! WIN
DUCHINNI OPEN FACE VINTAGE HELMET
SANVENERO 500
Colourful GP win inner ridden
WORTH £99.99
OH NO, IT’S STEVE PARRISH!
The prattles of Stavros – the pit-lane prankster! #211
www.classicracer.com where legends live on...
ROCKET SCIENCE Ron and Leon Haslam reveal all!
LAVERDA 1000 V6 What could have been?
DIGGING GARDNER! www.classicracer.com
OFFICIAL PARTNER
RACE REPORTS
PLUS
Oliver’s Mount, and CRMC at Cadwell Park
T MICK HEMMINGS REMEMBERED T WHATEVER HAPPENEDTO: WERNER HAAS T LINE ART: BMW RS54 T BACK INTHE DAY:YOUR PICTURES ANDYOUR RACE BIKES!
Wayne on Moriwaki
ClassicRacer 3
WHAT’SINSIDE 006 ARCHIVE We say goodbye to Mick Hemmings and recall Marco Lucchinelli’s 1981 500cc Grand Prix title 40 years on. And from 20 years back, we find out why Valentino Rossi actually asked to go and do the Suzuka 8 Hours.
012 NEVER A CROSSWORD Our regular crossword is another mix of classic racing clues and all with the carrot on a stick of the chance to win a Duchinni D388 Open Face helmet. Go for it!
014 READERS WRITE We welcome all feedback, good, bad or indifferent here at Classic Racer towers. It’s YOUR magazine so let us know what you think about CR’s content and tell us what YOU want to see in YOUR magazine!
016 PADDOCK GOSSIP What’s happening in the wild world of classic racing, with shows, no-shows, products and events up and coming.
022 SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE The best way to buy your favourite racing magazine is to SUBSCRIBE! Not only do you get it delivered to your door BEFORE it hits the shelves, it’s cheaper too and you won’t need to venture out of your shed/garage…
024 WERNER HAAS The race career of Werner Haas was short but sweet, until he retired in 1954 to spend time with a new obsession – private flying.
026 SANVENERO 500 Alan Cathcart recalls the story and rides the colourful Sanvenero 500, a machine which took on the mighty Japanese and won! Once…
038 THE ROCKET MEN
048 YVON DUHAMEL
In part two of this story, Ron recalls the formation of ‘Team Haslam’ at the birth of his first child Leon, and his racing career right up until the end.
Part two pushes further into the career of this cool Canadian and also looks briefly at the career of two of his children: sons Mario and Miguel.
046 LINE ART: 1953 BMW RS54
054 ICONIC METAL: LAVERDA 1000 V6
Expensive and exotic, the RS54 had a few brief years as a solo machine but would be a popular sidecar machine for almost two decades.
This stunning and striking machine was born on the racetrack but could have spawned a host of road-going Laverdas. What happened?
To preorder your next issue of Classic Racer head to
classicmagazines.co.uk/pre-order-cr
Alternatively, scan the QR code on this page and order your next copy today. We will send it directly to you! No need to don a face mask and nip out to the shops.
ISSUE211 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER2021 EDITOR Bertie Simmonds bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk PUBLISHER Tim Hartley thartley@mortons.co.uk
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Carl Smith MARKETING MANAGER Charlotte Park
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Alan Cathcart, Don Morley, Kel Edge, Phil Aynsley, Clive Challinor,The Haslams, Norm DeWitt, Mick Ofield, Fred Pidcock, Ben Rumbold
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Dan Savage COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Nigel Hole EDITORIAL ADDRESS Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR UK
PRODUCTION EDITOR Sarah Wilkinson DESIGNERS Michael Baumber, Charlotte Fairman
WEBSITE www.classicracer.com GENERAL QUERIES AND BACK ISSUES 01507 529529 24hr answerphone help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk
DIVISIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Tom Lee ADVERTISING Kieron Deekens 01507 529413 kdeekens@mortons.co.uk
ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES Jane Skayman 01507 529423 jskayman@mortons.co.uk
SUBSCRIPTION Full subscription rates (but see page 22 for offer): (12 months, six issues, inc post and packing) – UK £27. Export rates are also available – see www.classicmagazines.co.uk for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value AddedTax. DISTRIBUTION Marketforce (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP
062 STEVE PARRISH
070 MORIWAKI
In part one, we chart Steve Parrish’s career and transformation into ‘Stavros’ the paddock’s perennial prankster! Apologies now, to the faint of heart!
Part two of our story speaks to Wayne Gardner who became part of the Moriwaki ‘family’ when he caught the attention of the team in the early 1980s: the rest is history!
076 CRMC CADWELL PARK Thank goodness we’re finally going racing again: this time, the CRMC circus heads to the legendary curves and swoops of Lincolnshire’s Cadwell Park.
082 SPRING CUP We check out what happened at the Spring Cup, at Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount roadcing circuit.
88 BACK IN THE DAY u send in YOUR pictures of bike racing, ck then. We will be sorting a prize for future nners!
0 SHOW US YOURS it current or no more, we want to hear about d see one of your cherished race machines: is issue – Phil Hacker’s stunning FJ1200 racer.
93 NEXT ISSUE lenty in the next issue of Classic Racer, ncluding more on Stavros, Kiwi ace Rob Holden and Jean-François Baldé
USA SUBSCRIPTIONS
CLASSIC RACER (USPS:706-150) is published bi-monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. For overseas subscriptions visit classicmagazines at www.classicmagazines.co.uk/ subscription/CR/classic-racer Printed by William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton ISSN No 1470-4463 © Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
COVER IMAGE: Main cover image by Don Morley Thanks again this month to: Don Morley for the many images in various features. And the following: Alan Cathcart, Kel Edge, Phil Aynsley, Clive Challinor, The Haslams, Norm DeWitt, Mick Ofield, Fred Pidcock, Ben Rumbold. Not forgetting our brilliant archivist Jane Skayman! Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine? Why not Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy?
Independent publisher since 1885
CLASSIC RACER ARCHIVE
6 ClassicRacer
Photograph: Nick Nicholls Collection at Mortons Archive
Stay Lucky!
With MotoGP being a somewhat sterile environment at the moment, we here at CR love to look back at some of the more colourful characters from Grand Prix racing. And they didn’t come more colourful than Marco Lucchinelli… Marco would take his only 500cc Grand Prix title in 1981 – 40 years ago this year – but he was a multiple world champion of fun: it has often been said that while he could ‘sometimes’ out-ride his rivals he could ‘always’ out-party them. But don’t let the party animal image fool you – ‘Lucky’ as he was called, was also a shrewd racer. Starting out aged 20 – an age most of the current crop of riders would have been going for at least a decade – Lucchinelli was on the grid for his first Grand Prix outing within 12 months: impressive. It was in 1976 that Roberto Gallina – an ex-racer himself – saw something in Marco and plonked him on one of his front-running square-four Suzukis. Of course, that year, the Suzuki was the bike to have… filling nine of the top 10 positions overall, with Lucky in 4th at the end of the season. Marco would stick with Suzukis for a while (if not always in the Gallina team) and would take his first 500cc Grand Prix win in 1980 at the fearsome ‘old’ Nürburgring, ahead of Graeme Crosby, Will Hartog and that year’s champion
Kenny Roberts. At such dangerous tracks Lucky would tell people he rode at 80 per cent: “Because I am too young to die…” The next year he’d take the title – thanks to five glorious wins on the NavaGallina Suzuki RG500. He’d become champ ahead of the factory Heron Suzuki of Randy Mamola, outgoing champ Roberts in 3rd and Barry Sheene in 4th on his private AkaiYamaha. Lucchinelli would take the number one plate to Honda for 1982, but some said the fire had gone out. He’d never win again, but would take two podiums in his second Honda year. Reinvention came with the Formula One series in 1986 where he picked up some wins before taking Ducati into World Superbikes in 1988, where he’d be in the hunt for the title and eventually take over management of the Ducati factory team. We won’t mention the convictions (ahem) or the tales of Lucky running his own bar in Imola – because if you can remember, then you weren’t there!
ClassicRacer 7
CLASSIC RACER ARCHIVE
8 ClassicRacer
Photos: Mortons Archive, Brian Crichton
MICK’S LAST LAP… Mick Hemmings 1944-2021 Mick Hemmings, legendary racer and tuner, passed away on May 17, 2021 and still managed to get a ‘final lap’ in of Silverstone circuit in June. Mick’s final lap was in a private ambulance, driven around Silverstone for two ‘spirited’ laps on Friday June 4. At the wheel was his best friendTim Abbott and also aboard were son Steve and Mick’s great pal Keith Huewen. Wife Angie looked on, happy that one of Mick’s wishes would be fulfilled, one which was made more than 30 years previously withTim at a clay pigeon shoot. Mick was a legend. He joined the motorcycle trade in 1959 and worked in a number of Northamptonshire motorcycle dealers. In 1969 he bought his first Norton Commando – it was a crashed and sorry-looking machine, but he rebuilt it, made it into a production race machine and won on it. In the early 1970s he worked in advertising for the motorcycle press but by 1974 he’d set up Mick Hemmings Motorcycles in Northampton, eventually running Norton, Triumph and later Suzuki franchises. By the 1990s Mick was concentrating on classicTriumph and Norton machines developing his own range of performance/upgrade parts. He carried on racing too, Mick won the inaugural Goodwood Revival meeting in 1998 beating Barry Sheene. He would win it again in 2000, adding to his victories taken around the world in a long and distinguished career. Mick was a real character and a man who loved a laugh. Racing commentator and ex-racer Keith Huewen paid tribute: “The first time I saw Mick was at Chris Curve at Cadwell Park, I never knew who he was at the time but he certainly knew how to slide a Commando onTT100s! Mick was a man with the sharpest wit and an instant comeback: he was never malicious, but bloody funny! He didn’t suffer fools, know-it-alls or self-important people, so you can imagine how much fun he had at my expense over 40 years! He was a good friend and, like many more than he might imagine, I will miss him massively.”
ClassicRacer 9
CLASSIC RACER ARCHIVE
Out of Hours Doctor!
There was a time when the Suzuka 8 Hours was the most important race on the calendar for the Japanese factories. This shows in the list of winners – many were the various factories’ golden boys of the time, which is why it reads like a roll-call of the great and the good, from both two-stroke and four-stroke racing: Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan, Wayne Rainey, Aaron Slight, Scott Russell, Fred Merkel, Kevin Magee, Colin Edwards… And, Valentino Rossi. Interestingly, Rossi actually WANTED to race the 8 Hours, when previous Grand Prix legends would see it as an unwelcome distraction to the real aim of 500cc championship glory, especially with the fact that most 8 Hours were held in 35°C heat with 80% humidity. But Rossi – ever a historian of racing – loved the colour of the event and even badgered Aprilia race boss Jan Witteveen to build him an Aprilia RSV Mille to race there when he was racing in the 250cc class in GPs. Come 2000 and Valentino was with Honda – and they had a new VTR1000 SP-1/W to race at Suzuka. During the build-up to the race,
10 ClassicRacer
Rossi had to go to Japan for the Suzuka tests twice – but gelled with the four-stroke V-twin Honda immediately. “You can ride the superbike 100% all the time,” he said. “And while it feels slow compared to a 500, the lap-time is almost the same as the NSR. If you tried 100% all the time with the NSR, it’s like a different sport!” Rossi and team-mate Colin Edwards would lead the race with the Castrol Honda VTR, but would have a crash each and wouldn’t make the results… Things were better for 2001. Firstly, Rossi had reinvented himself as ‘The Doctor’, claiming that he was thinking more about his racing than ever before. Also, Edwards had claimed the 2000 World Superbike title on his Castrol Honda, so surely he and Rossi could take the beautiful Cabin Honda VTR to victory? Thankfully this time the 12-hour plane ride was worth it: Edwards and Rossi romped to victory and – the day after – Valentino even got to ride the prototype of the four-stroke RC211V, the V5 HRC race machine that he would use in 2002 to defend his first and the sport’s last two-stroke 500cc crown.
Photograph: Mark Wernham Collection at Mortons Archive
ClassicRacer 11
WIN
Compiled by: Ben Rumbold, MotoXwords
14
#
DUCHINNI D388 OPEN FACE VINTAGE WORTH £99.99! Put your racing knowledge to the test and complete the puzzle to be in with a chance of winning this great prize. Good luck! A classy but minimalist open face helmet, made to meet current safety standards, with an elegant leatherette covering and luxury vintage-styled textile lining. Find out more at www.thekeycollection.co.uk
Across 1: See 2 Down. 7:Younger brother of one of France’s best ever who wasn’t without success himself. (9,6) 9: Super-cool off-road gear worn by 30 Across as well as many others in the 1980s & 90s. (2) 10: Signor Domenicali, Ducati CEO. (7) 11: Common name for that weird black thing that Ron Haslam used to race. (3) 15: Cal, the last winner of an AMA National Road Race for Harley-Davidson. (7) 16: Home state of former WSB venue Miller Motorsports Park. (4) 19: Kiwi Superbike star who won three straight Suzuka 8 Hours races in the 1990s. (5,6) 21: Spanish contemporary of 7 across who wasYamaha’s top 250cc rider at the time. (4,7) 23: Mr Billington, Norton and Moto Guzzi pilot in the early 1950s from Manchester. (4) 24 & 29 Across: Breakaway team formed by the ‘King’ which bore his initials alongside the Malaysian manufacturer’s name. (7,2) 26: Manufacturer who entered the premier class 15 years ago with the boss of 24 Across. (3) 28: The dreaded gear with no drive that can sometimes prove to be false. (7) 29: See 24 Across.
30: Multi-talented French racer who was one of the original pilots of the 24 Across. (4,6,5) 32: The historical term encompassing the 250cc two-stroke Grand Prix era. (12,5)
Down 1: Racing machines whose appearance was drastically altered by aerodynamic evolution. (8) 2 & 1 Across: Title earned by Niall Mackenzie for the first time 25 years ago. (7,9,8) 3: Portuguese manufacturer whose partnership with HuVo resulted in some nice 80cc racers. (5) 4: Suzuki’s next World Champion after Kenny Roberts Jr. (3) 5: Mr Plumridge, Surrey specialist who rode mainly 50cc & 125cc machines to success in 1960sTTs. (3) 6 & 22 Down: Company formed from the remains of the Associated Motor Cycles group that combined two big British brands, and would later haveTriumph added to the title. (6,8) 8: Most successful non-Japanese Grand Prix manufacturer ever, counting bikes above 250cc. (2,6) 12: Mr Stastny, most successful Czech racer
ever with 4 GP wins for Jawa in the 1960s. (6) 13: Venue for a wet Grand Prix that saw a rousing final career podium for Barry Sheene. (7) 14: Mr Granath, 1970s Swedish GP racer who scored podiums on a Swedish Husqvarna. (2) 17: Fairly new Spanish circuit that hosts a round of the European Classic Series with a Le Mans-style start. (6) 18: Stefan, German 125cc GP race winner and championship medallist in 1990. (5) 19: Signs at all racing events inform both riders and spectators that they are putting themselves in this position. (2,4) 20: MrTanner, winner of the ‘September Double’ Manx Grand Prix Junior and Senior in 1955. (8) 22: See 6 Down. 23: Classic celebration requiring balance and throttle control. (7) 24: Japanese carburettor makers. (6) 25: Day, or probably just night, job for Michael Dunlop sponsor Carl Cox. (2) 27: The final spot on the podium. (5) 30: Vital part of a carburettor involved with controlling the fuel… (3) 31: … and the other vital element needed for it to mix with. (3)
HOW TO ENTER To be in with a chance of winning, fill in your details and return the completed crossword to: Classic Racer September/October 2021 Competition, Mortons Media Group Ltd, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR. Competition closes: 9am, August 19, 2021
Mr / Mrs / Miss / Ms (please circle) First name:
Don’t forget!
Surname:
If you don’t want to cut up your issue of Classic Racer, we will accept a photocopy of the completed crossword and form. You can keep your CR pristine and intact. We will print the answers to this issue’s puzzle in the next edition of Classic Racer – you can find the answers to the last one below.
Address:
Town/City:
County:
Postcode:
Country:
The terms and the conditions There are no cash alternatives available. The winner will be the first name drawn at random from the rather smelly Classic Racer helmet. Terms and conditions apply. To view the privacy policy of MMG Ltd (publisher of Classic Racer) please visit www.mortons.co.uk/privacy
Email: Telephone:
The answers to last issue’s Classic Racer crossword:
Across 1 Glencrutchery Road, 7 Aberdare, 10 Bajaj, 12 Kork, 13 Medal, 15 Bridges, 17 Climb, 19 Carl, 21 Brno, 23 Akai, 24 Knob, 26 Kells, 28 Roberts, 29 Aspar, 31 Hans, 32 Roger, 35 Reggiani, 36 Hub-Centre Steering
Down 1 Graham Walker, 2 Eyes, 3 Cadwell, 4The Bombhole, 5YZR, 6 Dirk, 8 AJS, 9 Douglas, 11 Jarama, 14 Ace, 16 Salzburgring, 18 Frank Perris, 20 Romboni, 22 Rutter, 25TSS, 27 Lavigne, 30 AGV, 31 Hugh, 33 Paci, 34 Lee
ClassicRacer 13
Classic Racer, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs, LN9 6JR.
CRletters@mortons.co.uk
facebook.com/ClassicRacerMag/
If you want to get in touch…
... please do. We read every letter, email and comment sent to us and we enjoy hearing from you whether you’ve an event coming up, a motorcycle you own or just want to let us know about something you find interesting in Classic Racer’s world.
