Episode seven of the MotoGP™ Podcast has landed and this week, former MotoGP™ commentator Nick Harris chats to host Matt Dunn and Fran Wyld about some of the sport’s greatest ever riders.
Harris remembers back to when the likes of Barry Sheene was winning his two 500cc World Championships in the late 70s, saying “it was the 70s, and it was still rather like the swinging 60s in Britain at the time, and there were two guys carrying the sport then, that we just adored in Britain because of the way they were, James Hunt and Barry Sheene.”
But the arrival of American Kenny Roberts, in Harris’ view, revolutionised motorcycle Grand Prix racing: “He ruined it all, didn’t he, Kenny! It was going along very nicely for Britain and Barry and everything else, and this guy took no nonsense from anybody arrived, and he revolutionized Gran Prix racing. Absolutely revolutionized it.
“Up until then, it was European riders riding a European way, and suddenly this guy who had been honed on riding mile-long dirt tracks in America, State fairs, tough, took no nonsense from anybody, a riding style that we had never seen before, riding a Grand Prix bike, sliding a Grand Prix bike. ‘This would never work, this would never work’ —it worked. He just started a completely new revolution, Kenny.”
Harris goes on to talk about the time he first saw a young Valentino Rossi at Mugello, as well as telling stories about a number of other greats who have graced motorcycle Grand Prix racing: Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan, Casey Stoner… To hear Nick Harris’ fascinating stories about some of the best riders we’ve ever seen racing motorcycles, listen to the latest instalment of the MotoGP™ Podcast now!