PS at 12,000 rpm, with six gears and a top speed above 260 km/h. Honda admits it handled poorly.
Who won the 1966 500cc world championship?
Giacomo Agostini won the 1966 500cc world championship on an MV Agusta with 36 points, ahead of Honda's Mike Hailwood on 30. It was the first of Agostini's 15 world titles. Honda won the 500cc manufacturers' title in its first season in the class.