STAR LETTER PRIZE
Recall them all… Dear CR As an avid enthusiast and collector of John Player Norton race bikes I was deeply saddened at the passing of Peter Williams late last year. I knew Peter for some 35 years and spent many hours with him talking about his racing forTom Arter and his development of the Arter 7R and G50 engine machines, plus his programme of building and racing the 750cc John Player Commando-engine race bikes. We all appreciate what a fine rider Peter was, together with his very fertile mind often thinking well outside the bo
When assessing the JPN racing period from 1971-75, with what was a small budget compared to overseas rivals, in my opinion the team achieved a great deal. In reality the team was actually quite small, starting with Frank Perris as team manager and riders Peter Williams, Phil Read andTony Rutter, later joined by John Cooper and Dave ‘the Rave’ Croxford. I personally think the manufacturing side of the team should have the recognition they deserve. Sadly, the surviving team members have diminished with the passing of John M McLaren, (a gifted fabrication mechanic), Reg Raynter (engine builder, fabricator, mechanic) P Peter Pyket (frame building, mechanic), D Dave Ludwell (engine builder), Robin Clist (ffabricator, welder) andTony Wood (Peter’s frriend, racing partner and unofficial mechanic.) These greats are survived by Mike ImberD Davis (mechanic), Norman White (mechanic, who is still building JPNs), Mike Guildford m mechanic and engine builder), and the e east well known is Basil White. I believe asil deserves a great deal of credit for
Remember to keep sending in your letters. Now, more than ever, as we deal with the coronavirus situation, we want to hear your stories and find out what you think of the magazine. Each issue we’ll pick a star letter, the writer of which will win a superb package courtesy of Duke Video. the production and design of the many, very special parts that could be seen on the JPN race bike, plus many internal parts that the public and press did not see. Peter Williams was a very gifted man but, without a Basil Knight there to produce the thousands of drawings, details, general arrangements and calculations, plus items like cast mag wheels, leading axel fork legs, outrigger transmission and external clutch, the process may never have happened in the timeframe available. Well deserved credit should be given to those not always in the limelight. Michael Braid The Editor says: “Here, here!”
McIntyre mistake?
unning i in i the th fa f mily il Dear CR Thought I’d share some old family photos with you at Classic Racer. The main ones are me today and my uncle George Davidson. Both were taken at the bottom of the same road in the village in which I live. My grandad is there competing (on bike 19) and
14 ClassicRacer
I like hitting the track myself as you can see. Lewis Buckerfield The Editor says: “Nice to see the urge to compete is still in the genes Lewis!”
Dear CR I must say that I did not know whether to laugh or cry on reading yet again, this time on page 43 of CR’s latest issue (208) that Geoff Duke’s place at the 1957 TT was ‘taken by newly-signed Bob McIntyre’, the most oftrepeated fantasy in the history of motorcycle racing. Nearly every book and article which touches on the story of Gilera at the 1957 TT repeats this blatantly false myth, perpetrated originally by Vic Willoughby who really ought to have known better. I refer you to the letter I wrote on the subject published in issue 204. Raymond Ainscoe The Editor says: “Sorry you’re upset by this sir! As you say in your letter, Vic (the otherwise reliable) Willoughby was, well, otherwise reliable. I guess some myths are hard to shake off, as the writer for Line Art in that issue found. Thank you for pointing this out to us again.”
Right Ri ht riders? id ? Dear CR Having just purchased the March/April issue down here in New Zealand, I have a few observations. While it is Gary Nixon on the OW-31, the rider following is actually the late Greg Hansford (killed racing touring cars at Bathurst) on his Team Australia KR750. At home he always raced as 02 but in the US wore 302. The rider behind (25) I believe is Don Emde and they are entering the final left-hand turn on to the pit straight at Laguna Seca, not Ontario – in 1977. This is the same famous corner that shows countless crossed up photos of Eddie Lawson wrestling the big GPZ1100 through the 1981 Superbike Season, with Wayne Rainey who was his team-mate at Muzzy Kawasaki. I was introduced to Team Kawasaki by a friend in 1973 – Art, Gary and Yvon quickly become my heroes. By the way, I got my brother to sign-off as my guardian on a H2A 750 Triple two years later – and became a survivor of the ‘widow maker’ myself! Talking about Muzzy Kawasaki and Anthony Gobert, I was at Phillip Island in 1995 (Troy Corser won the title) when the Go-Show won both legs on his 750 Muzzy Kwaka. It’s the only time I’ve seen a winner peel off all his gear down to his briefs and throw everything into the fans below. He had dyed his hair bright red, while Aaron Slight was sporting his pink Mohawk. Gobert’s team-mate that year was Simon Crafar who finished up a credible 6th place in the world standings after having come across from Rumi Honda in 1994. Gobert had already been sacked by Muzzy. He was a very talented road racer – but like Scott Russell totally wild and out of control! Keep up the good work, and would love to see more of the 1973 to 1984 road racing two-stroke nostalgia. Johnny Halstead
Williams, remembered… d Dear CR It was with much shock and sadness that I read of the death of Peter Williams in Classic Racer. I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting Peter and the team after I won his F750 TT winning crash helmet in 1973. I have attached photos taken at the Cafe Royal in London where I was presented with the helmet. I still have it proudly on display. In the mid-1970s, I bought a reputedly exworks Greeves Silverstone ridden by Peter. It was subsequently authenticated as a works (Stevens) machine, but I was told that records
don’t show who rode which machine. I sold the Greeves in the mid-Eighties, and it was bought and shipped to Canada by expat Stan Nicholson, who has raced it successfully in Canada ever since. He researched the bike, and confirmed that the frame had the mountings for the water-cooled engine, but that had long since been replaced by an aircooled unit. Peter will always be a hero of mine. David B The Editor says: “Lovely memories David.”
High-flying sponsor Dear CR As a long-time subscriber of most of the British classic motorcycle magazines, I wonder if you would be interested in writing a story about Mr Vickers, the man in the picture I have enclosed. This picture, among others, was given to me by a friend from London who used to race Nortons in the early 1950s and was sponsored by this Mr Vickers. I think his company was the Vickers Aircraft Company and he was sincerely
interested in motorcycle racing. If not for Classic Racer it could be of interest for The Classic Motorcycle. I cannot ask my late friend for more details, but I think it would not be too difficult to find out more and produce an interesting article for one of your magazines. Henk Verstegen The Editor says: “Could well be a descendent of Edward Vickers? Can a reader shed any light?”
The Editor says: “Cheers Johnny! And – yes – we’ve heard that it was that corner, thank you! But I’m sure that when Gobert stripped after winning the double it was 1996. I know as I wasn’t there – but should have been! Sorry to point that out, but I hope that shows all the readers how easy it is for us ALL to make the odd boob. To err is human…”
ClassicRacer 15
PaddockGossip Compiled by The Classic Racer team // Send your classic racing news to: editor@classicracer.co.uk
DUNLOP DEBUTS AT STAFFORD! Road-race star Michael Dunlop is set to take centre stage at the 2021 Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show on October 9-10. The 19-times TT race winner is the first rider to complete a lap of the most famous road racing course in the world in under 17
minutes, with an average speed of 134mph. He is also the last member of the Dunlop quartet who has dominated motorcycle road racing for more than 40 years. Despite losing his uncle Joey, father Robert and elder brother William on the roads, Michael continues to
SUPER-COOL TWO-STROKE TIMEPIECES!
We really like these subtle and classy two-stroke timepieces. Each Moto Culture watch represents a particular 500cc Grand Prix team that we supported during those halcyon days of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Yes, this was a true golden age of 500cc Grand Prix teams, the likes of Rothmans Honda, Lucky Strike Suzuki and Marlboro Yamaha. We think these timepieces capture the
16 ClassicRacer
race and is currently chasing his Uncle Joey’s world record of 26 Isle of Man TT wins. Fans will be able to hear from the man himself as he chats to TT commentator and former champion Steve Plater throughout the weekend. There will be signing opportunities and Q&A sessions too. Plans are in place for a full return of all the much-loved aspects of the show, including the multi-million-pound Bonhams Auction, wall of death, massive indoor and outdoor trade and auto-jumble and club stands. Go to: www.staffordclassicbikeshows.com for more and remember tickets are on sale now at an early bird price of £13 until October 4.
very essence of the era, where the likes of Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey battled for victory in the blue riband 500cc two-stroke class. Each Moto Culture watch costs £299 and features a Seiko vk63 chronograph movement, leather strap and is waterproof to five atmospheres. For more go to: www.motoculture.co.uk
ClassicRacer 17
REGULAR PADDOCK GOSSIP
RARE RG ON SALE This lovely 1979 Suzuki RG500 Mk.4 racer is up for sale from The Motorcycle Broker. Paul Jayson says: “This was ridden by Phil Henderson and has been beautifully restored – it even has the original fasteners and hose clips. It is hard to find a genuine factory example with the magnesium carbs and all of the factory only parts present and correct. It is finished in Barry Sheene Heron Suzuki colours, which is how people
want them today. They should – of course – be completed in the Suzuki blue and white, which we can return it to for any potential owner. It’s one of the finest restorations and is a truly authentic motorcycle. These factory RG500 square fours are incredibly reliable, so they are great to parade.” Price is POA. For more, go to: www.themotorcyclebroker.co.uk
WE NEED YOU!
Classic Racer is YOUR magazine and we want to make it better for YOU. To that end we want your help with some of our new sections. Firstly, you’ll see that we have a ‘Show Us Yours’ section, where we put the spotlight on your race machine. We will need more of these to fill every issue – why not send in pictures and info on yours? Secondly, we also want to see your old racing photographs – these could be of you, yourself, racing back in the day – or pictures of you stood next to your heroes. ‘Back in the Day’ promises to give us all a big hit of nostalgia when we open the pages of CR. We will be doing our best to source prizes for both these sections. Also – tell
18 ClassicRacer
us what you want to see in the magazine, shouldn’t we be shouting about racing sponsors: big or small, they’re the life-blood of our sport. To let us know what you want, or to take part in these new sections, drop the editor a line at: bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk
ClassicRacer 19
REGULAR PADDOCK GOSSIP Editor’s welcome
Firstly, a couple of apologies! Thanks to the pandemic we’ve had to play fast and loose with the magazine when it comes to events and reports of race meetings, as we simply don’t know if they will happen!To this end you’ll notice that we have dropped ourYoshimura part two feature until the next issue, this is so we can cram in the CRMC meeting at Cadwell Park and the Spring Cup at Oliver’s Mount. What I would like to say to any classic racing club secretary out there is ‘give us a bell’ or drop us an email so we can try and get your events and rescheduled race calenders into our pages. This brings me neatly on to my next call to arms: this is your magazine. You’ll notice we’ve two new sections which are very much embryonic at the moment! Firstly, ‘Back in the Day’ should be something about pictures of racers or from races that you went to ‘back in the day’. So anything stretching back through the decades will do. Secondly, the ‘Show Us Yours’ is aboutYOUR race bike, new (well, classic, clearly) or a machine you once raced way back when. Of course, we want to get some prizes together (we’ve got S-DOC on board already) so please start sending in your submissions for both sections: it can only work with your input. And that’s what we want here at Classic Racer: more input from you. This issue we have Steve Parrish in the spotlight, a man who probably doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘behave’. We’ve also got part two of our Ron/ The Haslams story, the final part onYvon Duhamel, and Wayne Gardner on his time with the Moriwaki team. Enjoy the issue!
20 ClassicRacer
COOL KTM TRACK BIKE Yes, we know this is a modern bike – but it’s lovely, so we wanted to include it. Some years back, KTM chief Stefan Pierer declared that
SUPER SEALEY PROMOTION!
Sealey’s new Hand Tool Promotion is out now and valid until October 31, 2021. It contains over 35 new lines as well as savings of up to 55% off list price! If you need some tools for racing, what are you waiting for? New lines include Impact Bit Sets with heat-treated CNC machined tips, Ratchet Wrenches, Reversible Ratchets and Adjustable Wrenches featuring a slim
superbikes on the road were pointless – and he has a (ahem) point. 200bhp road bikes do seem a little wasted if not used on track. For KTM fans that meant that their noughties race-replica – the RC8 – was allowed to wither on the vine and die. But now look at this… With the firm winning MotoGP races from last season and with four bikes on the grid, this – the RC 8C – looks like a refugee from the Grand Prix circus… And it is. Yes, this is a track-only machine, with a bespoke steel tubular frame, Dymag
raised lip style handle with hanging hole, perfect for alternative storage. Sealey’s new range of Soldering Sets on page 22 are not to be missed, they are available in both 48W and 60W. Also available is their 300W Hot Air Rework Station which has a temperature range of between 100-500°C. View the full range and browse Sealey’s latest promotions at www.sealey.co.uk.
wheels, Kevlar/GRP bodywork which apes that of the RC16s being campaigned in MotoGP and an overall weight of around 140 kilos dry… Power comes from the LC8 motor used in the firm’s 890 Duke R – an 899cc liquid-cooled parallel twin, which pumps out around 119bhp. The RC 8C, however, has some tweaks, including an Akrapovic exhaust system so the bike now produces around 128bhp… The package also has WP suspension, Brembo brakes and modern electronics and displays. Price will be around £28,000 and only 100 will be made.
BITS AND PIECES CORNER
MIKE HAILWOOD 1967TT 1000-PIECE JIGSAW PUZZLE This is a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle which features the beautiful Peter Hearsey painting of Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood at Quarterbridge on his way to winning the 1967 Isle of Man SeniorTT race, which was a showdown between him and Giacomo Agostini. A limited-edition puzzle, it’s perfect for evenings in the race paddock and is crafted from 100% recycled quality millboard and printed with water-based pigments to ensure this is a planet-friendly product – just to make you feel better when you take your two-stroke out on track! Price £24.99 www.dukevideo.com
BAYLISS’ BIKE! Not content with having an exhibition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Troy Bayliss’ first World Superbike title, Ducati has launched a new motorcycle, too! The Ducati Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary recalls the 996R machine that the Aussie ace took to the first of his three world titles. Bayliss became one of the real characters of WSB in the noughties, taking 52 wins and 94 podiums with three different machines: the 996R, 999R and the 1098R – all V-twin
machines. He was also the only rider to ever win a WSB race and a MotoGP race in the same season – 2006. The Panigale V2 is powered by the 955cc Superquadro twin-cylinder motor, pumping out around 155bhp at 10,750 rpm. The bike features Ohlins suspension (NX30 front forks and TTX36 rear shock) his traditional ‘21’ on the flanks and Troy’s autograph is reproduced on the fuel tank, while the billet aluminium top yoke shows the name of the bike and the number of this unique model. The Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary will be available in UK Ducati dealers in October 2021 at a price of £17,995.
WEMOTO BEARING SETS If you really want to get your classic Honda back to the way it was back in the day – but with quality parts that will last – then look no further! Wemoto has sets of cup and cone bearings which will fit a number of models, including CB175K CB250K CB250N CB350K CB400F CX500 CB750K and many more! Prices are from around £18. For more go to: www.wemoto.com HIFLO OIL FILTERS Hiflo filters are the bestselling aftermarket filters for motorcycles worldwide. With over 50 years’ experience, Hiflo manufactures filters which offer great performance and superb value.The Hiflo oilfilter range includes standard and chrome oil filters, as well as racing oil-filters, which are developed specifically for top-level race use. Head online to check out prices for your model: www.wemoto.com WD-40 CHAIN LUBE This is a good ‘Specialist Motorbike Chain Lube’ and it comes in a 400ml spray can. It offers good anti-fling and works with O-ring, X-ring and Z-ring chains. Price: £7.96: www.wemoto.com CRMC DONINGTONT-SHIRT We know that – by the time you read this – the CRMC round at Donington Park will have been and gone – but that doesn’t let you off the hook as regards buying this wonderful celebratoryT-shirt! Put your hand in yer pocket to keep the club going! Price: £15.50: www.crmc.co.uk
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE Pay just £3.50 per edition That’s a 26% saving when paying by direct debit
Great reasons to subscribe >> Free UK delivery to your door or instant download to your digital device >> Save money on shop prices >> Never miss an issue >> Receive your issue before it goes on sale in the shops
PRINT ONLY
DIGITAL ONLY
One year FOR £21
3 issues FOR £8.99
One year FOR £25
6 issues FOR £15.99
Direct Debit
Credit/debit card
Two years FOR £44 Credit/debit card
Credit/debit card » Credit/debit card »
( classicmagazines.co.uk/CRDPS 8 01507 529529 and quote CRDPS Lines are open from 8.30am-5pm (Monday - Friday)
TERMS & CONDITIONS: Rates are based on UK orders only – for overseas please visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk/cr-overseas. Subscriptions will start with the next available issue. Offer closes 24/10/21. Direct debit payments will continue at the price you paid, on this offer, every 12 months thereafter unless you tell us otherwise. Full terms and conditions can be found at www.classicmagazines.co.uk/terms. Quoted savings are based on a 6 issue direct debit subscription when compared to the cost of 6 full price printed issues
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Haas on his NSU.
W HAAS
Words: Fred Pidcock Photographs: Mortons Archive
A
Haas on his 125cc NSU is followed by Carlo Ubbiali and his MV at Seehaus in 1954.
