The Kawasaki name has, over the decades, been inextricably linked to a handful of riders. Dave Simmonds, who brought the marque its first world championship title in 1969 on a Kawasaki 125, and its first race win in the 500cc class at Jarama two years later, Mick Grant who brought Kawasaki their only 500cc win at the Isle of Man Senior TT in 1975, the last year it counted as a world championship round, and Kork Ballington, who won both the 250 and 350cc titles on the company’s tandem twins for two consecutive years in ’78 and ’79 are all staunch Kawasaki men. Across the Atlantic in the USA a diminutive little French-Canadian, Yvon Duhamel, known affectionately as the “Flying Frog” brought the Kawasaki name firmly into the limelight in the market where it counted most, through his sheer talent – and the number of crashes he survived on the evil-handling 750cc two-stroke triple, the Kawasaki H2R. For a look at one such brave tussle visit HERE.
Duhamel – father of the more recent top-level AMA superbike racer Miguel – was an extraordinarily talented fellow. He won the Canadian dirt track championship in 1963, ’65, 66, ’67 and ’68. He scooped various motocross championships, was a successful ice racer, winning three Canadian championships, and finished second in the ’68 Canadian trials championship. He also had a talent for making money from all of his activities. In an interview with Cycle World
in 1975 Duhamel, who earned a record $90 000 a year from Kawasaki to race their unruly triples in the USA, told the interviewer that he earned another $90 000 from product endorsements. “But I never count. Because I make money from snowmobiles too. I was making almost $100,000 with snowmobiles…”
Snowmobiles? Yep. Duhamel raced the things in the winters in Canada, won the world 1970 World Championship as well as the grueling 800km cross-country Winnipeg to St Paul race, and the following year set a World Snowmobile Speed Record of 127 mph (203 km/h)
Despite all these accomplishments, Duhamel was most famous in the USA for his brave rides on the ill-handling 750cc Kawasaki two-strokes. As Kawasaki’s top rider in the early to mid-1970s he won just half a dozen national championship races on the two-strokes, breaking down or crashing out of the rest. Then, in late 1972, Kawasaki launched their 903cc four-cylinder Z1 four-stroke, and in March 1973 set out to smash a couple of dozen world records for various distances and times up to 24 hours. Off to Daytona International Speedway they went with a pair of bog standard 903cc Z1s, and one mildly modified version with a fairing. Yvon Duhamel was to ride that machine around the famous track to establish a new world single-lap speed record, as well as 10 km and 100 km records. On the first of the three days he did so with ease, lapping for the single lap at an average of 160 mph, or just over 257 km/h – a new world record for any motorcycle. He also achieved his goals over the 10km and 100 km distances.
See – and enjoy the sound – HERE.
Over the next two days and night the eight riders involved set another 49 records, including the 24 hour record at a 176 km/h average for 4 234 km, including stops for rider changes, fuel and tyres. See HERE.
Whatever that little Daytona exercise cost Kawasaki, it was worth it. Motorcyclists around the world were in awe of the mighty Z1, and sales rocketed. The King had arrived, and Yvon Duhamel became even more famous worldwide – along with the world’s first Superbike!
by Gavin Foster