Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126249
Talking to Barry Sheene between flights: The SOOcc World Champion is determined, fast. • • and wealthy By lane Cam pell , Great Britain's flamboyant gift to world cham- ' pionship roadracing, Barry Sheene, was on his w~y · back fromtrack testing in Japan. After a day spen,t catching up on jet lag and visiting, the globe ·girdling 500cc, World Champion was in the Long Beach Grand Prix offices tal king about his sole U,S.' appearance and about his ' 1977 prospects. " I got a really good situation wit h t he Iacrory. " he says. "They're fantastic people, T~,'y listen. and if you ask them to do something , t1H'y will: a nd if they ask me to do something, they know I'll do it. 11 works bot h way.. ':W" nee ded something good for rhe big bike class in England last year , " Yes, in my little workshop out in the country. in the sticks. " (Sheene has upwards of 10 people working for him, now. l ie heads a thriving T -shirt business a~ well as a race shop.) Accordmg to Sheene, Suzuki J a pa n has , indeed , bnilt .four works models based on that horne-co ncocted 650 (an overborcd. sleeved R( 500), dubbed RG700s . Sh'T'H' will use two of t hern in 1!J77 Super bike Ser ies races in En~ la nd. lit- a lso has a 540cc which he bui lt for t he cominl( Anglo-American otherwise we were going- Mar ch Ra ces .' (0 g'O under as far as the MeN c'Mot~)f Cycle News) Championship: is concerned , So we came up with 't ha i thing (the 650) and it worked . It won First t ime out and it She-em was cagey about the re-su lts of his just-completed Suzuki works track-testinl( :The hikes. .he said, were " . . . improved not ' v,'ry much won l"\'~'ry other time." (It was built in England?) spe-cdwise , but made easier to work on and handle ." The lim ited number of new RG500s, whi ~h will goto selected riders , are " ... identical to my 500 GP bike , rig ht down to the hambone grips I favor . . ." What about all the nap over his 1977 Suzuki contract? "O h , there were lots of ult im a tums and stuff li'ke tha t . . ." Sheene admitted. At one time d uring the on-off negot ia tion s, he had $225,000 worth of sponsorship lined up to run his own team , In the end , he said with littl e elaboration , he aod Suzu ki Great Brita in d id get together as the basis for Shcene's m u lt i-sponsorship 1977 p rogram. Suzuki GB essentially runs the team effort and owns the team bikes. drawing on principal backers Texaco and Forward Trust. Faberge has picked up sponsorship on Shecne for 15 races in England. Not yet signed but likely are Ma rlboro and Mashe, the French jeans maker. What's it worth to Sheene in round numbers? He won 't give a top Iigure , but said " If I fell off and got hurt in my first race. I'd still earn about $125 ,000 this yea r ." , The Suzuki G P team will be Sheene, Pa t Hennen ("He goes bloody well, there's no two ways about it. " ), a nd new man Steve Pa rrish . The way the team IS struct ured. " . . . each rider 1(00's his own separate way , They do thei r own thing . bu t at the racetrack they're all toget her . .. I've got my own two mech ani cs (incl uding' Don Mc Kay , who 's been with Sheene seven ye a rs) p lus a Fac t nr y mechanic. transport er , stuff like that. Pat's got his own rh ing, Steve's I(ot his . . . although Steve might come with me because this is the first year he's done CPs. lie's on his own with one gu y, It shou ld work OUI OK ." The rid er Sheene fears most? Still Roberts. more than Baker. And 'of his good friend Gary Nixon , Sheene says. . " As far as I'm concerned, Nixon won in Venezuela . . . . Nixon has two Yamahas (this year) - not new, bur they will be whe n Erv (Kanernoro) ge ts through with th em ." H is' Worl d Cha mpionship s~ason will open a t Ven eiuela , rather th an' Daytona for a number of reasons . Start money is just one , the other is the simp le lack of a workable Formu la 750 ride . The RG500 is not suitable aga inst 750s on the long tracks , not enough RG700s exist to qua lify for the 25 ·machine production requirement . and the 750cc Suzuki triples are just too slow. Sheene said he was offered 12 mi llion lire by the Imola 200 organizers to race the weekend of the Long Beach GP (April 2·3). Whipping out a pocket calculator. he figures. "That's • almost . . . $14 .000. maybe $16 .000 counting expenses," As he tells it . Sheene was unwilling to ta ke their money "just to go slow on an o ld . 750" when the fans deserve a better show from Ba rry Sheene, The re's ' considera ble pride emanating a t this point from Sheene, a seasoned, cunni ng racer who, like Gary Nixon . has learned to calcu late his own wort h p retty shrewd ly. He's carrying his stainless steel leg pi n (the memento from that lat e · 1975 'crash that cost him that year's Form u la 750 championship it's semi -tu bu lar, a lmos t Iwo feet lo-ng ) in his attac he cast' whe re ver he goes . It 's out of his body, b ut still a part of h im , so to speak . This year . a renewed assault on the 500c c World Championship is his_ primary target, and Sheene is well satisfied with the pre -season preparations. • 15