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. Here’s one of the competitors – Edwin Haazer’s 1979 Kawasaki KZ1000 MKII!
The bike might be most famous for the police variant, which gained popularity on the show CHiPs and managed to stay in production until 2005. With the right accessories, they were solid touring machines. But they were no slouch on the racetrack – Reg Pridmore won the 1978 AMA Superbike championship on a KZ1000. The ’79 is the model you want as the ’80 got stuck with a 80 mph speedometer and sidecovers that did not say “Mk II” on them.
Even in stock form, the KZ1000 was impressive – an evolution of the KAZ900, the KZ1000 was the fastest production bike when it was released in 1976 (as a ’77 model) thanks to its 83 horsepower, 1,015cc inline four motor.
But Ed’s bike is obviously well beyond stock. He originally used it as a street bike in the Bay Area, taking it to the usual destinations like Alice’s Restaurant. Eventually it became a race bike and as you can see, it’s chock full of modifications from Bakker, Kosman, Keihin, Marchesini, AP, Megacycle, and more! Check out a few photos here:
Who needs a tach?
And because I’m sure you’d want to hear this thing, here’s a video of Ed racing this bike at Sonoma, battling it out with Dale Quarterley:
These are some of my favorite bikes to watch in AHRMA, I think they look amazing and sound even better. Hopefully you’ll be able to see some at your local AHRMA round!