Barry Sheene World Champion

[Applause] [Music] when he was winning motorcycle races worldwide in 1970s you either wanted to meet or you wanted to be Barry Sheene he was an idol to all making motorbiking exciting fun and sexy and becoming the first sporting playboy superstar but his two World Championships came at a horrifyingly high price with two devastating and very public crashes the cheeky cockney created the glamorous lifestyle that we all wanted with the money the cars and of course the girls he was a born winner a consummate publicist who was the first to play the media at its own game becoming his very own brand though hating school he discovered a talent for foreign languages useful for chatting up the girls and being nice to the press Barry Sheene became a global superstar more popular than ever but never forgot that it was all about the fans with unique access to the sheen family home movies and with the help of Barry's colleagues friends and family we tell the inside story of the most influential and charismatic motorcycle rider of all time a great person in so many different ways that today's riders can aspire to be like even today probably forgot the best sounding motorcycle racing name every but how he seems my mate how did that happen you know I was loving it he was on my wall and a poster and the next minute Barry seems my mate there was just a cheeky bugger the sheen family's background guaranteed that there was no way the young Barry would not have become involved in motorbikes with father Frank making sure that bikes were in Barry's blood before he could even walk dad was involved with most boats from he's when he was younger I think before he was married to my mum he's his brother used to race I think he very speed way one of his brothers but dad was always into bikes he used to ride in the Isle of Man the Clubman 's TT and so eased to get dragged to the Isle of Man Franco raced motorcycles both before and after the war but he found his mettier in preparing motorcycles he was an absolute born tinkerer and he was damn good in it so people would come in increasing numbers to Frank to get their motorcycles prepared this is the world that Barry was born into Barry Sheene was born in the evening of September 11 1950 and he soon became a typical little brother the painting it was always now he was born with infantile eczema and after that left him left him with a SMAW so sort of for the first few years of his life he scratched himself and then after that he coughed so I used to get a lot of attention Frank Sheen's job as maintenance engineer for the Royal College of Surgeons in London's Queens Square meant a comfortable Holborn flat for the sheen family with a yard and a workshop allowing Frank to indulge his motorcycle ambitions riding and working with the Spanish bull tackle bikes gave Frank the nickname of Frankel and he was quick to give young Barry his very first bike Frank had built him a little little thing at first he wasn't allowed to change gear he went up and down there yeah it had a little two-speed gearbox while family life may have been happy for him school was not something Barry took to in fact he used any excuse to bunk off class he used to use his asthma attacks some tough talk of school he suffered from asthma and during one of the regular appointments he was left unattended in the surgery for a bit and it was a pile of pile of appointment forms on the desk I had enough sharing in the early grasp of how to manipulate the situation to his advantage Barry pocketed a lot of these and from then on he had asked my appointment every Wednesday he was off school dr. Brown's house so with Wednesday's off school at Brands Hatch and weekend spent at circuits such as Snetterton and Mallory Park Barry was well on his way to learning the skills that were to help him become world champion with the Xin family becoming a familiar sight at the circuits I will have met Frank I would have been I would have been talking about Frank Sheen rather than Barry Sheene because Barry Sheene was a little boy but I I remember Frank and iris they were typical racing motorcycle family those days they would come and have breakfast which they would cook themselves at the circuit and they had this little boy with them who was a very bright and lively chat so I suppose Barry what must have been about six or seven when I first first met him Franco's involvement with the Spanish bull taco bikes meant holidays spent in Spain and watching the home movies of these holidays from the 60s brings back happy memories for Barry's sister Maggie Oh Barry started smoking when he was about 11 first time I got caught smoking he told my mother that I'd give him the [ __ ] but the main reason for Spanish holidays was for Franco to participate in the 24-hour race in manju e park in Barcelona local contacts there gave him the opportunity to become British importer for the Spanish bull taco motorbikes so holidays in Spain not only meant youngberry Lant a little Spanish but he also got to grips with the new 125 and 250 cc lightweight two-stroke will tackle bikes back home in England very practices riding skills in the field surrounding Oulton Park as seen here in films shot by a proud father but there was still the small matter of leaving school and getting a job he left school with the minute he could leave school he left because he hated it he got a series of jobs he rode a messenger bike for an advertising agency first of all he did a bit of lorry driving he worked on a car lot with a friend of his he did a bit of furniture delivery