Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
World champion 500cc motorcycle racer, English, two-time world champion in 1976 and 1977.
On the island
Eight records
Do You Know the Way to San Jose
I was at school when it first came out and it says in it, LA's a great big freeway, you'd put a hundred down and buy a car and I thought, God, Los Angeles, you know, what a fantastic place, you know, I'd love to go there.
the words at the beginning of it remind me of what it's like when you first go to a country to race, where they've heard your name and they think they know you and they'll never forget you until someone new comes along.
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying
In nineteen seventy one a friend of mine was killed and the next day I was travelling from one circuit to another and I was feeling a bit tearful to say the least and it came on and it it just the words don't let the sun catch you crying stopped me from crying and ever since then every time it comes on it gives me a big lump in my throat.
I should think after the sun we had everybody wants a send bit of sunshine.
If You Leave Me NowFavourite
it's just something that it's really nice to listen to and I could listen to it all day long.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:08When did you first ride a motorcycle?
Uh, it was just shortly after my fifth birthday. My dad made me a little motorcycle and [he] put together this little thing [and] left me in the back yard with it, and I learnt to ride it.
Presenter asks
3:22What did you want to be as a youngster?
Um, I wanted to be free, really, and get out of school.
Presenter asks
4:47What was your first race?
My first race was in nineteen sixty eight at Brands Hatch in Kent. It was a Baltaco, a Spanish motorcycle, um given to me by the the chap that ran the factory that was a friend of my father's.
Presenter asks
8:35What records do you hold?
As it stands at the moment, it's um the fastest lap record on a circuit in the world and also the fastest road race ever held in the world. … Um 137 point something or other.
The keepsakes
The book
It'd have to be well, if you could bind together for me a a book of languages with say six or seven languages in it. Yeah, it'd really interest me.
The luxury
an effigy of Dennis Healey and some pins
I'd definitely take an effigy of Dennis Healy and some pins to stick in it.
Presenter asks
14:22Tell us about a bad accident you had in the United States.
Yeah, that's it. It was in Daytona in Florida. And um I was doing about 180 mile an hour at the time and I had a rear tyre blowout. Which resulted in rather a nasty accident and rather a lot of pain.
Presenter asks
15:39Did you really set fire to the riders' loos?
Oh, that was a long time ago in 1971. … And the loser in disgusting state, and we went to the organisers and said … So I said, Well, why don't we burn it down? Because it was only made of wood, anyhow. So he said, um, whoa, yeah, I couldn't do that. So my mechanic and I burned it down.
“I wanted to be free, really, and get out of school.”
“I started off the race weighing 10 stone 4 and after the race I weighed 9 stone 10.”
“So my mechanic and I burned it down.”
“I don't see why I should be pushed out of the country that I love and the country I was born and bred in, um, just because of the government not getting their thing together on the tax.”
“I think it's wrong that some young kids should be allowed out on the road that can't really ride a motorcycle properly.”