Archive stuff

[rocketonarail]

Silver Jubilee results refer to this meeting at Cadwell. Not the best pictures but it's good to place them

It`s nice to see pics in colour for a change ....... MCN and MCW reports were nearly always in black and white ........

 

[rocketonarail]

View attachment 69793


1978 Formula One TT ....... Mike Hailwood wins after making up the time advantage on Phil Read`s Honda , and just sitting there until the Honda went bang as a result of Phil`s efforts to stay in front ....... The Ducati displays better timing by going bang just as it crosses the finishing line ......

Three Laverda triples finish within 3 minutes of each other ...... also in front of Dennis Trollop on a 500 cc Yamaha , and P . Davies ( our Pete Davies ? ) , on a Ducati .......

Found it ...... 26 th place by the look of it ....... still ahead of Neil Tuxworth ....... ! .......

 

[APD at113]

1979 Mallory Park. PK, Mick Hunt, and Jon Parks doing the business on the Sunday so Slaters can do the selling on the Monday.
2 wins for PK that day (but the RDs were about to get a lot faster and ended up winning the 500 championship that year)

 

[Andy J]

Definitely a hard job by then to keep up with the opposition, but Lennart was a hard rider like PK and was deserving of his podium place.
I also note the article mentions Honda team boss Barry Symmonds, who passed away earlier this year aged 79.

1981 and the Jota is feeling it's age on the track (and lack of Cc's) in the new Streetbike series.
The Hondas were unbeaten all year but Lennart Backstrom came close on PKs Cropredy Jota.
Probably the last top 3 result for a jota at a big UK meeting

 

[Andy J]

Much appreciated. Now prepare to be bombarded with 1970s racing trivia ;-)
The 78 TT, PK was definitely on a Jota. That was his first ever TT race. He overcooked it on lap 5 (of 6) at Brandywell, took out a load of marker posts, wiping out his gear lever and foot rest (and sending marshalls running in fear of their lives). He should have retired but was determined to finish so limped around for the last lap and a bit, doing his best to hide the missing parts to avoid being black flagged. Unfortunately I don't know what position he was in at the end of lap 4 but by the end of the race he had dropped back significantly (27th from memory)
Here's the bike (complete with the famous enlarged tank) at the garages of the Majestic hotel, Onchan Head, 1978. The Suzuki GB team had the garage next door - a bad year for them with Pat Hennen's career ending crash

Further evidence of how tough a rider your dad was Adam.
And as an aside Pat Hennen also kicked the bucket this year, aged 70. I think his crash was at BishopCourt that ended his career. Nasty bang to the head. He was invited back to do a parade lap, might have been at the centenary event, and was lucky not to have another...

 

[APD at113]

Posts # 351 and # 255 are reports of PK teamed up with Augusto Brettoni winning the 500 cc class of the 1978 and 1979 Barcelona 24 hr race respectively

Hopefully not boring people too much but here's another little write up that starts with the Barcelona races and ends in a mexican desert!
I'm sure many on here know most of this stuff already but hopefully this joins up a few dots.

The factory 500 racer that PK described as his favourite Laverda ever.
This took 1st in class at the Barcelona 24 hour race in both 1978 (under number 33) and in 1979 (number 41). Both years ridden by PK and Augusto Brettoni.
The Laverda factory put out 2 500s in each event, with the other bike placing 2nd in class both years.
In 1988 the winning bike, then owned by Roger Slater, came out of retirement (as did PK) for a final Davies/Slater partnership. This saw the bike do a point to point race across the Mexican Baja peninsula on (theoretically closed) public roads.
After a delayed start due to a truck driver not getting the "roads closed" memo, the race got underway.
During the race PK encountered a variety of other vehicles that clearly hadn't got the memo either; 7 cars, 1 truck, a school bus, and 1 tractor towing a huge trailer, plus 3 cars he overtook heading the same way as him!
If the whole thing sounds a bit like the Cannonball Run movie, you're on the right lines. Tales of bribing police officers, and teenagers writing off daddy's Porsche 911 are all part of the official story! Not to mention having the bike in the motel room with them the night before the race due the the rather suspect area they were staying in.
Back to the race, and as you would expect with Roger prepping the bike and PK riding, the result was 1st in class. The average speed for the c120 miles was 101.6mph. That said, if they hadn't stopped for the "mandatory" pitstop mid race (that the other front runners seemed rather lax about) they would have certainly placed higher than the 7th overall.
The success at Barcelona gave rise to the iconic road going Montjuic, named after the park where the races were held.
The bike has also had numerous replacas based on it, and you can still see (and hear!) these competing at classic events around the UK.

