O'Brien
Harley-Davidson's War Eagle
Let the race begin, part VII
War Eagle and brother Jesse: the "Battle of the Twins"
In
1981 the O'Brien's were working on two fronts, Dick and H-D were strictly on
dirt track and I was flow testing heads and building Ducati race bikes for road
racing and H-D XR 750 for dirt track and road racing. One XR-750 that we built,
ridden by Billy Labrie, had beaten my brother at two National Championships. At
the time Nancy my wife and I were also working with FGPRA.(Florida Grand Prix
Riders Ass.). I was doing the announcing at the road races and one day two of
FGPRA Members, Dwayne Williams, the President and Bernard Perkins an AMA
official, came up me and asked ‘why can't we draw spectators at Daytona
International Speedway?' I told them it is very simple: you don't have
Harley-Davidsons and you don't have bad guys racing against them. Out of
200,000 riders at March Speed week 90% are Hog boys and they are not going to the
Speedway to watch the Japs. The Three of us Dwayne, Bernard and myself went to
see Jim France at Daytona International Speedway with an Idea, as the next
story tells:
The ‘SOUND" is back, by Alan Cathcart in Motorcycle
Racing Magazine 1981
The
twin-cylinder motorcycle exercises powerful emotions in the hearts and minds of
the American public. From board-track to banking, dirt to asphalt, since the
dawn of racing the term ‘American racer' has traditionally meant a lusty,
thunderous V-twin, clad in a skimpy frame that looked like doing the ton just
standing still. That's what racing was all about for many years Stateside, and still
is on dirt. Even when other manufactures came to play with Harley-Davidson in
their back yard, they for the most part brought twins with them: Triumph,
Norton and BMW to begin with, then lately the ‘Italian Mob' and even that most
versatile of manufacturers, Yamaha.
Trouble was, they
didn't quite enter into the spirit of things, using a two-stroke engine- and
that was the end of the twins, already under threat from the BSA/Triumph
triples and Honda fours -did someone say ‘Formula 750'??- Still, lots of
manufactures were making twin-cylinder road bikes in the mid seventies. Great,
said someone on high in the AMA- we'll run a production-based class and we'll
call it Superbike: that'll get those REAL motorcycles- compared to a TZ Yamaha,
you understand- back in competition on the track. For a while, they were. Those
were the days of Cook Nielson and the California racer, alias a Ducati with
genuine go faster Italian fly mounted into the fuel tank; Mike Baldwin and the
Leoni Guzzi fire-engine; or the Butler and Smith BMWs, Reg Pridmore and Steve
McLaughlin, that used to spin round corners on their inside cylinder…
Well, all good things must come to an end, and slowly but inexorably the
Japanese fours stopped needing both sides of tracks AND the grass to proceed
down the straight, and once that happened the twins were out of business- again…
Wasn't so much a
question of basic inferiority, this time, just that the manufacturers of
twin-cylinder bikes had neither the money nor the inclination to match the pace
of Oriental development. So- except for the odd indecently fast Ducati on which
much tender loving care had been lavished- exit the twins. Exactly the same
thing happened in European TT Formula and endurance racing. But memory lingered
on, and it was the nostalgia provided by that odd Ducati, rumbling away in the
midst of snarling fours, that persuaded Jim France, boss of Daytona Speedway,
to get together with a trio of figures from the Florida Grand Prix Riders
Association to run an inaugural race for twins only at Daytona in October 1980.
Concerned at the declining level of crowd and machine interest in Superbike
racing- where after the six factory bikes there's been an ever- decreasing
number of privateers, increasingly unable to match the pace of factory
development on limited budgets- France was determined to give twins a go. This
was a means to enable talented but less well- financially endowed riders to go
racing at national level again, as well as to please the spectators with a much
greater variety of makes and machinery.