all this time he was also very much involved in racing even before he left school he had gone away for a spell of European races with an American rider but really I suppose his passion was to was to ride once he got to 17 or whatever and that's all he really wanted to do Franco's home movies from this period reveal aside to Barry's riding that not many people know about trials riding I never knew Barry wrote in trials I stirred is that a bull taco did you how saying the same thing yeah I mean I should think Frank must have been absolutely overjoyed because there was someone following in his footsteps and obviously going to be doing it even better than Frank did because Frank Frank was a handy rider but he it wasn't a genius Barry actually started his career by accident because he was a sort of gofer for his dad didn't Frankie is a very talented tuner and engineer and he used to get Barry to test the box that he had prepared for some reason they were never really thought about racing himself until the beginning of 1963 when Franco had the the New Year's bull tacos come in and he wanted to see how they went he went on to bronze on Wednesday afternoon and there was no one else to ride them except Barry somebody said Barry ago and left was his first ride people said he looked socialist and fasted said to Frank hey give him a go on a race and and that was it he he came second in his first race fellow for the next one but he was that was the start of something absolutely amazing because that's what people said at the time in racing one minute Barry wasn't there the next minute he was winning everything in his first full racing season in 1969 on his one to five bull tackle Barry finished an impressive second in the national championships but it was the following year when he borrowed money from Franco to buy a six-year-old ex-works 125 Suzuki when he really came into his own franco filmed the Suzuki's first outing at Mallory Park in 1971 when as number 16 it won its very first race Barry went on to win the 125 national championship that year and was only beaten into second place in the world championship by the legendary angel Nieto from nowhere to the world's number two in a year it was a similar story in 1972 but with Barry riding an Xbox Yamaha had circuits such as the Austrian Grand Prix at Salzburg where fellow rider Jarno Saarinen was also riding a Yamaha at the start at the yamaha the ferony and she which go out ahead Barry had to retire from that race and his luck with the Yamaha was patchy all year but his writing skills had brought him to the attention of Peter AG and Morris Knight from the newly formed Suzuki GB who were looking for riders to become part of their works team he won a lot of races and so Maurice night I think his response was suggesting that perhaps we sponsor one or two of these riders with bikes and spares which we did the move to becoming a works rider on properly designed and built and prepared machines with all the support that a works can give you is an absolutely enormous leap Barry had shown that he got gigantic Talent and it had been enormously successful at national level but there's a very big difference between that and racing against the the top world championship people of the day front of the grid Reed Agostini Venera she buries first Grand Prix on the new Suzuki rg500 was at Clermont Forum in France in 1974 she flies ahead Mb Yamaha and Suzuki fight it out [Music] Phil read rolls home to win on the MV Barry Sheene comes second for Suzuki Phil read won the 74 World Championship but Barry vindicated Suzuki's trust in him becoming a healthy six Barry was coming to grips at the International Circuit in more ways than just racing as he found his affinity for languages was useful for more than just talking to the press much later mass length of mass length oh thanks Rob he needed to learn languages really light fare to speak to ladies of course he sees so that was his main reason for for picking up the language so he can shut up lawyers Barry had this charismatic personality he was I wouldn't say he was he was handsome in a film star way but he was certainly a gigantically attractive personality he was a public figure and the women absolutely adored him and this being a family show I'm not going to tell you some of the things that I know about Barry Sheene and women but you can you can imagine that they were exciting and dramatic and extremely energetic and very frequent close friend and Suzuki teammate Steve Parrish remembers how important the ladies were to Barry when he's asked exactly how Barry Sheene prepared for a race about 26 [ __ ] the shag if he could get one in the morning probably and turn up at the start making sure that the wheels are always in line and the mechanics have done all their job Barry had always been attracted by the glamour of the track from boyhood and especially by writer bill IV bill was everything Barry wanted to become fast cars girls the the Cockney ran in the heart of fashionable London it gave Barry something to aim for as one of Frank Sheen's bull taco riders bill had known the young Barry very well in the early sixties the two of them seen here together at manju E Park in in 61 but just how great an influence bill IV was on Barry was illustrated by his reaction to Bill's tragic death in 1969 absolutely traumatic absolutely traumatic Barry had a very was it his last a very serious attack of asthma when he heard the news and it affected him very deeply he considered trucking racing in all together Barry had become the racing Idol he aspired to