Everything about Barry Sheene totally explained
British
|Years =
1970 -
1984
|Teams =
Suzuki,
Yamaha
|Races = 102
|Championships = 500cc -
1976,
1977
|Wins = 23
|Podiums = 52
|Points =
|Poles = 19
|Fastest laps = 18
|First race =
1970 125cc
Spanish Grand Prix
|First win =
1971 125cc Belgian Grand Prix
|Last win =
1981 500cc Swedish Grand Prix
|Last race =
1984 500cc
San Marino Grand Prix
}}
Barry Sheene MBE (
September 11,
1950 –
March 10,
2003) was a
British former
World Champion Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
Biography
Sheene was born in
London,
England the second child of parents Frank (resident engineer at the
Royal College of Surgeons) and Iris. He grew up in Queen's Square,
Holborn,
London.
He became the British 125
cc champion aged just 20, and finished second in the World Championships for that class a year later. A spectacular crash at the
Daytona 200 in
1975 threatened to end his career, breaking his left thigh, right arm, collarbone and two ribs, yet he recovered and was racing again seven weeks afterwards.
In
1976 he won five 500cc
Grands Prix, bringing him the
World Championship. He repeated as champion in
1977 with six victories.
After the
1979 season, he left the
Suzuki works team, believing that he was receiving inferior equipment to his team-mates. He shifted to a privateer
Yamaha machine, but soon started receiving works equipment.
In 1981,
Kenny Roberts was the reigning World 500cc Champion for the third time, and Barry Sheene, now on a competitive Yamaha, was determined to regain the championship. Ironically, Sheene and Roberts battled all season and let Suzuki riders
Marco Lucchinelli of Italy and American
Randy Mamola beat them for the top two spots. Roberts finished third and Sheene fourth for the 1981 championship. A
1982 crash largely ended Sheene as a title threat, and he retired in
1984.
Sheene was a colourful, exuberant character who used his good looks, grin and
Cockney accent to good effect in self-promotion, and combined with an interest in business was one of the first riders to make a lot of money from endorsements. He is credited with boosting the appeal of motorcycle racing into the realm of the mass marketing media. He also tried his hand as a TV show host and starred in the low-budget film
Space Riders.
He moved to
Australia in the late
1980s in the hope of relieving some of the pain of injury-induced
arthritis, moving to a property near the
Gold Coast. He combined a property development business with a role as a commentator on motor sport, first at the
Nine Network with the
Darrell Eastlake, then moving with the TV coverage of the motorcycle Grand Prix series to
Network Ten.
In later years, Sheene became involved in historic motorcycle racing. A little-known piece of trivia is that Sheene invented the motorcycle back protector, with a prototype model he made himself out of old helmet visors, arranged so they could curve in one direction, but not the other. Sheene gave the prototype along with all rights to the Italian company
Dainese - they and other companies have manufactured back protectors since then.
He died of cancer, survived by his wife
Stephanie McLean and two children.
Following reconstruction of the
Brands Hatch Circuit in England for safety concerns after requests by the FIM, the Dingle Dell section was changed for safety, and shortly after Sheene's death the new section was renamed Sheene's Corner in his honour. The
FIM named him a Grand Prix "Legend" in
2001. At the 2004 season, V8 Supercars Australia made a memorial medal, calling it the
Barry Sheene Medal. A memorial ride from Bairnsdale, Victoria to Phillip Island is held by Australian motorcyclists annually, before the MotoGP held at the island.
Motorcycle Grand Prix results
Books
Further Information
Get more info on 'Barry Sheene'.
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