24 ClassicRacer
profile of 1950’s Norton works rider Ray Amm in the 1960 publication ‘The BP Book of Motorcycle Racing’ ends with the words: ‘…his star may only have shone for a short time, but it shone very brightly.’ Those words of appreciation could equally have been applied to one of Amm’s contemporaries in the Lightweight and Ultra-Lightweight classes, Werner Haas. Haas’s name will forever be associated with NSU, for whom he rode from his introduction to the team in 1952 through until his retirement at the end of 1954. In that short time he won three world championships, in 1953 becoming the first German to win a world title, in fact ‘doppelweltmeister’, or double world champion, in the two lightweight classes. Werner Haas was born on May 30, 1927, in Augsburg, Bavaria, the son of a postman. He found postwar employment in a US military base, and began racing on a prewar Bullus-designed 500cc NSU, later receiving some support from local Ardie dealer Sepp Weidemann with a 125cc model from that little-known German marque. Haas started the 1952 season on a 125cc Puch-engined special, and it was from then that his stars began to align: his race performances on the home-built Puch bringing him to the attention of the NSU factory team who were fielding works teams in the 125cc and 250cc world championship rounds. The 125cc NSUs were competitive from the start, but the team were hit by injuries, and when both Roberto Colombo and Karl Hofmann were side-lined during practice for the West German Grand Prix at Solitude in July, Haas was drafted into the team to ride a 125cc Rennfox. The NSUs may have been the class of the field at the time, but they still needed to be ridden, and Werner showed his astonishing
Left: Haas after winning the 1953 250cc event at Berlin's Avus circuit on his Rennmax. Right: Haas leads Cecil Sandford at the 125cc 1953 Isle of Man TT. Below: Fast and stylish as ever...
capacity for learning fast, getting the hang of the high-revving bike sufficiently to win NSU’s first world championship round. What a debut, winning a Grand Prix at the first attempt, the first such victory for the factory, in front of your home crowd, against opposition that included the then-reigning 125cc world champion Carlo Ubbiali and Hermann Müller on FB Mondials, plus Cecil Sandford and Angelo Copeta on MV Agustas! Race and lap records also fell to the Haas/ NSU combination. The progress being made with the larger NSU, the 250cc Rennmax, became very apparent in September’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Haas finishing 2nd by inches to Enrico Lorenzetti on a MotoGuzzi who, in winning the race, took the Lightweight world title. Unsurprisingly Haas was made a full-time member of the NSU team for 1953, being joined initially by Bill Lomas, who was to act as mentor to Haas for the first round of the world championships in the Isle of Man. Team preparations for the TT were thorough and included many open-roads laps of the Mountain Circuit on road bikes
(NSUs naturally) before official practice began, preparation which seemed to have gone awry as both riders suffered crashes in official practice, Lomas suffering a broken wrist which prevented him from racing. Although he never rode for NSU again, he went on to win two world titles in 1955 and 1956, riding for Moto-Guzzi. Haas again showed his remarkable ability to learn quickly, and having recovered sufficiently from his injuries, gained two 2nd places in his first year at the TT, behind Les Graham’s MV Agusta in the 125cc class and Fergus Anderson’s Moto-Guzzi in the 250cc class. The rest of the season was one of Haas/NSU domination in both classes, eventually taking both titles by comfortable margins. The 1954 season began pretty much as the previous one had ended, Haas winning the opening 250cc round of the French Grand Prix (there being no 125cc race), but the introduction of the 10.73 mile Clypse course for the 125cc TT brought a few problems, with two uncharacteristic errors forcing his retirement. Back on the Mountain Circuit he made no such mistakes in the 250cc race,
winning ahead of his team-mates Rupert Hollaus, Reg Armstrong and Hermann Müller; NSU’s 1-2-3-4, with Hans Baltisberger 6th on another NSU. Haas continued to dominate the 250cc class, but the 125cc title went to his team-mate Hollaus. Sadly, the newly-crowned champion Hollaus died after crashing in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, and, with Haas having already clinched the 250cc title, the NSU team withdrew from the meeting as a mark of respect for the young Austrian. In October, NSU announced they would not be contesting the world championships in 1955, instead they would give support to Müller on the newly-developed single-cylinder 250cc Sportmax, who, at the age of 46 took the title after finishing the season tied on points with Bill Lomas (MV Agusta). Werner Haas also retired from racing at the end of 1954, to devote more time to his new business, a filling station and service area near Augsburg, and his new hobbies of rallying a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing and (having obtained his private pilot’s licence) flying. On November 13, 1956, his Jodel single-seater plane crashed near NeuburgDonau, and the ever-smiling, happy-go-lucky Bavarian was gone. He was buried in the Augsburg North cemetery, and in his memory a street, Werner-Haas-Strasse, has been named in Augsburg.
“WERNER HAAS' RACE CAREER WAS SHORT BUT SWEET. HE RETIRED AT THE END OF 1954 TO RUN HIS GARAGE, RALLY HIS MERCEDES 300SL AND SPEND TIME FLYING.”
ClassicRacer 25
CLASSIC RACER TEST
26 ClassicRacer
Words: Alan Cathcart Photographs: Kel Edge, Don Morley, AC Archive
MARVEL! From its early inception as a Zebra-striped 500 – easily spotted on the average black-and-white TV of the early 1980s, the Sanvenero became a multi-coloured machine that took the odd bite out of the Japanese works 500cc machines…
ClassicRacer 27
CLASSIC RACER TEST
The 500 is a tight fight for Sir Alan!
E
ven by the standards of Italy’s array of little-known marques that have contested Grand Prix racing down the years, Sanvenero’s meteoric rise to success exactly 40 years ago in 1981, and his equally sudden burnout into bankruptcy the following year, takes some beating… For in that short space of time, the company, based on Italy’s Adriatic coast in Pesaro – one of the hotbeds of Italian motorcycling down the ages as the home of Benelli, Morbidelli, MBA, RTM, Ringhini, TM and others – succeeded in registering three GP victories: one of them in the prestigious 500cc class, another a 125cc 1-2 team finish, and placing two riders in the top five of the
end-of-season World Championship points table. Not so shabby! The team’s founder was construction magnate Emilio Sanvenero, who hailed from Ceparana – the same village outside La Spezia where 1981 500cc world champion Marco Lucchinelli grew up. His company, Sanvenero Costruzioni, was based further south in Follonica, on Italy’s west coast, hence this name on his bikes’ tank badge. Though scarcely a diehard motorcycle fan, Sanvenero was recruited as the main sponsor for Pier Paolo Bianchi’s 1980 world-title winning 125cc factory MBA. But having his name on the fairing wasn't enough for Emilio; he wanted to emulate MBA’s founder, Giancarlo Morbidelli, by winning races with a bike of his own making, and with his name all over it.
Left: Carlo Perugini in 1981. L A Above: The Sanvenero 500 at the factory in 1981.
TEAM BUILDING
So, on September 1, 1980 – even before Bianchi had clinched his third world title – this wealthy sponsor formed his own no-expenses -spared team, taking with him to do so many of the MBA factory’s personnel, led by engine expert Giancarlo Cecchini – a former Benelli race mechanic who’d helped Aussie Kel Carruthers in winning the 1969 250cc world title before switching to two-strokes with some success. Bianchi and Paolo Pileri had both won world championships on Cecchinituned MBAs, and years later he was Andrea Dovizioso’s race engineer in his 2004 125cc world title-winning year with Honda. Since his team all lived there, Pesaro was a natural choice for the spacious new factory Sanvenero built to house his race operation, complete with a well-equipped workshop, drawing office and a then rare engine dyno – a marked contrast to the cramped and often primitive conditions in which so many Italian teams operated. Emilio’s first choice for team rider was Angel Nieto, but he couldn’t be lured away from Minarelli, so next up was Bianchi – but despite crumbling finances which saw them shut down their race operation a year later, MBA matched Sanvenero’s offer and he stayed put. Winner of the final two races of the 1980 GP season and runner-up in that year’s 125GP world series on the Motobécane, Frenchman Guy Bertin, was third on Sanvenero’s shopping list, and the millions of lire on offer, plus the chance to move up to the 250cc class with a projected Sanvenero bike, were enough for him to decline a firm offer to do
just that already in 1981 with the new Pernod GP squad. In this respect, Sanvenero differed from other Italian team owners who went for ‘local’ riders; he just went for the best men for the job. Sanvenero decided early on to develop two classes of bike: a 125, because his ex-MBA men’s experience and thus best chance of success lay in this category; and a 500. Why bother to compete against the might of Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki in GP racing’s premier class? Because back then Italian TV only showed the 500cc GP races, and Sanvenero wanted his name in lights to promote his house-building empire, hence s the eye-catching zebra stripes he chose for his bikes’ bodywork. Most Italians didn’t yet have colour TVs, and his bikes stood out better that way! The other reason was that Emilio was a big fan of Turin’s football team, Juventus, who play in black and white stripes – hence, too, the zebra’s head on the Sanvenero badge. This was the Juve club emblem during the 1980s. Work began first on the 125, using as its basis his design for a revamped MBA motor that Cecchini created in 1979 – which its management had set aside in favour of continuing with the existing design, rightly believing it could still win it titles and customers. Cecchini had the Sanvenero 125 engine running in January 1981 and two months later, Guy Bertin started the Argentinian GP on March 22 with the all-new zebra-painted bike. But he retired after just two laps with crank problems, and two more DNFs followed in Austria and Germany. But then, on May 10 in the Italian GP at Monza, less than two months after making its GP debut, Bertin rode the Sanvenero 125 to a flag-to-flag victory on a wet track, finishing 21s ahead of Loris Reggiani’s
Better than the black-andwhite 'Zebra' original, the Sanvenero would win fans and a 500cc GP race...
Michel Frutschi was a leading privateer and signed in 1982.
Minarelli. Emilio Sanvenero wasn’t there to see it, though – Juventus was playing Inter Milan at home that day! With Bertin a close runner-up just five seconds behind winner Angel Nieto in the next round at Le Mans, the Sanvenero was now evidently a very competitive package, resulting in sixth place for the Frenchman in the final 1981 125cc points table. For the final
four races he was joined by an MBA refugee, Spain’s newly-crowned two-time 50cc world champion Ricardo Tormo, who, after leading Bertin home in a Sanvenero 1-2 in the final GP of the season in Sweden, signed up to race the bike full-time in 1982, alongside Argentinian Hugo Vignetti. This left Bertin out in the cold but with a two-year contract in his hand, he was
THE SANVENERO 500, SO NAMED FROM EMILIO, THE COMPANY FOUNDER, WHO HAD A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS, BUT – STRANGELY – WASN'T INTO MOTORCYCLE RACING.
ClassicRacer 29
CLASSIC RACER TEST
SANVENERO 500 Engine:
Watercooled twin-cranksha rotary-valve square-four two-stroke Dimensions: 55 x 52.5 mm Capacity: 499 ccc Output: 120bhp at 11,000 rpm (at gearbox Carburation: 4 x 34mm Mikuni VM 34 SS Ignition: Hitachi M400-03 CDI Gearbox: Six-speed cassette-type extractable Clutch: Multiplate dry (7 friction/6 steel Chassis: Duplex chrome-moly tubular steel cradle frame Suspension: Front: 40mm Forcella Italia telescopic fork adjustable fo spring pre-load. Rear: Fabricated braced aluminium swingarm with fully adjustable Marzocchi monoshock and progressive rate rocker-arm linkk Head angle: 27 degrees Wheelbase: 1390mm Weight: 135kg dry (claimed Brakes: Front: 2 x 300mm Zanzani floating o steel discs with two-piston Brembo Serie Oro calipers. Rear: 1 x 220mm Zanzani steel discc with two-piston Brembo Serie Oro calipe 6 Wheels/tyres (as raced): Front: 3.25/4.50-16 Michelin slick on 3.25 in. Campagnolo cas magnesium wheel. Rear: 160/70-18 Michelin slick on 4.00 in. Campagnolo cast magnesium wheel Top speed: 309 kph/191 mph Year of construction: 1982 Owner: Chris Wilson, Broadstairs, Kent, K UK
Right: Maximum power from the 499cc square-four was around 120bhp.
‘promoted’ to the 500GP Sanvenero team for 1982 alongside new signing Michel Frutschi. The 250GP project bit the dust.
FORMING THE 500…
The early focus on getting the 125 Sanvenero competitive meant that the team’s 500cc GP venture initially took a back seat for 1981. Rider Carlo Perugini had impressed during the previous season by finishing fourth in the Italian GP at Monza on the 350cc square-four RTM, another rotary-valve Pesaro special. But he had to wait until April 1981 before the all-new Cecchini-designed bike was ready to ride. Although design work had begun the previous October, the square-four rotaryvalve engine only ran on the dyno for the first time on April 1, before finally being installed in the chassis on April 23 – the night before practice began for the first European GP of the season, in Austria. Having fired up the complete bike for the first time ever at 5am on practice day (I bet that was popular), the Sanvenero team unsurprisingly didn’t qualify the bike from
30 ClassicRacer
the 40+ field of 500cc entries – though press attention was diverted by the arrival of a higher-profile new arrival, the oval-piston Honda NR500, on which Takazumi Katayama was lapped when finishing 13th. Thereafter, progress was slow, and with the events following each other fast and furious, Sanvenero’s 500cc R&D was therefore carried out in qualifying sessions. Gradually, early problems – particularly with the ignition – were ironed out, and the new Italian 500 became a regular qualifier from the Belgian GP onwards. Perugini scored just two race finishes, a 19th in Yugoslavia and
Right: Svelte and colourful.
THE SANVENERO'S INITIAL R&D HAD TO TAKE PLACE ON THE TRACK AT GRAND PRIX EVENTS. BUT GRADUALLY, THE ISSUES WERE IRONED OUT AND IT CAME GOOD.
A win is a win...
ClassicRacer 31
CLASSIC RACER TEST
A number of frame layouts were tested, and fairings were eye-catching.
23rd at Silverstone – although the Sanvenero square-four did have the beating of another brand-new 500, the debut Cagiva C1 ridden by Virginio Ferrari, with its innovative/wacky rotary-valve in-line four-cylinder motor.
NATURE OF THE BEAST
While at first glance the 500 Sanvenero appeared to be a cloned RG500 Suzuki, just as with its 125 sister compared to an MBA, there were, in reality, several differences. Chief of these was its 499cc motor’s shortstroke 55 x 52.5mm dimensions (versus the RG500’s 54 x 54mm), producing a claimed 120bhp at 11,000rpm but with a layered power delivery which made the Sanvenero initially very hard to ride.
A bank of Mikuni VM-34SS carbs were used.
32 ClassicRacer
Corrective measures resulted in a more linear albeit narrower power-band, with the solution in the port design, originally featuring six transfers and a single exhaust port, with two auxiliary ports between the main transfers and the exhaust. Unlike the four separate cranks on the Suzuki, the liquid-cooled Sanvenero engine featured twin forward-rotating Hoeckle crankshafts, each running in four roller bearings, with needle roller big and little ends to the forged con-rods, and the Mahle pistons delivering a 14.1:1 compression ratio while running in Nikasil chrome bores. Kröber ignition was originally used, then discarded in
favour of the same Hitachi M400-03 CDI fitted to the Yamaha TZ500 customer racer. A bank of 34mm Mikuni VM-34SS carbs fed mixture through steel rotary valves, and again unlike the Suzuki, the six-speed CIMA gearbox was a cassette-type extractable cluster which allowed its internal ratios to be changed quickly and conveniently, with a 14-plate dry clutch. The Sanvenero 500cc frame was a Cecchini design made in its own factory, though a Nico Bakker chassis was used for early testing, originally with an RG500 motor installed, then from April 1981 onwards with its own engine – the mounting points were the same on both square-four motors. Emilio Sanvenero, however, wanted the whole bike to be of his own manufacture, so for its Austrian GP debut, the team’s own chrome-moly tubularsteel chassis was constructed, with extra top tubes each side ‘siamesed’ together with steel sheet for extra rigidity. The whole design looked quite strong but inevitably on the heavy side for back then, though the claimed dry weight of 135kg – the same as the factory Suzuki! – was surely more an expression of hope than fact. Top speed was around the 260kmh/160mph mark… Leading Swiss privateer Michel Frutschi’s signing for 1982 coincided with the arrival of Francis Batta as team manager, the same man whose Corona-sponsored Team Alstare would later become a figurehead of the World Superbike paddock. Batta had previously managed the troubled Suzuki 500GP team owned by fellow ItaloBelgian Serge Zago, with riders Virginio Ferrari and Mike Baldwin. After that team folded
Francis Batta would change the bike to a multi-coloured livery.
THIS BIKE SCORED AN UNLIKELY VICTORY AND IT'S A SHAME JUVENTUS WERE PLAYING AT HOME... THE TEAM OWNER WASN'T THERE TO WITNESS E IT! at the end of 1981, Batta struck a deal with Sanvenero to take over his entire motorcycle operation, including the building of what was intended to be 50 customer replicas of the team’s GP-winning 125 twin. In the end, only about 20 such steel-framed bikes were actually made. There were no plans as yet for a production 500, but another year of development and (hopefully) success might perhaps change that. After all, a ‘dazzle’ of zebra-striped bikes would show up so much better on TV than just one… In fact, Batta curiously changed the bikes’ distinctive zebra livery in favour of a more mundane technicolour paint scheme, supposedly in preparation for Bieffe sponsorship which never actually ensued, leaving Sanvenero to continue funding the team’s operation entirely from his construction company’s resources. This new paint job clothed a much revised 125GP model, now with a stiffer, lighter square-tube aluminium chassis, which Tormo took to second place in its debut in Argentina, the first of his four 1981 rostrum finishes, culminating in victory in the Belgian GP at Spa. This gave him fifth place in the final points table, one point/place behind Pier Paolo Bianchi on what was originally supposed to be a steel-framed customer Sanvenero. Batta designated him as a ‘specially supported customer’, which meant he was given a new alloy-framed 1981 bike from the start, on which he gained five rostrum places but no wins, en route to fourth in the championship, in which Vignetti finished 11th with a single rostrum visit in France.
The bikes at the Hockenhei
m Museum.
This time around, the focus on the 125s did not detract from the 500, with three bikes (one for each rider, plus a spare to share) built with an all-new chrome-moly frame aimed at resolving the grip and stability issues Perugini had complained of throughout the previous season, as well as making it steer better. With a then tight 27-degree rake for the same Forcella Italia fork and a slightly shorter 1390mm wheelbase, Frutschi liked the Italian bike’s handling better than the TZ500 Yamaha he’d scored points with on the previous season, though he found acceleration lacking, perhaps because of the weight.
WINNING WAYS…
After both he and Bertin finished their debut rides on the bike in Argentina 16th and 19th
respectively, the third round of the series brought them to Nogaro for the French GP. There, a mass protest against conditions in the paddock, as well as the bumpy surface of the short 3.12km/1.94m track, saw all the factory 500cc riders refusing to race, leaving 23 privateers to contest the French GP without them. After qualifying on the front row of the grid, Frutschi followed pole-man Jean Lafond on the Fior-framed Suzuki with wishbone front suspension, until he crashed on lap 11. Thereafter, the Swiss reeled off 40 successive laps, each within half a second of the other, to take the chequered flag in first, nine seconds ahead of another local, Franck Gross, on a Suzuki, with Yamaha-mounted Steve Parrish third. It was the first 500cc victory for an
ClassicRacer 33
CLASSIC RACER TEST Shame this machine didn't stay on the grid...
