Pat Hennen’s first MotoGP win and Barry Sheene’s first title were the start of the USA’s MotoGP empire and the beginning of the end of Britain’s, so what explains these generational changes?
American Pat Hennen leads team-mate Barry Sheene during the 1977 Britain versus USA Transatlantic series. Hennen was top scorer that year
The next two weekends mark half a century since Pat Hennen became the first American to win a MotoGP race and Barry Sheene secured the first of his two MotoGP world championships.
Sheene sealed the 1976 500cc title at Anderstorp, Sweden, on July 25, 1976. The following Sunday August 1, Hennen won his and the USA’s first MotoGP race, at Imatra, Finland.
These successes during that long, hot summer also signalled the start of the American MotoGP empire and the beginning of the end of Britain’s MotoGP empire.
Hennen’s victory opened the floodgates to US domination. Over the next 25 years, American riders became MotoGP’s dominant force, winning another 149 MotoGP races and taking 14 MotoGP titles between 1976 and 2000, with ‘King’ Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz and Kenny Roberts Junior.
At the same time, Sheene was the last of the great British generation of MotoGP riders. In the 33 years between the championship’s inaugural 1949 season and 1981, when Sheene won his last grand prix, Britons won 135 MotoGP races. In the 44 years since, Britain has enjoyed three more victories, all by Cal Crutchlow, between 2016 and 2018.
Thus, during their glory years, British riders won an average of four MotoGP races per season. Since 1981, they’ve won an average of 0.07 races per season.
The contrast between the USA’s years of domination and its recent lack of success is similarly striking. From Hennen’s first victory in 1976 to Roberts Junior’s last win in 2000, Americans took an average of six MotoGP victories per season. Since then they’ve won a total of four races – three by Nicky Hayden and one by Ben Spies – so their average win rate in this period has been 0.15 per season.
What explains these generational changes? British and Italian riders dominated the early years of MotoGP because the big manufacturers came from those countries – AJS, Gilera, Matchless, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta and Norton – so factory bosses mostly hired riders from their own shores, until Gilera and MV acquired a taste for British talent.
Hennen (left), with champagne and cigarette, during the 1977 Transatlantic series. To his left are fellow American Dave Aldana and Brits Phil Read, Mick Grant and Steve Parrish
After the British motorcycle industry collapsed in the 1960s and 1970s, many fewer British riders made it into MotoGP and British interest in bike racing gradually waned.
The rise of Americans happened for very different reasons – nothing to do with manufacturers and everything to do with how motorcycle technology combines with riding technique.
When two-strokes conquered 500cc MotoGP in the 1970s, everything changed. Horsepower outputs increased at such a rate that nothing could keep pace – chassis, tyres and so on. Therefore, the only way to squeeze maximum performance from the motorcycles of that era was to basically ride them out of control, with the tyres sliding and spinning.
European riders couldn’t ride like that because they’d grown up on asphalt, learning their trade on 125s and 250s, which were ridden strictly wheels in line, using corner speed to make the laptime.
American riders were different. They’d grown up riding dirt track, powering into and out of corners with the front tyre sliding across the dirt and the rear tyre spinning. This gave them immense control of the motorcycle when they were playing with the limit.
When Americans started taking a bigger interest in racing on asphalt, European riders didn’t know what had hit them. The Americans didn’t get sideways on MotoGP bikes like they did on the dirt, but they could ride in ways that made Europeans look like old men. That’s why they dominated MotoGP for so long. Soon, of course, they were joined by Australians – Wayne Gardner, Kevin Magee, Mick Doohan and Daryl Beattie – because Australians also grew up sideways on the dirt.
The domination of the US and Australia was such that between September 1982 and May 1992 not a single dry MotoGP race was won by a European rider.
Sheene and Hennen at Mallory Park during the 1976 Transatlantic races, preceding Hennen’s rookie season in MotoGP
When Alex Crivillé finally broke the curse at Assen in 1992 it was largely because two-stroke engine technology (specifically the big-bang firing configuration), plus chassis and tyre technology (specifically Michelin’s front slick), had evolved to the point where the 500s could be ridden wheels in line again, using corner speed, so European riders felt at home once again.
Soon after Crivillé, Europeans like Luca Cadalora, Alberto Puig, and Carlos Checa were winning MotoGP races on 500 two-strokes.
Ever since then, MotoGP has become more and more European, specifically Spanish and Italian. Only three of the last 25 titles have been won by riders from further afield: Hayden in 2006 and Aussie Casey Stoner in 2007 and 2011.
Since Stoner’s last race win at Phillip Island in 2012, Europeans have won 97% of MotoGP races. The only winners from outside Europe since 2012 are Aussie Jack Miller, South African Brad Binder and Japanese Ai Ogura, the championship’s newest star.
Sadly, Hennen paid little part in America’s domination.
Hennen grew up in California’s San Francisco Bay area. He was a fast dirt tracker when he was a kid, then moved into road-racing. He came to Europe for the first time in 1976, when Suzuki started selling production versions of its seminal RG500 MotoGP bike.
His team was so skint that some members of the so-called Continental Circus laughed at their paddock set-up. But he was immediately fast and was soon receiving help from the British-based factory Suzuki team, which didn’t please its star rider Sheene, who was very protective of his number-one status.
Hennen scored his first podium at Assen, behind Sheene, his first win at Imatra a month later and another podium at the season-ending West German GP. That was good enough for third in the championship in his rookie season, which was enough to get him a 1977 factory Suzuki ride, alongside Sheene.
Hennen during the 1978 Senior TT – he crashed out of the race, suffering head injuries that ended his career
Sheene was nearly always rough on his team-mates. He would do almost anything to make sure he got the best bikes and latest upgrades to make it as hard as possible for them to challenge his superiority within the team.
Hennen scored another win and four further podiums to repeat his third overall in 1977, behind Sheene and factory Yamaha rider Steve Baker.
He started 1978 much more strongly, with second place and a win, which put him into the championship lead, ahead of Sheene, Roberts and Baker.
After four of 10 rounds, Hennen went to the Isle of Man TT. He had raced there for the first time the previous year, because Suzuki paid him so little that a fat start-money payment from the TT helped him cover his GP travel expenses, which weren’t covered in his factory contract.
Hennen impressed in the 1977 Senior TT but broke down. In 1978 he ran second and rode the first sub-20-minute lap – at 113.75mph – while chasing Irish roads hero Tom Herron. On the last of six laps he crashed at Bishops Court, part of a super-fast section between the hedges that takes riders from the village of Kirk Michael to Ballaugh.
The accident left Hennen brain-damaged and ended his career. Over subsequent years, he improved somewhat and was able to live a mostly normal life. He died in 2024.
As a racer, Mat is an Isle of Man TT winner and lap record holder. As a scribbler, he’s been at it since the late 1980s and has written acclaimed biographies of Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan – plus he’s an award-winning commentator too.
