MR. VERSATILITY

The late and very much lamented Paul Smart was one of the most versatile and gifted road racers of his generation.

Paul passed away on October 27, 2021, aged 78, in a road accident when out riding his Ducati motorcycle near his Kent home in Southern England. Over the years he rode successfully for the Triumph, Kawasaki, Ducati and Suzuki factories in a decade-long career lasting from 1965 until he retired from racing in 1977, which most notably included victories in the inaugural 1972 Imola 200 on the Ducati 750 desmo V-twin’s racing debut, and in the World’s richest ever race, that same year’s Ontario 250 in California on Team Hansen’s Seeley-framed Kawasaki H2R 2-stroke.

Paul’s short Grand Prix career included seven podium results in the 250/350cc classes on Yamaha 2-strokes, several top ten GP finishes on his Seeley G50 4-stroke single, and a pair of second places in the Production TT on Norton machinery, plus third in the 1970 Junior TT on a Yamaha. Oh — and he also won the rainlashed 1970 Bol d’Or 24 Hours on a works Triumph triple in company with Tom Dickie, despite having fallen off on the very first lap! How versatile is that?

Remembering “Smartie”

A shrewd, grounded but warm-hearted individual who was living proof of the fallacy that “nice guys don’t win races,” “Smartie” had the crucial ability to look back with wry amusement on a roller-coaster ten-year racing career that had some lows as well as its fair share of highs — but perhaps with the exception of his Imola 200 win, in conventional terms never quite achieved the world recognition it deserved. Measured by the two traditional yardsticks of rider achievement in the 1970s, Paul never won an Isle of Man TT, nor did he emulate his brother-in-law Barry Sheene by winning any GP races or World titles. To that extent he was a “nearly guy” — one who never quite cracked the glass ceiling leading to lasting GP or Isle of Man fame. Instead, he had numerous race victories elsewhere to his name, invariably achieved according to his dictum that you should “enter the corner with the minimum of drama, and exit with the maximum of dispatch”! But what Paul Smart did achieve was almost unique: because of his versatility, he was the ultimate crossover racer, who won the big races that mattered on either side of the generational