There were a few standout bikes from my race at Willow Springs that I wanted to share but the post would have been way too long. So I’m going to call them out in individual posts. Let’s start with one of the bikes that competed – a ’75 Yamaha TZ750!
This beauty raced in Open Two Stroke on Saturday, it did not compete in the Sunday running.
A legend in motorcycle racing, a Yamaha TZ750 won the Daytona 200 nine times in a row and was called one of the six greatest motorcycles of all time by Cycle World. This is Bruce Lind’s bike, which he raced in AMA Formula One many moons ago. He’s owned it since new!
I didn’t get a chance to meet Bruce but Ed Sorbo of Lindemann Engineering brought the bike out and raced it in the AHRMA weekend.
Bruce raced this bike at Phillip Island in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (at least) as part of The Phillip Island Classic. You can read a couple of those links to see the mechanical issues that unfortunately befall people who ride classic bikes.
There was actually a second TZ750 out on the track at the same time, which is pretty crazy to say. Unfortunately the second bike (campaigned by David Crussell) was having issues all weekend and I don’t believe it was able to complete a race. But this is just one example of the cool stuff you can see being raced at AHRMA – check out the calendar and maybe there’ll be an upcoming race near you!