Italian bike for six years, since Ago’s 1976 German GP win on an MV Agusta. Bertin, meanwhile, was a DNF. This fortunate victory was the start of a constant cycle of improvement, with Frutschi qualifying 13th for the Spanish GP, only to retire from the race when 11th – and ahead of some Japanese works bikes. A week later, on the team’s home ground at Misano, he qualified 12th but slid off at half-distance while running ninth. At the Dutch TT he qualified in an amazing eighth place, and ran 10th in the race until half-distance when he began dropping back to finish 19th. In the Belgian GP at Spa, the Swiss rider finally got the result he deserved, finishing ninth ahead of Fontan’s factory Yamaha and Ron Haslam’s Honda Britain NS500 triple. Guy Bertin was 14th, he too, after a succession of non-finishes.
A neatly packaged engine.
FINANCIAL FAILINGS…
However, by now the clouds were starting to circle ever more heavily over the Sanvenero team, with increasing talk of suppliers, staff and riders unpaid. This derived from a downturn in Emilio Sanvenero’s core construction business, which led him to seek a buyer for his race team. Lengthy takeover talks with Alessandro de Tomaso – then owner of Benelli, as well as Moto Guzzi – came to nought. Sweden would see Frutschi finish 12th, while Guy Bertin would DNF, following which Bertin got a Pesaro bankruptcy tribunal to slap a hold on the team’s transporter. This meant that to attend the season’s final GP round in Germany, Frutschi was forced to borrow Pier Paolo Bianchi’s own small truck (there was no 125cc race there), into which he squeezed two of the three Sanvenero 500cc bikes and sufficient support material for the Hockenheim race weekend. Although Michel was able to complete the race, in which he finished 11th behind
34 ClassicRacer
Jon Ekerold’s Cagiva who took the final championship point, the entire Sanvenero team’s equipment was then seized by bailiffs acting on behalf of unpaid German suppliers including Mahle, Hoeckle and Kröber. And that is how two of the three Sanvenero 500GP bikes built ended up in the Hockenheim Circuit Museum, where one of them still sits… Forty years on, it’s hard to understand what exactly drove Sanvenero to invest so much money in a sport he seemingly had so little passion for. Then, to take on the proven Italian manufacturers in the 125cc class AND the mighty Japanese in the 500cc class was clearly a bridge or two too far… But let’s hear his bikes’ creator, Giancarlo Cecchini have the final word: “Our bikes were super-competitive in the 125 category, and I truly believe we’d have had a good chance to win the World Championship with them in 1982 if we’d been more focused.
"Our 500cc bike wasn’t bad, despite being constructed in a small but well-equipped workshop in Pesaro. It was supposed to be a synthesis of what was available at the time, but our problem was that in 1982, there were no less than 15 factory bikes, which made it a big struggle for us to be competitive. But by the end of the season, we were – only for it to all fall apart owing to lack of money: pity!”
RIDING THE ZEBRA!
For some years, the only known Sanvenero 500s still existing were the two bikes sitting side by side on display in the Hockenheim Museum. But in 2006, the third of the three such bikes built in 1982 finally resurfaced at the Imola Autojumble in a complete but distressed state, minus bodywork. It was acquired by British enthusiast Chris Wilson to join his superb collection of factory 500cc two-strokes he’s built up over the past few decades as a homage to the (almost) forgotten era of Grand Prix thoroughbreds.
The 1982 125cc machine.
SANVENERO 125: Baby Zebra
Though outwardly similar to the Jörg Möller-designed MBA he’d previously worked on, the liquidcooled parallel-twin Sanvenero 125GP rotary-valve engine created by Giancarlo Cecchini had a number of detailed differences. Firstly, with the cylinders inclined forward by 45 degrees, it had more nearly ‘square’ engine dimensions of 43.5 x 42mm (versus 44 x 41mm) via the sixpiece built-up 180-degree Hoeckle crank with steel con-rods carrying Mahle cast aluminium pistons running in Nikasil liners. Peak revs were 14,000 rpm, producing a claimed 40bhp for 1981, with the power coming on strong at 8500rpm. Mahle also produced the aluminium cylinder and head castings, while the unusual three-piece magnesium crankcase castings came from Campagnolo but were machined at the Sanvenero factory, and although the cylinders had just five ports (four transfers/a single exhaust) to start with, the port area was quite large, and these were replaced by a six-port design (four transfers/ twin exhausts) during the season. The side-mounted rotary valves inhaled through 28mm cylindrical-
slide carbs, first Mikunis then later magnesium Dell’Ortos, and the variable-advance Kröber ignition with twin Prüflex coils required a 12v battery. A six-speed cassettetype CIMA gearbox and 10-plate dry clutch (five friction/five steel) completed the picture. “We first tested the engine on the dyno in January,” Giancarlo Cecchini told me when I visited the Sanvenero factory in the summer of 1981, “and it made good power almost at once. Our only real problem was with the little-ends, which in fact were the reason for our retirements in the first few GPs, but having resolved that, the engine has proved strong and reliable since.” Chassis needed work: the twin-loop chrome-moly tubular steel frame was also designed by Cecchini, with cantilever rear suspension via a fabricated aluminium swingarm, which originally actuated a DeCarbon unit mountedYamaha Monocrossstyle beneath the fuel tank, later replaced mid-season with a Bitubo shock. Front fork was a fully adjustable 32mm Marzocchi with magnesium sliders, carried in cast magnesium triple-clamps. Plasma-sprayed aluminium Zanzani 220mm discs were fitted up front, with a 210mm rear, all mounted on 18in Campagnolo cast magnesium wheels, and gripped by twin-piston Brembo calipers.Three Sanvenero 125s in total were constructed that
Left: Giancarlo Cecchini.
first year, each weighing 80kg dry, forming the basis of the 20 or so customer replicas produced and sold for the 1982 season. For 1982 there was a big step up in engine performance, with peak power rising to 43bhp at 14,300rpm and the range of power broadened via new exhausts and revised porting of each separate cylinder, now with nine ports each – six transfers and three exhausts. A couple of chrome-moly steel frames from Dutch chassis ordered from specialist Nico Bakker were rejected for not giving the handling required, leaving Sanvenero to design its second chassis made from 25 x 25mm square aluminium tubing.This resulted in a weight reduction for the complete bike to 77.5kg dry, aided by the foot rests and gear/ brake lever pedals now being made fromTeflon.The Zanzani rear disc brake was also reduced to 200mm. Just two examples of these aluminium-framed bikes were
Engine designer Cecchini working on the bike in 1981.
built, to be raced byTormo and Bianchi in the 1982 season, then in 1983 by Bianchi himself en route to eighth place in the World Championship, with three third places.This came after he was able to persuade the Pesaro bankruptcy court to let him race the bikes that season, on condition that he returned them to the court’s possession within seven days of the final GP of the season at Imola – which he did. Only in Italy!
Below: The 1982 125cc Sanvenero could perform.
ClassicRacer 35
CLASSIC RACER TEST “The roots of the technology we see in MotoGP today are often taken for granted," says Chris, “and in seeking to preserve them, it’s surprising how many historic bikes have turned up in a sorry state, having been slung in a corner and forgotten. Thanks to Steve Griffiths, of Racing and Investment Motorcycles, we’ve tracked down and restored some to running order.” Chris was able to arrange for German engineer Matthias Farwick to fully restore the Sanvenero after he’d previously got his hand in by rebuilding the sole remaining other such Hockenheim bike, which he rode himself in the 2013 Spa-Francorchamps Bikers Classic. “This involved taking a mould for the missing bodywork off that motorcycle,” says Chris. “I can’t thank the Hockenheim Museum enough for making that possible.” Sadly, the other of the two Hockenheim bikes was destroyed in the Austrian Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum fire in January this year, leaving just two genuine such machines in existence. A fourth Sanvenero 500 recently appeared in Italy, but this is a replica created by a local businessman using a spare engine in a copy of Chris’s bike’s frame, after Chris lent him his bike for two years. “I was rather surprised to see it advertised as the ex-Frutschi Nogaro GP winner!” says Chris. “That’s nonsense – that bike didn’t exist until a couple of years ago, and the only Frutschi bikes are/were the two in Hockenheim. Mine is the ex-Guy Bertin bike, and it only takes sitting on it to confirm that!” I can attest to that, after being invited by Chris to spend a fascinating day riding the Italian square-four at the Croix-en-Ternois circuit in France. Interestingly, back in the summer of 1981, one of my first gigs as a freelance bike journalist was to visit the Sanvenero factory in Pesaro and study the then zebra-striped 500GP bike up close. Bertin’s diminutive height (at 5ft 10in/1.80m, I’m six inches/15cm taller) meant I had to squeeze aboard a very tightly packaged motorcycle, complete with high-set footrests, steeply dropped clip-ons just like on his 125GP racer, and a far forward riding stance which, I presume, he chose to chuck forward as much of his reduced weight as possible, to load up the front wheel in turns. I ended up doing just that, but at the expense of being wedged in place and unable to hang off the bike in turns more than a token amount. However, since in those pre-kneeslider days this was not the approved method, that didn’t matter too much, and despite what is nowadays considered fairly conservative steering geometry, the Sanvenero’s steering was unexpectedly responsive – though I had to, in effect, perform handstands on
36 ClassicRacer
Above: Winning the French GP in 1982 was the highlight. Right: Two-strokes are glorious when naked...
the handlebars, and it was pretty tiring to ride on such a tight track. Michel Frutschi was only slightly shorter than me; his bike would have been a much better fit. I wonder if his understeered to the extent the Bertin Sanvenero did, noticeably pushing the front wheel under power through the S-bend behind the Croix paddock – but I expect the Marzocchi shock which came with the bike was set up for Guy’s much lighter weight, which would explain the front-end push. Being devoid of the power valves then just starting to be featured on the factory Japanese bikes, the Sanvenero’s rotary valve engine had the usual sharp entry of such motors into the power-band at 7800rpm on the Kröber tacho, just as abruptly as somebody flicking a switch – though as the laps went by, I became more used to how controllable this in fact was. The 18in treaded Avon race tyres Chris Wilson fitted to the bike, replacing the 16in front it raced with and which are unobtanium today, gripped well and gave good warning when the rear one started to drift if the power came in too suddenly while I was still cranked over. The Sanvenero was surprisingly enticing to ride, and while it wasn’t as nimble as the Honda NS500 triple it raced against in 1982,
its short 1390mm wheelbase made it much less of a truck than the Kawasaki KR500, with its 1470mm stride and 28-degree head angle, versus the Sanvenero’s 27-degree rake. Initially at Croix the square-four engine was all done at 11,000 revs, with zero over-rev, but as it became cooler towards the end of the afternoon it’d let me rev it to 11,800rpm to save a couple of gearshifts. The left-foot racepattern (one-up) six-speed CIMA gearbox’s shift action was crisp, and the dry clutch light and responsive. I could clutch the motor into the power-band very controllably exiting either of the tight hairpins at opposite ends of the 600m-long Croix straight, though with the long gearing fitted I could only briefly grab a genuine fifth gear along it. By the standards of the era (I have ridden all its contemporary Japanese rivals and the Cagiva), acceleration wasn’t the bike’s strong point, and I suspect the reason is weight. As against that, it braked okay, albeit not with the same initial bite from the Zanzani steel discs as delivered by the heavier Brembo cast iron discs just then finally falling out of favour. Croix is a truncated version of Nogaro, minus one straight, and riding the Sanvenero there was a window onto one of the most unlikely GP race victories of the modern era. Too bad Emilio Sanvenero wasn’t there to see it – Juventus was probably playing at home that day!
ClassicRacer 37
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Words: Bertie Simmonds Photographs: Don Morley, Clive Challinor, Mortons Archive
ROCKET MEN!
PART TWO
Ron Haslam did it all in his professional life and then he had to see his own son go through the mill in his career.
A
s I started the first part of the story of ‘Rocket’ Ron Haslam with an anecdote, it’s worth starting this – part two – with another one. It’s 1996 and Ron and Ann Haslam have just started their Honda Ron Haslam Race School at Donington Park, a school that would teach almost 90,000 eager students over its 24-year run. And one of the first was me. I’d ridden a lot on the road and – being a reporter for a particular weekly motorcycling newspaper – I’d been asked along to write something about this new school. My pleasure – what a job! I was bobbing around on a Honda CBR600F, up ahead my instructor Adrian Clarke was keeping a beady eye on me in his mirrors. As I exit McLean’s suddenly, out of nowhere is this ‘DOFF, DOFF, DOFF, DOFF’ sound, approaching me from behind. I’ve been told not to worry about faster people coming past: don’t look behind – concentrate on what’s happening ahead. Sadly I’m new to this and I leave a gap going into Coppice. ‘DOFF, DOFF, DOFF’… up the inside of me comes a bike. I can’t help but glance across to my right. I’m looking at a bike, Honda’s humble CB500 twin, which a year later would have a race series of its own. Thing is, there doesn’t seem to be a rider on it – just a Frank Thomas boot and a bit of a leg. As we straighten up for Starkey’s Straight I accelerate past this ‘ghost bike’ and realise it’s little Leon Haslam: Leon Haslam who has stuffed me up the inside at Coppice. Of course Leon out-brakes me into The Esses and I don’t see him again. At the end of that session we go back to the outer paddock to refuel and I follow Leon – who has to park right next to the kerb on which the pump is located, as he can’t get his feet on the floor. Still smarting from being beaten by a mere kid, I raise my visor and say: “Leon! How old are you now mate?” ‘I’m 13. You were in my way a bit there, so I went past you,’ comes the answer.
38 ClassicRacer
What can I say but: “Well, I hope you get acne you cheeky little git!” No, I wasn’t the first person to be made to look slow by ‘The Pocket Rocket’ that day – or any others. Leon, son of Ron and Ann really was only going to end up doing one thing, wasn’t he? And do it as well as dad. Let’s go back in time.
ROCKET RON ON: Becoming a dad.
I think I was 20 when I started seeing Ann – she had a boyfriend then and she was about 16 when she came to the TT with us. I was a racer, so I was seeing other girls too – racing was my number one thing in life, to be honest – even if I knew she was very special. At Oulton Park one day Ann told me she was pregnant, I was happy, but she felt she might get in the way, so to speak, and she went down to London to get out of the way. Time apart really made me realise how much she meant to me, and then Leon was born in Ealing Hospital. I went down and met them both and I changed – I was no longer a selfish racer. From then on, if I went racing then Ann and Leon came with me – we were Team Haslam! Ron, Ann and Leon at the Spanish GP in 1985.
Ron Haslam and Mick Grant at the 1981 TT: Leon would never race there, but he would have a half-lap in a hire car!
ROCKET RON ON: Leon’s Isle of Man ‘lap!’
Leon’s done a bit of the Isle of Man course in a hire car: he was 12 or 13 years old at the time. Ann nearly had a heart attack as he was driving! We got onto the mountain section and there’s no roads getting onto it and I’m driving, but as soon as we hit the mountain section we swapped over. I knew it pretty well, we’re going quite quick – but he’s backing off and I’m telling him to keep it flat out and he did. Ann’s screaming in the back… she thought two bikes came past us, she saw two helmets – one of the helmets fell in front of the car and she’s screaming thinking someone’s had an accident and lost their head. What it was, it was a sidecar with the passenger hanging out of the chair! So there you go…
THE POCKET ROCKET ON: The Isle of Man…
I think when dad raced there and it was a world championship, you got factory rides off the back of it. For the last 20-30 years it’s not really been that way. Instead you’ve got people going over there who are very passionate about the event and that’s great to see. I head over to watch and enjoy it whenever I can, that and The North West 200 too. I pop over, play a bit of golf and watch the racing. I know the likes of Peter Hickman, Ian Hutchinson and many others. I think today if you’re a good, fast short circuit rider it lends itself to the TT. Before, the level of riders on the road circuits wasn’t as high, so they wouldn’t do so well at national level on short circuits. Now, the TT’s demands are such that if you’re a good, fast short circuit rider you can do well at the TT. Joey raced the course… he won at aged 50. At the IoM you race the course, on short circuits it’s the limits of the tyres and the bike.
42 ClassicRacer
ROCKET RON ON: Moving riders on…
The thing that Leon didn’t get, but which I did, was that I started in club level. This means you can win and you can get it in your head that you are among the best. So I had all the Mallory and Cadwells and Snettertons under my belt before moving up and moving up (eventually) to doing international races at the likes of Daytona. For Leon he just kept moving up as quickly as possible – he never had a chance to sit and think that he was the best in a class, he was off doing other, bigger things immediately. Looking back, I’d still put Leon through things as fast as possible. I’m proud of him and what he’s done.
Ron in 1981: was he really ‘too nice’ to be world champ?
ROCKET RON ON: Pepsi or Coke?
When I rode for Pepsi Suzuki in 1989 Kevin Schwantz and I rarely spoke! Unfortunately I’d had a decade or so with Honda so the transition was pretty difficult, even if the team wanted to do well. On the Elf you’d use flowing lines, while – on the Suzuki RGV500, you’d do a ‘Schwantz’ and rush into the corner and then try spinning the rear out of it. I felt that the team was clearly built around Schwantz – which I guess was fair enough, as he was winning. I do recall speaking to my mechanics about the bike and wandering off… only to think of something else and head back: only to find the mechanics taking the mickey out of my accent while laughing to Kevin about it. I was disgusted, really, although I never had a problem with Kevin himself. And we both liked our guns!
ROCKET RON ON: Being TOO nice…
Above: A return to the UK on the Norton saw him finish 2nd to Rob Mac (on podium with Donington's Dave Fern.) The Speed Triple was almost a swansong year.
Yeah, okay… people always levelled this one at me. If I remember some of my teammates – most of whom I really got on with – think of Wayne Gardner, a typical Australian and a lovely bloke, but always telling people he was going to be world champion. But – he was! Kevin Schwantz often had his own ‘moods’ with his team and was often a bit full of himself – but then both became great champions in their own right.
