Gary Lingham is in reflective mood: “I never did get any factory support in my career,” he says. “I had a bit of interest from Honda at one point, but nothing really came of it.”
He adds: “I remember once that another rider told me to ‘put my face about’ a bit more with the Honda people, but I’ve never been one for self-promotion or putting my face about – I always just did my own thing.”
There were other opportunities but, for various reasons, none of them ever worked out. “At one stage, when I was doing the 500cc European Championship, Suzuki told me that, if I won the championship, they would give me a ride the following year. I ended up 2nd in the championship, due to a breakdown, so I didn’t get the Suzuki ride.”
After that, a factory Yamaha ride slipped through Lingham’s fingers after a prank at a party backfired. “At the end of 1980 or 1981, Ted Broad (who was running the factory BP Yamaha team with Dave Potter as his rider) looked like he was going to give me a ride for the following season as Dave’s team-mate,” Lingham explains. “We were all at a dinner dance and my good mate, Mark
