how did Stavros get on at Goodwood?
he was up against Fast Freddie and Lutonboy amongst others

Night night!!

Oh yes Barry Coleman, ta Stu.

more more thanks Mr Fu

It was Barry who claimed a tearoff brought him down in Spain. Trouble was, Barry, quite rightly I think, saw the opportunity he was given as something he had to sieze with both hands, and that if he messed up he wouldn´t get another shot at the GP´s, certainly not on a machine as competitive as the Kawa. As a result, he put way too much pressure on himself which resulted in him throwing the bike at the scenery with monotonous regularity.
It was a great pity, because he had the speed, qualifying on pole at both Spain and Paul Richard if I remember correctly, and leading both GP´s until he binned the bike.
Had he taken a more cautious approach, things might have turned out very differently for him. But that´s life I guess. :\

Toni Mang, Silverstone 1977

Do you also have a picture of him on his 500cc Suzuki at this GP ?

Hi friends, away from home since a week and checking out from a borrowed computer

Rhodie, your memories above are globally OK as far as I know, I would just add two little things : the first one that I'm sure of, it's not Kiyohara who fell and hurt himself at Opatija , but Masahiro Wada who had ben sent over from Japan to replace him . At that time the japanese factories often sent their home riders to europe in turn for a couple of races as a sort of reward, without aiming at a full year championship/point scoring . The second thing now : I'm not sure Mick Grant started the 77 season alongside Ditch, I think in the first races the Kawasakis were entrusted to Ditch , Kyohara and a "guest rider" , Schweiger in Germany, Baldé in Italy ..... Grant may have joined at the french GP, but I think it may be more likely that he did so at Assen, when the injured Wada's machine became available, and he won first time out .

Incidentally , it seems Ditch came third at Assen, i didn't remember that....

http://racingmemo.free.fr/MOTO-GP-classements_77-250.htm

Right, this is probably at the Lohéac museum . The "Elf X "is the original Elf prototype, 750 TZ engined, that Michel Rougerie started to develop, but never actually raced with . The "Elf E " is the later , and fully operational , honda RSC - engined endurance racer , that worked well and did feature well in the world endurance races, ridden by Walter Villa and Christian le Liard . It is worthy to note that this was the only "twin horizontal triangular swing arm" version of the Elf that really worked , when Elf went to GP racing with Ron Haslam they gave up on the concept which was too difficult to set up and designed a different, less revolutionary front end that worked better for the 500cc Elf-3 and Elf-4 , with one horizontal arm and one "vertical" one . The "twin triangular" GP racer , the Elf-2 , was only raced once I think, at the 1985 french GP by Le Liard , instead of his usual 500 RS Honda , and more as a "media" event than anything else ;

OK, I'm not sure my technical blurb is understandable, so a few good pics of Manfred's, better than a thousand words ....

The Elf-2
http://www.highsider.com/textlager/france_...liard_85_05.htm

The Elf-3 :
http://www.highsider.com/textlager/uk_text...aslam_86_01.htm

The Elf-4 :
http://www.highsider.com/textlager/uk_text...aslam_88_03.htm

Here's the entry list for the 250cc GP in Hockenheim 1977 - Mick Grant is not in the list while you find Kiyohara and Ditchburn

Thanks for that Philippe. You are jogging the old memory. Like me, I think you also are only partly right.
On your first point regarding Wada/ Kiyohara you are spot on. I forgot about him being replaced. Wada was a wild one, and it certainly was him.
On your second point, I know for a fact Mick contested Paul Ricard. He retired with a broken chain while lying 2nd behind the eventual winner Jon Ekerold (just looked that up in an old MCN, so I can´t claim an elephant type memory. ).
One particular ride that I remember with regards Kiyohara was the 250 German GP at Hockenheim. He was simply running away with it until a rain shower midway through the race, and Christian Sarron came from nowhere to pip him on the final lap, and score his first GP victory. It was the most amazing display of wet weather riding I´ve ever seen in my life, and poor old Kiyohara, like everyone else, didn´t stand a chance.

Edit to add: Just seen the entry list now for Hockenheim which, if I recall correctly, was the second GP of the year. It was followed by Italy (Imola) won by Unccini, Spain (Jarama) won by Katayama, and then France (Paul Ricard), so he might have missed the first 4.

Edit again: Oddly, Sarron is not listed in the entry list.

Hi Stefan correct, Toni Mang, no picture on the 500 though.

Andrea is the driving force behind 'Riders for Health' which is based in Daventry, Northants, about 10mins from where I am living at the moment; and what a fantastic job they do
Regarding the 250 Kawasaki. I was working for the GP team during 1975, and when we first received the bikes they vibrated so much that a frame broke whilst warming one up in the paddock at Spa , if I remember rightly. It turned out that the designers thought that they would achieve the correct balance by running the engine in a one up one down configuration. However ,with twin cranks rotating in opposite directions the ideal balance is achieved with both pistons rising and falling together. How they made such an elementary mistake was never successfully explained. Once corrected the rest, as they say, is history.
As far as the relationship between Mick and Barry was concerned, it really did get difficult at times, with bikes being unloaded and worked on on different sides of the transporter! Barry was convinced that Mick was getting the best parts which to the best of my knowledge was totally untrue. Mick had a very professional approach to his racing which was not always apparent in Barry, but what was obvious was Stan Shenton's (the then team manager) bias toward Barry. All in all not very satisfactory. I have to say that of the riders I have worked with over the years Mick was an absolute joy to work with

Morning Rod, you remember these things , but anyone know WWW?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

More about this season here:

http://www.raisport.mondomoto.rai.it/risul.../250/1977.shtml

This might help?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Trimby?

