Today in motorcycle history, March 5, 1976

 

  Steve McLaughlin wins the very first AMA Superbike Championship Series race held at Daytona International Speedway on March 5, 1976.

  McLaughlin won this historic event in a photo finish riding a Butler & Smith BMW R90S slipping past BMW teammate and eventual series champ Reg Pridmore by mere inches. 

  As impressive as McLaughlin’s racing career was, he is even better known for being one of the true visionaries in the history of the sport.  He was a driving force behind getting the AMA to grant national championship status to Superbike racing.  McLaughlin also later became known as the father of the World Superbike Championship, which launched in 1988.

  Born on September 13, 1948 in Pasadena, California, you could say racing was in his blood.  His grandfather was an early car racer and his father, John, also an AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame member, was a leading desert racer in Southern California who came to national acclaim by winning the Catalina Grand Prix in 1953.  The elder McLaughlin also helped form the American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM) roadracing organization.

   1976, BMW approached McLaughlin, (who had been racing ill-handling Kawasaki Z1s in Superbike Production for the previous couple of seasons), and asked him to ride a factory-backed Superbike.  It came as a big surprise that the conservative German company, then known for its touring machines, decided to enter the new roadracing series.  With a lot of engine work and chassis innovation by master builder Udo Gietl, combined with the riding of McLaughlin, Pridmore and Gary Fisher, BMW was successful from the start.

  "What the BMW lacked in horsepower to Japanese multi-cylinder machines it more than made up for in handling," McLaughlin explained years later. "I rode both and I can tell you those early Z1s were more than just a handful.  Those bikes would get into tremendous high-speed wobbles and it’s not a pleasurable experience to have handlebars shaken out of your hands at 125 mph. The BMWs presented unique challenges on their own, but were certainly more civilized."

 

  So much for loyalty and the "civilized bike",  McLaughlin returned in the 1977 season racing for Yoshimura, at first aboard Kawasakis, and later on the first of the famous Yoshimura Suzukis.  With Yoshimura, McLaughlin earned another important first, at Laguna Seca Raceway in 1977 he gave Suzuki its original AMA Superbike victory.

 

  Steve McLaughlin was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2004.

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Today in motorcycle history, March 4, 1941

  Malcolm Smith is born on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  Considered by many to be one of, if not the greatest off-road motorcyclist of all-time.

  Remember "On Any Sunday"?  Now close your eyes, listen closely and you can hear the theme song: On Any Sunday, stretching up, reaching high, leaving my Monday world behind…

  Okay, what scene plays across your internal movie screen?  Mert Lawwill broadsliding a Harley-Davidson XR-750 on the Mile?  Steve McQueen masquerading as Harvey Mushman at the Elsinore Grand Prix?  Freckle-faced Jeff Ward wheelying a Honda Z50?  There's a good chance it's Malcolm Smith blasting across Baja on a red-and-chrome Husqvarna?

  A liitle bit of history for you...at thirteen, Malcolm Smith purchased his first motor scooter, a Lambretta. At the time he was living close to the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest and would regularly explore the area on his scooter.  Being an ingenious bastard, Smith converted his scooter into an off road machine by screwing the used cleats from the local high school football team into the Lambretta's tires.

  Two years later he purchased his first real dirt bike, a 1949 500cc Matchless G9. Small for his age he had difficulty kick starting it and would often push the bike to the top of a hill in order to jump-start it.  Despite his difficulties getting the bike going, he took it to enter his first race.  In 1956 he entered a scrambles race in Riverside, California.  His only strategy was to hold the throttle wide open and figure shit out as the race went on.  His well-planned strategy lead to numerous crashes, but yet somehow Smith finished in second place.   It occurred to him on the way home from the race if he had utilized his normal riding technique which did not involve a lot of crashing, he probably could have won the event!

  By the time the sixties arrived his name had become one with Husqvarna. 

  Malcolm Smith won eight Gold Medals between 1966 and 1976 in the International Six Day Trial, the European cross-country event.

  He is also a six-time winner of the Baja 1000, three times on a motorcycle and three times in a car; a four time winner of the Baja 500; has twice won the Mint 400 in Nevada and the Roof of Africa Rallye; participated in the Paris Dakar Rally twice; and was the overall winner of the Atlas Rallye in the mountains of Morocco.

  Malcolm Smith was inducted into the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996 and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.

  His immense talent on two wheels earned him a starring role in Bruce Brown's classic motorcycle documentary, On Any Sunday, alongside his friends, Steve McQueen and AMA Grand National Champion Mert Lawwill.

