This is the first book to reveal the complex personality that is Ivan Mauger, the dedicated and often ruthlessly efficient ambition that made him a virtual sporting automaton. His achievements in motorcycle track racing (nine individual world titles on long track and speedway) are legendary, but here John Chaplin exposes the magic behind the myth, the soft centre concealed by the steely resolve that enabled Mauger to emerge from the obscurity of his small-town New Zealand origins to earn a worldwide acclaim which he continues to enjoy. He elevated a minority sport to a new dimension with a unique professionalism that made him at once feared, hated, envied and admired. In the words of opponents, friends, enemies, business associates, employers and colleagues, this is uniquely Ivan Mauger, the man behind the myth.