Playboy racer driven to be a champion

It has taken 10 years, but at last Emmett is ready. Nick Townsend meets a man desperate for victory

Sean Emmett rolls up his sleeves to expose arms, wrists and elbows that are a mass of scar tissue, of lumps that shouldn't be there, and areas where the crumbled bone has been removed in the course of too many operations to remember. Together with National Hunt jockeys, motorcycle racers are endowed with a certain kind of madness. Wheels on fire, they pursue speeds approaching 200mph on their 175kg machines, in the knowledge that it could culminate in serious injury, or, mercifully rarely, death.

"Just before a race I always go to the toilet," says Emmett. "And as I do so I think to myself, 'God, this could be my last pee'. People say that's a negative thought, but it's not; it's a reality check. I'm telling myself, 'Respect what you're doing'. You're riding the fastest motorbikes in the world. They're animals. If you don't treat them with the respect they deserve, it could all end in morphine and tears."

As it did last season. Emmett, 33, contested the final round of the British Superbikes Championship series, at Donington Park, still with a plausible chance of securing the title despite being forced to switch teams two-thirds of the way through the season because his original one went bust.

Emmett was in the lead when he parted company with his machine and smashed his right wrist. "They tried to pin it but there simply wasn't enough bone," he recalls. "It was like dust. In the end, I lost an inch of bone." He flexes the joint in question – his throttle wrist – with a degree of satisfaction. "The surgeon says he is amazed that it has come back like it has." He adds insouciantly: "I've been pretty lucky from the waist down, but above it I have fractured my spine, broken my ribs, fingers, hands, wrists, arms. I nearly lost an arm a few years ago in a crash at Donington. But what else could I do that pays so well, and that I enjoy so much?"

That mishap last season dictated that the former public schoolboy from Weybridge, Surrey, finished only third in the championship, which he insists is the most demanding of all motorcycle racing competitions, including the World Superbikes. But this season, riding for his new team, Red Bull Renegade, he believes that the championship, which begins at Silverstone next Saturday, can finally be his. "I have underachieved so far and it's starting to get to me now," he says. "I have got the talent to win it. Now I have got the team around me to do it, and I feel stronger than ever."

The strength, he maintains, comes partly from his new-found independence. Emmett and his headmistress wife Louise separated earlier this year. "I have always said that if I was single it would help my racing," says the father of three. "I have decided that I don't care what it costs me. I will do whatever it takes to win. This is a very selfish sport."

Emmett epitomises the kind of character who draws the aficionado to two-wheeled motorsport like moths to a lantern: fearless on the track and extrovert off it. Like the man who inspired him as a schoolboy, Barry Sheene, he is a magnet for the ladies. Perhaps that's why he has the word "gorgeous" printed on the backside of his leathers? "People think, 'Oh, he's so arrogant, he loves himself', but it's not that," he explains. "Two of my personal sponsors are film directors, who have been sponsoring me since 1996. One of them, Chris Palmer, has a company called Gorgeous Enterprises."

Emmett is propositioned regularly on pit-lane walkabouts. "You get girls slipping you phone numbers, hotel-room keys, all sorts. They're quite brazen about it. I guess it's the gladiatorial thing. But you can't say you don't like it."

The fascination with two wheels first fermented in his schoolboy mind when his older brother, Jason, started racing bikes. "He had a 750cc Yamaha and was doing really well, but I wanted to do it too. One day he was due to race at Snetterton. But it was raining hard and he decided he had had enough. I had only ridden a moped before, but I put all his gear on and went out and did the race, pretending to be him. Amazingly, I didn't come last. Afterwards my eyes were as big as saucers. From that moment I just felt at one with a bike."

The St George's College pupil dropped out of doing his A-levels and became a motorbike courier. "I saved up and bought a 350cc Yamaha when I got to 19 and won my first race, at Brands Hatch. That same year I won the Avon Tyres Trophy for the most talented young rider with the most promising future. That trophy had names on it like a Who's Who of motorcycle racing: Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Barry Sheene, Mike Hailwood."

By the age of 23, Emmett had moved into Grand Prix, the Formula One of motorcycle racing, but four years later, his film-director friends, Palmer and Stuart Douglas, enticed him into British Super-bikes. Somehow the championship still eludes him. "There were years when I thought I would win it, but I have been blighted by injuries," he says grimly. "I don't crash that often, but when I do I smash myself to bits."

As did Sheene. Emmett was devastated by the former world champion's recent death. "When I was a kid, I had his poster on my wall, and we eventually became good friends. He gave me a lot of valuable advice about bikes, and life. He was popular with everyone, from the hardened anorak to the granny. Some of today's guys are like robots."

The sport needs characters like Emmett in order to maintain an appeal that has persuaded the BBC to broadcast a highlights package every Saturday afternoon on Grandstand. There is also live coverage by BSkyB. "I won't do anything ridiculous or stupid, but I will ride to the edge and probably beyond to win," he says. "I'm becoming more and more aggressive because I'm getting more and more irritated that I haven't won the championship. I've got to win this year."

He pauses, and gives an impudent grin. "Still, if I don't, and the worst happens, I guess at least I'll meet a lot of nice nurses along the way."