15 replies to this topic

[JLM]

Dear,

i'm a fan of the team Yamaha international USA while the period 1972-1976. Since a long time, I'm looking for pics about the race "Daytona 200 in 1975" with the victory of Gene Romero, and some more like Ontario, Dallas, Laguna Seca while the AMA season and the Anglo-American match the same year.
It's very hard to find and I hope somebody could help me here.
I wait for answer.

Thank you very much to you all.

Best regards Didier

[picblanc]

Dear,

i'm a fan of the team Yamaha international USA while the period 1972-1976. Since a long time, I'm looking for pics about the race "Daytona 200 in 1975" with the victory of Gene Romero, and some more like Ontario, Dallas, Laguna Seca while the AMA season and the Anglo-American match the same year.
It's very hard to find and I hope somebody could help me here.
I wait for answer.

Thank you very much to you all.

Best regards Didier

Another good example of a question missed on the TNF forum
Hi Didier only got one of Kenny Roberts in 1976 on the Yamaha USA bike Trans Trophy, & a paddock pic from 1974.

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.
Kel Carruthers & Gene Romero 1974.

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.
Kenny in 1977?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

[Twin Window]

All the above pics taken at Brands if I'm not mistaken, Graham?

The paddock shot of Carruthers and Romero is a cracker - shame you were too polite to barge those two characters in front of you out of the way!

Whose bike would the red & white tank have belonged to? Steve Baker? (runs away down the shops...)

[picblanc]

All the above pics taken at Brands if I'm not mistaken, Graham?

The paddock shot of Carruthers and Romero is a cracker - shame you were too polite to barge those two characters in front of you out of the way!

Whose bike would the red & white tank have belonged to? Steve Baker? (runs away down the shops...)

Interesting that question, I think it probably belonged to Gary Fisher, who is bending down working on his bike on the left.

No not Steve Baker he first appeared in the USA team in 1975, this one is 1974.
1975 was the infamous snowed of Brands races, which I only found out having driven to Brands on that Good Friday morning!!

Edited by picblanc, 21 May 2009 - 20:28.

[philippe7]

Salut Denis, bienvenue sur ce forum !

A bit before Gene Romero joined Yamaha International, but since your request was about the 1972-1976 team, here are a few early pics to jog everybody's brain cells







All pictures courtesy of the Evans family archives

[philippe7]

....and a little memorabilia from the same year, to help with riders ID....

[Twin Window]

Great stickers, Philippe!

What do the letters 'Y' and 'R' denote?

[philippe7]

That's a very good question....that I don't know the answer to ! It seems that both Roberts and Pat Evans were not using the number on this sticker at Daytona anyway... so it may have been a provisory number.....but Lynggard did use 7 so.... I guess we'll have to call Mo Murray to the rescue, when I first posted the group picture a while ago he wrote that one of the mechanics in the pic still worked for Yamaha USA in the same premises as Mo , maybe he would know .

[MoMurray]

That's a very good question....that I don't know the answer to ! It seems that both Roberts and Pat Evans were not using the number on this sticker at Daytona anyway... so it may have been a provisory number.....but Lynggard did use 7 so.... I guess we'll have to call Mo Murray to the rescue, when I first posted the group picture a while ago he wrote that one of the mechanics in the pic still worked for Yamaha USA in the same premises as Mo , maybe he would know .

I will ask and see if I can find an answer for you. Said mechanic has now retired but I can find him.

Mo

[philippe7]

I will ask and see if I can find an answer for you. Said mechanic has now retired but I can find him.

Mo

Thanks Mo

Although Didier, who started this thread, seems to have vanished ( I must confess I didn't realise that he started it december 15th, 2008, and only got the first reply on may 22nd when his thread reappeared on the new forum .... ) this is an interesting topic, so why not move ahead to the year 1973 with this very easy WWW ?

[jeff sayle]

Thanks Mo

Although Didier, who started this thread, seems to have vanished ( I must confess I didn't realise that he started it december 15th, 2008, and only got the first reply on may 22nd when his thread reappeared on the new forum .... ) this is an interesting topic, so why not move ahead to the year 1973 with this very easy WWW ?

Yes turn one Daytona, Sarinen, Fisher, Pierce.
On a different note, i stayed with Kel Carruthers in 1976 and the No 10 bike was in his garage at home.Got to sit on it and at the time that was a big thrill, how this guy rode with the handle bars he had has got me beat. Very unusual.

[TZ350]

Yes turn one Daytona, Sarinen, Fisher, Pierce.
On a different note, i stayed with Kel Carruthers in 1976 and the No 10 bike was in his garage at home.Got to sit on it and at the time that was a big thrill, how this guy rode with the handle bars he had has got me beat. Very unusual.

You lucky devil Jeff ;) ! I actually got on quite well with the 'Saarinen' steeply inclined clip ons ( dont suppose anyone knows were I can source a replica pair?) perhaps because I am a six footer also on TZ's had to move the seat back as far as I could . Now I was always a lot more comfortable on the RG's sorry this is off topic folks!

[T54]

What do the letters 'Y' and 'R' denote?

I am pretty sure that my failing memory is correct, and this is how it went: a letter after a number was given by the AMA to racers on a national level to separate the ones with the same "local" number. Mine had always been "224" but for national races it was "224E" because there were others with the same number.
I hope that someone will correct me or complete the picture because I do not remember much anymore.
On another matter, I took a lot of pictures then, and better begin scanning them now...

Edited by T54, 30 May 2009 - 13:12.

[td1racer]

Here's some of King Kenny from that period, on the 250cc, which I'm lucky enough to have sitting in the conservatory !.....

Ontario 1974



Daytona 1974 KR & Don Castro



Laguna Seca 1975





Ontario 1976




Mallory Park 1000 bikes Festival July 2009

[philippe7]

Welcome to the forum , td1 racer

Lovely machine - do I understand properly that you are the actual owner/rider of the thing ? Looks like a 1974 version, which would make it a TZ "A" ( well, what I mean is the first 250 TZ .... I seem to remember the watercooled "customer" 350 came out in 73, and the 250 one year later ) ..... Could you tell us a bit more ?

[td1racer]

Thanks Philippe,
Yes that's me riding it... I'll try and add a couple more shots.
As you asked for some more history, here goes.... Yes, it was built for the 1974 season originally, making it an "A". It was tuned and modified by Kel Carruthers specifically for Roberts, as each of the US teams bike were "issued" to each rider and tuned accordingly (as Kel himself told me) pipes were by Bud Askland although they continually changed the design to match the tuning. It was first run with std TZ wheels & forks but as the season went on it was fitted with a YZR500 front end (OW19) and then a YZR250/350(OW17/16) rear wheel - magnesium drum. This is the bike Roberts first rode in a GP at Assen 1974, were he qualified in pole, then fell off battling Walter Villa for the lead, only to remount and come in 3rd.... Roberts was pretty much unbeaten on the bike in the US until November '74 were he came in second in a qualifier, but then won the main race. For 75 the frame and chassis was extensively modified to a) give the suspension more travel and b) put more weight/feel onto the front end. The rear frame tubes were repositioned, the seat kicked up and the S&W shock absorbers laid down and mounting points on the swinging arm pushed back. Roberts won most races in '75 but by then the new works Kawasaki of DuHamel had caught up on Kel's tuning of the 3 year old "A" model TZ....and reliability started to prove to be a problem. The bike was last raced by Roberts at Ontario in Jan 1976. It was later given to Jim Harris under a sponsorship deal. Harris was killed in a car race and subsequently the bike was returned to Yamaha, where Ken Clarke kept the bike along with this bikes previous stable mate, the TZ750 flat tracker.