Racers of the '80's

[Castrol Craig]

that last pic taken at the suzuka 8 hour?

[podman]

Brilliant pics, for those that have an interest in these, I can heartily recommend both the Transatlantic DVD's from Duke.

Ive loved watching Sheene,Roberrts,Gardner,Lawson,Schwantz,Rainey, Haslam etc battling it out again..

http://www.dukevideo.com/Bikes/DVD/Bike-GP/Events-...

[Tango13]

Castrol Craig said:

that last pic taken at the suzuka 8 hour?

If you mean the Graeme Crosby one, according to the photo source it was taken at Daytona back in 1980.

[Dare2Fail]

Anyone who is enjoying this thread should probably try and get hold of a copy of "An Age of Superheroes" by Mat Oxley. It's a fabulous coffee table book that documents in pictures 500cc GPs from '88-'93.

[Number 7]

Fast Freddie on the NS500 triple at the Silverstone GP August 1982. Note the finger hovering over the clutch, just in case....

The second 2 are I think are from the Powerbike International meeting at Brands Hatch in October 1983. First up is Rocket Ron on the NS500 triple (he was a factory Honda rider and team mate to Freddie Spencer at that point), followed by Franco Uncini on his 500 Suzuki GP bike. Almost the forgotten man, he was 500cc world champion in 1982, aboard a Suzuki. In those days it was common for GP riders (even factory ones) to compete outside of the GP arena. Both shots at Druids.
Copywrite: me.

Edited by Number 7 on Friday 5th November 09:01

[Chipchap]

Here's one of a hard riding Alastair Janczuk at Clubhouse corner at old Kyalami in 1981 aboard a home brewed GSX1100 Formula 1 Silhouette. Right behind him is Brett Hudson on a "works" Kawasaki Z1000 JR. Essentially a full blown Moriwaki 1105 with Moriwaki hand bet exhaust which Harris later copied.

Alastair is scratchin. Note the no knee sliders !!!

[snowy slopes]

Was it franco uncini that gardner nearly decapitated at assen one year??? Remember watching that and seeing whoever it was crawl across the track right into gardners path, leaving him nowhere to go. Guy on floor did a fair impression of a spinning top, lost his helmet in the crash and spent a while hooked up to life support, and the only reason gardner raced the next day was because roger marshall talked him into it, he was so i beleive a blubbering wreck after the accident

[s3fella]

snowy slopes said:

Was it franco uncini that gardner nearly decapitated at assen one year??? Remember watching that and seeing whoever it was crawl across the track right into gardners path, leaving him nowhere to go. Guy on floor did a fair impression of a spinning top, lost his helmet in the crash and spent a while hooked up to life support, and the only reason gardner raced the next day was because roger marshall talked him into it, he was so i beleive a blubbering wreck after the accident

Yes, 1983 IIRC. An horrendous incident. I remember seeing Gardener emerge from a ditch where he'd ended up and Uncini was still out sparko, helmetless on the tarmac! scary

[Yoda.]

Number 7 said:

Fast Freddie on the NS500...

Ah yes. he da man, he da man!
I can (just) remember my first bike race. It was the Transatlantic Trophy at Brands in 1980/1. Back then I think there were 3 or 4 races over the day with about an hour & a half between each...There were no 'support' races back then IIRC. So it was a relatively long day.
Freddie was my hero of that era. I only saw a little on TV really & had no idea of any racing technicalities, but for me to win both the 250's & 500's in one season was (and I guess still is) some feat! He must've been physically & mentally phuckt after each meeting.

[snowy slopes]

s3fella said:

snowy slopes said:

Was it franco uncini that gardner nearly decapitated at assen one year??? Remember watching that and seeing whoever it was crawl across the track right into gardners path, leaving him nowhere to go. Guy on floor did a fair impression of a spinning top, lost his helmet in the crash and spent a while hooked up to life support, and the only reason gardner raced the next day was because roger marshall talked him into it, he was so i beleive a blubbering wreck after the accident

Yes, 1983 IIRC. An horrendous incident. I remember seeing Gardener emerge from a ditch where he'd ended up and Uncini was still out sparko, helmetless on the tarmac! scary

Yep, that was by far the worst one in gp's i had seen until poor daijira kato's accident.