becoming the cheerful cockney lady killer with all the trappings of a 70s sporting superstar but did Barry become an icon to a younger generation himself yes he created the sort of the image of the hero in every respect and when you're 15 16 or whatever and you you you you just bought a mopeds you know you think you're Barry shame you know you got me anything I you know what a great way to live that's that's the way to be by 1975 the new Suzuki rg500 had seen through its stormy adolescence of breakdowns and failures of the previous two seasons writer and mechanics knew the bike was a winner 75 was going to be the year so everyone was very much on a high on an early visit to the Daytona track in the u.s. Daytona's high banking makes it a unique and dangerous circuit and team manager maverick made sure that Barry was aware of every risk they track a guy said to watch going in to the south coming off the north bank me said it's still damp out there is it yeah I was at the light end of the pits with Merv right because he came down then something happened which post-mortem suggested was to do with a tower the bike turned head over heels and through very considerable distance down the track I'm not really sure you know you see these things it's all over in a flash and I'm not sure whether he was actually hit by the bike he might have been but it all happens terribly quickly a British TV crew filming Barry's practice laps ensured that a worldwide audience witnessed the horrific high-speed crash berry sled 275 yards on his back losing so much skin it threatened his kidneys and breaking his right collarbone two ribs his right arm and left thigh it was a gigantic hammer blow not just a barre not just two British motorcycle sport but two world motorcycle sport even in his hospital bed in Daytona Barry was giving interviews and telling people how it was and in those days that was something entirely unique and I remember watching the news and seeing Barry Sheene lying in his hospital bed and saying what had happened at a time when you would have expected him to be lying there feeling sorry for himself and saying nothing amazing as he is at the moment I just true to bone underneath my knee and put a rod through it and stuck it in attraction to keep the bones apart make it straight then when they pin there should probably be mmm six weeks for a couple of months then it'd be okay again Barry's road to full recovery was overshadowed by a worry that took him back to the operating theatre an event he also realized that would be a useful tool in promoting his newly found celebrity status ever since I broke my leg in Daytona it's been on my mind if I was to crash and in fact break my leg again in the same place it had been the pin and then it is a major problem to get it out originally and we move on here to the situation where he's had a nail put in it and now the fracture is united and what we're going to do is there's nail the surgeon he'd got a pair of pincers or something on the end of this pin and he was literally hammering the pin you could see it coming out only they produced this great long pin and I was not on the verge of paint fainting but I was feeling very very queasy indeed but yes you're right only Barry would have said why don't we have someone in watching the operation well be good wouldn't it it was while recovering from his injuries that Barry was to meet the future mrs. Sheen and a sporting superstar meeting a glamour model was a match made in heaven I was talking to my agent she said oh you've got to get some new pictures done for your book and I said well I've got an idea actually I saw this guy on the television he had these really colored motorcycle leathers this would make a really nice picture I think and she said well who was that so I said Barry Sheene she said oh I know his number and I rang him up he said Oh we'll come over to the house and I'll bring the levers down and and I said oh well you could just leave them there if you like and I'll just pick them out you don't have to be there no no I'll be here so that's how I met him Steph need change Barry lots of ways because he didn't he wasn't chasing other birds as much because he fell in love with this beautiful model and he kind of got to the top of the tree got a pole position there and then and pole position it was when incredibly after only three short months after his horrific Daytona crash Barry won his first ever 500cc championship race at the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen but Daytona had finished any dreams he may have had about becoming world champion in 1975 while 1975 ended with the bike ready for the next stage 1976 started and Suzuki had done a lot of work to the bike exactly what Barry had wanted and he came back to the Grand Prix's where he was now familiar with all the tracks and all the ins and outs and absolutely ran away with it he was unbeatable in 76 the to termination was written on his forehead I'm gonna make up for 75 if I get to the end of the year and I'm okay ironically first stop in 76 was Daytona where Frank Sheen filmed the opening gambit of Barry's championship year yeah that time Barry's car was a Rolls Royce in England so he'd obviously contacted Rolls Royce and you can do that in the States he might have ricochet wedge that was good I think we're all a bit cheesed off when he got some big fat alloy wheels for his roller this is Barry's box TR 750 1976 three cylinder Barry prior to moving out onto the circuit with the large sevens but yeah look how relaxed all that is anyone just wandered up with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt on back in the European 500cc circuits like Majella in Italy Barry was no rubbing shoulders with his old heroes like reigning world champion Yakima Agostini as the race began the expectations of Agostini's home crowd were high as they witnessed one of the most thrilling races of the year it went down to the very last as at the checkered flag Barry was just 1/10 of a second faster than another former world champion Phil Reed celebrations were to continue throughout the 1976 season Barry was untouchable winning five out of the six Grand Prix's he entered so total was his dominance on the track Barry didn't even need to enter the last three Grand Prix's of the season to finally achieve his ambition of becoming the 500cc world champion [Applause] he was winning you know it was he was winning every race practically and it was he was the hero of the day in every country and no matter where he went they all wanted him to win for some reason you know he had some classic races that's not to say that he didn't that it was a cakewalk that he wasn't up against a high standard of competitor but he won it as though he was meant to in 77 after winning six Grand Prix's berry easily kept the world championship title for a second year with that success came even more Fame and berry soon realized that he had become a brand in his own right Barry Sheene could have sold himself very well himself I mean it was brilliant too that he just didn't have the time he was going motorcycle racing we had a reputation we were already doing a good job for James Hunt so he thought well they're the boys that very similar actually James and Barry in a lot of ways or they from different educational backgrounds and I think James had said you know they're good people they'll do a job for you and that's what happens and almost immediately we were getting him deals deals with Texaco we did a Sun column for a number of years we even had a Barry Sheene magazine for a while that worked well and cause the famous deal with Faberge and many subsequent deals now that's Barry Sheene on number seven he's a matter watch here look at him go whoops now you know why's been world champion two years running of course I ought to my bro 33 guys splash it all over nothing beats the great smell of Brut but by 1978 Suzuki had a new rival in a new more maneuverable Yamaha bike and Barry had a new rival in the form of the rider who would become his greatest rival American Kenny Roberts from reading the reports about the racing before I come and and kind of trying to visualize what I had to beat in Barry being being world's champion was it appeared that he had the the best equipment and he could ride it better than everybody else and it was fairly easy and I suppose that all changed when when I was able to start winning races that yeah there was a particular crucial race and in a way events played into Barry's hands in terms of his own credibility although they played away from him in terms of the championship this was at the finish Grand Prix and at the end of practice Barry reported to his Suzuki mechanics that there was a bit of a rumble in the main bearing he wanted the engine changed and the Suzuki mechanics declined to do this one can only imagine that it must have been a hell of an argument but anyway possibly for the first time ever they said no Barry this engine does not need changing in the race it failed and that cost Barry enough points to really hand the title to Kenny he had some very bad races that's when he developed the flu and and he could have very well had the flu Oh chronic fatigue syndrome time that was wasn't it well he got a virus epstein-barr virus what they call and he just went from pillar and post to try and get it sorted out as I said it was a strange kind of virus that makes it come second and third instead of first it became more plausible when Barry got better at the end of the year if he didn't have a virus he certainly did recover from something but it was too late it was at this time that many riders on the Grand Prix circuit were getting increasingly concerned about track safety as a former Brands Hatch 350 cc bike champion remembers motorcycle racing was more dangerous than car racing in fact it seemed to me that more people got killed in cars and them hurt but what well you were guaranteed injuries with bikes that was the difference you know you've got a broken collarbone that was that's the only thing I got in my career in racing bikes but I never broke anything in a car after the slide down the Daytona track had ripped off much of the flesh from his back Barry had created a back protector for himself a safety innovation he quickly passed on to others they gave me my first back pad and I wore it I cut it down it was quite big his was quite big and I cut it down it made it smaller but I wore it probably won the world championship with his first year but Barry also got together with some of the riders to try to achieve a more lasting change to the safety aspects of the circuits we've cut out some of the circuits that are very dangerous like the German Grand Prix at Nurburgring you know I'm sure you know Nurburgring when niki lauda very badly and here we it's terrible to race in mother sovereign long long and pine trees and barriers and God knows what so we're just we're obviously gonna have a lot of fights this year with the people that organized the races but um but you'll definitely be out there I'm gonna go I'll be out there having a go yeah together with other riders Kenny