I've one , but at the Germany GP start..And a little WWW

Where is Mang ? Is he the rider hidden behind Virginio Ferrari (#52) ?

And the obvious ones:

#7 Sheene
#16 Parrish
#1 Agostini
#2 Baker
#3 Hennen
#6 Coulon
#45 Hartog
#12 Rougerie

Strange start by Sheene - it looks as if he is to be thrown over the handlebars...

Loved the old way of mounting, al la Sheene in that pick. Climbing over, rather than leaping aboard.

Is that Borjie Nielson with the yellow and black hat behind #8?

#49 Anton Mang
#8 Jack Findlay

And I was looking for something green - but you are right, Mang is #49 !

#18 Helmut Kassner
#53 Marco Luchinelli ?
#35 Lars Johannson

#52 Virginio Ferrari
#58 Boet van Dulmen

Hi Rhodie,

Yes, that is Børge Nielsen behind # 8.

Cheers,
Leif

Martin Lawrence & Honda 125, Brands Hatch.

Apologies for my misspelling of Borge name (I have to misspell it again as I don´t have an o with a line on my keyboard )
Leif, are you and Borge related? I didn´t know him that well, but he seemed a really nice guy. What is he doing these days? Do you know?

Hi,

We are not related, Nielsen is just one of the most commend surnames in Denmark. I have not seen him for a few years, but I know that he still lives n Copenhagen and is getting close to retirement age…

I am going to UK this week, and planning to meet up with Alistair Taylor for a few drinks, maybe you remember he used to work for Harald Bartol, and then later for Kenny Roberts/ Lucky Strike, I will try and get him to join this Forum, he’s got many a story to tell…

Leif

PS! The Danish alphabet is interesting, we have 3 extra letters Æ Ø and Å..

Many good answers...Except #53, an italian...Bonera and Lucchinelli are behin Rougerie..Anton Mang is in red like on the 125 Graham's pic...

Armando Toracca with 53 ? Tepi Lansivuori in the background on the left of Hennen . John Newbold's helmet to the left of Baker .....

Oh and by the way..... where is Stu ? ( he finished 11th in that race, according to RaiSport... )

Who is this World-Champion ?

Correct I was looking for that picture with the straw in his visor!! and could not find it!!, you had it all the time!!

Regarding the entry list for the 250 Grand Prix : a while ago we discussed the rumour that Dieter Braun was supposed to ride a Kawasaki in 1977 , without reaching a definitive answer . I think that entry list pretty well solves the mistery : Braun was indeed entered on a Kawasaki for the german grand prix, but of course he never took part in that event since he was in hospital following his accident on his 350 Yamaha at the previous, tragic, Austrian GP .....and Hans Schweiger , who was listed on a Yamaha, ended up with the official Kawasaki ride for that race . As I wrote before Jean-François Baldé , who was normally riding a hopelessly uncompetitive '75 vintage KR lent by the french importer ( he called that bike "my vibrator" , to confirm what Yendor wrote ! ) , was entrusted with the same '77 model for Italy , and then it looks like Mick Grant took over permanently at the french ..... so it all fits pretty well together I think.

This was going to be a WWW?...I don't think I will bother now!!

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Gérard Coudray ????

Amanda Tarocco?


Fools leap in where angels fear to tread .
Just seen Philippe´s answer, so I´ve probably been pipped at the post, once again. I really should check the balance of posts before I rush to prove what a fart smella I am.

Back to Antonys race start pic, it looks like John Weeden between Baker and Ago?

Never heared of her!! or did she have a brother Armando Torraca?

It´s the whiskey.

Non,non,non !!!

Qualified at the middle of the 3rd row...beside Hartog

Just behind Boet under the chequered flag, Boet strugled with a bad handling machine, so he always said when Wil finished in front of him.

the marvellous E. Vargiolu's pic ofthe end of M. Rougerie's race

Hi Fu,

Very good picture of Børge, pretty sure its from 1978, that year he used a different fairing and seat made in Szwitzerland I belive.
I have a picture same year from Nurnbergring Germany, its from the 350 starting grid and Kenny Blake is next to Børge, I will try and scan it later but the quality is bad so I dont know if it will work ok?

Leif

Well spotted Graham I missed that

Alain Michel the later sidecar hero.

Give it a go anyway Leif! its 1977 for this one though.

Alain Michel Gerard Lecore 1977.



Both Photos Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.


Love the sidecars!!

so,am i the only ohne here to have raced against a *female*(no mike duff dosent count )
by the way just read on the tt site that she has hung up her leathers for good after a bad off at a classic demo? at spa.

So do I Mr Fu

For Mr. Fu

In the 70's in Australia there were several women racers, one of which, Peggy Hyde, was really quick on a 500 Kawasaki tripple production bike ( did anyone ever ride one of those early tripples- Jesus. ). At one circuit they had a womens only race, 'The Powder Puff Derby'. Wouldnt get away with that now.