The small displacement, Italian-built Harley-Davidson production racing Sprints never achieved the legendary status in American professional racing that they deserved.
The simple design, a horizontal “sloper” four-stroke 250cc, later enlarged to 350ccs, won every AMA Grand National Championship discipline it was entered in: short track, road race and even TT, though the TT and and road race were short-lived “Lightweight” Grand National Championship (GNC) events.
Nevertheless, this distinction in GNC competition is one only a few much more vaunted motorcycle types can match. The Sprint racers took two basic forms — the CR, which was a brakeless, rigid framed flat tracker, and the CRTT, the fully-suspended road racer. While starting out sharing some components with its more pedestrian street models, after a redesign in 1966, it shared almost no components, save the valve covers and some fasteners with the standard model. The CR flat tracker would remain competitive as a GNC short tracker and Novice mount until the early 1970s. The road racer was the first dominant Pro lightweight road racer, but by the middle 1960s, it was in a losing battle with the ever-improving Yamaha twin cylinder two-stroke racers. But the CR flat tracker would get swingarm frames and brakes and soldier on in Pro indoor events until the 1980s.
In 1961, for the first time, a short track event was added to the Grand National Championship schedule. Perfect timing for Harley and their new Sprint, as they had just purchased controlling interest in Aermacchi. That first event was at Santa Fe Speedway in August, and it was a clean sweep of the podium by Harley factory riders Carroll Resweber, Bart Markel and Joe Leonard. The rest of the field was a mix of Triumphs and BSAs, with the lone NSU of Pat McHenry in 4th position. The CR would dominate most of the 1960s at Santa Fe with additional wins in 1962, ’64, ’66 and ’68.
The Daytona road races in 1963 saw the debut of the “Combined” 250 Lightweight race. The very popular event saw 90+ Experts, Amateurs and Novices all compete together. Dick Hammer would win the inaugural Combined on a Harley CRTT Sprint, with Jess Thomas on a Honda and Jim Hayes on a Ducati, rounding out the podium.
Hammer would also dominate the 1964 Combined race. It saw another huge turnout with over 90 entries on at least 10 different types of machines. The AMA had approved Yamaha’s new TD1A, and in a foretelling of things to come, Al Gunter and Neil Keen were in the top 5 on Yamahas.
There was also a movement in the AMA to reduce the displacement in the GNC class, partly to entice more manufacturers to get involved. Further evidence of this was the surprising addition of two new Grand National Lightweight races.
At the Peoria TT event, the traditional 45 cubic inch and 80 cubic inch classes were changed to 250cc and 900cc limit classes. Bart Markel would claim the inaugural event on a Sprint. Ronnie Rall would win the event in 1964, with Markel securing victory once againin 1965.
The Lightweight National Road Race would debut in 1964 at Nelson Ledges in Ohio, with little-known Larry Schafer taking the win on a CRTT Sprint. The rest of the field was a large mix of manufacturers including Yamahas, Bultacos and Ducatis. In 1965, Dick Mann would claim the first National win for Yamaha and a Japanese make at Nelson Ledges.
Dick Mann also won the 1965 Daytona Combined race on the newly homologated Yamaha TD1B. Harley riders Mert Lawwill and George Roeder were 5th and 6th on their CRTTs. Yamahas made up 8 of the top 10.
By 1965, the writing was on the wall for Harley-Davidson. Yamaha was perfecting their twin two-strokes, and they quickly proved to be winners right out of the box. The Lightweight Nationals “experiment” was over in 1965. While the Sprints were still holding their own on dirt, the landscape on pavement had changed.
For 1966, Harley and the Aermacchi race team heavily redesigned the Sprint engine for the first time. With the bore diameter limiting the valve size, they went with a shorter stroke design which allowed a bigger bore, and thus allowed for bigger valves. They also went with a dry clutch. They would later add an external flywheel. The valiant effort turned out to be stop gap at best. At the 1966 Daytona Combined, Roger Reiman and Bart Markel managed a 5th and a 7th on CRTTs, with Yamaha again dominating. At the Greenwood Combined, Cal Rayborn was second to Gary Nixon’s Yamaha. At the Carlsbad Combined race, Rayborn managed to score the win on his CRTT.