and Barry instigated a new motorcycle World Series to rival the existing governing body the FIM we needed to change the system the FIM at the at that time was not running the races properly and not doing anything basically which is what they do best the reason the world series came about was because we're all fed up with seeing mates die it was a very dangerous it was ridiculous really in the meantime that racing continued after losing the 78 championship to Kenny Roberts Barry was keen to regain his crown and events came to a head at the 79 British Grand Prix at Silverstone if you said to me name just one exciting motorcycle race that you have seen in your career without a shadow of doubt it would be Kenny Roberts on the Yamaha in 1979 against Barry Sheene on the Suzuki now Kenny was racing against double world champion Barry Sheene as I say they were great mates it was the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in typical Sheen fashion Barry popped a massive wheelie off the grid in front of his home crowd when I would lead we'd speed up when he would lead we'd slow down and I knew I couldn't just run away and hide there's no way I could get away from him he knew there's no way that he could get away from me so we ended up like sort of egging each other on everybody else had just disappeared into the background somewhere and you had these two absolutely superstars racing against each other at record breaking a speed safely and they passed and re-passed each other and every time Barry got past Kenny but crowd would if they weren't already standing out they would stand up and you could you really could hear the crowd shouting above the noise of the engines what was bothered me a little bit middle the race was hey you know when you know speed up so I'm gone you know get going because you know they're catching us from behind the more I don't like speed up then that's when the hand signal started happening and I remember at one point in the race they went out of one of the corners and Barry had got greater momentum and he got past bear hey got past Kenny and he looked over his shoulder and he put his hand up on his back and he gave him two fingers like that and I remember saying in the collagen and look Barry Sheene is waving at Kenny Roberts while he was giving in the two fingers actually but I couldn't say that at the time Silverstone them's the famouser wave to your happy Smith hey very good do you have enough sort of call to go all that well it's it's still a stone for example I was only good rice for Kenny Roberts and ran the back of the circuit where there were no cameras he was doing all kinds of things to me you know in it in a funny sort of way I knew that was gonna come down to the last lap and I was either gonna get second or get first and and I think Barry probably knew the same thing and they got interfered with by a back marker and people don't remember it these days but the back marker that got in the way was George Fogarty and George Fogarty was Karl Fogarty's father I mean that was going well in the research the problem is that the bike he went onto three cylinders before still in sukie's and he's still running around about 16 17 s and he got laps off Barry and Kenny Roberts and Barry being Barry and like I was the same you know I never lost the race it was always an excuse why and he was the same with Barry you know you kind of said odd George fought you got him away George Fogarty got in the way as a result of which can he pulled away a bit Barry closed up and he took the outside line a wood coat and and they went across the finish line like that I don't know how much difference that was in time between them but it must have been just a few hundredths of a second fantastic race and an incredible end do you have a dream about that after that every time I see a video of it I keep thinking well maybe I'm gonna win it but Barry's mechanic believes that there was a distinct plan to that race one that would help promote Barry and Kenny's World Series aspirations they were going to put on basically a show for everybody to see by doing for the part of the race some of the most spectacular racing that the world would probably ever see on television they had got an agreement as to when the race would start and that wasn't at the first lap the race started for them five laps from the end lap 25 was the race and five laps they just went after even faster than what they put on the show for to give that show for the first 25 laps then give a second show it's like an encore so that was the greatest race but what they were doing is to the sponsors Marber especially that's what we can do boys you want any more of this and with the benefit of hindsight the post race interviews do demonstrate that Barry and Kenny had the World Series very much on their minds the final question of course this could but what happened was the the Federation the incumbents the the status quo was preserved because of the power they had over circuit organizers and in the end the World Series fund that they had nowhere to run their races the tracks were all terrified of the establishment and there was a final meeting called where all the riders were got together and to announce this to them and some of them wanted to carry on fighting that they didn't understand that it was over but but Barry did but nonetheless he tried to rally he went along with the mood and then the Dutch rider will Hartog was one of the first to get up and walk out and as he left very famously called out for me said well the world turns so what was it