Jesse O'Brien is one of that Florida
triumvirate, and has been deeply involved with the BOTT("Battle of the
Twins", a name picked by his wife Nancy) since its inception. He's also
the brother of Harley-Davidson race team chief Dick O'Brien as well as a wizard
cylinder-head specialist in his own right. Jesse makes no bones of the fact
that one of their aims was to bring Harley
back to road racing - a scene they quit in 1973 Stateside, though of course
their European Aermacchi subsidiary won four World Championship titles with Walter
Villa in 1974 thru 1976.But he was also concerned to bring in the smaller
manufactures - mostly European - as well. So let him take up the story.
"First we
tried to get the AMA to change the Superbike rules to allow 1000cc twins and to
reinstate the Claims rule so that any bike in the race could be claimed by
another rider for a suggested retail price plus 30% to cover engine
modifications. This would eliminate the $1,000,000 Hondas and bring in more
privateers. The Japanese leaned on AMA saying they'd withdraw if the AMA
allowed that, so we decided to go ahead without consulting the AMA and run a
twins-only class.”
"Then we
ran up against some problems of classification : on the rider side, few pros
ran twins and those that did had Ducatis - we wanted more variety. We needed
the pros for color, but also needed amateur riders for quantity - to fill out
the grids and involve the real enthusiasts.”
"We also
wanted Harley back in, but knew they'd be in trouble if we ran a Superbikes -
for - twins race, since their XR racing program isn't incorporated back into
the 1000cc Sportsters, which in turn meant the Sportster is not suitable
for track use - not competitive anyhow.”
"We wanted
to encourage the Triumph twins, but knew we'd have to get them run with the
eight - valve heads if they were to keep up with the XR Harley, if we let THAT
in. It was tough getting things straight, but we did it."
How they did it
was to create three classes by machine and two sub-divisions by rider. These
cater for any twin- cylinder four stroke motorcycle over 500cc, split into
stock production, allowing only basic safety modifications to otherwise stock
bikes, modified production, further split into pro and amateur rider divisions,
and permitting a fair degree of development within the original street-bike
concept and Grand Prix - motorcycles which do not qualify for stock or modified
production and are not sold for street use. This will include the XR Harley -
bingo! - And the NCR Ducati's MP (modified production) bikes can run in GP(
grand prix), and can use full or half fairings as they wish; GP bikes must use
a full fairing.
The whole set of rules takes up less than a single sheet of foolscap, and
that's endemic of the nicely - relaxed approach, "Above all this is a
class run by racers for racers"' stresses Jesse O'Brien. There is a
claiming rule, but don't expect to see it exercised by the present closely-
knit, but deeply competitive, twin set; one of the nice things you feel about,
talking to the people involved, is that old thing called sportsmanship and if
that's not nostalgic in the present day Superbike context, what is?
Back to Jesse's story:
"We ran the
inaugural Battle of the Twins race in October ‘80; we got 26 bikes together in
just three weeks between the announcement and the race, which was a curtain-raiser
for the Japanese Superbike. Fifteen minutes after our twin race was over, the
spectators all left - only 500 or so stayed for the big one. Mike DiPrete - the
AMA's equivalent of the ACU's Vernon Cooper - had been pretty scornful about
the BOTT race beforehand – said “ we only catered to 6% of the new- bike market
in America”. I was standing next to him as we watched all the spectators leave
after our twins race. Know what I said to him? "Our 6% of the market
equals 94% of spectator interest, wouldn't you say?” He wasn't very amused! But
the big man Jim France said GO! Because 94% at speed week equalled 100,000 X
$25.00 =$2,500,000 and that's his kind of talk. The one thing we knew was that
when France says jump, the AMA say's how high…”
Heartened by this
support. The BOTT organizers planned a full season's series in 1981- and a
superb display of racing has resulted. At the Daytona 200 meeting in March
there were no less than 65 starters, with more different marques in that one
race than all the others put together. Though the results seem to show a Ducati
benefit.
