AMA Superbike Racing and the Past: Museums and Crushers

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Reknowned master tuner Mike Velasco talks with future 3-Time AMA Superbike Champion Fred Merkel in what was then the paddock area at Road America for the AMA Superbike Series races in May of 1984. Merkel is sitting on his '84 model year #84 VF750F Honda Interceptor
HRC Superbike which he went on to win the 1984 AMA Superbike Championship with. He also repeated in '85-'86 and then went on to win the first two World Superbike Championships in '88-'89 riding Honda RC30s for Team Rumi. Merkel and Velasco won a boat load of races, and Velasco has tuned for some other respectable names in AMA Road Racing as well, including Fast Freddie Spencer with the Two Brothers Honda team in '90-'92. Velasco also teamed with Dave Sadowski to win the '94 Formula USA Championship on a Honda 900-based rocketship.
The Interceptor first arrived on American soil in the Spring of 1983 as THE must-have bike of all sport riding enthusiasts, club racers and professional level racers as well. To put it into comparison, if you look at all of the GSX-R1000 Suzuki's on the AMA Superbike grid today, there were almost as many VF750F Interceptors on the grids in the '80s because of the level of popularity, cutting-edge engineering and relative-cost at the time to put a competitive effort together.
After originally putting the V-45 motor in their Sabre and Magna street models, Honda came up with what was the game-changer in sport bikes with the Interceptor in 1983. But due to various problems, it was Merkel who won the marque's first championship after Wayne Rainey won the '83 AMA Superbike Championship riding for Rob Muzzy on the Kawasaki GPZ-750.
Racing bikes such as these works of HRC art are hard to come by today, as many were either broken up or simply put to death in the Japanese crushers. Fortunately, some were spared and went to a few museums and private owners. Personally what I would do to have one of these in the great room or the garage in glass!

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I came acrossed a great article put together by Dean Adams over at his great site SuperBikePlanet.com that talks about race bikes from the past and what happens to them after their usefulness runs out. In the '70s and '80s there weren't as many collectors or museums, for one, and even if there had been at the time in many cases they STILL may have ended up in the crushers since the higher-ups didn't want the technology to get into the wrong hands. And that is also known to still happen today, for that matter.

Fortunately today there are some private collectors as well as museums around the world that will get ahold of these past racing steeds and put them on display, either for themselves or for the public to drool over. Two examples of this today are one from each type of collector.

Brian O'Shea is a gentleman whose collection has been featured in Motorcyclist Magazine. O'Shea owns a 'replica' of the '84 Honda Interceptor ridden to the AMA Superbike Championship by Fred Merkel as shown above. And then there is George Barber, who built a little road racing track outside of Birmingham, AL. and put in a little museum while he was at it. Some of the bikes in the Barber Vintage Museum include one of Dale Singleton's late '70s Daytona 200-winning Yamaha TZ-750 as well as one of Freddie Spencer's Two Brothers Racing Honda RC30s, and a Mike Hailwood Isle of Man-winning late '70s Ducati.

You can read a little of both below and check out some of the history of AMA Superbike Racing among other series from the past and see if you recognize any machines that you have drooled over in the past-or still do, for that matter!

Here is Dean's article about a lot of race bikes and their history with the crusher or the shredder and a few cases of whose hands some of the others may have ended up in:

http://superbikeplanet.com/2008/Mar/080325gotodie.htm

Motorcyclist Magazine did a fine write up on Brian O'Shea's private collection:

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/122_0607_superbike/index.html

And here is Brian's site with some pictures of Merkel's '84 AMA Superbike Championship winner among others:

http://www.vintagesuperbike.com/history.html
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And here is the official link to the Barber Vintage Museum in Leeds, AL. HIGHLY recommended to go see this place whenever or as SOON as you can. The place is majestic, so leave at least a day to check it out. You won't be disappointed:

http://www.barbermuseum.org/
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DMG Has a Long Road Ahead of Them to Fix AMA Superbike

