PEOPLE
In 1978, as his workload continued to increase, Gerald Davison – who had founded the Honda Britain team and was general manager at Honda UK – hired Barry Symmons as team co-ordinator.
By that point, Symmons already had some involvement in the bike racing world, but he originally got into the sport by mistake. “We lived near Goodwood, and I used to go and watch a lot of car races as a boy,” he says. “Then one day I went to Brands Hatch sometime in the 1960s to watch what I thought was a car race, but it was actually a bike race. I remember seeing Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, and Bill Ivy, and I also remember peering over the fence eagerly watching the Honda team – they were all living out of tents back then and had all these fresh new engines in boxes, and I just became hooked.”
Somewhat bizarrely, Symmons’ route into the world of bike racing was down to his job at the Milk Marketing Board. “Part of my job was tied up with printing and we had about three million ‘Drink a Pint of Milk a Day’ stickers made up. They were so cheap to make, and I spotted the chance to make racing numbers the same way, on clear vinyl, and started selling those round the paddock. I could produce them much cheaper than the official ACU numbers, so it was a good way of getting to meet people.
I got to know Rex White at Suzuki and Barry Sheene was looking for a number that
