INSIDE FAMILY ALBUM
Lovable rogue, bionic man and one of motorcycling’s greatest ever racing riders – Barry Sheene’s son shares a snapshot of a legend
days that Barry once landed his personal helicopter at the school to collect his son for an outing.
And so the stories go, along with some great quotes from Barry.
“Don’t wait for your ship to come Sheene’s attitude to life, and it features on the back cover of the book as he waves to the crowd from the seat of his Suzuki racer.
“There have been other books. But this one is different. We were approached by Bloomsbery and we thought it would be a cool way to show what he was about and to keep his memory alive,” Freddie says.
“The majority of the pictures are family photos. We picked the majority of them.”
Putting the book together allowed Freddie and the family to revisit their memories and the many stories from Baz’s life. “It’s interesting to see what he did and achieved, and the comments from people. He was quite an influence on some big people in the world. It just confirmed what he was about.”
Freddie was only 13 when Barry died, although he’d already been introduced to motorcycles by his father. “I first got on a bike when I was five years old. I did like a little bit of stuff with him, but he was so busy with work and flying around the world,” he says.
He was good enough to ride professionally, although not as a racer. “I was doing some demonstration riding. And I worked on the Mission Impossible movie as a stunt rider. It’s not crazy to ride a motorbike, in my eyes. And some of the stunt stuff is very easy to do. Anyone who is capable on a motorcycle is able to do the stunts.” But those days are behind him. “I don’t ride any more. I don’t actually own a bike. It’s mainly just a time thing. I’d love to have a track bike and do track days, but there are no good tracks close to home.”
Freddie is now a businessman who has achieved success on the Coast.
“I own a gym at Marina Mirage, and we’re importers and distributors of exercise equipment.”
Apart from the book, his connection to his father’s career includes a collection of classic motorcycles. Sheene’s world title Suzuki racers have even been shipped to Britain to be fully restored, before returning to Australia later this year.
Freddie is now doing lots of interviews about the book and he is happy to talk about his personal memories of his father.
“We had our disagreements, and our good times, but he was literally just my dad. I didn’t look up to him as a hero. It’s not until later in life that you realise what they have accomplished and how much you appreciate it.”
Barry Sheene - The official celebration of the legendary motorcycle champion by Rick Broadbent and foreword by Freddie Sheene, $39.99, Bloomsbury Sport