It has been 45 years since Barry Sheene’s famous career-threatening injury at the Daytona 200 in 1975. Back then, the Daytona 200 was one of the biggest dates on the motorcycle racing calendar and there was even a film crew there making a documentary about the charismatic British motorcycle racing star. The event was set to be an exciting affair. So how did it all go so wrong for Sheene?
In preparation for the big race, Sheene was taking part in a private test session with Suzuki, the manufacturer he raced for. The test was a week and a half before the race and it was arranged so that he could get used to the brand new XR11 model he’d be racing. The XR11 was a powerful 750cc two-stroke racing machine, that unlike today’s world championship racing machines, had no electronics or rider aids to speak of. Back then, it was purely down to the rider to control the bike and hope everything from a mechanical perspective worked as it should.
However, the XR11 had already been nicknamed the “flexi-flyer” thanks to its undesirable habit of throwing itself into violent, high speed wobbles. It also had an unwanted reputation for breaking engines and shredding rear tyres. Not a great recipe for doing over 170mph at the Daytona circuit.
Despite its bad reputation, Sheene actually liked the bike and began to pick up his speed lap after lap as he settled into its characteristics and began to feel ever more comfortable at the test. After the initial exploratory laps, Sheene pulled the pin and decided to see exactly what the XR11 could do, and that’s when the unimaginable happened. At around 175mph, the Suzuki skidded sideways, then regained grip and snapped the other way, flinging Sheene over the handlebars and onto the unforgiving asphalt.
Accounts from witnesses of the accident and journalists who were there and have reported on it since have explained in detail how Sheene simply laid lifeless at the bottom of the Daytona banking. Almost immediately, Sheene was placed on stretcher without a neck brace or body boards and taken to hospital for diagnosis. Thankfully, the understanding and treatment of such serious injuries has moved on since the mid-1970s.
He wasn’t in good shape. In the 175mph horror high side, Sheene suffered a broken femur, collarbone and arm, multiple fractured vertebrae and nasty skin loss on his back. But his recovery time was almost as shocking as the crash itself. In just seven weeks, Sheene was back racing again, and won his first premier class Grand Prix. And of course, the following year in 1976, became the 500cc Grand Prix World Champion for the first time, picking up national hero status.
But what actually caused the crash? Some say it was a shredded tyre, others say it was an engine seizure. Video clips of the accident shows that the rear tyre had delaminated (where the tyre begins to separate into its different components), with rubber visible across the track. Sheene himself recalled feeling the rear wheel locking up so immediately pulled the clutch lever in which didn’t make a difference, suggesting a faulty gearbox. Following Suzuki’s review of the crashed XR11, there was no sign of a broken gearbox.
It could well have been a mixture of a faulty engine and a tyre that simply wasn’t able to cope with the stresses of a 750cc racing bike asking for grip at 175mph on the banking at Daytona. Tyre manufacturers in the ‘70s faced huge challenges to keep up with the demand of how quickly race bikes were progressing. One day they were making road tyres for 75bhp Triumphs, the next trying to get their heads around 100bhp+ thoroughbred two-stroke racers from Japan.
Unfortunately, the Daytona 200 crash wasn’t Sheene’s only serious accident. During the 1982 British Grand Prix at Silverstone while racing for Yamaha, the two-time 500cc World Champion was unsighted coming over the crested rise out of Abbey Curve and hit Patrick Igoa’s fallen machine at 160mph which launched him 200 yards down the Tarmac. The crash nearly cost Sheene his life, but after just 23 days he was out of hospital and on the road to recovery. As well as his racing accomplishments, these spectacular crashes, the ability to overcome serious injuries and his glamorous lifestyle all contributed to Sheene becoming a national icon.
His final race was the 1984 San Marino Grand Prix, which marked the end of the most successful British motorcycle racing career in history.
Did you know?
Tyre issues haven’t completely disappeared, and tyre technology has always been a talking point in world championship motorcycle racing, with racers constantly seeking extra grip as the power of racing machines continues to increase.
In 2016, Pramac Ducati’s Scott Redding’s rear Michelin delaminate during the Argentina Grand Prix. Thankfully, Redding avoided crashing and any serious injury, but the power of the tyre’s delamination process was evident as it made a complete mess of the rear-end of the Ducati.
