Skeletons from the Closet: AMA Superbike Racing

By Dain Gingerelli
Published on October 27, 2016
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Mike Baldwin at Daytona in 1980.
Mike Baldwin at Daytona in 1980.
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Keith Code at Laguna Seca in 1976.
Keith Code at Laguna Seca in 1976.
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Gary Fisher at Laguna Seca in 1976.
Gary Fisher at Laguna Seca in 1976.
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Wes Cooley aboard his Suzuki (left) follows David Aldana on his Kawasaki at Loudon in New Hampshire in 1980.
Wes Cooley aboard his Suzuki (left) follows David Aldana on his Kawasaki at Loudon in New Hampshire in 1980.
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Cook Neilson aboard his Ducati, named Old Blue, at Daytona in 1977.
Cook Neilson aboard his Ducati, named Old Blue, at Daytona in 1977.
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The stout front end of Honda’s 1982 Superbike racer.
The stout front end of Honda’s 1982 Superbike racer.
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Wes Cooley and his Kawasaki at Riverside in California in 1977.
Wes Cooley and his Kawasaki at Riverside in California in 1977.
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Top to bottom: Yvon Duhamel, Steve McLauglin and Reg Pridmore at the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca in 1974.
Top to bottom: Yvon Duhamel, Steve McLauglin and Reg Pridmore at the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca in 1974.
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Steve McLaughlin and the Udo Gietl-engineered Butler & Smith BMW at Turn 9 of Laguna Seca in 1976.
Steve McLaughlin and the Udo Gietl-engineered Butler & Smith BMW at Turn 9 of Laguna Seca in 1976.
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Freddie Spencer at Laguna Seca in 1981.
Freddie Spencer at Laguna Seca in 1981.

Many NASCAR insiders credit the late Smokey Yunick as being one of the most creative and conniving race car builders ever in terms of interpreting rules. Other people would simply say that ol’ Smokey was a vicious cheater and leave it at that. In fact, those same people might even label all racers in NASCAR as cheaters.

The same connection can be made about the pioneers of AMA Superbike racing, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this season. Cheating during Superbike’s formative years was, in a word, rampant. How else could you squeeze 100-plus horsepower out of a BMW airhead boxer twin that normally delivered about half that amount to the rear wheel than to bend the rules a bit? Otherwise, parts like connecting rods and push rods, originally intended for touring and commuting applications might bend instead.

Udo Gietl, who engineered and built the Butler & Smith BMW that won the first AMA Superbike Championship with Reggie Pridmore as rider in 1976, once told me, “To get that horsepower, you had to do something.” He placed emphasis on the word “something,” too. Years ago I spoke with various other Superbike team members, and to a man they all agreed that things were, well, different then. Cook Neilson, who as editor of Cycle magazine teamed with his co-worker, the late Phil Schilling, to win the 1977 Daytona Superbike race aboard a heavily modified Ducati 750SS, explained to me one day, “Everybody knew what the deal was. There were certain areas that you wouldn’t touch or tinker with. There was a gentleman’s understanding about protests.” Translation: Everybody in the class cheated, they just confined the cheating within known parameters that everybody agreed on.

The dawning of Superbike

And so when the inaugural Superbike season got underway at Daytona in 1976, the die was cast. Actually, it had been cast a few years earlier when the AMA tested the Superbike waters with two production-based support classes, Open Superbike Production and Lightweight Superbike Production. AMA officials had been unsure about the validity of racing production-based bikes at National races, so they conducted a litmus test by including the two classes at the 1973 Laguna Seca National, where Yvon Duhamel rode his Pops Yoshimura-prepped Kawasaki Z1 to first place and Mike Clarke won the Lightweight race riding a Yamaha RD350. By the end of the race weekend a new era in road racing had begun. By coincidence, the California-based AFM (American Federation of Motorcyclists) had been supporting a similar class — called Superstreet — at its local venues since 1971. That, plus a partnership enjoyed by the AFM with promoters Gavin Trippe and Bruce Cox to sanction their events in 1972, and coupled with unbridled enthusiasm by racer Steve McLaughlin, most likely led to the 1973 Superbike Production race at the Laguna Seca National, which was promoted by Trippe-Cox and Associates.

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