Laverda racing in England and Oz

A good rider on a fast (and reliable) bike, and doesn?t fall off often, is always going to be up near the front and have the chance to win races/championships compared to any other combination. That?s what you had with the Laverdas competing in the UK in the mid to late 70?s, and to a lesser degree, early 80?s. It was the same in the IOM, Neil Kelly, bought a Laverda triple and guys who raced against him back in the day still talk about how he left them for dead in a straight line.
As for anything in life, it?s often down to good timing. The Laverda triples and 500 twins arrived on the scene in the UK at the right time to be competitive in Proddy racing, albeit for a short period.
However, I have to agree with the comments about cheating, there were definitely no shortage of individuals and teams willing to chance their luck with rule bending/breaking, as they all wanted to win. Quite often the justification for doing so was, as everyone else is doing it, then to be competitive, we need to do it as well. It?s just human nature and is as rife today in sport as ever before and no doubt will continue in to the future as people look for that little bit of an edge over their rivals.
 
And quite often, unless there is a major tangible increase in engine or chassis performance, the benefit is more psychological for the rider.
 
I was around the pits for a couple of Castrol 6 Hour Production races and saw a few things - a Peter Molloy built ?standard? Kawasaki that was knocked back after changes to engine studs (from memory), I remember scrutineering issues with a Ducati 750.  Chris Peckham was head scrutineer and there was lots of attempts to cheat. Anyone remember the Joe Eastmure Class winning T350 that was stripped of win for removing the horn.  The story I heard was that they did it to increase airflow onto engine...  These days I have forgotten much more than I remember and what I do remember has clouded over time.  I skipped school for a couple of weeks leading up to one year, and was riding the travelling marshall bikes out to the track, underage, unlicensed, whacked of my head.  I was put on organising committee the next year just for fun and had time of my life hanging with the A graders.  There was a lot of cheating in production racing full stop.


Can also confirm that Hailwood literally had a ball whilst out here, bedding a couple of wives/girlfriends from the local racing fraternity, including wife of one of the sponsors.
 
Some mates from Gowanlochs we caught up with in Sydney once were telling us how they were at some do with Peckham and a few of the team people from 6 hour days, quite a few years after it, and he was stunned hearing what had been done to some of the bikes that he had absolutely no way of unearthing at the time. The cheating destroyed the class. The Jota really didn't need it, a shame they weren't out on the tracks from as early as possible.
 
Yeah box stock Production bike racing was serious racing in OZ, the old saying 'Race on Sunday sell on Monday' really was true. Racing a 3C was an expensive idea as a 3C cost $800 - $1000 more than a Jap superbike, that was a lot of money back then. Like Lee said STANCO'S really did not commit to racing (and they were the exclusive oz distributor.

As for cheating?

In the 1974 race BMW R90 riders Bryan Hindle and Clive Knight were initially declared winners. Kawasaki Z1-900 riders Len Atlee and Ken Blake were declared winners after a recount. Another Kawasaki was disqualified for petrol tank modifications. Two BMW teams would have placed second and third, but were disqualified for suspension modifications.

The BMW suspension mod was that the fork springs were installed upside down.
 
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