OBITUARY
the World 500 Championship , racing the RG500 that Rod Coleman had bought for him . The Europeans laughed at the Hennen equipe : just the two of them and a van . New Zealand ’ s Stuart Avant was racing with a well-equipped Italian team , with Kiwi mechanic Mike Sinclair looking after their RG500 . Avant had already raced the bike and Sinclair had a handle on setting it up . For the Hennen ’ s , the RG500 Suzuki was a new dimension and they struggled . But by the Italian round at Mugello , they were in the points with a fifth place finish , then Pat took the second rostrum place at Assen , in his first visit to the then 7.7 kilometre long circuit . People started taking notice .
HONORARY KIWI From there he went on to race the World 500 Championship as a privateer and won the Finnish 500 grand prix on the streets of ImaItalliantra , becoming the first American to win a world championship GP event . On an RG500 supplied by Rod Coleman , and tuned by himself . Hennen ’ s win at Imatra was so unexpected that the race organisers didn ’ t even have a copy of the American national anthem to play as Pat took his place atop the podium . His New Zealand fans were overjoyed . Pat may have been an American , but as far as they were concerned , he was an honorary Kiwi . Hennen finished third in his first World 500 Championship foray , behind fellow Suzuki riders Barry Sheene of England and Finn , Tepi Länsivuori . He was rewarded with a ‘ factory ’ Suzuki ride for 1977 , through Suzuki GB , as team-mate to a somewhat reluctant Sheene . Hennen persuaded Christchurch ’ s Mike Sinclair to join his small team within Suzuki GB . Brother Chip looked after management / logistics , leaving Sinclair and Frans Vandenbroeck to look after machine preparation . He again finished third in the World 500 Championship , behind Sheene and fellow American Steve Baker ( Yamaha ). He had ended that season in great form , winning the first British Grand Prix staged at Silverstone ( all previous events had been held at the Isle of Man ). He won that race by an astounding 41.59 seconds from Baker .
TRANS-ATLANTIC MATCH RACES Aside from the world championship , Hennen and his team contested the well-paying internationals in Britain and Europe . All together , they contested 33 events in 1977 , and he had been the top points scoring rider in the Easter trans-Atlantic Match Race series , racing the special 652cc Suzuki XR23 . He was the top points scorer in the Easter 1978 trans-Atlantic Match races in England , on an uprated XR23A .
1978 500 CONTENDER Sheene predicted the 1978 world 500 championship would be a battle between himself and Venezuelan Yamaha rider Johnny Cecotto , but it quickly turned into a battle between Hennen and fellow Californian Kenny Roberts . Sheene won the season opener in Venezuela , from Hennen . Pat won next race , the Spanish GP at Jarama , from Roberts ( who had DNFed Venezuela ). Pat had a piston seizure at the Salzburgring in Austria then finished second to Roberts at Nogaro in France and was runner-up to Roberts again at Mugello . Going into the mid-season six-week break , the two Americans were separated by two points at the top of championship points table . Then Pat raced several British events leading into the Isle of Man TT , although the TT was not part of his original contract .
ISLE OF MAN TT CRASH In a March 2016 feature in MCN , Hennen explained the situation to reporter Phil West : “ When I negotiated my contract with Suzuki for the 1978 season , I met with Maurice Knight , who was general manager of Suzuki GB . Knight ’ s priority was selling Suzukis in the UK , so for him the most important events were races like the TT . But I told him I wasn ’ t going to do the TT again . He wasn ’ t happy about it because Sheene
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