Member Inducted 2009
Alf Hagon
History
Alf Hagon began his racing career on grasstrack bikes winning
eleven National Grasstrack Championships. His first Sprint was at
Trent Park in 1949 on a 350c c Rudge but it was not until August
1958 that the Sprinting bug bit when he was offered a ride on
Gordon Colquhuon's Moto-Vincent at Witchford where he recorded
fastest time of the day at 11.28 secs.
Alf went on to build and run a 650 cc Triumph-engined sprint bike
and broke the National 750cc quarter mile record with an 11.79.
Next he decided to compete with the big boys but instead of using
the then popular Vincent twin went instead for the lighter JAP
twin. Alf had an obsession about weight: he hated it and dispensed
with anything superfluous on his machines, even sacrificing comfort
for lightness.
At the 1964 International Dragfests Alf got his lightweight JAP
down to a 10.57 at 139 mph and began his quest to get into nines.
In 1967 he became the first rider into the nines with a 9.93 blast
at Duxford and by the following year had set a long standing record
at Santa Pod of 9.432 at 153 mph. Alf was also the first British
rider over 200 mph that year with a 206.54 run over the flying mile
at Honington in 1967.