[4sure]

Chipchap said:

Here's one of a hard riding Alastair Janczuk at Clubhouse corner at old Kyalami in 1981 aboard a home brewed GSX1100 Formula 1 Silhouette. Right behind him is Brett Hudson on a "works" Kawasaki Z1000 JR. Essentially a full blown Moriwaki 1105 with Moriwaki hand bet exhaust which Harris later copied.

Alastair is scratchin. Note the no knee sliders !!!

great pic

[Number 7]

No excuses needed for another shot of Mr. Sheene, my all time bike racing hero, ths time at Cadwell Park in April 1982, in the MCN Superbike race (a real mixture of 2 and 4 strokes, anything from 351cc to 1,300cc) aboard the TZ750 Yamaha (2 stroke for those who don’t know). He used this meeting as a warm up for the Transatlantic Trophy races. As an aside, I remember reading in the mid-70’s in Superbike magazine that some loony had actually taken a TZ750 racer and made it road legal, and it was absolutely mental. I might have the magazine somewhere.

Copywrite: me.

Edited by Number 7 on Monday 8th November 14:07

[snowy slopes]

Number 7 said:

No excuses needed for another shot of Mr. Sheene, my all time bike racing hero, ths time at Cadwell Park in April 1982, in the MCN Superbike race (a real mixture of 2 and 4 strokes, anything from 351cc to 1,300cc) aboard the TZ750 Yamaha (2 stroke for those who don’t know). He used this meeting as a warm up for the Transatlantic Trophy races. As an aside, I remember reading in the mid-70’s in Superbike magazine that some loony had actually taken a TZ750 racer and made it road legal, and it was absolutely mental. I might have the magazine somewhere.

Copywrite: me.

Edited by Number 7 on Monday 8th November 14:07

I remember that, he had one of those generic square 70's custom bike headlights on the front fairing, and IIRC it was a green colour. Think they found it at the tt one year, and as was the fashion at the time, the owner had a pair of those motocross style boots with the metal plate on the front. Back then it was seen as mental, whereas now, i wouldn't mind a go on that

[podman]

Heres a pic of a certain Mr Mamola, sitting on another NS triple..My old NS400..

[Jake.]

Thanks for all the great old pic. Some real blasts from the past!

s3fella said:

Got Heuwan and A C too! Used to go to watch nearly all these races as a kid, the transactlantic match races were great. And the Pro Am was brilliant too, proper carnage stuff. And who remembers the "Wrangler" sponsered bike that was given to the guest rider? (Love to see some pics of that!)

Not only do I remember it, I used to have a 350LC done up in the full Wrangler paint scheme. Not some cheapo bad copy, it was done by Dream Machine (are they still going?) and tuned by Stan Stephens (Still going?). What a great bike that was :sigh: Sadly I have no photos of said bike.

Me and my mates all had LC's when we were 18-20 years old and we used to often go up to Brands to to see the LC racing series (I forget the proper title of the series). We used to consider the trip from the Isle Of Wight to Brands and back a major outing in those days.
It seemed so cool to see the actual bikes we rode racing in a proper dedicated series.

[Benni]

Hi Podman,
when was this happening, what was Mr. Mamola doing at SPR
and what was your excuse for being in pre-start area ?

[Number 7]

snowy slopes said:

I remember that, he had one of those generic square 70's custom bike headlights on the front fairing, and IIRC it was a green colour. Think they found it at the tt one year, and as was the fashion at the time, the owner had a pair of those motocross style boots with the metal plate on the front. Back then it was seen as mental, whereas now, i wouldn't mind a go on that

That's it - IIRC it had something like "the dogs bks" painted across the tank!

[Number 7]

Found it! Maybe not PC, but remember this was 1981. Unfortunately, the centre spread, featuring a very tasteful shot of said modelle will not fit on my scanner.

[bob1179]

Why don't they do spreads like that anymore?

Topless birds and lots of manly testosterone.

[Biker's Nemesis]

Fried eggs spring to mind.

Runny Ones at that.