He was called by some a flawed genius and at his funeral he was the local lad who had became a local hero. Those were just two of the ways my next memorable rider was described during a career that started in the early eighties and tragically ended in 2003.
He was at one time the fastest rider with a 124mph lap over the Isle of Man TT course and then he later condemned it for being too dangerous. His last appearance on the Mountain Circuit was in 1994 and from then on he would only race in British Superbikes gaining two titles - one in 95 and the other in 2002 when he was by then in his forties.
He could also ride any kind of machine from his favoured 250cc Honda on which he won the 1990 British Supercup, through to the awesome Wankel rotary engine Norton 588 that he used to take an historic record breaking TT win in 1992.
It was said that everything had to be just perfect for this extraordinary rider to race at ten tenths and beyond and when it was, Hawick's Steve Hislop could lay claim that he was one of the best in the world.
A classic example was his stunning outright lap record during practice for the World Superbike round at Donington Park towards the end of his career when beat Valentino Rossi's current MotoGP best.
Sadly Hislop also suffered more than his fair share of injury and but for that, his tally of British titles would have been a lot more. He even recovered from a broken neck following a spectacular first corner crash at a Brands Hatch World Superbike race.
In the twilight of his career and recently sacked by Yamaha, he was about to stage a comeback on his 2002 Championship winning Ducati when he was tragically killed while piloting his helicopter home.
A few weeks earlier Hislop had filled a local book store with race fans keen to get a signed copy of his autobiography however the border town was overflowing with people anxious to pay their final respects to the rider who was affectionately known as the "Flying Haggis".
Memory added on June 8, 2012
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