7 replies to this topic

[brands77]

Can someone give some insight into how the tandem twin Kawasaki KR250s and KR350s were distributed between riders and countries in between 78 and 83.

 

I know that the US had some, which Eddie Lawson, Yvon Duhamel and others Kawasaki US team riders rode (Ron Grant?), I think the Americans were the first to get them as they ran the initial development programme. The Japanese ran Akiyo Kiyohara and Masahiro Wada in the World Champs and I presume at home too, the UK had Mick Grant and Barry Ditchburn on them and Kork Ballington's bikes, I think, were nominally run out of the UK, although how much he had to do with Kawasaki UK I don't know. Anton Mang ran his out of Germany, Jean Francois Balde and Jean Louis Guignabodet ran out of France and Greg Hansford out of Oz. I think these were all official works bikes, even if Mang's bikes weren't perhaps the same as the others due to Seppi Schogl's influence and the US team went their own way in developing their bikes.

 

Eddie Stollinger also ran Kawasakis for quite a while, but I don't know much about his bikes whether they were works bikes and if so who backed him, Kawasaki Austria? I am similarly lacking in knowledge about Pierre Luigi Conforti's bikes, was that a Kawasaki Italy effort? I know Herve Gullieux ran a KR250 in '83, which I guess was an old Kawasaki France bike and I think was a privateer effort.

 

I have also seen reports that some American privateers ran them and occasionally came across to Europe to compete on them. Sorry I've forgotten the names of these riders. So I wonder how and where did they get their hands on them because the other works bike, do not seem to have been released to privateer riders at all? Unless of course Stollinger, Conforti and Gullieux ran ex-works bikes. If so how did they manage to get hold of them and how was it that no British privateers ever run a KR, especially given that Kawasaki UK seem to have had quite a few bikes.

Edited by brands77, 03 February 2023 - 14:30.

[Robin127]

I think Christian Estrosi was also in French Kawasaki team in 1979.

[GregThomas]

The early 250's had to be "available to the public" in the US to be eligible for AMA racing. I suspect that it was only available to approved purchasers but anecdotally there seems to have been a few sold to genuine privateers. It was shortly after that when the AMA changed the numbers required for homologation and they became pretty much works supported riders only.

[brands77]

I hadn't realised that in the states they sold versions to privateers. I wonder how close they were to the machines the works team ran?

 

It would be interesting to know the background to Edi Stollinger and Pier Luigi Conforti, what their bikes were and who backed them. Stollinger was a regular top 10 finisher, but I don't think he ever got a top 3 finish. He seemed to go well at SIlverstone though and I to remember him finishing 4th once (1980?). It suggests his bikes had speed. I don't recall Conforti racing GPs much outside of Italy on a Kawasaki.

 

There was also a German Hans Hauf who is down in '82 as running a  Kawasaki and Fernando Cerdera finished in the points in round 1 Argentina of that year in the 250 race on a Kawasaki. I presume they were both riding KRs.

[tonyed]

As far as I know the 'works' 250/350s were run by Ballington and Hansford although Hansfords were run as an Australian team run by Neville Doyle as well on the 750 triple.

Hansford always seemed to enter the races he wanted I am not sure he did a whole GP season on the smaller Kwackers.

 

https://www.classicr...e-tandem-twins/

 

The European machines were run by national teams rather than directly from the factory.

 

Ditchburn and Grant were run by Stan Shenton who also ran them on the 750s and later 500s.

 

The 'foreign' European teams were also run by national dealer teams but Mang seemed to have the upper hand over most.

 

Later many more 'minor' runners seemed to acquire ex-factory machines.

 

The US team also seemed to be factory supported as this was a major market for Kawasaki.

 

After the two strokes the factory never produced another bike worth mentioning going down the diesel route to obscurity.

 

As far as I am aware no one seems to have produced a book documenting these years from a purely machine perspective.

Edited by tonyed, 06 February 2023 - 14:36.

[brands77]

I would be interested in finding out about Edi Stollinger's team, bike and about him. I am assuming that he ran out of Austria as their national team rider, but I wonder why Austria? Why did they have a national team, when there were other bigger bike markets that didn't have national teams? I can immediately think of the Netherlands and Scandinavia, there were some pretty handy Finns (Korhonen, Nurmi, Hyvarinen) riding in the 250s and 350s in those days, and even if the Spanish weren't the massive force they are now, there were a lot in the 125s who I am sure would have been pretty good on a 250 or 350.

 

Although Edi won a GP, it was the boycotted Belgian 250 GP in '79. He was a regular top 10 finisher, but other than the win, I think the best he managed was a 4th place (Donington, I remember, as I was there). I may be doing Edi a disrespect here, but it seems to me that he didn't get the results that the other Kawasaki "works" riders got. I know Mang's bikes were rocketships and team Kawasaki Uk and France were big teams with fairly big resources,  and although Austria had some pretty good tuners, notably, Harald Bartol , Hans Hummel and Michael Schaftleitner but they were still racing at the time and I don't think had any connection to Kawasaki. Edi's bikes seem to have been sponsored by Bosch.

Edited by brands77, 09 February 2023 - 19:45.

[Michael Ferner]

Edi Stöllinger was a bit before my time, really, but I recall he was an amateur, a teacher (?) by profession I think, who raced for the fun of it. It is my impression that Kawasaki delivered the bikes to the local importers, and didn't expect them to return to Japan, though it's not exactly clear to me if the importers were free to sell them - I do, however, very clearly recall reading at the time that Guilleux bought his bikes (ex-Baldé) from Serge Rosset "against Kawasaki's wishes" (obviously because Kawa had withdrawn from GP racing after '82), and the pundits wondering whether his GP win that year was also "against Kawasaki's wishes"!

 

If all the bikes stayed in Europe, that obviously opens a lot of possibilities for them to go around - that's twenty bikes in Germany alone, and the same for France, as both Mang and Baldé ran the full five years in green. Thus, I'm pretty confident that Stöllinger ran Mang's old equipment (Salzburg is only about two hours from Inning), and Estrosi/Guignabodet probably Baldé's previous bikes. After Stöllinger, Mang's bikes then probably went ot Herbert (not Hans) Hauf, and I recall reading that Gerhard Waibel once raced Hauf's spare bike in '82 or '83, so that's another one ticked off. Conforti is a bit more difficult to explain, but maybe he had connections to France or Germany, I don't know. And didn't Graeme McGregor race (ex-Hansford?) Kawas, too?

 

As for the US, Yvon du Hamel and Ron Pierce ran the Green Meanies in 1975 already, as I recently found out! Gary Nixon also seems to have taken a ride or two in 1976, so there was plenty of talent on hand. And I don't really know about the situation in the UK, maybe they were more sympathetic to "Kawasaki's wishes"?  

[Robin127]

And I don't really know about the situation in the UK, maybe they were more sympathetic to "Kawasaki's wishes"?  

If I'm not mistaken the first KR's in GP racing were Hansford under the official factory banner and Mick Grant and Barry Ditchburn supposedly also under the full factory banner but really run through the UK team.