ROCKET RON ON: Cagiva
I met Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni and realised they were so enthusiastic about racing and that no expense was being spared – I liked them instantly! I was back to being in an almost family atmosphere with that team – even if the bike had its own issues, one of which ultimately led to me losing one of my fingers! Now, steering on the Suzuki had been the best thing about that bike – but then getting on the Cagiva, it was like it was the complete opposite! I tried making lots of suggestions which – in a way – didn’t go down too well, which was a shame considering the experience I had by then, 1990… Randy Mamola of course was one of my teammates by then. He was a multiple runner-up in the 500cc class and I’d been 4th in the world twice, but I think by then we both knew our chances of winning the title were up – it didn’t stop Randy from partying or enjoying himself though. I respected Randy by this time. I recall when we both started he always seemed like a typical cocky American – never shy of telling people he was better than them. By the time we were both at Cagiva, he’d changed and turned himself around and spent a lot of time raising money for Riders For Health – I respected that. Alex Barros was our
Left: On the Cagiva, 1990. Below: ‘The Man in Black’he never seemed to age!
other team-mate and so young, he spent a lot of time with Leon! Alex was just enjoying his time racing motorcycles and I tried to take him under my wing: he even came over to the farm and went through our gym assault course and I saw him launched off the top of my neice’s horse! I was surprised when Cagiva got Eddie Lawson to ride for them in 1991. I heard he rode the bike for two days and told them to ‘cut the front end off of the thing.’ Just what I had wanted them to do! Alex later told me: ‘It’s a completely different bike now!’ Shame I didn’t get another year then, but by that time I was coming home to the UK.
ROCKET RON ON: The JPS Norton…
I thought that coming back home to the UK to race would also give me more time to work the 37-acre farm – we’d just got some deer and stags and it was about time we did something with the land we had. Farming was much harder than the bike world! While we adjusted to farming, I also adjusted to the Rotary engine JPS Norton – in a team run by my old Honda Britain boss Barry Symmons. Many people said it was a beast of a bike and so powerful – it was, but not in the low rpm
ClassicRacer 43
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Still competitive today!
range. Also, as someone who’d been useful on the brakes all his career – suddenly I’d find the bike ‘pushing on’ in corners. I couldn’t get the thing to stop, and I soon realised that – even on a closed throttle – the rear was pushing the front. It meant that I had to use the back brake for the first time ever. Racing in the UK may have meant the bikes were down a level or two (our first Norton clutch was from an Hillman Imp!) but the racing was just as fierce! I had some good times and wins on the Norton and it was such a popular bike – I finished 2nd overall in the series on the bike to Rob McElnea’s Yamaha. That year I also broke my leg pretty badly when motocrossing with Leon and his friends. Leon and pals were happily jumping this ditch but I did it wrong and my toes literally ended up touching kneecap. I had to put it right myself before Leon came over, asking: ‘Are you sure you’ve broken your leg dad?’ I just about managed a smile when I told him I was sure that I had…Trevor Nation – my JPS team mate took me to hospital in his van. I broke my leg again at almost 170mph at Snetterton when the Norton landed on me. That was the end of my racing really – although I did do the Triumph Speed Triple Challenge where lots of people cheated – which was part of the fun, really!
Above: Ann, always by his side. Below: James Haydon, Team GB, Cadwell, 1993.
ROCKET RON ON: Developing British riders We ran Team Great Britain for a while and of course we are always looking towards the next world champion from Britain: it’s the hardest problem. Money is everything and in England/Britain there just isn’t the sponsorship, we just don’t seem to get the sponsors you see in Spain and Italy. They’ve also got academies bringing young riders through. We are starting to see that with the Talent Cups and the Red Bull Rookies, but you still see our riders being pushed aside. I’m proud of what we did over the years. Not just with Team Great Britain – formed with the help of the wonderful Robert Fearnall, but with what I’ve done too with other riders. I’ve helped John Reynolds, James Haydon, Nick Hopkins, the late Karl Harris and many more. We needed £250,000 to run Team GB, but it was difficult to get the money, really. Ann worked so hard on this – it was as much her thing as mine, maybe more? She worked her fingers to the bone to
Above: Heart and bone-breaking 2017 BSB finale saw him lose out to Shane Byrne... Right: ...all forgotten in 2018 as BSB champion!
make it happen and it did. I have to say that when I remember James Haydon, he was a real grafter and had a heart of gold – he was always happy to help on the farm. He was always so competitive with Nick in the gym, too. Both would be to the point of collapse after a session! I sometimes wish James had stayed with Team GB for a few more years.
THE POCKET ROCKET ON: Rocket Ron…
Mum has been a part of all our success and has worked so hard for us all, without her neither dad nor me would be where we are today or achieved so much. Thinking about my dad, for me it’s not about his achievements or being recognised with the likes of an MBE or whatever: it is dad’s undeniable passion for racing. Even now he’s up at 5am to sort some bikes out, whether it was making something for a CB500 when we had the school, or fixing a bike that’s been crashed (mine or otherwise!) His whole career and our family has always been about racing and that passion – if I’ve got half that passion at 60 odd years of age I’ll be a very lucky and one very happy man…
ClassicRacer 45
ICONICMETAL
BMW RS54
#26
IN DETAIL: Politics have always been a part of the racing scene, usually the average fan is unaware of the ‘goings on’, but sometimes political decisions affect what is seen on the racetrack.The birth of the RS54 was the result of such a decision. Just before the Second World War broke out, Germany was dominating the European Championships and GPs with their 500cc BMW RS255 Kompressor (supercharged) machines. Germany’s Nazi party, to show national superiority through race wins, heavily subsidised the factory effort. After the war the newly formed FIM banned supercharging from their fledgling World Championship series.This decision penalised both German and Italian factories (the losing sides), forcing new machine development. Work began on a replacement for the RS255 in 1950, when BMW was allowed to join the FIM. Designer Alfred Boening incorporated many of the Kompressor machine’s features: horizontally opposed twin-cylinder layout, telescopic front forks (first factory to race with them), shaft-drive, overhead cams and a direct drive automotive style clutch.The RS54 was to be built in limited quantities for qualified racers to purchase. During its development years (1951-53), various factory versions were created, some with fuelinjection, some with conventional carburettors. Fuel-injection was seen as a way to recoup power lost through the supercharger ban. Although the mechanical injectors increased power by 3bhp and showed a 15% reduction in fuel consumption, the system cost too much for the production RS54.
Race bike
Just prior to the 1953 Isle of ManTT, BMW launched the RS54 with a heavily subsidized price of 6000DM: £17,940 at today’s value. Because of the cost to the factory, a small batch of 50 was planned for production. What the customer got was a reliable, beautifully engineered race bike.The engine featured a large magnesium crankcase open at the front to accept the roller bearing, built-up crank assembly. A 180-degree crank had the left cylinder in front of the right one when viewed from above. Each piston would be at top dead centre
46 ClassicRacer
and bottom dead centre at the same time in their opposed cylinders. To reduce the fore and aft offset of cylinders the centre flywheel was counter-bored each side for big end clearance. Connecting rods with a flat rather than H-section shank further kept the offset to a minimum. An aluminium bearing housing supported the front main bearing and below it, the oil-pump bolted to the front of the crankcase. Gears driven from the crank nose powered the oil pump, tachometer, magneto and a bevel shaft.This latter shaft engaged with two short bevel shafts at 90-degrees to the crank centreline. Iron sleeved cylinders bolted to the crank with six studs, the heads the to them with another six stu sleeve nuts.
Domed
An included valve angle of 8 was wide even then, forcing adoption of domed topped p with deep cutaways for the heads.To combat oil blow-by, the pistons had four rings: t compression, one compress control and one oil control. D the double overhead cams w long bevel shafts above the c splined into the short shafts. Cylinder offset meant a ra strange cam arrangement. cams are close together acti rockers to open and close th Rocker clearance was adjust with eccentric spindles secu serrated locks. Carburation German made Amal carbure separate float chambers. From the rear of the crank u power was transmitted throu an automotive style dry clutch to a bolt-on fivespeed gearbox. A coupling allowing for rear suspension movement connected to a shaft inside the right swingarm transmitting the power to the bevel driven rear wheel.The chassis was much simpler than the engine featuring a twin loop tube frame with a bolt-on rear sub-frame. Surprisingly, the factory telescopic forks did not find t way on to the production RS Front suspension was by Ear type, leading link forks suppo
two coil-over shocks. At the rear were two more coilover shocks controlling the swingarm. To keep wheel mass centralized, the spokes had their nipples at the hub rather than rim end.
Oil-tight
All this excellent engineering resulted in a reliable, oil-tight but quirky handling bike. The Earles forks gave a slight rise when braking, the counter clockwise rotating crank tipped the bike to the left when revved and the rear bevel drive made the back of the bike rise under acceleration.
Illustration by: Mick Ofield
ClassicRacer 47
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
48 ClassicRacer
CANADIAN COOL! As his career went on, Yvon Duhamel became a bona fide racing legend in the USA, also going on to sire a legend in his own right – son Miguel. Words: Bruce Cox Photographs:The Randy Hall Collection, Don Morley, Mortons Archive
Y
von Duhamel’s first – and long overdue – win in the 1973 AMA National Championship season came at Charlotte in North Carolina where he rode a smart and consistent race to lead from flag to flag and won at a 103mph average: classy. Then, in the final race of a season where the Kawasaki 750cc triples had finally really emphasised their superiority, he led Gary Nixon and Art Baumann home in a 1-2-3 success at Ontario Motor Speedway in California. It was a great and dominant victory for Kawasaki at the team’s home race but as they celebrated the win, little did the riders and crew realise that it was the last one that they would celebrate for almost two years. The four cylinder Yamaha TZ750 racers appeared for the 1974 season and they would essentially dominate the Formula 750 class for the rest of its existence.
Uncompetitive in 1974
Neither Yvon Duhamel nor Kawasaki relished the idea of being ‘also rans’ but they had agreed a big money threeyear contract at the end of 1973 so the best that either could hope for was that the company could eventually build a ‘Yamaha beater’. Road racing in the USA was also at a low-ebb in 1974 so the US Kawasaki team decided to expand its role in European races, with Yvon as the focus, and headed for the first 500cc Grand Prix of the season on the difficult and dangerous Clermont Ferrand circuit in France. The aim was to gain some press coverage for the French Kawasaki importer as Yvon, although being a French Canadian living on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, was arguably the most popular racer in France at the time. In addition, Kawasaki in Japan wanted to evaluate whether a new water-cooled version of the H1-R triple would be competitive in the premier GP category. Unfortunately, little was learned. The bike’s engine seized on the third lap and, although it became a TT winner in the hands of Mick
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Above: Yvon on the Yoshimura Kawasaki. Right: At Magny Cours in 1975.
Grant, the H1-RW was never again seen in World Championship Grand Prix competition. When Yvon’s bike seized in a very fast corner, Chas Mortimer was just behind him and remembers the incident as the most impressive save from a potentially nasty crash that he had ever seen: “The rear wheel of the H1-RW stepped out as the engine seized, putting Yvon into a very high speed slide,” Chas recalled. “Yvon had his foot down like a dirt track rider and so hard was he struggling to keep upright that smoke was coming off the bottom of his boot!” That smoking boot sole was what was holding the motorcycle up as they slid along the track, as crossed-up on opposite lock as you could possibly get on a road racer. Yvon miraculously slid the motorcycle to an
upright stop at the side of the track and Chas said that if he had gone down, he probably would have taken a couple of other riders down with him, including Chas himself. Back in the USA, the Laguna Seca jinx that Yvon seemed to have acquired got him again during an early practice session: Yvon went down in the corkscrew and severely bruised his right hand. It was his third crash at Laguna in three years, but despite the pain Yvon wanted to ride the 75-mile main event. To help him in this Randy Hall fashioned a longer front brake lever and with the extra leverage this provided, the power of Yvon’s weakened grip was multiplied so that he could operate the brake better: “I knew it had to hurt every time Yvon pulled hard on the front brake” said Randy. “But Yvon was the kind of rider that
Marvellous Miguel and Mario! Or wasYvon the best racer to come out of Canada? As well as his own illustrious career,Yvon could watch with great satisfaction the racing life and times of his sons, Mario and the younger Miguel, even if the latter would also suffer serious injuries in his own career. Mario was given a motorised two-wheeler aged two, with Miguel following him soon after. Mario would enjoy a 15-year career, becoming Canadian Miguel hit the heights in AMA.
champion seven times as well as indulging in endurance racing. Both would take to a number of disciplines as kids, Mario starting in 1978 in motocross.That year he would become Junior 250cc Quebec Champion, 2nd in the 125cc class and 3rd in the 250cc National Series. A year later he’d be Quebec champ in the 125cc Senior Class and overall Canadian Champion in 250cc. He’d move to expert class and become a roadracer in 1984. Miguel also started in motocross as a kid, but – like dad and big brother – short circuit road-racing would soon beckon. Miguel would only turn pro – aged 20 – in 1988 but he soon got to work… First up, was the chance to race with father Yvon and brother Mario at the Bol d’Or Endurance race – the first father and sons team to do so! Miguel took his first AMA Superbike win in 1990, at Heartland Park,Topeka on his way to the Rookie of theYear
would put that out of his mind for the race. It is hard to say that Yvon rode a conservative race when he finished in 2nd to Kenny Roberts but his slightly less than ‘balls out’ approach to this one may have been the reason he finished at all. I was so proud of Yvon and admired what he had done, considering his injured hand.” How Yvon handled injuries would be replicated by his own son, decades later… Injured hand or not, Yvon also wanted to ride a KZ900 prepared by Yoshimura in the Production race. He said he could do it and he did it very well indeed, riding to a comfortable win by a significant margin. The next race was on the super-speedway at Talladega that had been a happy hunting ground for Yvon in
award. Better was to come the following year, when he won the Daytona 200 race, replacing Randy Renfrow: the same year he’d win the AMA Supersport 600 series. 1992 was his baptism on the international scene, with a ride alongside Niall Mackenzie in the BancoYamaha Moto France team aboardYZR500s, with his father’s number 17 on the bike – he’d finish 12th overall. Returning to the USA, he would become the 1993 AMA Supersport 600 champion (the first of five such titles, he would also take two Formula Xtreme titles) and in 1994 he was one of the few to make the Harley-Davidson VR1000 look competitive. Miguel would – in 1995 – become the first Canadian to win the AMA Superbike title on the Smokin’ Joes Honda RC45, then get 2nd to Doug Chandler in 1996. He’d be a major player at the Daytona 200, too: winning the 1991, 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2005
races for Honda in the varying ‘main’ classes of the event. Injury was a big part of Miguel’s career: a terrible crash at Loudon, New Hampshire, saw Miguel have to use a cane for many months – suitably equipped with a Showa spring in it! Miguel always returned from injuries, thanks to his fanatical training regime – he is a keen cyclist and was even hit by a ‘BB’ gun pellet when riding around his home of Las Vegas in 2020 – thankfully the pellet only caused a minor wound. Yvon was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999, Miguel in 2016 while Mario was inducted into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2012: a proud family legacy…
Daytona once more – this time 1984.
previous years and for this one, Randy Hall had prepared a more powerful engine with enlarged transfer ports. After practice, Yvon reported that he was still down a little on speed compared to the Yamaha factory sponsored riders, Kenny Roberts and Don Castro, but the difference was much smaller than Daytona. So, his plan was to push hard from the flag and hopefully wear down the Yamaha riders or their bikes. Unfortunately, he just pushed too hard. From the drop of the flag Yvon took the lead and held it through the infield. Then, when accelerating on to the banking from the infield for the first time the back end just stepped out and, in a flash, he was down: Yvon told Randy Hall later that he wasn’t sure if the tyre wasn’t up to temperature, or if the increased power of the ‘super engine’ just caught him out.
The KR750Arrives
The 1975 season saw the air-cooled H2-R engine replaced by the completely redesigned water-cooled KR750 but transmission troubles plagued the new bike at Daytona. These had been solved by the time of the early-summer Moto Journal 200 race on the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France where Yvon got a great start and was soon running second and pressuring the factory Yamaha of Giacomo Agostini. Although he made two refuelling stops, and Ago made only one,Yvon just kept the pressure on and finished in a close 2nd behind Agostini and ahead of Yamaha’s French stars, Patrick Pons and Christian Estrosi. After the race both Yvon and Randy Hall felt that if they had gone with only one pit stop this could have been the first major win for Kawasaki’s new KR750, but better safe than sorry and it was still a very satisfying result after the bleak previous season. Back across the Atlantic it was time for Laguna Seca again. This had been a ‘bogey track’ for Yvon and the H2-R, with three crashes in three years, but Yvon had a good
heat race finishing right on Kenny Roberts’ rear wheel and ahead of Steve Baker. He felt that the KR750 was competitive and that he could win the main race. In that race, he got off to a great start and he was actually leading Kenny but, unfortunately, on lap 29 his Laguna Seca jinx got him again in the notorious Corkscrew Corner, and he went down: this made it four times in four years! Again, there was consolation that the crash wasn’t Yvon’s fault. The cage separating the balls on the crankshaft main bearing on the right-hand side had broken up and the floating pieces locked up the engine and, therefore, the rear wheel. However, there had been some consolation for the previous two years at Laguna when Yvon had twice won the production race on a Kawasaki Z1. This year he used the updated KZ900 version to win the ‘consolation prize’ once again. With more and more involvement in European events happening in 1975, Yvon Duhamel and the US Kawasaki team headed back across the Atlantic for the final race of the
Racing on the continent with the unfamiliar ‘23’. Winning at Daytona in 1974.
Yvon, Miguel and Mario raced together at the Bol d'Or.
ClassicRacer 51
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Yvon winning the F750 at Assen after teammate Ditchburn ran out of fuel.
season, this one at Assen in the Netherlands. It turned out to be Yvon’s biggest result of the year – and his only win. Unfortunately it was somewhat tainted by the fact that Randy Hall had inadvertently slightly under-fuelled the other Kawasaki in contention, for Barry Ditchburn, when the British rider came in for his pit stop. Randy realised his error and suggested that Barry came in for a quick ‘splash and dash’
before the end but the Kawasaki UK team management opted to take a chance rather than see Barry relinquish the lead. Randy’s worst fears were confirmed when Ditchburn ran out of fuel close to the end of the race and it created a situation that he has agonised over ever since: particularly as it was ‘his man’ Duhamel who inherited the win in that important race…
The Bol d’Or 24 Hours
After 1975, Yvon’s race outings were less and less frequent and, thanks to the Yamaha TZ750s, successes were even harder to come by. Especially as he started the 1976 season crippled with a broken knee and ankle after a wintertime snowmobile crash. The highlight of the year for Yvon was when he was invited by the French Kawasaki distributor to be one of its team riders in the legendary Bol d’Or 24-Hour endurance race where he would race one of the Swiss built Godier-Genoud Kawasakis. Unfortunately for Kawasaki, the night and day-long marathon at Le Mans ended with Honda riders Alex George and Jean-Claude Chemarin on the top step of the victory rostrum. However, the two Godier-Genoud Kawasakis were second and third, ridden by Christian Sarron and Daniel Boulom in second and Yvon, teamed with Jean-Francois Balde, in third. Considering that Yvon could not walk without crutches at the start of the season, to have finished third in this famous 24-hour endurance race towards season’s end was quite an accomplishment.
The final years
A regular on the podium...
52 ClassicRacer
Yvon was basically retired in 1977 but after some negotiations by Kawasaki Canada (and with maybe a little prodding of the US Kawasaki management by them) Randy Hall was off to Canada late in the season to mechanic for him at the Canadian Grand Prix
“YVON WAS A LEGEND, HE TOOK THE KNOCKS AND TOOK THE WINS. HIS IMPACT ON CANADIAN AND US RACING CANNOT BE UNDERESTIMATED. NOT ONLY THIS, BUT HE SIRED TWO CHAMPIONS OF HIS OWN: SONS MARIO AND MIGUEL.”
Racing in France as number ‘23’.
that was to be staged for 750cc machines at the historic Mosport circuit near Toronto. Joining them at the race was Australian rider Gregg Hansford. Among the sea of white and red Yamahas was their pair of lean, mean and lime green KR750 Kawasakis. Considering that he contested just this one race in the whole of the 1977 season, Yvon rode superbly at Mosport. He won the Lightweight race on the new KR250 tandem twin and was 2nd on the year-old KR750 in the big class – successes which certainly made Kawasaki Canada happy. And making the crew even happier was the fact that the big race winner was none other than Gregg Hansford on the updated KR750L – the two lone Kawasakis delivered a one-two knockout blow to a whole field full of Yamahas! After the excellent results in 1977, it was easy for Kawasaki Canada and Yvon Duhamel to get a KR750 and faithful crew chief, Randy Hall, over the border from the USA for the 1978 Canadian GP race and although the results were not quite as good as the previous year, the combination still did well. First in the race was Steve Baker, an American rider living near the Canadian border in Washington State and riding for Yamaha Canada with Kenny Roberts second for Yamaha USA. Yvon again took a brief break from retirement and was 3rd on the only Kawasaki in the race – a fine performance considering that Baker, Roberts and the YamahaTZ750s were
the hottest properties in racing at that time. It was a fitting way for Yvon to close the book on his eight-year career with Kawasaki. It was not, however, the last time he would be seen in action. Ten years later, in a memorable finale to his international career, he contested the 1988 Bol d’Or, riding a Honda and teamed with his sons, Miguel and Mario. They finished 7th and that race would always be the one with the fondest memories for Yvon. He was 49 years old at the time and, amazingly, even that wasn’t his final race. Well into his 50s and still unable to shake off the need for speed, the irrepressible Duhamel spent several seasons in the 1990s riding in the AMA’s Harley-Davidson one-make series and scoring regular top 10 finishes against riders half his age. Not surprisingly, when he finally did retire, the accolades came thick and fast. By the time that the 2000 millennium year came around he had been inducted into the Canadian Motorcycle Association’s Hall of Fame as well as that of the American Motorcycle Association. He was also inducted into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame and the Panthéon des Sports du Québec in Montreal, as well as to the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame. It was all well deserved recognition for a rider generally reckoned to be the best motorcycle racer to come out of the land of the Maple Leaf flag.
A legend...
CLASSIC RACER
Words and photographs: Phil Aynsley
LAVERDA 1000CC V6
One of the most fabled bikes ever to take to the track, it could have been the beginning of a whole range of advanced Laverda road bikes.
ClassicRacer 55
CLASSIC RACER
56 ClassicRacer
Top: The engine uses four-valve heads with a shallow 24-degrees included valve angle. The clutch and alternator are counter-rotating to balance out the inherent vibration of the 90-degree V6.
Water and oil temperature gauges and an oil pressure gauge join the traditional white-faced Veglia tacho in the cockpit. Redline is 11,000rpm.
The seat unit incorporates the oil tank for the dry-sump motor.
Above: This bike is the one raced in the Bol d’Or and has remained in the Laverda family’s collection. The only other running example was owned by the late Cor Dees in the Netherlands, who used his skills as a machinist (and the stock of parts he bought from the factory) to complete the original Milan Show/Gruppo Zanini limited edition mock up (1991) bike he had bought from an Italian collector in 2007. Left: One of the most impressive sights in the motorcycle world! The 996cc 90-degree V6 was designed by Giulio Afieri (who worked for Maserati for 20 years) and was basically a scaled down version of his three-litre motor used in the Merak and Citroen SM. Right: Pietro Laverda on the V6 during demonstrations at Sydney’s Eastern Creek in 2017: a glorious sound!
ClassicRacer 57
CLASSIC RACER
58 ClassicRacer
AFIERI’S ORIGINAL CONCEPT WAS FOR A V6 SPORTS-TOURER ROAD BIKE WITH A MODULAR ENGINE DESIGN THAT COULD ALSO PROVIDE V4 AND V-TWIN MODELS. THE EXCELLENT OUTPUT OBTAINED IN EARLY TESTING (120HP, THEN 140HP – EQUIVALENT BHP/LITRE TO CONTEMPORARY F1 MOTORS) CONVINCED THE FACTORY TO DEVELOP THE BIKE AS AN ENDURANCE RACER INSTEAD.
CLASSIC RACER
Below: The biggest change to the bike between its 1977 debut at the Milan Show and its race debut at the Bol d’Or 24 hour race the following year was the replacement of the underslung mono-shock suspension with the twin magnesium Marzocchis, seen here together with a much modified swingarm.
Right: The down draught carburettors were specially made by Dell’Orto. Fuelinjection was tested at one stage.
The bike only raced the once (due to a lack of development resources and a rule change limiting motors to four cylinders from 1979) but its top speed of 283kph (176mph) was 30kph (19mph) faster than the next best competitor! Due to lack of time to refine the new rear suspension/swingarm, the engineers estimated that the uni-joint between the gearbox and driveshaft would only last nine hours – it failed at eight-and-a-half!
60 ClassicRacer
The twin radiators were each housed in front of the cylinder banks. The size of the fairing wasn’t a disadvantage in endurance racing where rider comfort was a priority.
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
I
was very young when I was born, back in 1953 in a village called Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire. The family lived on a farm, about 500 acres, with a big old rambling farmhouse which belonged to my grandfather Bert Parrish. The farm itself was sold when Bert died, but my dad Graham managed to buy it back. Bert worked in cattle, castrating the bulls and shovelling a lot of BS – so I always say this is where my talent for BS and talking balls is from… I was the youngest of four, born seven years later than the previous sibling – was I a bit of a mistake? Well, I did develop into something of a chubby pain in the backside, that I can say. Sadly my dad died when I was 12, of leukaemia, and my mum, Bay, passed away in 1988 – more of her later in part two! Being a former airfield, there was lots of concrete track which became my playground with anything with an engine in. It started with a ride-on lawnmower, then anything with four wheels that my brother Phil had bought. We’d tie-down the accelerator and then send a car over an old air-raid shelter, anything with a motor I just loved – and of course that meant bikes later, too… School got in the way first and I was expelled at one school and then sent to a private school, which I hated. I’d set off explosive bird-scarers in the bus on the way there just to make sure we’d be late – the less time I spent there the better! One teacher – Mr Caruthers, the geography teacher, really hated me. I got my own back one day by loosening the wheel nuts on his Triumph Herald and putting his hub-caps back on. His wheels fell off and he knew who the culprit was – I was expelled once more! This was good in the long run as I went to join an agricultural engineering firm, Weatherheads of Royston. I spent my time mending tractors and the like – happy times! Trouble did seem to follow me, though, and I got blamed for a bodged job which wasn’t my fault. So I joined Collings Brothers instead, they’re still going!
Early days: Steve on the TD2B.
With the cash coming in, it was time to get onto two wheels. I’d best admit that on numerous occasions during my youth I had been caught by the local bobby for riding my normal £5 turds on her majesty’s highways. These were motorcycles that I bought or acquired as wrecks, fixed them up before illegally riding them on the roads. These ranged from 50cc to 250cc but Pc Plod wasn’t too happy when he caught me, aged 14, riding a 500cc Twin Matchless to the youth club. At 15 I was legally allowed to drive a tractor so for a year until my 16th birthday the tractor was my mode of transport and I’d get cash from mates for driving them places… But then the great day dawned. On February 24, 1969, I bustled off to Hallens of Cambridge accompanied by my mother and paid the salesman £160 for a used YDS3. I’d saved hard for nearly a year and with a small loan from my mother the motorcycle was mine. I was well chuffed, however within the first three weeks of my ownership it had a considerable amount of seizures, I don’t think the Autolube was working correctly or maybe
His 'new' YDS3: rose-tinted goggles fitted...
Full circle: he's bought another TDB2!
64 ClassicRacer
it didn’t like being ridden flat out everywhere and being ridden into ditches. It did its job though just long enough for me to pass my motorcycle test in Stevenage, not that the test was that difficult in 1969… Once I’d passed my test (once round the block, emergency stop) it was straight back to Hallens to chop the YD in for something a little more powerful, something like a BSA A10, 650cc. I thought the deal was done, and it was – until the salesman who sold me the Yamaha (and was stitching me up with the A10) went for a quick run out on the YDS3. After 20 minutes he still hadn’t returned then as the bus stopped outside the store, out gets the salesman minus the motorcycle, she’d had another seizure! So after some procrastinating on the salesman’s behalf, I managed to renegotiate (again, not in my favour) a deal for the Beeza… I rode off into the distance, leaving my YDS3 behind. As a post-script to this story, I’ve recently bought another YDS3 as a nostalgic nod to my youth! I found a YDS3 being sold (well, my lovely wife Michelle did) by a top chap in Banbury. It needed a mild restoration but it started third
“I WENT FROM WATCHING RACING TO DOING IT. WE BECAME ‘POURUS RACING’ AS OUR BIKES AND VAN LEAKED AND WE WERE ‘POOR AS PISS’!”
Tucked in well at Brands in 1982!
and van were always leaking and we were ‘poor as piss…’ Brands Hatch was the first meeting and I – for one – was crapping myself! Things didn’t start well with me snagging someone’s tent in the van and dragging it half-way around the paddock. That first race didn’t go too well – the bike leaked oil, went onto one cylinder and I dropped back into last position. To be fair it was amazing the bike did the scheduled eight laps: by the end the thing had shaken itself to bits, lost the bolts for the barrel so the cylinders were going up and down with the bloody pistons! With me working on the side as ‘Kerbside Motors’ (fixing anything and everything for cash) I wanted a new race bike. A mate, Roger Keen had a Yamaha TD2B and he was winning races on it, so by the end of 1972 I bought it ready for 1973. That put me on the map, leading me to get some sponsorship from chicken farmer Harold Coppock, a very generous bloke, so for 1974 I had a TZ250 and 350! Two years after my inauspicious debut at Brands, I was back for a ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ meeting and my hero and later best mate would be one of the judges – Barry Sheene… Of course, I had a great meeting, taking the 250 and 350cc races and even nabbing an open class win, too. It didn’t matter that someone else took the ‘Star of Tomorrow’ title as Barry came along and chatted and
In 1983 at on Park. ingt Don
invited me back to Wisbech, not far from me in Royston – the friendship blossomed from the start. Another sponsor – Dave More – would help out with one of his TZ750s for another breakout event, another Brands Hatch meeting, but this one televised. Our race was brought forward following a tragic accident involving Pat Mahoney and it’s my first race on this thing and all the big names are there at the meeting, including Barry and Mick Grant and bloody hell if I don’t only go and win my race, beating the likes of Percy Tait. Another piece in the jigsaw that year came in the form of Martin Brookman – a giant of a man who would be my brilliant mechanic.
By 1975 I was starting to live the dream… my results and awards that year saw me be part of the British team in the Transatlantic Trophy Series for 1976, alongside Barry, Granty, Ron Haslam, Barry Ditchburn, John Williams, Phil Read and Dave Potter. Not only would I have to pull my socks up to be competitive with that lot, I’d be up against Gary Nixon, Pat Hennen, Stevie Baker, Gene Romero and a certain Kenny Roberts. Sadly, it wasn’t going to be my best series of meetings over that Bank Holiday Easter weekend as I kept falling off the bloody bike and it was in bits – my starting fee got gobbled up by the repair bill… Still, Dave More by now was sorting me out
ClassicRacer 67
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
with one of the lovely Suzuki RG500 square – fours – I think, I was one of only four people in Britain who got one and I got the one with the carb issue! It seized at the North West, but once we got that sorted we took the major British title that year… this led for me to join Barry on the Grand Prix trail for 1977. If 1976 was good – with one of the best summers ever and a British championship – 1977, with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and me joining Barry at Texaco Heron Suzuki it was going to be even better. Barry would shun tradition and keep his iconic number 7, rather than the number 1 plate that he’d won the year before, while I’d be number 6 – something I’d keep myself for the rest of my career: the bikes I would ride were Barry’s from 1976. Of course, Barry and I would be alongside Pat Hennen, a very talented and serious racer: yeah, the opposite of my good self. Serious was something I
He had a good style on a bike, did Stavros!
Parrish’s pranks…
So, let’s enjoy (or not) some of Steve’s greatest pranks.Those of a nervous disposition please look away now… Bye, bye mum… No one, but no one was exempt from the Stavros practical joke, not his siblings, nor his own mum… When Bay Parrish passed away in 1988, her wishes were to have her ashes scattered at a beauty spot in Norfolk and – with Stavros otherwise engaged – his brother and sister, who lived in the county would do the honours. Unfortunately – and unbeknownst to them – Parrish had already got to the urn, removed the wax seal, dropped two glass eyes into the urn and his daughter Frankie’s jack-in-the-box in there too for good measure. Of course, before the private scattering ceremony, the Parrish siblings wanted to have a look in the urn. Sister Shirley had hardly touched the lid when BOING! Out pops the jack-in-the-box, the urn was dropped in horror and the two glass eyes rolled out onto the floor… In a switcheroo that even Stavros would be proud of, the family kept quiet and – on wanting to hear what had happened – Steve rang his sister to be told: ‘Oh no Steve, we had a change of plan and decided to let the vicar do it instead.’ Stavros recalls: “That put me in a right panic and I was almost going to get into the car when I finally got a message from brother Phil to say they were having me on…”
68 ClassicRacer
Toilet humour… The Macau Grand Prix – always a place for Stavros to let his hair down, or up: it’s 1986, the year after ‘The Great Gunpowder Plot’ (more next issue) and he’s with Mick Grant and some of Granty’s friends. Unfortunately, Stavros has spotted some interesting ‘street food’ vendors outside the hotel. In London this may mean a feta cheese/tofu salad drizzled with a mung bean coulis, but this was Macau. In some buckets were some huge black toads and a huge slippery eel. Of course, Steve didn’t want to eat these things – but he wanted to have fun with them. Coolly nabbing the key to the late Chris Carter’s room (a motorcycle journalist of some repute, at the time) Parrish saw fit to release the eel into Carter’s toilet and the frogs into his bathroom. Grant, Stavros and
friends were having a few drinks in the bar when they heard a call to reception from Carter’s room. All they could hear at the other end of the phone was screaming and the words: ‘GETTHOSE F*CKING THINGS OUT OF MY BATHROOM!’ Being Barry… We at CR feel that – if there’s one injustice done unto Steve Parrish, it’s the whole ‘Barry the best
mate’ thing.Too many so-called fans blame him for hanging onto Sheene’s coat-tails. We say: ‘Who wouldn’t want to?’ And then there’s when he actually ‘was’ Sheene himself: for a session or so. As well as doing a publicity shot early in 1977 using Barry’s leathers (Stavros’ weren’t ready yet) Parrish had to take part in a qualifying session when Barry had to be smuggled out of Mallory Park at the 1977 PostTT event. With Barry having knee issues, a throwback to his Daytona 1975 crash, dad Franco smuggled Barry out of the circuit to visit a doctor to get the knee sorted: but with the event held over a single day, Barry had to qualify. Instead, Parrish put on Sheene’s leathers, mounted his famous ‘number 7’ Suzuki RG500, did three laps, then came in, changed into his own leathers and took his number 6 Suzuki out for around 20 laps, coming in and making changes to his own set-up.
wouldn’t be doing, but I wasn’t doing too badly at all. I got 9th at the season opener in Venezuela, 4th at Hockenheim – I’d have to learn the track in practice (and often these tracks were much longer than they are today) then have a shit qualifying followed by me picking up places in the race. By the end of that year I’d never threatened for a win, but was close to a podium a few times and 5th overall wasn’t too shabby for a rookie… Of course, the highlight that year for me was the British Grand Prix, where I was leading it, running the No.1 plate too. I felt that I could give Barry a run for his money around Silverstone, but it was not to be. He had bike issues all weekend, while mine was running sweetly thanks to Martin. Barry broke down on lap nine of the 22 lapper while I ended up leading it. Of course, you know the rest: with me ahead of Peter Williams by three seconds and – as I started the last
MAYDAY, MAYDAY MAYDAY! To be fair to Stavros, sometimes it’s not his fault or his intent – trouble just seems to follow him. Take when he and Sheene were in Barry’s helicopter and trying to make their way through the cluttered air-traffic above and around Gatwick. Normally, in typical Sheene style, he’d cheerily ask to be allowed to ‘slip through’ the busy air corridors on his way to and from the south coast, but on this occasion, he’d been told to hold for a landing 747, suddenly: CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK! A loud clattering noise from just outside the helicopter can be heard and Barry’s all action, calling out a mayday call while all traffic is put into a holding pattern over Gatwick.The chopper lands on the edge of Gatwick’s runway and the emergency services were on their way. Both men could see where the clattering sound came from: Stavros had left one of the seatbelts hanging outside the door and the noise came from the metal buckle hitting the air-flow in flight and making the sound… With the emergency services getting closer, Barry simply unfastened a panel on the helicopter and claimed it was a loose fitting that had made the panel come loose…
It must have been bloody cold at Donington in 1979!
lap – instead of Martin my faithful mechanic, Barry was out with the board with the words ‘GAS IT WANKER’ on it. I couldn’t help but smile, but then disaster struck, or rather spots of rain did. Down I went and – sadly for Peter – he went down too. Me at Copse and him at Becketts: Hennen would win the race and the crowd had to be a bit disappointed that a Brit hadn’t won! “For God’s sake Stavros,” said Barry afterwards. “How could you let that American prat win?”
