Rocket Men

The Haslam family is motorbike royalty. "Rocket" Ron Haslam, one of 10 brothers and sisters from a Derbyshire mining town, started racing on the professional circuit in 1972 at the age of 15 and developed into one of the finest, and fastest, racers the UK has ever seen. Winner of three World titles and four British championships, as well as a record six Macau GPs, he rode in more than 100 Grands Prix. Despite tragically losing two of his brothers, Phil and Terry, in motorbike accidents, Haslam kept on riding in his chosen sport, setting speed records wherever he went, with his most recent outing being on a Ducati 998 at the Race of the Year at Mallory Park in October 2004. His son, Leon, the "Pocket Rocket," is following in his father's extremely speedy footsteps. A national Motorcross champion and national Scooter champion at the age of just 14, he became the youngest ever rider to compete in the 500cc World Championship and is now one of Britain's top racers. He was placed second in the British Superbike Championship in 2006, missing out on the title only on the very last race weekend, and was voted MCN's Man of the Year and Riders' Rider of the Year. He was runner-up again in the 2008 BSB season as part of the Honda team for whom his father Ron raced GPs back in the 1980s, and is now racing for Stiggy Honda in the World Superbike Championship. This is the extraordinary story of a father and a son who are addicted to motorbikes and to a lifetime of fearless racing, with all the thrills and spills, miraculous escapes, and multiple broken bones that involves. Both colorful characters, their story takes us all the way from the 1970s to today and is full of hilarious high-octane derring-do, a cast of characters including legends like Fast Freddie Spencer and Barry Sheene, and nothing less than terrifying but exhilarating adventure.

Ron Haslam runs the Ron Haslam Motorbike School in Donington. Leon Haslam is racing for Stiggy Honda in the 2009 World Superbike Championship.