Barrie
Smith
It
must have been in the early seventies that I first met Barrie. I was up at
Silverstone with Harry Stiller and the Duke of Edinburgh. James Hunt was
there, as was some newbie racer, Alan Jones.
I
well remember how Alan Jones became world champion. Harry had done a deal
with Lord Hesketh (his Lordship, genuinely, in my opinion, a super chap) to
buy the F1 car. I played a minor part as a bit of a sponsor, but Harry was
the man that MADE Alan Jones.
As I
recall, Harry and I were together on the Wednesday. Harry said “I’d like
David Morgan to drive the car”. He ‘phoned David Morgan but there was no
reply. On the Thursday I said to Harry “How’s it going with the driver?” “No
reply” said Harry.
This
was not like Harry. Had it been a girl there would have been no third
chance. However, he tried David once more on the Friday, but, no reply
again. “Blow this for a bunch of Bananas” (or something similar) said Harry
and then he rang Alan Jones. The rest is history. Alan Jones owes everything
to Harry and I hope he knows it.
SO,
going back to the story, during the time at Silverstone, racers were
pounding round the circuit, and spare parts like me were standing about, as
one does. One of the nicer other ‘spares’ there was James’s wife, the model
Suzie Hunt. We had a long, innocent chat to pass the time. I thought she was
a beautiful and charming lady: goodness knows what she thought, but I liked
her.
Forward a couple of years. I was with my lady in Antigua and walked into the
Admiral’s Inn. There was Susie with two men. One was in a white Tunic suit
with white buckskin boots. It was Richard Burton. The other man was in an
off-white fire-proof racing suit. Suzie recognised me and said “Have you met
Barrie?”
Now,
we all know Barrie as one of the great masters of the hugely powerful sports
racers. He with the courageous right foot but the gentle shutter button
finger ….
I
asked him “What was the Greatest Drive of your Life?”
This
is what he said ….
“A good friend, Chef,
Paul Hughes [of Ginger Pig fame] said we should go to South Dakota for the
50th anniversary of the Sturgis Bike Week in August 1990.
His suggestion was
made in March of that year and as soon as I agreed he booked a Harley from
the HOG fly/ride program. I did nothing till end of May, when we booked the
air flights to Phoenix Arizona. Paul had persuaded my son Max to join us and
share the cost of his bike, so together with my wife, we were a group of
four with only one bike! I had tried to book a Harley with HOG but to no
avail, they were all fully booked.
I decided that an
XT600 Yamaha was affordable so called the Arizona dealer and bought one over
the phone for £1800 new.
After a few days in
Arizona we collected my new bike with spare oil filter and set off for the
1500 mile ride to South Dakota through the best scenery South West USA has
to offer. We rode up through the Navajo Indian reservation from Flagstaff to
Monument Valley, scene of so many cowboy movies of the 40's and 50's. We
were running pretty steady pace for the first 500 miles as the little Yam
was brand new, hauling me the Mrs. and a great big bag. We went into
Colorado via Cortez, a pleasant little town with a great micro brewery, on
to Durango not to be missed tourist centre. One morning I went to a service
station and changed the oil and filter on the Yamaha, then we went over the
Rockies via the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton and Telluride where the
road was over 12,000 feet with trees on both sides through the pass, in
Europe the tree line stops at about 8000 feet but not in USA. The little Yam
was puffing a bit at the top!
Needless to say the
scenery was spectacular, the weather was perfect too. Continuing through
Colorado we got to Wyoming then continued North East via Laramie, Casper,
Douglas, Gillette, and then East to Spearfish in South Dakota. All during
the last 500 miles there were thousands of Harleys were rolling past us
towards the Sturgis bike week. When we arrived we found there were half a
million bikers there for the 50th, it was a real spectacle.
The Little Yam never
missed a beat, we avoided the "Freeways", rode the canyon roads as the
pioneers had done on horseback 200 years before us, it really was living the
dream of all those old movies people of my age grew up with when TV first
got American Western programs like Bronco Lane, Gun Smoke, Wyatt Earp,
movies like Red River and Stagecoach.
The party lasted for
five days, we drank beer in Dead Wood and many other bars in the Badlands,
went to see the Presidents faces carved into the mountain at Mount Rushmore.
Made famous in the Hitchcock movie North by Northwest.
During all the time
the bikers were very friendly, nobody ever said a bad word because we were
on our little Yam and not a Harley, it was the best ever ride, it was so
well behaved there were just a couple of fatal accidents and one fatal
gunshot wound, ..... pretty good with half a million drunken bikers in one
small town!!
When we got back to
Arizona we had covered 3500 miles without any problems and seen so much of
SW USA. I have now done that trip three times! We kept the Yam XT 600 in
Arizona for seven years, had a holiday on it every summer. It now sits in my
garage in Kent, semi retired, bit like me!”
Note: it was a real
pleasure meeting up with Barrie again in the Clubhouse at the HSCC meeting
on 20.10.07. How such a gentle person could race those amazingly powerful
cars still amazes me. Geoff.
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