Twenty- eight
Dukes came to the line, and the race was won by Jimmy Adamo, with Richard
Schlachter second, both on 900s- as the season progressed other makes came into
contention, notably BMW. At the end of the nine- race series, BMW triumphed in
three out of three classes, with David Emde on the San Jose BMW only just
failing to edge out Adamo's Ducati for the GP Championship and a clean sweep
for the German marque.
No less than 165
riders in all entered the championship- some of course only running at their
local tracks- but at each event the Twins race was by far the best supported on
the programme. Rounds were held at Daytona and Loudon - two each-, Talladega,
Elkhart Lake, Pocono, Grattan, Riverside and Laguna Seca. The Loudon programme, coupled with a H-D
Muscular dystrophy charity venture, added an extra 13,000 to the normal gate
for the Laconia classic… On average the BOTT was bringing in 40 to 60% increase
in spectator attendance meaning major $.
This sent the
Japanese four cylinder manufactures up the wall as they were the featured event
with the most advanced bikes but everyone came to see the twins, you know those
darn Duck's ,Limies, Beemers and Hog's! The Twins are here to stay -a fact
belatedly realized by the AMA, who have recently agreed to take the BOTT class
under their wing for the 1982 season-. What kind of machinery populates this
newest of road racing formulae? As might be expected, most machines are
European, with the odd Japanese interloper in the form of a Yamaha or Kawasaki
vertical twin. Yur Bergbaum had his XS Yamaha with Shell Truett- tuned ex-Kenny
Roberts dirt-track motor up for sale a couple of weeks before Daytona. After
dusting it down he won the Amateur MP (modified production) class, but
strangely no other Yamaha's came forward all season. Expect different things
next season, when the V-twin XV920R will be out on the tracks, either in
privateer form- there's already a race kit for the engine, marketed by
Megacycle of Anaheim, California- or even a much-rumoured factory bike.
Brand loyalty is fierce: Anglophile par
excellence Tom Wegman trekked all the way from Iowa City to Daytona in March
with a pair of Vincents -one Egli-framed and a Norvin- and was rewarded
with a steady but unspectacular ninth in the GP class. John Tesauro's Guzzi Le
Mans had watchers transfixed with his on-the -limit cornering on his way to
fourth overall. One of the most dramatic efforts has been that of Jack Wilson
and Jon Minonno to make the eight-valve works Triumph engine a winner. The
Texans only received the engine the week before Daytona, found it needed a
complete rebuild for which they didn't have all the parts, but then pieced it
together anyhow, and went through the speed traps on the banking third fastest
at over 150mph. A series of troublesome gremlins waylaid them throughout the
season, plus some unexpected handling problems. Hard work by Jack -one of the
most respected Triumph tuners in the world- had the bike competitive again for
the end season Daytona round: after blowing their last spare rod in practice
the team were forced to rely on their trusty four-valve motor, but 1982 will
surely see a good stock of eight-valve spares laid in and Minonno emulating his
third place overall at Talladega- the team's best result in 81.
In Jack Wilson's own words- "This
little turkey's gonna be just fine-you wait and see!" Almost as
troublesome has been the leading Harley -Team Obsolete's ex-Scot Belsford XR
owned by Brooklyn lawyer Rob Lannucci and ridden by Dave Roper- with reputedly
quite considerable support from the Harley Factory. After experiencing
considerable handling problems with the extra power produced by the now bored
and stroked 909cc engine, the original frame was replaced mid season by one
designed by ex-triumph tube-bender Rob North.
A trip to Britain
to run in the Donington Park 50th anniversary meeting in August spread the
message to Europe, and seemed to bring the team good fortune. After a series of
previous non-finishes Roper finally hit the front of a Twins race in October at
Daytona, only briefly before falling back to finish third in GP with an oil
leak. But it was a heartening display for the team, which have supported the
BOTT from the start- and spent a great deal of time and money in trying to
become competitive in it.
