In May 1973 Jarno Saarinen was on his way to winning the 500cc world championship for the first time, and few doubted he would go on to cement his reputation as one of motorcycle racing’s all-time greats.
In fact, by then Saarinen had already changed the sport, teaching ‘King’ Kenny Roberts to hang off his motorcycle to improve his lap times, a technique that became universal. If the Finn had lived longer, grand prix racing might have been very different for the rest of the 1970s; Yamaha probably wouldn’t have signed Giacomo Agostini and Barry Sheene would’ve had a harder time winning the 500 world championship with Suzuki. Of course, we will never know because Saarinen lost his life in an horrific accident during the 250cc Italian GP at Monza, on
