Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Barry Sheene Remembered riders that it was fast but frightful. Two-strokes had yet to beat the fourstrokes in the bigger classes, and this Barry Sheene came back from the Daytona crash not only more famous and popular than than before, but also a much stronger racer. Physically he had conquered the pain and weakness with amazing speed and determination, but he was now riding with the knowledge that if he did crash again, there was a chance that the 18-inch steel pin in his left thigh might shatter the bone, or worse. To many of his contemporaries, such as long-serving Suzuki teamster Martyn Ogborne, the true measure of Barry's strength as a racer is that he achieved his greatest results and two World Championships "after injuries that wouid have stopped most riders, or at least killed the confidence to win." In 1975, the RG500 had made its debut. The square four would become the dominant 500, but the early form had teething troubles ranging from a weak chassis to poor reliability. To the astonishment of all, including his team, Sheene declared himself fit to race for the Austrian GP on May 4, second round of the season, just seven weeks after crashing at record speed. He could ride okay, qualifying sixth fastest, but was left fuming after being ruled out on race morning because he was unable to push-start his Suzuki, for the dead-engine starts of the time. After a string of mechanical failures - the new bike was fast but fragile - it all finally carne together at Assen for the Dutch IT, at the end of June, in a milestone race. Sheene took his first 500 win (of 19) and the first of 50 for the RG500. More than that, he defeated the great Giacomo Agostini's title-winning Yamaha, by millimeters, after a cat-and-mouse pursuit that was part showmanship and part inspired tactics. The timekeepers, with their manual stop-watches couldn't separate them, but Sheene was visually ahead of the grand master of the 500 class. Barry won again later in the year in Sweden, this time clearly outpacing Read's MV Agusta, and finished the year sixth overall. In Britain, riding the 750 triple Suzuki again, his defense of the MCN Superbike title went awry. He'd won the race of the year at Mallory but had clouted his right knee on the curb. A week later, at Cadwell, a dirt-bike wheelie went wrong, and he stepped back onto his knee, only for it to tum inside out. More metalwork was required, and now the would·be champion had two gammy legs. Even so, at the end of 1975, he and the now mature Suzuki were ready for anything. When Suzuki announced its withdrawal from GP racing, it was left to Suzuki GB to rescue the effort. It secured Texaco and Forward Trust backing and hired John Williams and John "Noddy" Newboid as Barry's teammates. Merv Wright was taken on as manager; Barry signed up Franco and his long-time pit man Don Mackay to join the two Japanese factory mechanics. Barry simply steamrollered them all in his first championship year of 1976. His flowing hair and lopsided grin were fixtures on the rostrum. Barry won the first three races straight, missed the fourth (the IT, its last year as a championship round) and aced the fifth, the Dutch IT. A fuel glitch meant Suzuki teammate John Williams beat him in Belgium, but he was back to winning again in Sweden, where the title was safely tied up with apparent ease. He didn't even need to go to Imatra, Bmo and the Nurburgring for the final rounds. Sheene was in any case far too busy. Much in demand with the media, he exploited every TV or interview opportunity with consummate skill. And there was fun too, in these frenetic times... especially going on the town at the fashionable Tramp nightclub, where the anything-goes dress code and lifestyle were much to his liking, and he was much to the liking of the other patlons, ranging from willowy models to the rich and famous. Stephanie Maclean was one of the former, a Playboy Club bunny, a cover girl and glamour model. And married, to fashion photographer Clive Maclean, with a young son, Roman. They had first met at Tramp at the end of 1975 and again when she called him to borrow a set of his racing leathers for a photo shoot. Things moved fast. And the scandal broke at the French GP at le Mans, the first round of 1976, after Stephanie flew out to join him. Although they never married, Stephanie was to be the love of his life, the mother of his two children, and his companion to the end. Back then, it was nothing but a glamorous scandal for the newspapers. And they had a field day. By the end of the year, the couple were media darlings again. And big business. Barry was appearing with Henry Cooper in Brut ads on TV and in print; Stephanie emerged from the sea in another ad for Ingersoll watches; life-size cut-outs of Barry and James Hunt welcomed motorists to Texaco service stations. Barry Sheene was a household name, like no other motorcycle racer before. Or since. But it had not all been sweetness and light at Suzuki, in spite of winning not only the World title, but also the MCN Superbike and Shellsport 500 titles in Britain. There had been a strong element of rivalry, especially between Sheene and John Williams, and dissension within the team that eventually saw team manager Merv Wright depart after a "him or me" ultimatum from Sheene. The problem was a fundamental difference in philosophy. Wright believed teammates should be equal; Sheene was clear that he was the number one rider. With support from the Suzuki factory, he made sure he got the latest machines (more powerful and lighter). Sheene the Champion ended the season seriously doubting whether he would stay with Suzuki. One option under discussion was with Fl entrant (and later motorcycle manufacturer) lord Hesketh. They'd met through another of Barry's Tramp pals, James Hunt, who had won an FI GP in a Heskethx car; now the plan was to field a British team, with the hope of getting the full factory Suzukis. Speculation was intense over the future of Britain's latest and greatest motorcycling hero. With all this in doubt, Barry and Stephanie jetted away for a holiday in the Abaco Islands. It was time for the superstar to leave them to stew for a few weeks. 