page_title: Barry Sheene
section_title: Racing career
hierarchical_section_title: Barry Sheene / Racing career
caption_attribution_description: English: Barry Sheene's Heron Suzuki at the Donington Collection
context_page_description: Barry Steven Frank Sheene MBE was a British professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing and was a two-time world champion, winning consecutive 500cc titles in 1976 and 1977.
  Sheene's 1977 title remained as Britain's last solo motorcycle world championship until Danny Kent in 2015 in the Moto3 category.
  After a racing career stretching from 1968 to 1984 he retired from competition and relocated to Australia, working as a motorsport commentator and property developer.
context_section_description: Sheene began competitive motorcycle racing in 1968, winning his first races at Brands Hatch riding father Frank's 125cc and 250cc Bultacos. He improved to second behind Chas Mortimer in 1969 in the 125cc class on the Bultaco.
  By 1970, Sheene had become the British 125c champion at age 20, riding a former Suzuki factory racing team motorcycle that he purchased for £2,000. The 1967 Suzuki RT67 twin-cylinder motorcycle had previously been ridden by Suzuki Factory-backed rider, Stuart Graham in the 1968 Grands Prix and in selected 1969 events. In 1971, still riding the same Suzuki twin, he finished second in the 125cc World Championship, probably missing the title due to injuries sustained in a well-paid non-championship race at Hengelo (Netherlands) and during the Race Of the Year at Mallory Park (compression fractures of three vertebrae and five broken ribs). His first Grand Prix win coming on that bike at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, soon followed by a win on a 50cc Van Veen Kreidler at the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix held at the Masaryk Circuit, where he finished over two and a half minutes ahead.
  For the 1972 season, Sheene was signed by Yamaha to ride a factory-supported Yamaha YZ635 for the 250cc World Championship under the French Yamaha importer Sonauto's banner. There was no Yamaha factory team at the time, but Sheene was one of six riders receiving support from the factory. However, at the third round in Austria, after losing a sprint to the finish line to the Australian John Dodds for third place, he voiced his displeasure to team management about the performance of the bike. The next Grand Prix was the Grand Prix of Nations at Imola at the end of May, but Sheene crashed in practice and broke his collarbone, preventing him from taking part in the race, and in the Isle of Man TT as well (which was the fifth Grand Prix of 1972). Unfortunately for him, the next seven races of the world championship were all taking place in close succession in June and July and Barry would not be fit to take part in them.
  After the Yugoslavian Grand Prix, Sheene's factory-supported Yamaha YZ635 was given to Jarno Saarinen, already a Yamaha factory rider in the 350cc class, who went on to win four races and the 250cc World Championship that year. Once back to fitness, Sheene would get factory-supported Yamahas back for British races over the summer (Silverstone, Scarborough, Mallory Park) and for the last Grand Prix of the season, at the Montjuïc circuit in Spain on 23 September, where he scored a third place in the 250cc class.
  Sheene was signed by Suzuki during the off season 1972–1973 and won the newly formed Formula 750 European championship for them in 1973. As a works Suzuki rider Sheene had two contracts, with the World Championship events taking precedence over his Suzuki GB contract for home and international events, if any race dates clashed.
  For 1974, Suzuki introduced the RG500 which Sheene rode to a second, third and a fourth scoring 30 points and finishing sixth in the World Championship. A spectacular crash at the Daytona 200 in the 1975 season 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. Again riding the RG500 he scored an impressive first 500cc victory at the Dutch TT.
  In the 1976 season, he won five 500cc Grands Prix, bringing him the World Championship. He took the Championship again in the 1977 season with six victories. For the 1977 season Sheene was partnered by Steve Parrish, who rode Sheene's 1976 Suzuki 500cc machine.
  Sheene's battle with Kenny Roberts at the 1979 British Grand Prix at Silverstone has been cited as one of the greatest motorcycle Grand Prix races of the 1970s. After the 1979 season, he left the Heron-Suzuki factory team, believing that he was receiving inferior equipment to his teammates. He switched to a privateer on a Yamaha machine, but soon started receiving works equipment. In 1981, Roberts was the reigning World 500cc Champion for the third time in succession. Sheene,
caption: Barry Sheene's Heron Suzuki
exif: {}