  He has been leading specialty tours for the public since 1995.  His tours, Malcolm Smith Adventures, take motorcyclists on rides in North America, Mexico along the Baja 1000 route, New Zealand, South Africa, and South America.  If anyone wants to send me on one of these bike tours DO NOT hesitate to ask.

  I'll end this with an excerpt from Motorcyclist Magazine,  "...there were numerous contenders, but in the end, our quest to name a Motorcyclist of the Century was like that scene on Lake Chapala in On Any Sunday: Malcolm Smith, all alone out front, trailing a dust cloud behind him. And casting the longest shadow of any motorcyclist in history.

Malcolm Smith: Motorcyclist magazine's Motorcyclist of the Century!"

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Today in motorcycle history, March 1, 1959

  The race season kicks off in Daytona, Florida, with the Daytona 200 Lightweight Road Race at Samsula Airport.

  Harley-Davidson hopes to make it 6 years in a row.  Since the inaugaration of the AMA point-standing in 1954 Harley has reigned as champion.

  1958 was a particularly good year for Harley-Davidson Racing with Joe Leonard setting new records in the 200-Mile Beach-Road race with a time of 1 hour, 59 minutes, 11.3 seconds and in the 50-Mile 1-mile dirt track race in 34 minutes, 33 seconds and Carroll Resweber's blistering record in the 20-Mile 1-mile dirt track race of 14 minutes, 5.2 seconds.

  Fun in the sun.

Today in motorcycle racing, February 28, 2005

Mondial Supersport 200 circa 1955

 

Mondial 125cc OHC Racer circa 1953

 

Mondial, as we all knew and loved, breaths it's last breath.

 

   F-B Mondial  was produced in Bologna, Italy, between 1948 and 1979.  Mondial built some of the most advanced and successful Grand Prix road racers of the time, winning 5 World Championships.

  The "F.B." in the name stood for "Fratelli Boselli", after the owners, the Counts Boselli, a noble family from the Milan area.  The Mondial factory in Milan was much smaller than the large Moto Guzzi, Gilera or Benelli factories.    Mondial instead specialized in high-performance, small-displacement motorcycles with much of the production of each motorcycle being done by hand, which needless to say, kept output low, with production numbers typically ranging between only 1,000 and 2,000 units per year.

  In 1949, when MV Agusta decided to produce a 4-stroke motorcycle, they purchased a Mondial 4-stroke motorcycle to use as an example.  After the 1957 Grand Prix season, the major Italian motorcycle manufacturers including Gilera, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta and Mondial announced that they would pull out of Grand Prix competition citing increasing costs and diminishing sales.  MV Agusta later had a change of heart and wondered what the hell it was thinking and continued racing.

  In 1957, Soichiro Honda approached Mondial owner Count Boselli for purchase of a Mondial racebike, with which the firm had just won the 125 cc and 250 cc world titles.  Count Boselli gave Mr. Honda a racing Mondial; Honda used this bike as a standard to which he aspired, in order to compete on a world-scale.

  An original Mondial 125 cc racebike is the first bike on display when entering Honda’s Motegi Collection Hall.

  The last all-Mondial motorcycle left the factory in 1960.  After this, Mondial purchased engines from proprietary makers.  Motorcycles with Mondial frames and ancillary parts, but non-Mondial engines, were produced by the factory until 1979.

  Fast-forward to 1999.

  The rights to Mondial were purchased by newspaper tycoon Roberto Ziletti.  Ziletti was an avid motorcyclist in his youth, and his dream was to own a prestigious motorcycle company.  Mistake #1.

   Roberto Ziletti attempts to revive the marque, then Ziletti's father died, leaving him in charge.  Mistake #2.

  After failing to farm Mondial out to a Swiss company, the Arcore (Italy) factory was placed in the hands of the Monza bankruptcy court in July 2004, with around 35 Mondial Piega 1000s in various states of completion.  In interviews in March 2005 a south Georgia (USA) motorcycle dealership, stated that the courts had arranged to sell Mondial to their American firm, Superbike Racing, on February 28, 2005.  However, the Monza courts decided to sell Mondial Moto SPA to another buyer.

  Did you know that prior to World War II Mondial manufactured delivery tricycles.  Just thought I'd add that little morsel of knowledge. 

 

Today in motorcycle history, February 27, 1977

  Janet "The Flying Angel" Lee jumps over 34 motorcycles in Anthony, New Mexico, on February 27, 1977. 

 

  A native of Midland, Texas, Janet Lee started her stunt career in Texas after watching the "Deathriders" perform in the summer of 1973.  It was at their third show that she was hired by stuntman Billy Ward after he heard her volunteer to get in the box with Danny Reed, aka "Mr. TNT", to be blown up.  The first show she appeared in was June 22, 1973 doing precision driving.  Over the next few months she would be crashing cars, driving though dynamite, being a human battering ram, crashing through ice and even having a head-on crash with another female driver.