Eyes on the pies… Glen Bright deserves special mention as victim of Stavros’ pranks. Being one of the young ‘YTS’ mechanics, it’s fair to say that Glen was (at the time) a little ‘green.’ So, when it came to going to the Isle of Man for the first time (clearly a place renowned for its’ exotic cuisine) Glen’s mum had sent him away with his favourite food – tinned steak and kidney pies, which he’d eat every night, without anything else or just accompanied with bread! Of course, Stavros and co. soon swapped out the nutritious steak and kidney for ‘nutritious’ dog food… And then there was Glen/Dave Johnson/insert the name of any LoctiteYamaha mechanic and the maroon… We all know Stavros and explosives – they really shouldn’t be together at all, but one of Parrish’s party tricks was the use
Next time: going it alone with HELP from a Beatle (see what we did there?) Management, retirement and more…
of explosives, small bags of flour and electrical connectors. A few team mechanics would suffer this one.You’d get in your car to drive home after a hard day’s graft with Team Stavros, get to the end of the road, indicate whichever way you needed to and BOOM you’re covered with self-raising… (other types of flour are available…) You complete trucker… It’s a golden rule: you never eat anything offered to you by Stavros. Every press room used by him will have a fake dog poo somewhere and you never leave anything around Parrish unguarded, like truck racer George Allen did. Stavros found a dead snake in the paddock of Paul Ricard and figured it would be funny to leave it in George’s helmet. Allen seemed to have a particular pre-race ritual where his helmet and gloves would be left in his truck while he nipped off for a wee. Stavros recalls: “The five-minute board went up and out jumped George, or he tried to as he was still attached to his safety harness. The poor bastard was screaming and thrashing around. I didn’t know he had a snake phobia!” Another helmet victim was (ironically) called Helmut – Helmut
Kruger, in fact. Now, Steve and Helmut weren’t seeing eyeto-eye out on the track. In his autobiography ‘ParrishTimes’ Stavros claims that: “Helmut was useless – he couldn’t drive a greasy stick up a cow’s back-side, but his former Mercedes factory truck was a rocket-ship, but he was a constant pain in the neck crashing into people.” Despite all of this, it seemed the stewards didn’t want to take Helmut to task, so Stavros took helmet to task – and filled it with Loctite glue… Despite being on the podium, Steve didn’t want to go until he’d seen what happened. “I knew full well that he wore a wig,” Stavros says. “So, as soon as he tried to whip his helmet off – he could feel his syrup coming off with it, so he immediately put it straight back on! Perfect!”
ClassicRacer 69
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Words: Norm DeWitt Photographs: Mortons Archive, Moriwaki
MORIWAKI
MOMENTS! Moriwaki’s star was climbing high when the firm met a young talented Aussie called Wayne Gardner – this sent it flying higher still!
Above: 1981: "Quick, Donna! Take a shot of me and my heroes!" Luckily Nick Nicholls was there. Left: Mamoru built an empire.
70 Class ass
a r
F
or 1981, Mamoru Moriwaki was on a talent search, and that search took him to Australia: what happened next was a magical Moriwaki moment… Wayne Gardner recalls: “It was the Swann Series and the gossip around the paddock was that Moriwaki was in town looking for a rider to go to Daytona with. I was riding
Peter Molloy’s CB900 or 1000 superbike and it blew up in the first round at Oran Park. Unfortunately we didn’t have the money, sponsorship, and parts to repair it for Queensland, where Moriwaki was going to be. I watched on TV, completely gutted. I rang up Peter Molloy and told him how Mamoru was there looking for riders. So, Pete got the bike put together and going for Sandown. It
Right: Mad Moriwaki and Wild Wayne leads Sheene!
looked like it was going to rain for the Swan Series race, and I was really fast in the wet. I thought: ‘If it rains, I can win this on a fourstroke because everybody was on TZ750s and 500s… those two-stroke things.’ The race started but it didn’t rain and I ended up slipping and sliding around as I’d started on wets and everyone else was on slicks, so I finished in 12th. I was only entered in that one race!” Then fate took a hand… Gardner: “The heavens opened up and it was pissing down when they started calling the Australian Unlimited Championship contenders to the grid. I told my friend Malcolm: ‘I wish I was entered in this race, as I could win this.’ He said simply said: ‘Why don’t you go win it?’ So we went looking for Pete as the bike was locked in the van and we didn’t have the keys. So, I said: ‘Quick, get a screwdriver!’ So we broke the lock to the van, dragged the bike out, I put on my leathers and we got it started up. It turned out that Pete was up in the grandstand with friends, drinking beers and watching the rest of the races! I rode
out onto the grid, and since it was pouring with rain, everyone was ducking for cover so I thought no one would notice so I put the bike on the front row. I wasn’t even entered but there I was, bold as f**k. I just rode off into the distance. As I’d go down the straight, somebody said to Pete: ‘What bike is Wayne on now?’ Pete said: ‘Oh, he’s downstairs drinking beer!’ Pete was then asked: ‘Then who the hell is that?’ “I went on to win the race by a country mile, and they handed me a silver dish. Here comes Pete Molloy, and he can be an angry
little b*****d sometimes, and he comes up screaming: ‘You son-of-a bitch, you stole my motorbike!’ Thank God I saved the moment by pushing the silver tray in his direction saying: ‘Mate, that’s yours!’ At that moment, we hadn’t met Moriwaki, but then we put the bike back in the van and had a few beers and then Ross Hannan came up and asked if he could bring over Mamoru Moriwaki, and that he wanted to meet me. Mamoru said ‘You very, very fast Wayne-san, great skills.’ Mamoru went home back to Japan and I went back to Sydney.”
ClassicRacer 71
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Roger Marshall would become a good friend of Wayne Gardner.
Moriwaki could be ‘hands-on’ when needed.
72 ClassicRacer
Mamoru’s daughter Midori knows that Wayne had made his mark, she recalls: “Father said ‘That one, Wayne Gardner, he is very rough riding, but he will be the world champion.” Gardner didn’t have long to wait for his reward: “Two or three weeks later Graeme Crosby called me from New Zealand and said: ‘Mamoru has been on the phone to me and he wants to know if you are interested in him bringing you to Daytona.’ I told him ‘of course I want to, I would love to.’ “Pete Molloy thought it was a fantastic idea so he went with me, and Daytona in 1981 was my first international motor race. I was wearing my shorts and thongs being the typical Aussie.” Midori says: “My father brought him to the Daytona 200 mile race, where nobody knows, knew or had heard of this Australian Wayne Gardner. And yet in qualifying he was very, very fast something like 2nd or 3rd.” Wayne recalls: “I ended up being 4th in the Daytona Superbike race, behind Wes Cooley, Graeme Crosby, and Freddie Spencer. From there I was supposed to sell that 1000cc bike in America, but we couldn’t get rid of the thing. Roger Marshall was there from Moriwaki UK and he said: ‘Why don’t we send the bike over to England and run it at Cadwell Park? You can stay at my house, and then we’ll sell the bike after the race.’ That sounded like good fun to me…” What followed would be another magical Moriwaki moment. Wayne says: “It was the Motorcycle News Unlimited Championship
race: the start of the year for the British scene. I lined up running against Ron Haslam, Croz, Mick Grant, all the heroes. Graeme was a part owner of Moriwaki UK, and he was my boss essentially. I started around 5th or 6th and people were coming up from behind so I figured I’d better go. “I caught up to Crosby who was leading the race, thinking: ‘Come on Croz, I want to finish 2nd!’ So I pass Croz and then I was waiting for him to pass me. When I went over the line at start/finish, they were both alongside me, but I’d won the race. Moriwaki UK said: ‘Why don’t you stay the rest of the season? You are leading the championship.’ So I rang up Pete Molloy saying I’d been asked to stay in England. ‘You miserable little b*****d, I’ve been building a new bike for you… blah blah blah.’ Anyway, it was a great opportunity so Pete got another rider and I got let off the hook.” Wayne Gardner stayed on in England the rest of the year with a number of memorable performances on the Moriwaki, doing wild wheelies and entertaining the crowd. Wayne says: “I had a similar bike and I virtually copied Crosby’s style, when he went to the UK on the sit-up-and-beg Moriwaki. He became really famous over there, and I had a similar bike without the nose cone on it. That Moriwaki Monster I was riding was an animal. I remember lining up for the Trans-Atlantic races on the front row, and here I am with Kenny Roberts, Franco Uncini, Barry Sheene, Randy Mamola, and all these Grand Prix riders. I said to Donna, my girlfriend at the
Above: Moriwaki's 8 Hours barbecues were legend!
all on Right: Roger ‘Reg’ Marsh p on the nlo Du y the Moriwaki. Joe inside... Below: A young Gardner with Moriwaki.
– right –
Midori Moriwaki.
time: ‘Whatever you do, get a photo of me on the grid next to all my heroes.’ “I was always very good on the brakes on that thing, having great big Lockheed brakes on the front. Uncini just couldn’t pass me on a GP500 when I was probably 100 kilos heavier and he just couldn’t understand it. I had some big races in that series at Donington Park, and particularly with Barry Sheene. He couldn’t get past me most of the race but he was very complimentary about me in the media saying that I was going to be a big success.” All the great press in the world didn’t change that the team was still a low budget operation. Wayne: “Mamoru and the mechanics lived with me at the house. I had an old Austin 1800 that I’d got for £120. We’d be pushing it everywhere and Mamoru told me: ‘Oh Wayne-san, I don’t want to go anywhere in that car, it’s only a one way ticket, never come back.’ In another odd similarity with Crosby, they shared similar experiences with electrocution! Graeme: “I went down past the start finish line using Mike Hailwood’s fuel tank from the year before which had been on an XR-27, and we didn’t properly modify it to fit the XR-34. I went down Bray Hill the first time with nine gallons and it dropped down onto the spark plugs going down the hill: ZZZZZZ!” For Gardner, it was at the late season races at Donington Park the following year, when one of the high tension leads was rubbed through by that sharp welded seam edge beneath the fuel tank: “I was in for the championship, but during the race the next
moment the whole bike was electrified. I’m trying to ride the bike with my fingertips and the electricity was coming through the tank onto my balls, so now I was standing on the pegs which had rubber covers on them. I was afraid to touch the brakes or the clutch lever, and I certainly didn’t think it funny at the time!” The sheer scale of the engine also presented a major problem: “I crashed a few times from dragging the right side of the engine,” explains Wayne. “A couple of times I crashed when it would lift the front wheel off the ground, as the engine was significantly wider than the others. We were always replacing the engine covers. But, when I couldn’t win, I’d do wheelies the length of the straights to entertain the crowd.” Wayne didn’t win the championship, but it really didn’t matter. He recalls: “From mid-year onwards, I had Suzuki, Yamaha, and Honda wanting to get me under contract for the following season. The whole thing had started because I’d stolen a bike out of a van.” Midori adds: “In 1981, Wayne was on the pole position at the Suzuka 8 Hours race, which was a shock and gave a dropped jaw to the old manufacturers. At that time Kawasaki was very strong. Qualifying times were normally 2:16 on the Suzuka circuit, and that time Wayne made 2:14 on a 900cc bike. Everyone was saying Moriwaki was cheating on the engines, or ‘who the hell is this boy’? In the end he didn’t finish well, it’s an 8 hour race… but Wayne was really fast that time.” Wayne says: “When I met Pops, I was at
Suzuka in 1981, when I’d put the bike on pole by two seconds, breaking Crosby’s lap record. Everyone was saying I had 1100cc and all this sort of stuff. I surprised myself and Mamoru as well.” Graeme Crosby recalls: “I was riding Suzuki for Pops and Wayne and I had this battle. The lap times just kept coming down and down. In last session I said to Pops: ‘New front, new rear and I’ll get one or two laps out of it.’ Moriwaki was saying ‘oh no’ as I was a full second quicker from the start-line, to where you could see across the track over by the Dunlop bridge. But he was only saying ‘oh no’ for a second as under Dunlop Bridge it spat me off.” Gardner: “Mamoru came up to me when I came in saying: ‘you are on pole position’ and he was crying. It was so sweet and I’ll never forget it.”
ClassicRacer 73
CLASSIC RACER PEOPLE
Moriwaki is now in World Superbikes.
Leandro Mercado rides the MIE Racing Honda Team CBR1000RR in 2021... It’s a Moriwaki, really...
Pops Yoshimura came up a few minutes later and his reaction was somewhat different. Wayne recalls: “He came up to me and said: ‘You are Gardner-san? You son-of-abitch you beat us for pole position. Too f**king fast Wayne-San!’ and slapped me on the back! That was the first time I’d met him and I was shit scared of him because he was one of the Gods!” In the race it all went downhill as the Moriwaki was a kick-start only bike and the carbs had flooded. Wayne recalls that opportunity lost: “Everyone took off and they started pushing me when the field was gone. I caught up to the whole field, and then it took me an hour but I’d just passed the leader. I was pushing too hard, on the limit, and I lost the front around Spoon Curve and the bike went down the road and that was the end of the race. I have to say that John Pace, my corider, and Mamoru were not happy with me, but that’s racing.” Needless to say, the sales of Moriwaki parts took off. Midori say: “Oh yes, Kawasaki parts were very popular at that time and it helped the Moriwaki business. My father started with the Kawasaki Z1 bike, and it was well tuned
by my father and raced with Wayne Gardner when he was 20 or 21 years old. Because of Honda producing a more interesting bike for racing, my father changed direction to the Honda. Of course, Honda is a big company, but for my father it did not matter if it was big or small… was it an interesting bike or not? That is how he looked at it. Usually at that time we just offered Kawasaki 900s and Honda CB750F, CB900, but by many times the Kawasaki was stronger at that time.” As a company, Moriwaki went from success to success over the decades, with such milestones as winning the 2010 Moto2 World Championship with Toni Elias on the Gresini Moriwaki. Today, Midori Moriwaki is back at the race tracks with her team, Moriwaki Althea Honda, which competes in World Superbike. Fujio Yoshimura’s oldest son, Yusaku Yoshimura, is the CEO of Yoshimura R&D of America, Inc. and shares some insight as to the differences between the engineering inspired Yoshimuras, and the nature inspired Moriwakis: “The Yoshimura family is in Kanagawa, right below Tokyo. The Moriwakis are based at Suzuka, so we are kind of far
It’s been a tough 2021 so far for MIE.
Schwantz rode a Moriwaki at Indy in 2010.
74 ClassicRacer
Toni Elias won the 2010 Moto2 championship on a Moriwaki.
away. We don’t get to see each other often, maybe twice a year, but the Moriwaki family is like a party…like a circus. They have three daughters and one son, Shogo, and he’s a racer. Every time we get together I can hear them 500 feet away, and it’s: ‘the Moriwaki family is here!’ The Yoshimura family, it’s very different and it’s fun to hang out with the Moriwakis.” It appears that 50 years ago, Namiko Yoshimura decided she wanted to run away to join the circus and the rest is history… Wayne Gardner adds his own feelings: “I’ve built up a fantastic relationship with the family, in particular Mamoru and Namiko. If I was having my doubts about when I was racing for world championships, I could always get on the phone to Mamoru. They have always been there for me from racing or personal reasons and I couldn’t have had a better international family around me than the Moriwakis.” High praise indeed.
ClassicRacer 75
CLASSIC RACER
ONTRACK
CADWELL CALLING! The weather played ball and the end result was that the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club (CRMC) enjoyed a wonderful weekend of racing over July 3/4.
D
espite every weather agency in the country predicting heavy rain showers, Cadwell Park bathed in sunshine for much of this mouthwatering race weekend. This meant that – for both competitors and the strong turnout of spectators – both could enjoy two days of close racing under near ideal conditions. Cadwell’s great history, challenging undulations and wonderful scenery coupled with the dearth of racing over the last 18
Left: The young Anglo/Dutch partnership of Kieran Clarke/Patricia Visscher (KCR Moorespeed BMW 1106) proved unbeatable all weekend against some stiff sidecar competition, unanimously earning themselves the commentators’ Riders of the Day award.
76 ClassicRacer
Words: Graham Lawlor Photographs: Pete Morris – www.pjm-photography.co.uk/motorsport
Atmospheric Pete Morris pic illustrates why Cadwell Park, nestling in its glorious Lincolnshire Wolds setting, is often referred to as the mini-Nürburgring.
months meant that the grids were packed with competitors from far and wide and it was particularly gratifying to see such a big turnout in the sidecar class. The 38-race programme catered for 125cc to 1300cc classic and post classic bikes including production, specials and Grand Prix machinery with four races for every CRMC
Right: During a red flag interval in Sunday morning’s first 250/350 PC GP and 500 aircooled race, the three main protagonists (front to back) Ant Hart (Be Event Hire TZ350), Dominic Herbertson (Davies Motorsport Yamaha TX500) and Harley Rushton (Craven TZ350) enjoy some light-hearted banter. Yet just a couple of minutes later they were heads down and going hard at it for the win, finishing in the same order as shown.