Barry said how can you walk without a spine famous very MUC Barry wasn't to win the 79 championship and the next year he was to racer Yamaha as he became more and more disillusioned with Suzuki 79 yeah we were get we were having a divorce the team were well the crucial moment was in October of that year round about the time of the Arts called motorcycle show and the motorcycle news man of the Year awards Barry was engaged in negotiation for Suzuki and he was being very hard-nosed and they weren't getting anywhere Morris Knight later told me that he and his the directors had agreed that perhaps Sheen was not essential to the team having now been beaten three years in a row Barry and Morris not bumped into each other on the way to these awards and Barry was wearing a Yamaha t-shirt and Morris Knight said he made a jocular remark saying what do you think mateship Morris that's what we're going to be wearing next year Morris replied if you will a t-shirt today dinner it'll be the most expensive t-shirt you've ever worn because they hadn't paid his full contract fee that berry big berry weather hadn't wore it Suzuki cut off the remainder of his balance and stopped negotiations there's a strong feeling still within suzuki that this that berry was taken by surprise he thought he was just being cheeky he thought Suzuki would do anything to keep him and he misjudged the situation he figured the bites that were beating him with Robertson the Yamahas he could win a World Championship on a private motorcycle when he first signed for Yamaha in 1980 they were just production bikes from Mitsui Yamaha in the UK and I think Barry probably overlooked a little bit how bad those production bikes were or how good the factory bikes were and finally he did get some good bikes out of Yamaha but it was pretty late in the day to get them and unfortunately the accident at Silverstone cut it all short cause he had sorted that bike out and I think truthfully he would have won that race there that year and probably gone on to win the world championship his 82 Silverstone crash again put Barry in the headlines for all the wrong reasons the day before the Grand Prix Silverstone through the circulate them to everyone all comers Barry in his endearing way flagged a Marshall into letting him go onto the circuit when it was either just about to be closed or just had being closed because he he'd got the bike almost right and he just wanted to do this last check and he went out for final lap somebody crashed and the bike was in the track Barry came over the brow of a hill or over blind rise there was the bike in the middle of the truck he had nowhere to go he just hit and took off it literally looked like a plane crash sure was fairings and and pieces of motorcycles laying everywhere and the first thing I did was go to bury because I couldn't see anybody else just debris and you know at that time just tried to do what I could or what you know to do what I picked up over the years is remove his helmet and I thought he was dead you know there was no way that you're gonna survive all that and be alive Kenny's actions in all likelihood saved Barry's life when his bike was smashed apart by the impact Barry received many injuries the most serious being to his left hand and both shin bones which were completely shattered when I saw in the night the crash he was very ill I wouldn't have been in Athol Christ this is serious I was right yeah I was really odd where in fact that was the only time I've ever said of Lord oh my god son you know he might help survive it she was really really knocked about you're really not about the x-rays of Barry's legs became an iconic image of the McConnel man as Barry know became known amazingly Barry was out of hospital after only 23 days leaving wife Stephanie to pick up the pieces that was a real terrible time for us because he couldn't walk and he's not a very good patient you know I can remember having to get him up and down the stairs in the morning me and Franco would have to carry him down I remember one day I'd got up into the bathroom we lived in a very look our house was very long got him in the bath I said to give me all right here for a few minutes yes that's a lifting there with all his shaving stuff at his mirror and so I went down to the kitchen and I started doing a few bits of washing and that I just forgot about and I could hear forgotten all about him and it could have been for that long cuz it you know I wouldn't have left you like for an hour okay running up says he was screaming at the top of his voice and he was sitting there in the stone-cold bar so he said it wasn't that Cole couldn't reach the tap to put more water in you ain't Bloody Mary but Barry was also mad at the Silverstone authorities whose door he laid the blame for the crash because of the lack of flag Marshalls very angry against Lewiston indeed and was eventually got a big payout from them the amount was never revealed it's believed to be in the region of about three hundred thousand pounds I believe because of their their well it never came to court sir but he alleged negligence there weren't enough flag he hadn't been warned if if there been enough flag marshals on duties he could have been warned of the brother Hill for the 1983 season berry returned to us uzuki bike but things were never to be the same again Barry never did as well with Yamaha and after that with Suzuki as he had done in the mid 70s with Suzuki when he got his two World Championships and it wasn't his fault in neither case subsequently were the bikes good enough against