Originally posted by ex Rhodie racer
Very damn good in my opinion. Probably his biggest failing though was that he found the trimmings of the sport more important than the racing itself. He wanted to be seen as a jack the lad rather than a great bike racer, which he undoubtedly was. Trouble is, it got in the way of the last 10%, and that was the bit that separated the champions from the rest.
I hope that isn´t too harsh, but I believe it to be true.
Some more notes on Steve Parrish from Motocourse 1979:
Barry Coleman writes that young British riders should follow the example of “someone like Steve Parrish. Parrish rarely falls off. If he can’t go faster, he won’t. He will finish eleventh in a grand prix rather than try to finish eighth and run the risk of crashing. No sponsor on earth will induce him, however subtly, to do otherwise, and in consequence he is one of the most valuable riders around. He will see out a whole season, and he will get good results. He is still young and still improving. He may never get to be world champion - very few people do - but he is one of the finest professional riders in the world: no small distinction.”
Peter Clifford writes that “Steve Parrish is a rider who can not only ride his works RG 500s quickly, but can also communicate the variations in performance to his mechanics, Martin Brookman and Mike Smith. Martin is so dedicated to machine preparation that by the time he and Mike release the machine into their riders’ hands for the race, he goes to the grid with one of the most rideable (and potentially fastest) machines available. If Barry Sheene were to use his friend Steve’s ability to set a machine up and then add his own unique riding talent, he might just disappear over the horizon.”
I’m sure some of you will have some thoughts on the above.
Steve’s best 500 GP results were fourths, fifths and sixths, 1977-79 (fourth Germany and Sweden 1977, Venezuela 1978) - and he was third in the works boycotted 1982 French GP. He also won the European 500 race at Donington in 1984, and was three times second in the Macau GP.
perhaps you could fill in the missing words on this little gem 
Oops of course its rob in front Doh 
is on the right lines 
