Paul Smart (racing driver)

Paul Smart

Nation:	United Kingdom

Paul Smart (born April 23, 1943 in Eynsford , Kent ) is a former British motorcycle racer and is considered a pioneer of the Hanging Off (English: "Lie in the curve").

Career

Smart began his career at the end of the 1960s after attending the racing school of TT driver Chas Mortimer, initially at Bultaco before moving to Honda . He achieved his first successes in road races in the 125 and 250 class. From 1970 to 1972 Smart competed in the motorcycle world championship on Yamaha . In the 250, 350 and 500 classes, he was able to achieve successes again and again, but not win a single Grand Prix race.

Success for Ducati

For fans of the Italian brand Ducati , Smart became an icon after winning the Imola 200-mile race . On the Ducati 750 GT , which had been launched with a lot of advertising, he surprisingly won ahead of his team-mate Bruno Spaggiari . He also set a new lap record. The fact that Smart  drove to the finish on Ducati in front of the dominant brands - such as Norton with Phil Read or MV Agusta with Giacomo Agostini - impressed the 70,000 spectators and the press.

The fact that a motorcycle limited to 2,000 units, the Paul Smart 1000 LE , was named after him in 2006 shows how closely Smart is connected to the brand as a modern myth . In the company's history, this award was only given to Mike Hailwood in 1979 with the Ducati 900 Mike Hailwood Replica and in 2002 to Carl Fogarty with the Monster S4 Fogarty.

Driving style

For fear of falls, Smart began actively leaning his upper body into the curve in the early 1970s to keep the bike more upright. His compatriot and brother-in-law Barry Sheene finally perfected Smart's driving style for hanging off. Smart is considered to be the pioneer of this driving style, which has dominated racing to this day.

Private

After his retirement from racing in the mid-1970s, Smart ran motorcycle businesses in his native Kent and appeared as a sailor. He has been married to the racing driver's sister Barry Sheene since 1971 . His son Scott Paul Smart also appeared as a racing driver, mostly in the national Superbike championship .

statistics

year	class	machine	run
1970	250 cc	Yamaha	Ulster Grand Prix 1st
1970	-	triumph	Bol d'Or
1971	350 cc	Yamaha	North west 200
1972	-	Ducati	Imola 200 mile race

¹ run as part of the motorcycle world championship

Web links

• "Paul Smart was here", Die Welt, March 12, 2005, accessed September 5, 2015
• Kevin Ash: "Race Of The Century", ashonbikes.com, accessed September 5, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul Smart. Motorrad, edition 22/2005. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 5, 2014 ; Retrieved September 5, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Paul Smart. ducati.de. Retrieved September 5, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Knee grinding - who invented it? PS - The motorcycle magazine, issue 04/2010. Retrieved September 4, 2015 .