34 MARCH 26, 2003· cue I • n _ vv So triple. This was the bike that proved he wasn't just a tiddler rider, as some said, and it was the bike that hurt him was a primitive example. At the rec- (crushed vertebrae and broken ribs) ommendation of Barry and Paul in a vain pursuit of Cooper at Mallory. Smart, who had joined the Snetterton But it was the tiddlers that occupied shake-down tests, Suzuki commis- him most in 1971 in his third full-time sioned a new chassis from then- racing year. prominent frame builder Colin Seeley, for the 1971 season. Barry embarked on a GP campaign that would see him claim four Barry would have some memo- victories_ Three were on the Suzuki in rable races on this machine, up the 125cc class, where he chased against the dominant giants, includ- Angel Nieto all the way to the last ing Giacomo Agostini's MV Agusta race for the title. There was a one-off and John Cooper on the 750cc BSA win on a 50cc Van Veen Kreidler at Any of the great champions - Roberts, Rainey, Doohan - wUl agree that winning a second successive World Championship is harder than the first. By this measure, Barry Sheeoe's greatest racing achievement was his continued domination in 1977. He swept to the title as he had in 1976 • with a swathe of victories, including one at the Belgian GP that was the fastest ever race in GP history. Sheene did stay with Suzuki, lured by (among other things) the latest version of the RG500. He was now earning serious money and surveying a kingdom where the Suzuki was now the bike to beat, and Sheene the rider. But there were changes at the Suzuki factory team, based then as today in England. Maurice Knight remained in overall charge, and to Barry's relief Rex White was baok as manager, but Barry's pit pal,r - Franco and Don Mackay, the old family firm - were banished. There'd been a couple of errors with brakes the previous year, so it was something Barry had to live with. He had new teammates. One was his nominee, his good pal and feUow practical joker Steve Parrish; the other was one of the fU'St of the latest generation of hard, fast Americans, Pat Hennen. Sheene and Hennen were to have some memorable races, particularly at the end of the year, but Sheene had the measure of his new teammate at this stage, and his opposition for the title came from an older and more experienced American: Steve Baker, on. the factory Yamaha. Barry beat him at a baking-hot opening round in Venezuela, led a boycott in Austria at round two after a fatal accident, then he and Hennen pushed Baker to third in Germany, another clear win for the Englishman. To Imola, and it's Sheene again, fighting through from a slow start to defeat home hero Vlrginio FerrarI. France came next; Barry won there, too, at the fast old Paul Ricard long circuit - this time a returned Agostini (Yamaha) was just four seconds adrift. At Assen was he beaten for the first time since last year's Belgian GP, by another home hero, an inspired Wil Hartog; with Hennen third and Baker fifth, he now had a commanding points lead. Sheene made a special place in history a week later at Spa, after an epic battle with French Suzuki rider Michel Rougerie, by claiming the fastest lap record, at the fastest ever race. It adds special potency to a famous remark to a BBC interviewer, around about that time, who asked: "When you crash, what goes through your rnind at the moment of impact?" Sheene replied cheekily: "Your arse, if you're going fast enough." Sweden came next. Barry won, with Baker third behind Cecotto. Then Imatra in Finland. Sheene needed only to come in sixth to tie up the title there. He rode to win in the early stages, but then a soaring temperature gauge saw him slacken the pace. Sixth it was, and with Baker also in trouble and way back in 12th, it was enough. Sheene had achieved the double. His place in the history books, among the very greatest motorcycle racers of all time, was assured. There remained just one more racing task: the inaugural British GP at Silverstone, replacing the Isle of Man as the title round. Barry was on pole but was one of many to retire from a race of attrition, with Hennen surviving to take a second GP win. In the year-end British championship meetings, Hennen started to beat Sheene with some regularity. Barry regained the MeN Supersport title (riding a bored-out RG500 of 653cc • a modification he, Franco and Don Mackay had originaily dreamed up) and the Shellsport 500 title, by virtue of his early season Victories. Barry's status was now universally assured. He bought his third Rolls Royce in August and soon afterwards bought the 23-room Manor House in Cha.rlwood, Surrey, for what was at the time the breathtakingly high price of £J 00,000. He was feted by the great and the good; and as well as winning all the motorcycling awards imaginable, he also beat Olympic athlete Steve Ovett to win the Sports Writers Association Sportsman of the Year award. And on the last day of the year, the honor that would take him as far beyond the world of motorcycling as you can get: Along with yachtswoman Clare Frances, rugby star Phil Bennett and cricketer Mike Brearley, he was awarded the MBE. "Now young man, you be careful," said the queen, when she presented it to him at Buckingham Palace.

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