 

[APD at113]

The Mexico race. They really did sleep next to the bike

 

[Andy J]

Interesting that in 1978 the factory was running with a fairing similar to the later Mk2 Monty, which wasn’t introduced until the 1980’s. I assume it’s a Motosplat fairing, although it differs to the one I had on my Avon Bikes built 350, which had a round headlight.
It also looks like the exhaust is fairly bespoke as it appears to differ to the Series one and two F500 exhaust, particularly in the collector box area.
Although it is difficult to tell from the photos of the bike used for the Mexican race, the exhaust looks different again, more like the exhaust that was fitted to Slaters/Avon bikes Series one F500, which had stubbier ‘silencers’ fitted.

 

[APD at113]

Interesting that in 1978 the factory was running with a fairing similar to the later Mk2 Monty, which wasn’t introduced until the 1980’s. I assume it’s a Motosplat fairing, although it differs to the one I had on my Avon Bikes built 350, which had a round headlight.
It also looks like the exhaust is fairly bespoke as it appears to differ to the Series one and two F500 exhaust, particularly in the collector box area.
Although it is difficult to tell from the photos of the bike used for the Mexican race, the exhaust looks different again, more like the exhaust that was fitted to Slaters/Avon bikes Series one F500, which had stubbier ‘silencers’ fitted.

I don't have much info but it is definitely the same bike for all 3 races. Clearly work was done between 78 and 79 but when Roger wheeled it out of his "turkey shed" in 1988, it still had the squashed flies from the 1979 race! From memory, other than servicables, the only change for Mexico was to replace the back wheel (I think the lightweight factory rim was damaged)
In terms of similarities to the other 500s, all I know is PK said this one was head and shoulders above the others he raced. He wished he could have taken it to the isle of man

 

[Andy J]

If your dad could take a few photos of the exhaust and send them to you to post that would perhaps show any differences and would be great to see.

 

[Andy J]

1974 Silverstone "Grand Prix" meeting, production race.
PK on Slater's Laverda SFC750, ahead of Roger Corbett on a Triumph.

Is that the bike Percy Tait tried to race at the TT but came to grief at the Jubilee Oak roundabout in Braddan?

 

[APD at113]

If your dad could take a few photos of the exhaust and send them to you to post that would perhaps show any differences and would be great to see.

Unfortunately the bike is long gone. Roger sold it several years after the Mexico race. The last I could trace was a private collector taking it to a NA ILOC meeting about 15 years ago. It's been off the radar since.
I have attached the rest of the Mexico pictures but doubt these will help much re the exhaust

 

[APD at113]

Is that the bike Percy Tait tried to race at the TT but came to grief at the Jubilee Oak roundabout in Braddan?

Quite possibly but I don't know anything about the Percy Tait ride. The bike is almost certainly "leaping Lena". I matched registration plates from PK racing pictures in 1973 against the same bike when it sold at auction. I imagine Roger Slater would have run the same one for a few years (I have evidence of the early triples being run for at least 2 seasons)

 

[APD at113]

Yet more Slater Bros. advertising

A bit more info related to that pic.
If you Google "the day I beat slippery Sam" there is a great write up from the winner's perspective

 

[APD at113]

While we are in the subject of Silverstone "grand Prix" meetings, here's some PK stuff from 1976. Another 3rd place (after the "bandit BMW" was excluded)

 

[APD at113]

1977 Silverstone "grand Prix"
No production race but the Jota is out with the new F1 class
Mixing it with the works honda but then it all went wrong

 

[APD at113]

Last one for today.
1977 Transatlantic Match Races at Brands Hatch.
PK on his way to 1st place in the production race.
2nd place was David Railton on PK's 1975/76 3CE (not David's favourite!)

