From the archive: 1982 Barry Sheene’s horror crash at Silverstone

In the late afternoon on July 28, 1982, Barry Sheene was back to his best. “Fast” Freddie Spencer, the 500cc world champion, remembered watching the Englishman’s pace and just smiling. “A few minutes later it was over,” he told me.

Sheene came around Silverstone’s Abbey Curve on his Yamaha in practice for the British Grand Prix and was travelling at 165mph by the time he hit the stricken 250cc bike of Patrick Igoa. They ended up in neighbouring hospital beds. Kenny Roberts, Sheene’s rival-cum-nemesis, was one of the first on the scene and likened it to a plane crash.

He removed Sheene’s helmet.

It was a horrendous crash that cemented Sheene’s place in British sporting affections.

Winning the world title twice, in 1976 and 1977,