If 1966 had shown some hope, the 250 Sprint effort hit a low point in 1967. At the Daytona Combined, no team bikes finished. By the Indianapolis Road Race National, Harley withdrew the Sprints from road racing.
A rare pavement bright spot for the beleaguered CRTT was Harley-faithful Don Hollingsworth aboard a very special factory machine, amazingly winning the 1968 Daytona Novice race. Then he was runner-up at Loudon.
The dirt track CR Sprint faced its own two-stroke threat. The new two-strokes were fast, but a lack of engine braking hurt their chances. By 1967, the use of compression releases was becoming common on two-strokes. Innovator Dick Mann won a Daytona Short Track aboard a Bultaco using one. In June 1968, the AMA banned their use as they considered them an illegal braking device. They relented in 1969 and made them legal again, further adding to all the four-stroke’s burdens.
The new decade of the 1970s would bring the last bit of National glory for the venerable Sprint, both on pavement and dirt. An AMA rule change allowed 350 singles to compete against the 250 twins. The Aermacchi racing team in Europe had been racing the 350 machines, so the parts were available to the USA team. At the Kent, Washington Combined event, Cal Rayborn stunned everyone with his convincing win. At the Loudon event, he was 2nd to Yvon DuHamel.
The CR flat tracker would score its final Grand National win at the August Santa Fe Short Track National. Bart Markel came from dead last to run down Jim Rice late in the race. Many called it the best ride they had ever seen. It was Bart Markel’s 27th and next to last National win. It was the Sprint’s 6th National win at Santa Fe and its 10th total.
The bike’s last major AMA championship was in 1973. Greg Sassaman won the Novice portion of the AMA’s inaugural Eastern Regional Championship. He rode a 350 CR for owner/tuner Powell Hassell of Atlanta Harley-Davidson. They went up against the best on the East Coast and ended up in a dogfight, with Jay Ridgeway on the Woody Kyle Champion-framed Kawasaki 350 Bighorn and Scott Rader on a Redline Yamaha TD3 twin. Incredibly, they won the championship over these high-horsepower Japanese powered racers. Sassaman’s efforts landed him a ride with the Harley-Davidson factory in 1974.
The swan song on the National level for the Sprint would be in the hands of Harley factory rider and GNC title contender, Gary Scott. In 1974, Scott would score an impressive 4th place at the Santa Fe Short Track GNC.
So, what became of the Sprints as racers through the 1970s? They were still viable as indoor and ice racers. Two-time GNC champion Randy Goss holds the distinction of most likely winning the Sprint’s final Pro races and a final championship. A very successful ice racer, Goss bought what was left of Bart Markel’s collection of Sprint racing items. He assembled all the best bits and modified to his liking. He competed in promoter Stan Lorenz’s Pro Invitational Ice Series in 1979-’80. The 12-13 race series was run in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia. Goss ran the only Sprint, winning several events, but battled hard with Bart Markel, Corky Keener, Ted Boody, Jack Warren, Scott Drake and other top ice racers. Goss never had more than a 3-4 point lead through the series, but claimed the championship.
It had been quite a run for the little Italian-built Harley-Davidson. It had been a winner in AMA Pro racing since its introduction in 1961. It dominated the early “Combined” Pro road races. On the short tracks and TTs, every factory Harley-Davidson rider up to 1975, including six National Champions, competed on Sprints. They were a vital part of the team’s effort. It was the standard mount for many Novices and Pro short trackers. It’s fitting that the bike, which began its career with multi-champion Carroll Resweber at a short track in 1961, would end on another short track with Randy Goss, who would go onto become a GNC champion himself in 1980 and 1983. MC
Our thanks to Greg Pearson, author of The Complete Grand National Championship Volume I: 1954 to 1969, and Volume II: 1970 to 1975, nearly 1200 pages of GNC racing information, for this detailed review of these machines. We also thank Jeff Willis, expert restorer of all types of motorcycles and an expert on the Harley-Davidson Aermacchis, including the CRs, CRSs and the CRTTs, who encouraged Motorcycle Classics to tell the story of these great machines. — Ed.