ClassicRacer 77
CLASSIC RACER
ONTRACK
Early stages of the Hercberg International/Colin Breeze/ACU Post Classic race and Joe Barton (106, Minnovation Kawasaki 1260) is about to slip past John Dieterman (Yamaha 1250) to take a lead that he never relinquished, eventually winning by 2.772 seconds. In third place Mark Purslow headed up the 750s with another strong ride on his Yamaha FZ750.
Hectic early action in the TGA/ACU 350/500 Classic race as Mark Cronshaw (8, JC Racing G50), Richard Molnar (1, Molnar Manx), Joe Barton (106, Minnovation G50), Mike Cooper (24, Craven Manx) and Pete Bardell (6, Ripley Land Seeley G50) lead the charge up to Charlies. After Molnar’s lap four tumble it was Barton who took a narrow victory from Cronshaw with Cooper third.
class and the third rounds of this season’s 350/500 Classic and 750/1300 Post Classic ACU UK Championships. Almost certainly the heaviest trophy in UK club racing, the Colin Breeze Trophy for the highest placed unsupported rider in the PC ACU event, was retained by John Dieterman (Yamaha 1250) although the Preston man was narrowly beaten into second place in the race by arch rival Joe Barton on the Minnovation Kawasaki 1260. The win moved Barton to within five points of Dieterman, with just nine points separating Dominic Herbertson (Davies Yamaha TX500), Mark Purslow (Yamaha FZ750) and Neil Robinson (Honda VFR750) in the 750 category.
Left: After several successful seasons with BMCRC, Mark Taylor has switched his attention to the Yamaha FZ600-dominated CRMC production class for 2021, with devastating effect, scoring six wins out of six at Mallory and Pembrey. That record was dented here when he was beaten in leg three by main rival Dominic Clegg, but a switch to his spare bike saw him back to winning ways in the final leg.
78 ClassicRacer
Above: No time to admire the scenery as Andy Pike (133, Seeley Goldstar) pursues James Gerrard (26, Molnar Manx) through Hall Bends in Classic 500 action. Right: One class guaranteed to provide excitement is the 250 air-cooleds with its array of 1970s hooligan bikes, predominantly RD Yamahas and X7 Suzukis. Jerry Longland is the CRMC’s official cartoonist but there’s no smile on his face here as he strains every sinew to keep his X7 ahead of the equally determined Lee Clare (Maxton RD 250). Both men achieved a Sunday win after Joe Woodward (RD250) had twice narrowly edged out Clare on Saturday.
Barton (Minnovation G50) made it three wins out of three in the ACU 500 race, edging out Mark Cronshaw (JC Racing G50) by just 0.6 seconds after early leader and 2020 champion Richard Molnar (Molnar Manx) crashed heavily at the chicane on lap four. Herbertson (Davies Honda) maintained his unbeaten 2021 record in the 350 category and now leads Gary Freeman (K4) by 30 points.
ClassicRacer 79
CLASSIC RACER
ONTRACK C
Above: Angela Cragg enjoyed four strong rides on her Manx 250 including a brace of top four finishes in the classic 250 European and four-stroke twins class. Right: It was another great weekend for Dom Herbertson on the Davies Motorsport Honda K4 and Yamaha TX500. The ever cheerful North Easterner took the larger bike to three air-cooled 500 class wins and also leads the ACU PC 750 championship. He remained unbeaten all weekend on the K4 (pictured), including victory in the Classic ACU 350 class. Below: Will Loder in typically determined style on his rare and beautiful Greeves Oulton. The speed gun showed that it was consistently the fastest bike in the classic 350 classes.
80 ClassicRacer
ClassicRacer 81
CLASSIC RACER
ONTRACK
SPRING
HAS
SPRUNG!
We’ve needed this: finally, classic bike racing is tentatively happening around the globe – we were at not-so-sunny Scarborough!
F
or the first time since 2017, the Bob Smith Spring Cup was held at the legendary Scarborough road-race circuit of Oliver’s Mount. And while the number of spectators was restricted due to the ongoing Covid/social distancing measures, the bumper entry of ‘race-starved racers’ gave the enthusiastic ‘race-starved crowd’ a weekend of top class entertainment! But – of course – this is north eastern England and the omens were not good on the Friday as a torrential monsoon-like weather system swept over the picturesque seaside mountain course. Then the road-race gods smiled and apart from a damp track on Saturday morning and a few light showers on Sunday the weather played ball and spectacular action was seen in all classes. First an update: sadly there will only be two meetings at Scarborough this year, the Spring Cup and the Gold Cup which is being rescheduled for September 18/19. The reason is that Scarborough Borough Council has just conducted detailed inspections of their estate, which includes Oliver’s Mount. Their surveyors have found several serious issues with many of the elderly buildings at Oliver’s Mount that make it unsafe to hold meetings. So the Barry Sheene and Oliver’s Mount
82 ClassicRacer
Festival meetings have been cancelled whilst work is being done to demolish buildings and make safe other parts of the area. Whilst the aforementioned Barry Sheene meeting is the only one which has the traditional Classics classes, the ‘modern’ meetings all cater, with three races over the weekend, for Classic Superbikes, and with Post Classic two-strokes and four-stroke 400s included in the lightweight class. So, let’s enjoy some racing!
Classic Superbike
Number 44: Rob Hodson, Greenall’s Racing Kawasaki ZXR750 Rob went quicker and quicker as the weekend went on as relatively inexperienced at Oliver’s Mount with 4th place in qualifying, 4th in the first Classic Superbike race, on the middle step of the podium after the second race and top spot after a thrilling dice with David Bell to win by three-quarters of a second on the third and final Classic Superbike Race, and topping the points table with 58 points.
Words and photographs: Lenny Hartley
Number 42: Andy Hornby, RPS Triumph Trident On possibly the only original Classic Superbike in the field (and certainly to my ears the best sounding), the Richard Peckett Special T150 Trident which has won many championships over the years, was being run in preparation for the Barry Sheene meeting which subsequently has been cancelled. Despite being of a different era to the rest of the field, Andy managed to finish ahead of more modern Japanese bikes in the two races he competed. Number 59: Dave Hewson Obsession Engineering Kawasaki ZXR750 Dave is a real Scarborough stalwart and he had a busy weekend racing in three different classes. He felt he wasn’t on form however, but he did have a steady weekend and had some great dices with a 10th and a brace of 13th places.
Number 19: Dave Bell Yamaha OW-01 Yes, it was another solid showing from Dave as per usual: 3rd in qualifying on his first ride since October 2020 on his Graham Turnbull Yamaha. After racing in the feature Spring Cup Race in which he finished 8th against the modern bikes, his second Classic Superbike race was straight after, he led for four laps but an old right hand injury sustained at the 2007 North West meant that he could not hold on and did well to finish 4th. For the final race, which was cut to three laps due to delays earlier in the day, he led until Drury’s Hairpin on the last lap until Rob Hodson caught him off-guard and he finished 2nd to round off a successful weekend where he finished 2nd in the Classic Superbike Points table.
Number 1: Dean Harrison Silicone Engineering Kawasaki ZXR750 Quality once more from Dean: he was the fastest in qualifying, won the first race by over 10 seconds then in the second race he was fourth into first corner, made his way past Dave Bell to lead on lap five at Mere Hairpin and held a five second lead over Rob Hodson at the flag. Even though he did not start in the third race, this was another dominant display by the undisputed King of ‘this’ Mountain! Number 35: Dan Ingham Suzuki GSX-R750 One of the most spectacular riders to watch on the run down from Mountside Hairpin to Farm Bends, Daniel was happy with three top 10 places considering the quality of entry and machinery he was racing against.
ClassicRacer 83
CLASSIC RACER
ONTRACK
Ultra-Lightweights
Number 22:Tony Flinton Honda RS125 Evergreen Tony has been racing at the Mount for 40 years: he made his debut in 1981 on a 750 Suzuki, in the same heat as Wayne Gardener! He showed his experience taking fastest in class in qualifying and adding to that three class wins in the multi-class UltraLightweight races: three of his top 10 overall finishes beat a host of machines over five times the capacity of his little RS125 Honda!
84 ClassicRacer
Number 141: Marcus Tatchell Honda VFR400 This was a very impressive debut at Scarborough by Marcus on his Honda VFR400. Unfortunately he had electrical gremlins which caused his retirement in the first two races eventually traced to ‘water in the works’ after practice and qualifying. In the third race he started 21st on the grid, was 11th by end of first lap and finished P5 in class and P7 overall: that’s impressive!
Number 13: Lee Johnston Honda RS250 This was his first time on a twostroke at Scarborough, but he showed his class with a podium in his first race after qualifying 13th: a win on his second race with the only sub two-minute lap on an Ultra-Lightweight all weekend. Sadly, clutch issues meant a retirement in his third race. Number 119: Ian Stanford Honda RS250 Ian had clutch issues on his Honda RS250 in the first two races and retired from both. He started 23rd on the grid for his final race and got up to 10th overall and 3rd in class at the flag.
ClassicRacer 85
CLASSIC RACER
ONTRACK
Number 16: Mark Purslow Kawasaki ZXR400 Mark had some impressive rides on his Kawasaki ZXR400: he was fastest qualifier in class, plus he took two overall podiums with three class wins. Number 74: Joey Thompson Yamaha TZ250 Another impressive performance on the 250 TZ Yamaha with 2nd in qualifying missing out on pole by 0.285 sec. Joey scored a win on his last race, a 2nd in his first race but a retirement on the second lap of his second race.
86 ClassicRacer
ClassicRacer 87
CLASSIC RACER BACK IN THE DAY
k c Ba y a D BERTIE SIMMONDS SAYS: “Well, I figured I’d show you the sort of thing we are after this issue, but don’t worry – I’m not going to win anything and no, this isn’t vanity publishing! So, I only raced four times – and loved it! To be fair, this was at a time (2004) when I was ‘fast’, but that word is only comparative as I was actually slow when I thought I was fast! MiniTwins with Bemsee, and the experience was tremendous. I got as far up as 13th out of 35 and fourth in class; small daughter and impending freelance career stopped any thoughts of a full season. Maybe in my 60s I’ll have a proper go… As to the other pics, theTroy Bayliss shot was from a Silverstone track day in 1999. It was a Kawasaki Riders’ Club do andTroy was there to scout out the circuit, as I believe the BSB circus hadn’t been there before. I went out on track
88 ClassicRacer
Welcome to a new section called ‘Back in the Day’. We want to see your old photographs from way back when... They could be of you racing, or meeting your racing idol – or maybe just snaps you’ve taken at a race event from yesteryear. Be mindful of copyright, though! We hope to have a prize for the best from the next issue. Send them to: BSimmonds@mortons.co.uk
and was followed by a mystery man in ill-fitting leathers on a Kawasaki road bike. Roger Burnett asked: ‘Can he follow you for a few laps to get used to the track?’ Said rider was behind me for all of four corners before naffing off at some speed... it was Neil Hodgson. The final pic is of some bike dinner do with Steve Parrish. It was a scooter race around some tables and we were suitably inebriated. Being (even) larger than I am now and realising he had me beaten on two-wheeled talent, I simply barged him into a table of revellers and left him behind. Probably my best result ever!”
DEAN WHITE SAYS: “I know you’re soon to be doing a feature on the late, great Craig Jones and it made me realise just what a good era BSB Supersport was when he, Leon Camier and Cal Crutchlow were racing together in the mid-Noughties.”
VINCE CAMPBELL SAYS: “As you can see, I’m not much of a photographer and the Valentino Rossi shot (probably circa 2010, I think) was taken after a fair few drinks! But, well, it was a great day out at Donington Park! I was lucky enough to get into the pits for a MotoGP practice day and took a picture of Shinya Nakano with his paddock scooter – he was a lovely chap who was happy to chat to fans. As to the other picture, well, it was 2008 and the final race of the BSB calendar at Brands Hatch. Steve Brogan had dominated all year in the British Superstock 1000 class and won the championship. I think at that stage Honda had produced a ‘Brogie’ replica in yellow and white, as he’d been campaigning a CBR 1000 RR in the standard road bike colours up until then. I was a bit of a Brogie fan and wished I’d bought one!”
PETE SMITH SAYS: “I’ve always been a fan of bigTrev Nation since the early 1980s and (of course) through his famous Norton days. I found this shot in an old road race magazine and (I’m guessing) it’s been taken in Oxford, around/before the 1992 race season when he raced that Ducati 888.Years later, when he twirled spanners for the World Superbike Suzuki team, I always wondered how he could get such big hands into those little nooks and crannies!”
FRANK MACKINTOSH SAYS: “If anyone ever met Gus Scott over the years, you’ll know just what good value he was. He did a great job of riding and racing many different machines for magazines. I once saw him at Aberdare riding the beautiful AMDM BMW single. Chatting to Gus before or after any event would leave you in stitches – and his mate, the equally irrepressible Simon ‘Ronnie’ Smith! Surely we could do with a feature on Gus and the guys?The editor nabbed these pics, so thanks to Neil Morris and Clive Challinor!”
ClassicRacer 89
CLASSIC RACER SHOW US YOURS
Phil Hacker’s
Yamaha FJ1100 We want to see YOUR pride and joy race machine in the pages of Classic Racer EVERY issue. It doesn’t matter if you no longer race, or no longer race the bike anymore – share with us the specs, stories and memories of your time racing your favourite steed! Email your hi-res shots and words to: bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk. Let us know what you’ve done and how you’ve done it, and tell us about your favourite race, too! Bertie.
P
hil Hacker is a name well known in the world of racing and that of Yamaha’s FJ series of sports-tourer motorcycles. Yes, Phil’s skills built this amazing machine, which even he says “is the FJ Yamaha could and should have built!” So, let’s have a look at the spec. First off, if you need proof of the power available from this lump, this has seen 162bhp at 9750rpm on the dyno and it weighs just 196 kilos. It didn’t all start at that level, though… five years or so of hard graft got Phil a very powerful and reliable machine.
Internally, you’ve got Wiseco high compression pistons, and the head is skimmed and gas-flowed. Meanwhile, Cosworth camshafts provide more lift and duration to the bigger valves. A Dyna ignition kit and coils gives better ‘spark’, while twin K&N oval air-filters and an XJR1300 Akrapovic exhaust with a custommade link pipe let the motor breath more freely – and sound awesome! The motor breathes through 39mm Keihin flat-slides and the standard crank has been lightened and balanced, and a gearbox from an XJR1300 has been fitted. Its longer output
W ’ t amed up with SDoc manufactures some of the best bike cleaning kit in the business! Send in your pictures of your bikes and you could win an SDoc10 0 Chain Care Kit worth £50, which includes the new White Chain Spray 2.0 that offers four times more wear protect ion for chains and sprockets than the compet ition. Find out more at www.motohaus.com
shaft allows a straight chain line from the bike’s wider-set rear sprocket. With that much power, you also need control; Phil fitted a Barnett clutch spring conversion to replace the standard diaphragm arrangement, and this is actuated by a Brembo radial master cylinder. Con-rods are Carrillo so they can take the strain, and reliability is improved as a result. To this end, Phil enlarged the engine's internal oilways and added a 5mm spacer to the sump to carry another 500cc of oil. Added to this is an Earl’s 10-row oil cooler positioned in the fairing’s headlight aperture that keeps
One helluva ‘cut-and-shut’ superbike!
90 ClassicRacer
Agile for its size.
There's not much Phil doesn't know about FJs...
the engine temperature down. The bulky, standard fuel tank has been replaced by a bespoke 10-litre under-seat item, allowing the swift passage of air to cool the engine under a cut-down version of the original tank. Let’s talk about the chassis – how can you make the sports-touring FJ dance on the end of adhesion on a race track when she’s much happier on an autobahn two-up? First off, the standard frame has had its headstock cut and re-welded to steepen its angle by 2.5 degrees to a quicker-steering 26-degrees: no steering damper is fitted. Only the best is used for suspension: Öhlins
45mm fully adjustable inverted forks up front, while at the rear is a Penske shock that keeps the standard-spec swingarm in check. Wheels are by Dymag, originally intended for a Ducati 999 apparently, and are shod with 120/70-17 and 180/55-17 Metzeler slicks. Anchors for this special Yamaha are a pair of 320mm floating discs retarded by Brembo four-piston calipers with a Brembo radial master cylinder; Renthal bars and GSX-R footrests dictate a fairly upright riding position, but you can (and Phil has) leaned this baby over big time…
Some parts of the racer found their way onto a road FJ1200, which our sister magazine Classic Motorcycle Mechanics rode. This featured lighter 17in Ducati 999 wheels and wide Renthal bars, which increased the ‘chuckability’ factor and lighter handling of the big beast. With Öhlins and Penske suspension, and grippy Conti Attack 2 tyres, there was no problem riding hard in complete confidence. The Brembo brake setup provided staggering braking power using just one finger, too! This was a road-going FJ with some real attitude…
With all that power – little wonder it does this!
ClassicRacer 91
92 ClassicRacer
STAVROS THE PRANKS AND THE STORIES CONTINUE…
Next Issue #212 – on sale Octo ber
21!
JEAN FRANÇOIS BALDE BOOST BOYS GALLIC GO-GETTER!
25 YEARS ON FROM THAT BSB SHOWDOWN…
PLUSR:T,
// LINE A R E WHATEV O // D E T HAPPEN L // YOUR ETA ICONIC M CHINES AND RACE MA AND MUCH, S PICTURE MORE! MUCH
ROBERT HOLDEN KIWI SENSATION MILLAR EDDIE LAYCOCK IT’S TIME! The next issue of Classic Racer is on sale on October 21.The editor reserves the right to move things about a bit, depending on space available to bring you the best motorcycle racing features from across many decades! So don’t moan at him if something isn’t in the mag – instead, why not get a subscription? Check out page 22.
www.classicracer.com
ClassifiedGuide To advertise in Classic Racer please call Kieron on 01507 529413
BALANCING
CARBURETTOR
RESTORATION
DYNO SERVICES
www.classicracer.com
BRAKES
CAMSHAFTS
EXHAUSTS
94 ClassicRacer
PARTS
STICKERS & GRAPHICS
WHEELS AND TYRES
TRANSFERS & BADGES
www.classicracer.com TRAILERS
WELDING
ClassicRacer 95
96 ClassicRacer
ClassicRacer 97