With the possible exception of a six year period between 1977 and ’82 during which they won no less than 73 grand prix races and eight riders’ world championships in the 250 and 350cc classes, Kawasaki’s motorcycle division has never invested into World Championship Grand Prix racing as heavily as the other three Japanese manufacturers. When Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki had dived in boots and all in the early ‘60s Kawasaki was very much a newcomer to the motorcycle industry, and although Team Green contested the smaller classes in Europe from July 1966, it was on a much smaller scale, and never won them a single grand prix. Their first world championship in the 1969 125cc class, three years after they’d withdrawn entirely from world championship racing thus came as a bolt from the blue, and it was all due to an Englishman called Dave Simmonds.
Kawasaki’s 50, 125 and 250cc racebikes were quick but fragile, and in the second race of their intended first full championship year – 1966 – the factory hit a setback when their only works rider, Toshio Fujii was killed in practice for the Isle of Man TT in August. He’d failed to score any points in the prior six races. Kawasaki canned the project but for the last race of the season, the Japanese GP in October, they invited Simmonds, who had British 125 and 250cc titles, a ride on their 125cc twin. By that time Suzuki and Yamaha had four-cylinder 125 machines, while Honda had a five-cylinder tiddler, so the twin-cylinder rotary-valve Kawasaki two-strokes were outdated, but Simmonds rode it to a splendid 8th place. The Englishman, knowing that Kawasaki had developed a 125cc liquid-cooled V4 for GPs and raced it successfully in their domestic series badly wanted a works ride, but was turned down because the factory had withdrawn from racing and there was no money for a full GP effort. Simonds persevered and asked for a bike and spares to campaign on his own. Kawasaki at first refused, but after sending him on a training course at the factory realised that he did indeed know one end of a spanner from the other, and finally agreed to lend him the old twin and some spares. During ’67 and ’68 he contested the GPs, driving himself across Europe and tuning and repairing the bike on his own, but was plagued by mechanical gremlins and injuries. He finished 7th in the first year, and 14th the next.
Then, in ’69, his luck changed. The F.I.M. had changed the rules to limit the number of cylinders and gears in the various classes, at the stroke of a pen removing the expensive multi-cylinder engines from the equation, so Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki all officially withdrew from GP racing, although they supported their chosen riders’ efforts extensively. Simmonds the privateer was back in with a chance, even though his bike already had three hard seasons behind it, with very little remaining in the way of spares.
He missed the first of the 11 races of the ’69 championship in Spain because the organisers wouldn’t pay him any start money, but cocked them a snook by winning eight of the remaining 10 rounds and picking up second places in the remaining two. He won the title, and single-handedly brought Kawasaki the manufacturers’ championship. In 1971 and ’72 Simmonds gave Kawasaki their first GP win in the 500cc class, and brought in another three podiums on the two-stroke triples, but died tragically midway in the ’72 season when Australian racer Jack Findlay’s caravan caught alight at a circuit in France. Simmonds rushed into the flames to rescue Findlay’s mother but died in the attempt.
Kawasaki motorcycles have won 89 motorcycle world championship grand prix races, and their bikes have brought their racers nine riders’ world championships. Dave Simmonds gave Team Green eleven of those GP wins, including their first grand prix victory ever, their first riders’ and manufacturers’ world championships, their first Isle of Man TT victory, and their first win in a 500cc Grand Prix. He was also the last Brit to win a 125cc World Championship – a record that may finally be broken should Danny Kent take the title this year in the Moto 3 class that replaced the 125 class.
Long may Dave Simmond’s memory live on.
To read more about Dave Simmonds visit Bikesocial
by Gavin Foster