Ironically, the
Roper/Iannucci bike was beaten out for the $1,000 prize for the first Harley in
each round by a far more shoestring effort, consisting of an ex-Cal Rayborn XR
frame into which tuner John Ward -one of the grand old men of American racing-
has slotted an extremely interesting engine. Spluthe barrels carved from the
solid sit on a Sportster bottom end with XR heads that have been flowed by
Jesse O'Brien; starting with a rev limit of 7,300 rpm at the beginning of the
season, Ward now has the motor safe to 8,500rpm with extra power all the way.
Sponsored by the Daytona Harley-Davidson dealer, Joe Robinson, and superbly
ridden by ex-TZ750 racer Hal Coleman, the Ward bike provides an interesting
comparison with the Iannucci machine, which it's beaten three times out of
four, finishing in the top three in GP on each occasion: it might have been
four out of four, except that Hal's oil leak at Daytona was bigger than Roper's…
But don't get the
idea that the BOTT line-up consists entirely of yesteryear's machinery, more
suited to a vintage race and pouring oil from every crevice. Nothing could be
further from the truth and the two leading Ducatis are an excellent example of
continued development on a modern V-twin theme. Series winner Jimmy Adamo's
bike is the more radical of the two, with a unique exhaust note unlike any
other Ducati ever raced, probably betraying tuner Reno Leoni's very special
ideas on ignition timing, cam profile and heads designed by Jesse O'Brien.
Adamo's bike was reportedly up for sale at the season’s end, with Jimmy seen in
deep conversation with Harley-Davidson about the chance of a ride on a
factory-backed machine in 82.
The Ducati's new
owner will have the ultimate of Italian race-ware: producing 96-98 bhp on the
brake at 9'000 rpm, the 864cc engine breaths through 44mm Malossi carbs -that
are rubber-mounted-, C.R.is 10.8:1, and the standard included valve-angle is
featured-no 60 deg heads here as the ultimate expression of the Cook Nielson
bike. All gears are undercut 3 deg and radiused off on the dogs, which appears
to have eliminated the usual Ducati gearbox problems. The bike handles
superbly, with Guzzi front brakes and longer fork tubes off a GT750 to adjust
the trail according to the track. A wider swinging arm is fitted, to allow use
of the latest size rear slick, with which top speed on the Daytona banking
comes down from 157mph to 149 mph due to increased drag. It's a trade-off to
enable him to go deeper and faster round corners. Adamo has to accept a slower
top speed: the Wilson Triumph can now outpace him. Only Achilles heel appears
to be the total battery ignition powering a Bosch electronic set-up: in the
final Daytona round Adamo limped home with a flattening battery after taking an
early lead.
That race was won
by British born Malcolm Tunstall. His father Syd runs one of America's leading
performance shops in St Petersburg, Florida. The Tunstall/O'Brien Flowmetrics
Ducati has a split personality paint wise -red one side, blue the other- but
has been out together with single- minded dedication for BOTT success. But it's
a true multipurpose bike, too as eighth in the Loudon Open Superbike and 21st
in the open class against the TZ750s showed: Malcolm wound up third overall in
the BOTT,GP title hunt with his Daytona win after a thrilling dice with John
Long's BMW. Tunstall's mount shows signs of the same king of attention from
father Syd -21 years in the U.S. and still sounding like he'd never left Derby-!
He's developed his own electronic ignition to get around the sort of problems
that beset Adamo.
The Ducati fleet
in the production classes was more than matched by the BMW challenge: one of
the great sounds in a class of superbly emotive engine notes is the low-flying
airplane that is a BMW in full flight. Again, two bikes stand out: San Jose BMW
had a 3,000 mile round trip journey to all except one of the rounds, but still
stayed in contention for the GP title till the final race but one, thanks to
the riding skills of Emde and Chris Hodson's superior preparation. Producing
95bhp at 8,5000 rpm with a weight of 345 lb wet, the bike used roller cams and
40mm Dell Ortos, plus some elaborate O'Brien headwork. Only slightly less
powerful was the ex-Udo Geiti/Todd Schuster mid-70s Superbike ridden as ever by
Long.