the competition that he was up against cuz he was up against Kenny Roberts on the Yamaha but it didn't stop him from coming back after that dreadful crash in going on for another couple of years but by 1984 an older and wiser Barry had decided it was time to settle down and start a family so we decided right got a try for a child and we said well we have to get married then we got married in secret up the road nobody there no fanfare nine months after getting married daughter Sidney was born to mr. and mrs. Sheen but by the end of 1984 the new father announced he was to quit racing I thought he'd probably retired a little bit early but that was his decision it probably fed up with beating himself about he was it was a bit of a mess and if he had any more accidents it was not really gonna probably finish him forever you know type of thing he was rather fragile with his pins and screws in there and I think he just genuinely realized that he wasn't gonna get the best equipment anymore he didn't want to race unless he did her Sydney had been born and he just realized that he'd had his day I think and that was a good time to bow out although Barry had tried his hand at saloon car racing and even truck racing it was Australia's Gold Coast that appealed the most to Barry after a friendly beetle had shown him the way he went to Australia at the at the behest of George Harrison actually George Harrison had bought a place on Hamilton Island and he went over with George to first Australian Carr Gomm Prix as as a guest and then went to Hamilton Island with George and and he just loved it I remember talking to him in the paddock there and I said what do you and I said what do you think of Australia they're buried a fantastic life absolutely fantastic and he realized being a bright lad that he is that if he went to Australia to live he would have a climate that was going to be kind to his body as it got older say he up sticked and took the whole family and Steph's family over to Australia he got himself straight into television work out there with the local guys who were doing that the national racing series and then also the Bell started covering the world series here and he got himself embedded with the network's pretty well again he was a witty guy it was a Commodore vs Falcon at Bathurst and I can't remember what the episode or the incident was but there had been some you know either spectacular crash or something quite amazing happen on the track and Beth said what if I said Falcon unbelievable and we all just looked at him and I said I dare you bears come on when we come out the add brake idea we always doing stupid things like that and sure enough when we came out of the add brake I said you know this has happened and that's happened and Barry goes yeah bill Falcon unbelievable and you could hear it people gasping for breath you know all over in the control rooms and everywhere and I don't think we had any complaints about it it was just very clever and there was stuff like that going on all the time a successful commentating career a high-profile advertising campaign for shell Australia as well as other successful business interests meant life was good for the xin family especially with the arrival of son Freddy but all too soon Stephane noticed that all was not well with Barry well he'd had trouble swallowing you know an Isis ate him it's only because you're gulping you food he's to eat his food really quickly he needs to get there and he couldn't get it down that went on for a while and he's they drink a lot of water with it he rang the doctor and they arranged for him to open it and just coffee whatever they call it they took us in a room and the doctor he just said look mate you've got cancer yeah there's nothing there's no work I'll tell you you know you've got cancer he just drew it for him he had eaten his esophagus and he's a part of his stomach in 2002 Barry made his last trip to the UK for the classic Goodwood racing event we got to talking about the problem he had got and I said what are you gonna do about it Barry and he said well I'm not gonna let them cut me up Murray operation he said I'm not gonna let them poison me chemotherapy but whilst that was a very sad experience because you had the feeling that he was seeing the last of a truly truly great person and personality it was also a very uplifting experience because that weekend Barry Road again against Wayne Gardner two races and Wayne won one and Barry won the other and Barry won the other bye enough of a margin to win on aggregate and it was a very fitting into a truly great rider and a truly great person's career Barry Sheene died on Monday the 10th of March 2003 he was 52 motorsport is something where people are coming and going all the time I've been involved with motorsport now for 81 years I'm 83 years old and I went to my first meeting when I was 2 years old in my mother's arms so I've seen a lot of them come and go either through natural retirement or sadly because they've been killed and usually the waters part and they disappear and you don't forget about them we don't actually miss them but I certainly cannot say that about Barry Sheene because above all his personality allied to his success and the way he achieved it made him in my experience someone who was truly unforgettable [Music] [Music]

Channel: Theo den Hugt

Views: 426,973

Keywords: Barry Sheene World Champion, Suzuki, Theo v heugten, greatbritain, 1977 500cc, 1976 500cc

Id: DuyXBKu8P_A

Length: 46min 48sec (2808 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2018