Lennart on a Laverda

rocketonarail

rocketonarail

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Gloucestershire,England
Feeling bored waiting for the gas boiler inspection guy to turn up so was looking at the results of Mallory Park Race of the Year for 1978 and noticed in the 350 class Swedish champion Lennart Backstrom finished fifth overall , finishing third in one of his heats , beating the likes of Steve Tonkin and Tony Rutter (Mick Grant took two victories and overall win on his works tandem twin Kawasaki).
It reminded me that Cropredy planned to compete in 1980 with production and Formula 1 Jotas with Pete Davies and Lennart Backstrom as riders (that was the plan).
I would be interested to know if Lennart did ever compete for them that year ( seem to recall that Pete Davies went to race in South Africa on the Jota early in the year and was predictably overwhelmed by GSX1100`s and CBR1100`s etc.,but cannot find any reference to Lennart Backstrom).
 
rocketonarail said:
Feeling bored waiting for the gas boiler inspection guy to turn up so was looking at the results of Mallory Park Race of the Year for 1978 and noticed in the 350 class Swedish champion Lennart Backstrom finished fifth overall , finishing third in one of his heats , beating the likes of Steve Tonkin and Tony Rutter (Mick Grant took two victories and overall win on his works tandem twin Kawasaki).
It reminded me that Cropredy planned to compete in 1980 with production and Formula 1 Jotas with Pete Davies and Lennart Backstrom as riders (that was the plan).
I would be interested to know if Lennart did ever compete for them that year ( seem to recall that Pete Davies went to race in South Africa on the Jota early in the year and was predictably overwhelmed by GSX1100`s and CBR1100`s etc.,but cannot find any reference to Lennart Backstrom).
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On
 
Pretty sure he rode a white Jota at Donnington in the street bike series, not sure of the year it was a Swedish rider so I assume it was him. I remember watching the race being impressed he finished 3rd behind the 2 CB 1100 Honda's that won every race boringly easy no other bike could compete. It was wet that day which I assume would help the Jota beat all the Katanas and GPZ's.
Not sure what happened in the other races. I also know of one GSX 1100 that did briefly challenge the Honda's until the discovered it was far from standard.

Geoff
 
Lennart rode a triple (1978/80) and F500 (1980) at the TT with support from Slaters AFAIK.
However, Cropredy were also supporting riders at the events and riders like PK sometimes rode for both.
 
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Thanks for that guys , interesting to know.
Looking at black and white pics of Cropredys Jotas I guessed they were painted white in that year, so that confirms it . A Bike magazine report for that Donnington race has a picture of Gareth Jones astride the Jota which was being subjected to a scrutineers inspection , whether before or after the race isn`t clear. Sounds like they took a close look at that GSX as well....
Cheers ,
Tony

Talking about being wet helping the Jota , I believe that was the case for one of the South African races , one of the GSX pilots saying that being passed by Pete Davies on the Jota in the wet was a signal for him to get a move on.Curtain finally closing on Jota dominance in production racing.
 
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A Pantah almost won a big Prody race on Oz in wet weather, and then it dried out and it got swamped by the big boys.
 
rocketonarail said:
Thanks for that guys , interesting to know.
Looking at black and white pics of Cropredys Jotas I guessed they were painted white in that year, so that confirms it . A Bike magazine report for that Donnington race has a picture of Gareth Jones astride the Jota which was being subjected to a scrutineers inspection , whether before or after the race isn`t clear. Sounds like they took a close look at that GSX as well....
Cheers ,
Tony

Talking about being wet helping the Jota , I believe that was the case for one of the South African races , one of the GSX pilots saying that being passed by Pete Davies on the Jota in the wet was a signal for him to get a move on.Curtain finally closing on Jota dominance in production racing.
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I recall the South African race was at Kylami with a monumental straight so a real power circuit and end of the line for the Jota as you say. The Slater's boys had used the original Mirage more recently before the strangled TSS came on the scene.
There was a good article on Rodger Winterburns red 1200 proddy bike in mirage spec in one of the classic mags a few years ago it was timed at 153 on one of the UK tracks so we'll out of standard Jota territory. It could certainly mix it with the GSX on UK tracks but the CB 1100R was on another planet.

Geoff
 
Didnt Kylami have considerable altitude or am I full of crap, I guess if so it affected all equally.
 
Vince said:
Didnt Kylami have considerable altitude or am I full of crap, I guess if so it affected all equally.
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Yes I think Kylami is at altitude it has always been regarded as a power circuit I guess PK's Jota would be 20 horsepower down on most of the field that day I think he was running about 8th when the ignition packed in.
Geoff
 
Interesting. The '81 production Jota raced in Queensland Aus was neck and neck with the two top local CB1100R Hondas on the long straight at Surfers Paradise track, and ahead of GSX1100s. The Hondas had cornering clearance, a huge advantage in the races. Lennart totally dominated production racing in Sweden but I don't know how late. He was at Linkjøping once when I raced there, they had a retro proddy race bike theme and display, but unfortunately I didn't get to catch up with him, he was on an '81 Jota in their track session, still flying fast.
 