Sponsored by the appropriately
named Bavarian Cycle Shop. Long strolled to successive wins in modified
production and the title, making up in the turns what he was losing to the
faster Ducatis on the straights or banking. Featuring Geitl's mechanical
anti-dive front suspension -first seen years ago, and now copied by Kawasaki
for their KR500 GP bike- the Beemer has a similar spec to the Emde bike with
full roller bearing engine, but Long elected to stay in the MP class rather
than move up to GP. Next year all pros will have to run in GP, and the Miami
veteran is reported to be dusting off one of the early-70s Butler/ Smith open
racers for a crack at the Harleys. The team's earlier MP bike -nicknamed the
Grey Ghost- won the amateur MP title in the hands of Bill Atkinson. With full
AMA backing for 1982 the Battle of the Twins looks set to consolidate its
success of the past season. Now firmly established as the leading crowd-pleaser
in America road racing, it'll be interesting to see how long it will be before
the Japanese roll out a challenger: the XV Yamaha will surely be one, but how
about a tarmac version of the NS750 Honda dirt tracker?
Still new bikes
are assured for next season: legendary Daytona figure Roger Reiman -three -time
winner of the 200-miller on works Harley's- is reportedly working on a machine
for an unnamed rider. The Harley factory wants to run their own team in 1982 if
finances permit. Reno Leoni is building a full 1000cc Ducati and the legendary
Dr. Taglioni, the Ducati designer, has asked him to visit Daytona next March to
see the race. With Dr. T's latest baby -the 600TT2 Pantah on which Tony Rutter
clinched the Formula 2 World title in Ulster, and which has seen off the
Italian championship- clocked at over 150 mph but with the nimbleness of a 500,
there seems little doubt one of these will soon find its way into the series.
There's talk too that one of the remaining Norton Challenges -the Cosworth- engine
water-cooled machine that never reached its goals before NVT went bust- will be
seen running in the series next season, and it would be nice to see one of the
hot air-cooled Norton twins from Britain taking on the Ducatis. Indeed, why
shouldn't the Battle of the Twins come to Britain.The last Daytona race saw a
six-way dice for the lead between two Ducatis, two Harleys, a BMW and a
Triumph: where else in modern racing do you get that kind of variety or the
fantastic Sound?
Let the Battle of the Twins be joined on British tracks: the
twins are back in town!
Results first ever BOTT National Championship under FGPRA 1981
Daytona Beach Fl (AMA)
GP James Adamo DUC,MPE Richard Schlachter DUC, MPA Yur Bergbaum YAM, SP David
McClure DUC.
Talladega Al (AMA)
GP James Adamo DUC, MPE John Long BMW, MPA Donald Jouglard DUC, SP David Mc
Clure DUC
Elkhart Lake WI (AMA)
GP David Emde BMW, MPE Bobby Goodin DUC,
MPA Robert Lill Duc, SP Michael Shilts YAM
Loudon NH (AMA)
GP David Emde BMW, MPE John Long BMW, MPA Bill Atkinson BMW, SP Devin Battley
BMW
Grattan MI (WERA)
GP David Emde BMW, MPE John Lond BMW, MPA Jeff Mac Millan DUC, SP Dallas Wilson
DUC
Budweiser BOTT (AFM) Riverside CA
GP James Adamo DUC, MPE Windall Phillipps NOR, MPA Frank Sortelli MG, SP Larry
Theoball MG
Loudon NH (AAMRR)
GP David Emde BMW, MPE Norm Smyser MG, MPA Phill Di Streano DUC, SP Devin Battley
BMW
Harley-Davidson BOTT Pocono PA (AMA)
GP James Adamo DUC, MPE John Long BMW, MPA Don Jouglard DUC, SP Devin Battley
BMW
Daytona Pro-Am (AMA/FGPRA)
GP Malcolme Tunstall DUC,
MPE John Long BMW, MPA & SP No Record
Copyright Jesse O'Brien 2005