Barry sheen biography
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Barry Sheene
Born September 1950. Entered his first race in 1968 on a 125cc Bultaco. United Kingdom 125cc champion in 1969 and 1970, and debuted in World GP in 1970 on a Suzuki. In 1971 entered the World GP in three classes: 50cc, 125cc and 250cc, and achieved 2nd place in the 125cc class. The following year was signed by Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. (YMENV), Yamaha's sales company in Europe. Rode in the World GP 250/350cc classes, but his placement in the 250cc class was 13th and he achieved no points in the 350cc class. In 1973, switched to Suzuki and became the first champion in the FIM Cup F750. From 1974 rode in the World GP500. However, crashed in the 1975 Daytona 200 in the United States. Though he sustained serious, life-threatening injuries, returned to racing halfway through the season and notched up two wins. Then went on to win the World GP500 two years in a row (1976 and 1977).
From 1980 to 1982, returned to Yamaha. Along with Kenny Roberts, was charged with the task o
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11/9/1950 - 10/3/2003
Record updated
Legendary British motorcycle racer, winning several British and World Championships. He became the British 125 cc champion aged 20, and finished second in the World Championships for that class a year later. A spectacular crash at Daytona in 1975 threatened to end his career, breaking his left thigh, right arm, collarbone and two ribs, yet he recovered and was racing again shortly afterwards. In 1976 he won fem Grands Prix, bringing him the World Championship, a feat he repeated the following year. In 1979, he moved from the Suzuki works team, believing that he was receiving inferior verktyg to his teammates. He shifted to a privateer Yamaha machine, but soon started receiving works equipment. 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 inter
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Stuart Barker recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Barry Sheene The Biography...
Soon afterwards, on 25 January 1979, Barry received further public acclaim when he was chosen as the subject of the hugely popular TV show This Is Your Life, which was then being hosted by Eamonn Andrews. Sheene, who had always thought the subjects of the show knew about it in advance, was genuinely surprised when Andrews, the famous big red book in hand, walked into an interview Sheene was doing at a bike show in London. The show was watched by a massive TV audience of 19.35 million. It might have run out of steam in recent years, but in the seventies This Is Your Life was generally the domain of major household names. It was indisputably another unique coup for a motorcycle racer.
Sheene brought up the subject of his schooldays again in 1978 when he appeared on the Parkinson show. Speaking of one teacher whom he had particularly disliked (he diplomatically stopped short of