Tippie said:
Interesting. The '81 production Jota raced in Queensland Aus was neck and neck with the two top local CB1100R Hondas on the long straight at Surfers Paradise track, and ahead of GSX1100s. The Hondas had cornering clearance, a huge advantage in the races. Lennart totally dominated production racing in Sweden but I don't know how late. He was at Linkjøping once when I raced there, they had a retro proddy race bike theme and display, but unfortunately I didn't get to catch up with him, he was on an '81 Jota in their track session, still flying fast.
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Thanks for that , don`t know if Gareth Jones of Cropredy ever visits this forum , be interesting to know how the link up between him and Lennart came about , maybe some sort of mutual connection through Slater(s) , although he was competing in England occasionally anyway by the sound of it.
Interesting comparison between CB1100R and Jota , when MCW tested a CB1100R they got a best one way of 142 mph , and this would be feet up behind you , left hand down by the front wheel spindle sort of stuff , which is not much more than you would expect from a Jota , but this was an out of the box example , not one prepped for racing. The CB covered the quarter in the mid-elevens though.
I said earlier that the GSX rider in South Africa was surprised when the Jota came past in the wet , may not have been the case about it being wet , only going by memory , have the race report somewhere , not in date order so would take ages to find it , there was a picture of PK on the Jota with a big "D" (for Davies presumably) on it instead of the usual race number plate , and looked pretty dry from that.

About speed testing figures - In the early `seventies MCW took a Honda CB500 up to MIRA for testing and came back with an electronically timed best one way speed of about 102 mph.
When Editor in Chief Harry Louis saw the figures he says "No , that can`t be right , it should do better than that , go back and try again".
So the testers return to MIRA , try again , maybe with the wind blowing in the right direction this time , and come back with an (elecronically timed) best of 106 mph.
Louis says " There you are , that`s better , now we can publish".
Got to keep the importers/advertisers happy......

I may be wrong , but I seem to recall Honda withdrawing advertising and supply of test bikes for a while to Bike magazine in the early `seventies due to that magazines reluctance to `try again".
 
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The CBRs Tippie is referring to were ridden by top flight riders and prepped to win by big Honda dealerships, maybe even factory backed (not sure of details - Lee can fill them in). I can see no reason why a well fettled Jota would not hold one in a straight line. It surprised people because noone expected a Laverda to be capable of it. Peter White was the rider and he could ride the effing wheels off any bike.,
 
Yes the CB1100R`s in the streetbike race at Donnington were piloted by ,I think , Ron Haslam and Joey Dunlop (correct me if I`m wrong) , with backing from Honda GB , so a pretty formidable combination to get the better of , even for another factory team never mind Laverdas entered by a dealer. Laverda (Slater) advertising always made a big thing about these being bikes that would win straight out of the crate , just remove indicators and centre stand etc. , but by the `eighties that was begining to ask a bit too much.
 
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The CB1100Rs were from local Brisbane dealers and I am pretty sure that they were unmodified. I would have expected them to be better on long straights with the full fairings those models had. I rode one of the Castrol Six Hour bikes as well and it didn't feel any different to other ones, on the road at least. As a bike to ride they were a real pussy compared to the raw growling monster the Jota was. In Australia production racing was enforced as strictly as they could manage, straight out of the crate, and Stanco could never have got away with a "Slater" and offered hotted up models to customers and expect them to be allowed to race them in production class which was the big thing back then. When the factory released Jota came Stanco wasn't interested in racing them, and gave zero help to the Queensland distributor for the bikes Pete White did so well on.
 
geoffr said:
I recall the South African race was at Kylami with a monumental straight so a real power circuit and end of the line for the Jota as you say. The Slater's boys had used the original Mirage more recently before the strangled TSS came on the scene.
There was a good article on Rodger Winterburns red 1200 proddy bike in mirage spec in one of the classic mags a few years ago it was timed at 153 on one of the UK tracks so we'll out of standard Jota territory. It could certainly mix it with the GSX on UK tracks but the CB 1100R was on another planet.

Geoff
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CB1100R was, after all, a race bike produced by Honda with the expressed intention of winning production bike races, which in those days resulted in sales. As distinct from the Laverda which was, in comparison, a (raucous) gentleman’s conveyance.
 
Tippie said:
... for the bikes Pete White did so well on.
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Back in 1981, I can recall Pete White battling with and beating those Honda CB1100R on the Lakeside circuit. Exiting The Karrassel with the back end hung out and smoking the rear tyre. My thoughts "how does he do that"!
Within weeks I rode out of this same TTM shop on a used '79 Jota. Happy days. What wins on Sunday sells on Monday.
My life hasn't been the same since. :unsure:

TTM-Jota.jpg
 
I was at Surfers track back in those days when the TT Motique triple had an issue, was Ted's earlier Series 1 race bike, not the one shown by Mark in the above photo
So I lent them my 79 Jota to race, Pete did well on it but was only two weeks later when my crankshaft decided to throw all its balls out of the middle mains
Always wondered if those two events were related

Series 2 bike shown above threw a conrod and destroyed the engine cases, was #7320, bike now has a Series 1 engine in the frame #2736

Cool photo Mark, never seen that shot before
 
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