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He may be the man that most people would call the voice of Formula One, but ex-commentator Murray Walker has admitted to being a bigger fan of motorcycling.

Walker's recent appearance at the recent MotoGP race at Donnington may be a surprise to those who associate him with four wheels rather than two, but it was partly in this category of racing that he cut his teeth as a commentator.

The son of a professional motorbike racer himself, the 83-year-old admitted in an interview with BBC Sport that he too was smitten with motorcycling but was forced to concentrate on cars for financial reasons.

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He explained: "Motorcycles were and still are my first love, but I didn't have time to follow them.

"Because of work, something had to give and reluctantly, because it wasn't an earner, I concentrated on cars instead of bikes."

When asked who the greatest rider of all time was, Walker cagily argued that it is unfair to make comparisons between Valentino Rossi and the stars of yesteryear, but eventually plumped for the 1960s British superstar Mike Hailwood "for personal reasons".

Sadly, he also predicted that there is unlikely to be a modern-day successor to this legend, as although the huge turnout for the British GP indicates that motorcycle racing is still popular in this country, the absence of a UK bike-making industry is a huge obstacle.

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