Video: Barry Sheene’s nail-biting final race win

29th January 2026

Adam Wilkins

Anybody who attended the 2002 Goodwood Revival witnessed a poignant, bitter-sweet spectacle in the Lennox Cup. The much-loved 1976 and ’77 World Champion Barry Sheene was by then suffering from terminal cancer, but nonetheless entered the Goodwood Revival’s motorcycle race with his trademark verve, cheek and character. And with race-winning form. This video shows his battle aboard a Manx Norton 500, so if you want to avoid spoilers watch it before reading on.

When the flag drops, Sheene leaves the front row of the grid with a wheelie while fellow World Champion Wayne Gardner scorches into the lead by the time the pack reaches Madgwick. Sheene drops back to fifth place by St. Mary’s, but his charge is only just beginning. The leading five become a pack of their own, swapping places and creating space between them and the rest of the field.

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Gardner and Sheene become a twosome on the road for much of the race, while seven-time Isle of Man TT winner Bill Swallow settles into the lead on his Aermacchi 408. Those leading five (which includes John Cronshaw’s Matchless G50 and Duncan Fitchett’s Manx Norton 500) stay close, putting on an almost balletic display of control and close racing. Clean, too, with each rider giving the others the space they need.

When the pack catches back-markers, the order shifts. Soon enough, the World Champion duo of Garnder and Sheene lie first and second, and in the chicane of the final lap Sheene makes his move on Gardner’s Matchless G50. To the eye, it looks like a dead heat as they cross the line, but the win goes to Sheene by the closest of margins – just 0.156 second separated them.

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Just six short months later, Sheene died in hospital on the Gold Coast of Australia. But his legacy as one of motorcycle racing’s favourite characters endures decades later. This year we’re celebrating the 50^th anniversary of his first World Championship, so it's the ideal time to relive his final race win, here at Goodwood.

Tickets for the 2026 Goodwood Revival are now on sale. If you’re not already part of the GRRC, you can sign up to the Fellowship today and save ten per cent on your 2026 tickets and grandstand passes, as well as enjoying a whole host of other on-event perks.