History of Motorcycle Racing (Volume 3)

This is the third volume of the definitive history of one of the world’s most exciting sports. Award-winning motorcycle film producer, David Wood, utilises his extensive archive, plus material from scores of other sources, modern day interviews and race coverage, to present an unsurpassed, entertaining and historically significant record of motorcycle racing. In The Other Champions, we cover racing classes other than the Blue Riband 500cc championship, i.e. the lightweights from 50cc to 350cc, and of course, those modern day charioteers, the sidecar racers. All of these classes have had many worthy champions over the years – several of whom are featured in this episode. Pressure, Money & The Need to Win, our final part, profiles the advent of the ultra-professional approach to motorcycle racing which has produced a new breed of rider who have to be as committed to the commercial aspects of the sport as they are to winning races. The trend is made clear as we hear from one of the first riders who presented himself as a TV personality – Barry Sheene. Then, as action footage unfolds, we speak to several 1980s stars whose highly professional approach epitomised the sport; Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Wayne Gardner and Kevin Schwantz to name but a few.