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Bob Pickett looks back at a racing legend with "Barry Sheene 1950-2003 The Biography" by Stuart Barker
If you ask any non-biker to name three bike racers, there is a good chance they’ll know Valentino Rossi, Carl Fogarty… and Barry Sheene. Twice world 500cc champion, a number of other titles under his belt and possibly the first bike racer to be known as much for his exploits away from the track, Sheene captured the public imagination at a time when bike racing in the UK really didn’t get much mainstream coverage.
But what was Sheene like, away from the public persona? And was he really as good as he was portrayed? To look for the answers, I read "Barry Sheene 1950-2003" by Stuart Barker.
Barker is obviously a Sheene fan, but doesn't simply drop into hero-worship (he acknowledges that Sheene publicly criticising Yamaha in his early days didn't do him any favours when his time with Suzuki ended and he needed decent bikes from Yamaha to further his career).
The information about his childhood is interesting, but the book picks up when the racing starts - how Sheene the boyhood mechanic became Sheene the racer – and his almost vertical rise up the ranks – is impressive stuff.
If there is a small criticism, the view of the rivalry between the supporters of Sheene and Mick Grant / Ron Haslam is a bit simplistic (there must have been more to it than the ‘north/south divide’), but the domestic scene is otherwise well covered. It is also interesting to see how the standard ‘He was scared of road racing’ claim (a common one by his detractors) is debunked – if Sheene refused to ride the TT as he was scared, then what on earth was he doing riding at Scarborough?
Once Sheene moves up to the premier class of racing, the book really takes off, especially when a certain Kenny Roberts enters the fray. The difference in styles, the fact that both men were adept at playing to the press and were both at the top of their game makes for fascinating reading. His two major crashes are dealt with in detail without verging on the ghoulish (as are the details of the numerous bones broken during his career). The serious business of racing, crashing and recovering is balanced by tales of ‘Sheene the joker’ - especially when close friend Steve ‘Stavros’ Parish joins his GP team at Suzuki.
On the downside, when it gets to the stage when Sheene's career is on the slide, it is pretty much blamed on the bikes, rather than taking into consideration that Sheene was getting older and a 60 a day habit had to be catching up with him. Though mention is made of the riders coming in from the
US bringing the 'dirt-track' style with them that rendered the European way of riding pretty much obsolete however.
Sheene’s claims to have discovered everyone and invented everything from the internal
combustion engine to sliced bread should be taken very tongue in cheek (Barker seems to have believed the quotes) – otherwise it overshadows his achievements in getting the authorities to improve circuit and rider safety.
The post-racing years are well covered and surprisingly interesting, given that this is a book about a racer – but his forays into classic racing do help this section along. And the final months when cancer took its’ toll are dealt with intelligently and without falling into tear-jerking gushing.
A book like this needs quotes from friends and rivals, as well as impressive photos – and Barker has obviously put in the time to ensure be has both. And the record pages at the back are a welcome addition – this reinforces how good Sheene was in his day and it is a nice touch to include his classic racing towards the end of his life.
Overall, a good read and well worth adding to your book collection.
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