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Flyin' Fred Merkel on the #27 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 gets on the brakes coming into a turn at Gateway International across the river from The Arch in St. Louis during qualifying for the AMA Superbike round in August of '95. Merkel came out of the 250GP class in the AMA series to become one, if not the most flamboyant of AMA Superbike Champions the sport has ever seen. After winning the AMA Superbike Crown in '84-'86 riding Mike Velasco-prepped VF750 Honda Interceptors, Merkel headed across the pond to contest the new World Superbike Championship in '88 for Team Rumi on a Honda RC30. He won the first two seasons' championships in the process on unfamiliar tracks under unfamiliar surroundings. After returning to the AMA series in the early '90s, he campaigned bikes for Team Muzzy Kawasaki and Yoshimura Suzuki in the old 750 Supersport class as well as the Superbike class before having to retire early due to an ugly crash at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, AZ. in late '95.
The United States has also seen several other riders who parlayed pretty good AMA careers into World Superbike Championships---Doug Polen '91-'92, Scott Russell '93, John Kocinski '97, Colin Edwards '00 and '02, and Ben Spies in '09--winning nine championships in the series first 22 years.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While perusing the internet of the usual suspect websites while trying to dig up some half-way interesting news to comment about this weekend, I came acrossed the following article penned by the super Chris Martin over at SpeedTV.com.
Chris makes some damn fine points about how the U.S. or AMA American Superbike (it's AMA Superbike--let's just leave it alone at that!) series has been looked down upon from across the pond as of late for a feeding ground for rider talent to nourish and move up into World Superbike or eventually the MotoGP series. While attending the Miller Motorsports Park round of World Superbike over the Memorial Day weekend, Chris got the opportunity to talk with some of the higher ups in WSBK, and got an earful on how or what they thought about the AMA series as of late since all of the problems that were stirred up in and around the series when the DMG people took over. And it's not real positive.
In spite of the 'let's make happy'-stance that has helped the AMA series to look more positive since the first of this year, the damage created by the series under the helm of Roger E sent some pretty negative vibes and smoke signals to the European crowd in how they viewed AMA Superbike as a feeding ground for talent. And how they still feel that way in spite of those positive changes this year. Once considered one of the major proving grounds for racing in Europe, the AMA series is suffering badly due to mis-management problems from the recent past, let alone the economic fall out we have all seen. And rebuilding what once was may prove to be even harder now that the negative ripple has had it's effects.
This is well worth the time to check out to see what Chris heard about how the AMA series is looked upon now from afar. They may have to rebuild Rome if this is any indication of the damage that the Daytona Motorcycle Group has inflicted in their dumming down of the series in the last two years. They've been on a positive path this year, but this could be a long journey.

Read on and thanks to Chris Martin for penning this article over at SpeedTV.com:

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/martin-land-of-inopportunity/P1
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Thanks for coming by to check us out and have a good and safe week!
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Troy Corser Gets BMW World Superbike Team Best Result Yet at Valencia

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Colin Edwards on the #45 Vance and Hines Yamaha leads Troy Corser on the #19 Ferracci Ducati in the carousel turn at Mid Ohio during the AMA Superbike final in summer of 1994. Dale Quarterley on the #32 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Kawasaki follows, with Tom Kipp on the #16 Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 in pursuit, Jamie James (partially hidden) on the #2 Vance and Hines Yamaha, Tiger Sohwa on the Team Muzzy #41 ZX7, Thomas Stevens on the #11 Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750, Mike Smith on the Smokin' Joe's #68 Honda RC45 and Fred Merkel on the #27 Team Muzzy Kawasaki ZX7 all vying for position. This shot was early in the final and Miguel Duhamel is already through on the soon-to-break Harley Davidson VR1000. Edwards went on to win his first AMA Superbike final later in the race and Corser went on to win the 1994 AMA Superbike Championship at the season finale at Road Atlanta a little over two months later. He then vaulted to World Superbikes, won his first WSBK Championship while riding for Ducati in '96 and bagging his second in '05 while riding for Suzuki. Let's hope he can make it a hat trick and get one for BMW before he retires. Corser did a great job over this last weekend by just missing the box in race one at Valencia in World Superbike competition. The BMW team is getting closer thanks to one of the masters of bike set up and testing. We can't wait to see him not only on the box but on TOP as well!
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One of the stories that missed being front and center over the weekend was Troy Corser taking the #11 BMW Motorrad Motorsport S1000RR to a fourth place finish in World Superbike race one at Valencia. Of course, fourth doesn't seem like a great accomplishment for a former multi-time champ and multi-race winner like Corser, but for the second year World Superbike BMW team it is quite the accomplishment. After a slow, crash-filled first round race weekend in Australia for the team, Corser running within less then 4.5 seconds of winner Carlos Checa just three rounds into the season is a pretty big leap. Coupled with the addition of David Tardozzi, his former crew chief at Ducati, Corser and team are very steadily getting the handle on the second year mount.
Bravo to Troy and Team Motorrad Motorsport BMW for this great stride, and we'll be looking to see more out of this great team as the year progresses. And with six different manufacturers in the top six in race one at Valencia, the competition is fierce in the series, but we know Troy and company are up to it. Bravo and go get 'em, mate!
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Here's Troy's official take on the weekend outing at Valencia thanks to the folks at Crash.net across the pond. Great job Troy and we can't wait to see you ON the podium soon with the BMW team!
http://www.crash.net/world+superbikes/news/158665/1/best_yet_for_bmw_as_corser_closes_on_podium.html
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