  The Flying Angel’s high-flying career crashed to the earth on June 25, 1977 during the ’77 Fiesta del Concho.  As the featured performer in the summer celebration, she tried to jump a motorcycle over the North Concho River (her third attempt in 2 years) in downtown San Angelo.

  She didn’t make it.

  The crash broke her elbow in three places (ouch), split her lip and gave Janet a concussion that knocked her silly.

  The crash, her second in 35 days, persuaded Janet to give up stunt riding.  It also persuaded Fiesta officials to quit paying riders to try to jump the Concho River.

  Then the 23 year-old Janet Lee decided to find a new career, she became a professional flagpole painter.

  “I painted flagpoles, radio towers, water towers in the southern and western parts of the country until 1994,” she told the San Angelo Standard-Times in 2007.

  Her tallest flagpole, you ask? A 95-footer in Safford, Ariz.

  From ’94 to ’98, she found a more down-to-earth career as a karate instructor in Fredericksburg, Texas.

  “I won’t say I’m brave,” said Janet, who now lives south of Los Angeles. “I just love to do something different.”

  Her latest adventures include annual trips to China and Tibet.

Today in motorcycle history, February 21, 1959

   On a cold, but beautiful Michigan winter day, Bart Markel weds the love of his life, JoAnn Overton. 

 

   Bartlett D. "Bart" Markel, was the godfather of flat-track racing in Flint, Michigan, and one of the greatest racers in American Motorcyclist Association history.

 

  A former U.S. Marine and two-time Gold Glove boxing champion, his aggressive riding style earned him the nicknames "Black Bart" and "Bad Bart".   According to the AMA, at one point, Markel was suspended from racing for his rough riding style.   Quoted on the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum Web site, Markel said he just "didn't like following anybody," and if they gave him an inch on the track, he took a foot.

 

 

  It was in the dirt, sliding motorcycles tire-to-tire around racetracks at high speed, where the Flint native left major national marks.

  Teamed with sponsor Bert Cummings of Cummings Harley-Davidson, Markel helped fire up a slew of famous Flint-area racers -including Jay Springsteen, Scott Parker and Randy Goss - in the gritty arena of flat-tracking.

  Markel, Springsteen, Parker and Goss collectively won 17 Grand National titles, according to the AMA.

  Bart competed in more than 140 AMA Grand National Series, winning the AMA Grand National Championship three times during the 1960s.

 

  Bart Markel was inducted in the AMA Hall of Fame in 1998.

Today in motorcycle history, February 20, 2005

 

 

  Hunter Stockton Thompson dies in Woody Creek, Colorado, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

 

  I think it's fair to say that he liked The Edge and things that would bring him to The Edge and nothing got him (physically) there faster than motorcycles.  And he had a long-time, passionate, often tumultuous, love affair with the 2-wheeled beast.  A65 BSA Lightning, Triumph T120 Bonneville, Ducati 900 Supersport,  numerous 1970's Honda 750 Supersport demo models (the salesmen are still shuddering), Harley-Davidson Softail, to name but a few.  Instead of boring you with useless information about his bikes I thought I would share a few of his motorcycle quips/quotes...

 

“But with the throttle screwed on there is only the barest margin and no room for mistakes. It has to be done right . . and thats when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that the fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get to your ears. The only sounds are the wind and the dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it . . . howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica . . . letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge . . . The Edge . . . ” – Hunter S. Thompson describing riding his BSA in '..Hells Angels'

  On riding his Vincent Black Shadow..."A genuinely hellish bike. Second gear peaks around 65 -- cruising speed on the freeways -- and third winds out somewhere between 95 and 100. I never got to fourth, which takes you up to 120 or so -- and after that you shift into fifth gear."

 

  "Cafe Racing is mainly a matter of taste. It is an atavistic mentality, a peculiar mix of low style, high speed, pure dumbness, and overweening commitment to the Cafe Life and all its dangerous pleasures... I am a Cafe Racer myself, on some days - and it is one of my finest addictions."   "I am not without scars on my brain and my body, but I can live with them. I still feel a shudder in my spine every time I see a picture of a Vincent Black Shadow, or when I walk into a public restroom and hear crippled men whispering about the terrifying Kawasaki Triple... I have visions of compound femur-fractures and large black men in white hospital suits holding me down on a gurney while a nurse called "Bess" sews the flaps of my scalp together with a stitching drill."

 "That is the Curse of Speed which has plagued me all my life. I am a slave to it. On my tombstone they will carve, "IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME."