5 Minutes with… Joe Sheldon-Shaw

“5 Minutes with….” produced by First Turn Media

On the heel of an emotional year, it’s truly inspiring to see how Joe channels his emotions into his commitment, passion and the love for the sport as a tribute to his late father. In speaking with Joe, it’s evident that his father is the foundation of his decisions and his family as a whole play a significant role in shaping who he is today  and the plans he has for 2024 and beyond.

SBN: Let’s start at the beginning, who got you on your first bike and into racing?

Joe: My family are a very motorbike orientated family, my mum used to ride on the road, my sister used to race motocross and still rides now and my dad used to race. So the first time I ever put my leg over a bike was when I was about 2 and half years old. I had to beg my dad every single day to get me a motorbike. He finally said, if I could ride my push bike without stabilisers we’ll go out and buy you a bike. So off we went to this local park with a big downhill and he took me to the top and took my stabilisers off and made me go down it, god ,it said it pained him to see me do this as I was chucking myself down this hill and we must have done it 15 or 20 times before I stopped falling off. My parents are a big believer in never pushing anyone into anything but never stopping them from doing anything either. Eventually we got there after a lot of grass stains, and after I finally cracked it I said “right dad, take me to buy a bike” and that’s what he did. I did motocross up till about the age of 11 or 12, bit of enduro.

SBN: Why did you make the change to sports bikes?

Joe: My dad raced in Thundersport, and had won a few championships, however in 2011  unfortunately had quite a bad crash at barn corner at Cadwell Park and shattered his pelvis. My dad didn’t start racing till he was near 40 and had a good  for 10 years at it, but when your 50 you just don’t repair the same. That particular weekend for some reason we had three vehicles, the van, the 7.5 tonne lorry and my mum had driven down in her car so there was all sorts of drama in trying to get everything home with him not being able to drive. I think it was then he realised he was getting a bit to old for it and it was my turn to take over. I wanted to do the Superteen challenge, while my dad was racing the superteens was really big back then, it had Chrissy Rouse, Fraser Rogers, David Allingham,  a lot of names went through there over the years. So that’s what I wanted to do, I was bored of motocross, fed up of getting dirty and I wanted to race Aprillias

SBN: How did you get on switching over?

Joe: Despite my dad not thinking I’d stick at it in the early days, and hoping to resell the bike he bought me, I actually loved it and have been racing 14 years now. I won the formula 400 championship in Thundersport, and I was doing well on the 600 for my first year, but then had my biggest injury I have ever had. I came back to racing and went straight into British Superbikes in 2018 and finished 2nd in the Superstock 600 championship, which was the year that Ryan Vickers won it. In 2019, when I was 19 years old we moved up to Superstock 1000 class and we have been dipping our toe in and out of stock superbike class ever since really. But not quite has the success that I would have wanted in that class. Last year, 2023 would have been a strong year for me on the Suzuki that me and my dad had run, I think my best finish was top 6 at Oulton Park and the year was going very well but unfortunately my dads health was going downhill rapidly. The Doninington park meeting was the first race meeting that my dad hadn’t been to, he was in hospital at the time so we got a load of friends to help me out but my mind wasn’t quite in it and I made a costly mistake and I broke my foot and ankle and crashed the bike pretty badly. So that put a bit of a dampener on the year racing wise and not many weeks later my dad passed away. Everything changed completely, as you can imagine. I took some time out, it was a very difficult process and still is to be fair. However, racing is all me and my family know, it feels like home and racing feels like a comfort. Its where all your friends are, its where you spend of your time so I knew that I would come back to it.

SBN: How did you manage to get back out racing again?

Joe: Money is always tight for anyone that’s racing, but after going through what we had and with dads funeral costs, it had made things even tighter and not to mention the bike that I had just crashed needed rebuilding. Steve Brogan contacted me, he knew things were tight and he contacted Kawasaki and Nic Morgan and pulled a few strings and managed to get me back out on the ZX10 for a couple of rounds. Coming back from my injury and the emotional scars, it wasn’t a great year but to just get back out and to everyone who made it possible I can’t thank enough, and it’s what I felt I needed to do to help get me through.

SBN: So, looking to the 2024 season – how are you feeling?

Joe: I think I have grown a lot in the last couple of months, I have got a really good ride, competitive ride with MAD racing back on board a Kawasaki. I have known Dave and Mandy who own MAD racing for a number of years from the paddock, myself and Luke Hedger have always been pretty close on track, sometimes needing a tow off me and other me needing a tow from him, so there was already a good relationship between us. We went to the last round of the of the 2023 on the Suzuki that me and my dad had originally built with the help from MSG Racing , flying my own flag and as a send off for my dad. We had a really good outing, think we finished 12th that meeting. Dave tracked me down as we were packing away from that event and asked me to join the team and ride for the 2024 season. He thinks with some nurturing, some confidence and some good finishes we can do a good job. Our first test on the bike will be at the Snetterton Endurance round with No Limits racing, 23 March with the MAD racing team of Jake Cambell and Jake Hopper.

SBN: Lets talk MotoAmerica and your love of the USA.

JOE: MotoAmerica is something that me and my dad always spoke about, I love America, I love everything about it I think its great. It’s something I have always tried to get my foot into. I was working closely with Michael Hill last year to try and get a deal going but nothing ever came of it, it’s quite a difficult place to get into but its still something that I would love to go and do, and if the opportunity would arise I always keep my plans open to do it every year and I would grasp it with two hands if given the chance.  The first time I went to America was in 2016. I had an ex who lived out in the suburbs of Chicago for a number of years and had friends who had a ranch, we went out there, they have buggys, go shooting, camp fires and smores. Its brilliant and the I fell in love with the all American lifestyle. If I can live there, have a ranch with horses and make money at racing I would be very happy.

SBN: You mention Michael, was it him that helped you onto the WSBK paddock show, is commentary something you’re interested in?

Joe: I have known Michael a few years now, we started messaging on social media after I got announced for riding with CDH Racing in 2022, he’s been really great in opening my social media up and getting people hearing about me and things just developed from there. He doesn’t live to far from me either and we would do some pit biking through winter. He’s a really great person to have in your corner and that’s how I ended up doing the Paddock Show at Donington Park.  My dad has always said that I have got a knack for just talking and talking about all sorts of rubbish and it’s something I do enjoy, I have been invited up to the commentary booth at BSB or club meetings in the past and I have always really enjoyed it and I think I have always come across relatively ok. It’s something to consider when I am older for sure.

SBN: You now work for yourself, how has that been?

Joe: Forward Vision was born to get a bit of freedom, my dad was self employed for going on 30 years and worked from the house for 25 years of them and I have always had my family around, he employed my mum and it was great to be brought up that way and it’s something that I want for my family in years to come. The business was an idea that came about from myself, my dad and my friend Lewis, who is now my business partner. I am a trained technician and have worked at a main dealer for 7 years, specialising in Aprillia so have a lot of experience and I felt I had everything I needed to go self-employed, so I started the business about a year ago and I still had a full time job at the time. It’s gained traction over that year that so I was able to leave my job. We have all sorts coming through, race bike builds, track prep and we have a deal with a couple of dealerships so we get a lot of road bikes through. We are also buying and selling bikes, we even do the occasional car. It also has freed up time so that I can go testing with the bikes, racing and all sorts of stuff which is important as I started to get older that I had the time to still do these things that me and my family had worked so hard to build on without the stress of a full time job and worrying about being away from it.

SBN: Your racing logo is a cowboy hat and guitar, do you play?

Joe: I learnt it at school, but I life happened (racing) and I put it down. It wasn’t until Lockdown during covid that I picked it up again and started to play. I loved lockdown, I had the best time. The weather was stunning, I was off work and I kinda went back to that experience that I had while I was in America, round fires at night when the temperature dropped and I started making smores and listening to country music. It was great, it was probably the fittest I had ever been, I was cycling all the time with Joey Thompson, 60km a day, we’d have some lunch then we’d go into the gym that he had and also eating really clean, the experience really pushed my love for America even more really.

SBN: What’s your ultimate goal, Moto America?

Joe: 100% I would snap someone’s hand off for a chance at MotoAmerica, but the ultimate goal has been since I was 12 years old, where I wrote a 10 year plan at school – right, I know.. some kids were putting down a millionaire but I wrote a 10 year plan for my racing. At 10 years old I wanted to be in the superteens, then wanted to go to 400’s, 600’s in the British championship then I wanted to go to the 1000, then I either wanted o to go to supersport in world’s or superbikes in worlds, worlds was and still is my ultimate goal, but its like anything in racing its all about the money and I know the money is really good in America. Up to the age of 19 I was on target with my plan, but the stock 1000 championship, it’s very competitive and it’s knocked my off that target a little bit, but the goal still the same, world championship but I think MotoAmerica would be a fantastic step towards that.

SBN: You have some fantastic hobbies, anything you would consider taking up if you weren’t a racer?

Joe: I like anything, I have been sky diving, skiing I have had the odd flying lesson. I like anything that is scary. I haven’t found anything yet, skiing was very close and sky diving was close to the kind of feeling that you get on the grid or with racing, but I haven’t found anything to quite match it yet.

SBN: If you weren’t a racer, what do you think you would be doing now instead?

Joe: I have been asked this question a few times and I honestly could not tell you, I haven’t got an answer for it, there is nothing else, nothing I could picture myself doing other than bikes and racing.

Finally Joe, what’s the one food you couldn’t live without?

“ Pesto Pasta with sundried tomatoes, bacon and mozzarella”   Very fancy Joe!

Wishing Joe all the best for the 2024 season on board the Kawasaki with the MAD racing team, and if anyone reading has any connection for MotoAmerica we know someone who with bite your hand off 😉