Barry Sheene passes away

[AussieV8]

To a great sportsman may you rest in peace..

[dennisonthenet]

bad news i have good thoughts of baza

[gsr]

A World Champion and a champion bloke,he will be sorely missed

[mixxer]

was much respected and now much missed, Rest in Peace Bazz

[DNQ]

At least he leaves us with so many good memories
Small relief at this time of loss.

[Peter Mallett]

Yep my condolences to Barry's family and friends.

[paul.hickman]

It hardly seems possible that just 6 months ago Barry was with us at Goodwood and despite his illness, still the ultimate showman as he diced with Freddie Spencer. He acknowledged the crowd as always with his wave and huge smile - our hearts went out to him and all wished him well in his fight. Our thoughts and prayers are now with his family.

A personal memory triggered by ‘pauldavid’ – back at Charlwood in the 70’s and long before most police forces had access to helicopters, Barry on more than one occasion ‘helped’ out and launched his own machine to assist us in the pursuit of some villain or another. It was a huge joke to him (and a great experience for us!).

You may no longer be with us Barry, but your larger than life memory will be with us for all time.

[marcus]

I never met barry personally , but I do have an amusing story , and I guess at times like these our stories and memories are what this man so great.

A few years ago I attended a Touring car meeting at Winton and I was driving in with a car full of mates along one of wintons dirt roads that encompass the circuit looking for a carpark , the line of traffic was moving at snails pace , it came to a halt and I looked in the mirror to see barry Sheene behind me on a moped , all the guys turned and gave him a wave and he smiled and waved back and gave us the thumbs up , the line started to move again but I kept an eye on barry behind me , he was moving along waving to the crowd leaning off the bike shaking hands and just enjoying himself and everyone walking around was happy to see him and wanted to say g'day, the line of traffic came to a halt again so I of course stopped , and began watching bazza again , riding along waving and saying Hi to everyone , but he didnt realize the traffic had stopped , I shouted to the guys "hes gonna hit us!!!!" and we all turned to see the look on his face , shear terror i gotta say he grabbed for every bit of braking he could , the moped nearly got away from him and he shot up beside us to avoid hitting my car , when it was all said and done we were stopped , he was stopped right beside us , we all just loked at each other and he just started laughing his head off , to which we all just started laughing , it really was a priceless moment , and sadly as its my only contact ever with Barry in person , one that will live long in my memory.

Cheers Bazz and thanks for the great laugh

[Heebeegeetee]

I think it’s appropriate to record our sadness at the loss of Barry Sheene on this forum, as his last few races were at the Goodwood Revival meetings. My wife and I certainly feel saddened yet privileged to have watched his last two races at last years meeting. Those who were there would have seen what appeared to be two titanic battles with Wayne Gardener.

I say ‘appeared’ because both races were so close, and so perfect and story book like, that I’ve always wondered if they were choreographed. I mean, at Woodcote, on the last lap of the first race, they passed each other twice. They were actually leaning on each other as they tried to be first into the chicane. So if it was stage managed, it was a) incredibly skillful stuff, and b) still bloody hair-raising to watch! Boy, it was exciting.

We watched the second race from the straight just before St. Mary’s. At one point Gardener was in 9th place, and yet a few laps later was in the lead. My wife was absolutely amazed about this, and the only explanation I could offer was “I think they tend to do this sort of thing in bike racing.” We’re certainly not used to seeing racing like that in cars.

We enjoyed seeing both Sheene and Gardener in the paddock. Barry was his usual self, talking to everybody, signing autographs, posing for pictures with all he could.
We managed to have a good chat with Gardener as well. I don’t know, but bike racers just don’t seem to suffer from the same … preciousness? as car people.

Barry didn’t attend the prize giving afterwards, and Wayne conveyed Barry’s apologies, and spoke some kind words. It was very sad. The word had gone around that we had seen the last of him. Obviously, everyone hoped not, but we did wonder.

R.I.P. Barry Sheene. A man who brought pleasure to millions.

[Champ69]

Rest in Peace Barry. My thoughts go out to your family and friends.

You acheived so much and touched so many.

You will be greatly missed.

[Crash Test]

I consider myself very lucky to have met the great man on a couple of occassions, a gentleman with fantastic wit. We'll all miss you Baz.

[Jono]

A truely sad day for International Motorsport.

Although I am unfortunately too young to have seen Barry at his best on the track, his character off-track was certainly evident at race meetings and on Channel 10.

Rest In Peace, Barry.

[nunga]

RIP - Barry Sheene

Won't be the same with out him.

[sevi]

To everyone who knew and loved Barry, you were lucky, he was one of a kind.
Treasure the memories.

[Asp]

A great loss.
Barry was meant to be waving the chequered flag at the GP, he ended up having to turn it down to Cathy Freeman because he was so ill. Ended up being a matter of time from the moment that news was brought.

[Down F0rce]

RIP Barry

[moffman]

Always quick with a wave or a smile. Will be sorely missed. R.I.P Baz

[Radisichrox]

RIP

[Sato san]

what a guy he was.......ive posted also in another thread...

[Winther]

A toast to you Barry!
Rest easy and race hard in what ever afterlife you're in.

[Adam43]

A true loss.

[Francesca]

I'm really sad now, I like Barry.

[zefarelly]

from watching TV at the age of 6 in the mid 70's, to seeing him warm his knees up at Goodwood last September, always a pleasure to watch.

RIP Barry

[Craig]

Rest In Peace, Barry. You are a star and everyone is very sad to hear you've gone.

If anyone is wondering why their post has been moved from where it was originally I have taken the decision to move all the tributes to one single place (here, obviously) so that everyone can share their memories of Barry. If you have a problem with this please do not post here, but email me instead. Thanks for understanding.

[BootsOntheSide]

I never saw Barry race, but he is clearly one of the greats, and its sad that he has died so young.