Photo - Graham/Kim Etheridge

 

[rocketonarail]

1977 Silverstone "grand Prix"
No production race but the Jota is out with the new F1 class
Mixing it with the works honda but then it all went wrong

Nice to see PK lined up next to Ron Haslam and Malcolm Lucas on the Bee Bee Racing BSA triple ......

I believe the Bee Bee bike was the ex John Cooper Ontario race winner , when Cooper took the BSA to over 9000 rpm to pip Kel Carruthers`s 350 Don Vesco tuned Yamaha at the line in the second leg , to claim the overall win .......

Bob Bailey " claimed " the BSA after the race under AMA rules , but BSA / Triumph race chief Doug Hele had a word with Bailey .... ( the AMA officials were apparently all for letting Bailey have the bike ) ....... and he persuaded Bailey that the BSA had so many otherwise unobtainable parts .... ( and was also probably shagged out after the race ) ........ that he would be better off with something else instead , and he would supply Bailey with another works engine in it`s place ..... I think Tony Jefferies works Trident was eventually shipped out to the USA for Bailey to use ........ ( Another bike was found for Jefferies ) .....

Hele later said he thought Bailey would be difficult to bargain with regarding his claim , but in the end found him quite affable to deal with ......

 

[piranha-bro2]

Some fantastic racing history in detail on this thread! Not hard to see why Laverda triples in the UK were huge ... and other models negligible. That Mexico post-race pic shows a bunch of very happy punters. Your dad was a tough cookie - recovering from injuries like broken ribs can't have been fun.

 

[rocketonarail]

Shame that bikes like the TT / Mexican 500 or " Leaping Lena " get sold on and disappear from view , hopefully they are safe and sound somewhere ..........

Regarding the Slater SFC`s ......... Leaping Lena appears to be an early " headlamp rim " model ...... There is a brief glimpse of it on a Triumph 99.99 mph TT promo video I have , being pushed into the pits by RS ( maybe ) , after it`s frame cracked ( according to the commentary ) ..... 1971 I think ....... I`ll have to look at it again to be sure .......

The Silverstone 1974 SFC ( #790 ) appears to be the `74 disc / points SFC that MCW journalist John Nutting rode back from the factory at Breganze to Slaters at Collington , and was later crashed at the TT .......... This was RCJ 79M I think , there is a story about the trip back from the factory on here somewhere , and also a news clip about Nutting being " almost reduced to tears " , ( slightly tongue in cheek I think ) , when he heard about the bike he had ridden halfway across Europe being crashed / written off / bounced down the road , after all his efforts to " deliver " the bike safely to Slaters .......

As I said , all this is on here somewhere ...... I`ll look it up tomorrow to reveal the post references ..........


PS ..... I seem to half recall a story about Percy Tait being due to ride a Laverda ( SFC , or maybe triple , I`m not sure ) at the TT ...... but then changing his mind ..........


Also , in an filmed interview , Percy was describing his win on the Trident at the `71 Bol d`Or , and in his words ......

.... " Laverda really wanted to win this one .......... We would let one of them pull alongside on the straights , and then we would open the throttle and accelerate away ........ They would try to do the same , and then BANG ! ........ that`s another one gone ! ..... ( grins ..... ) ........

Cheeky bugger ! ................ ( and he also seemed to have forgotten that the Brettoni / Angiolini works SFC finished in second place , just seven laps behind him and Ray Pickrell ...... See Cool Videos # 2465 ) ....... but he was a good guy , so we`ll let him off ........ ..........