By Gary Axon
Honda had a fantastic gem of a motorcycle, a 1960s Hansen, racing at this year’s Goodwood Revival (11-13 September), in the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy race.
The Revival, for those of you who’ve never been, is a celebration of Goodwood’s halcyon motorsport days, from 1948 to 1966. Every detail of this racing period is painstakingly recreated, from the pre-1966 fashions of the enthusiastic spectators, to the food, the paddock shelters and the competition vehicles themselves, including a 30-strong grid of racing motorcycles.
The Revival’s period bike race was originally known as the Lennox Trophy, with many of the greatest two-wheel racing stars competing. These included the late two-time 500cc motorcycle world champion Barry Sheene, who took five Revival victories ahead of his untimely death from cancer in March 2003, aged just 52. To honour this popular champion, the Revival’s dedicated bike race was renamed the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy from 2003 onwards.
Honda’s swinging 60s
This September’s Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy race saw a great bunch of 1960s motorcycles in action, including the iconic 1966 Hansen Honda CR450 American racer. In a stark reversal of fortunes, in the year that the Hansen Honda was built, the Goodwood track was shutting down to competitive racing. Meanwhile, Honda was becoming the world’s largest motorcycle producer, and was the dominant force in Grand Prix motorbike racing too, winning that year’s Constructors’ Championship in every competition class.
The 1966 CR450’s creator was ex-bike racer and tuner Bob Hansen, a pioneering American Honda dealer and key force in motorcycle racing during the 60s and 70s, running Honda’s American bike teams. Under his leadership, many Honda lightweight and middleweight motorcycles were raced, with notable success at Daytona in 1967 with a trio of semi-factory Honda-prepared CB450s. By 1970, Hansen’s Honda had won its first Daytona 200, with Dick Mann at the handlebars of the CB750 model, the CB450’s successor.
Returning to Goodwood by popular demand this year to compete there for the sixth time since 2006, the Hansen Honda was ridden by Chris Barfe and three-time Isle of Man TT winner Ian Simpson, a rider who took all of his TT victories on Honda motorcycles. The Hansen Honda’s potential for another chequered flag at Goodwood is looking promising.
