autofreak
12-25-2008, 04:19 AM
On March 5 1976 Steve McLaughlin changed the face of motorcycle racing forever. That afternoon the Californian won the world's first big-time Superbike race, the opening Daytona round of the inaugural US Superbike championship. McLaughlin..clidn't just contest the series, he was a prime mover behind making it happen. And as if that doesn't make him unique, he won the race on a BMW R90S.
Daytona was just the start of McLaughlin's Superbike vision. A decade later he was travelling around the world like a madman, making World Superbike happen. Without him there would have been no Foggy, no Falappa, no Edwards and no Bayliss on your TV. And Ducati would almost certainly have been bankrupt for more than a decade.
Loud, brash and a frightening bundle of energy, McLaughlin made friends and enemies in equal measure as a rider and as a Superbike visionary. Nicknamed 'Motormouth', he was the son of famed 195OS Californian desert racer John McLaughlin, who counted James Dean among his mates.
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Like most racers of the early 1970S McLaughlin rode Yamaha TZs, but his dad ran a Honda dealership and didn't want to sponsor his son on Yamahas. So McLaughlin started riding a CB7S0 in the Big Bore Production class, racing against Ducati 900s, Guzzi Le Mans and Norton Commandos. Production racing was nothing new, but street-based races had always been the cheap end of the programme, for riders who couldn't afford real race bikes.
Obviously keen to set up a high-profile proddie series, McLaughlin got his big idea from Aussie racer Warren Willing, who told him about an old Australian race series called Superbike. "It was like a light came on when he said the word 'Superbike'," McLaughlin recalls. Backed by promoters Bruce Cox and Gavin Trippe (the men who ran the Transatlantic series and invented Superbikers, the precursor to Supermotard), McLaughlin managed to convinced the AMA (US racing's governing body) to include Superbike races in event programmes and eventually create a full championship.
The word Maverick has its roots in Samuel Maverick, a nineteenth century Texan rancher who didn't brand his cattle. Perhaps if the word had been coined in the late twentieth century it would've been a McLaughlin.
Daytona was just the start of McLaughlin's Superbike vision. A decade later he was travelling around the world like a madman, making World Superbike happen. Without him there would have been no Foggy, no Falappa, no Edwards and no Bayliss on your TV. And Ducati would almost certainly have been bankrupt for more than a decade.
Loud, brash and a frightening bundle of energy, McLaughlin made friends and enemies in equal measure as a rider and as a Superbike visionary. Nicknamed 'Motormouth', he was the son of famed 195OS Californian desert racer John McLaughlin, who counted James Dean among his mates.
163
Like most racers of the early 1970S McLaughlin rode Yamaha TZs, but his dad ran a Honda dealership and didn't want to sponsor his son on Yamahas. So McLaughlin started riding a CB7S0 in the Big Bore Production class, racing against Ducati 900s, Guzzi Le Mans and Norton Commandos. Production racing was nothing new, but street-based races had always been the cheap end of the programme, for riders who couldn't afford real race bikes.
Obviously keen to set up a high-profile proddie series, McLaughlin got his big idea from Aussie racer Warren Willing, who told him about an old Australian race series called Superbike. "It was like a light came on when he said the word 'Superbike'," McLaughlin recalls. Backed by promoters Bruce Cox and Gavin Trippe (the men who ran the Transatlantic series and invented Superbikers, the precursor to Supermotard), McLaughlin managed to convinced the AMA (US racing's governing body) to include Superbike races in event programmes and eventually create a full championship.
The word Maverick has its roots in Samuel Maverick, a nineteenth century Texan rancher who didn't brand his cattle. Perhaps if the word had been coined in the late twentieth century it would've been a McLaughlin.