Throwback Thursday: Heavy Metal Thunder
Larry Lawrence | October 20, 2016
Cycle News Photo Collection
To be a racer in the early years of AMA Superbike racing took some gumption to say the least. This photo from the AMA Superbike National at Laguna Seca Raceway, shows Racercrafters Kawasaki’s Harry Klinzmann, one of the stars of the series, going bar to bar with privateer Steve McClenon on a Suzuki GS750-based machine. The Superbikes of that era were heavy, 1000cc beasts with brakes that often turned to butter in four or five laps and the cornering clearance of a lowered Road King, yet the fans loved watching the riders wrestle the bikes around the racetracks of America and the series quickly supplanted AMA Formula One as the premier road racing championship in America.
McClenon’s Suzuki was typical of the non-factory Superbike of the era. He said he built the engine on a coffee table in his living room and lined up to race against the likes of Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wes Cooley and the rest of the top Superbike racers of the era.
“People talk about how big and heavy and badly those bikes handled,” McClenon says. “But you know we had state-of-the-art stuff for that time. We looked at the guys who raced in the 1960s and early ‘70s with drum brakes, rock hard tires and no suspension and questioned how they managed to do it.”
And of racing wheel to wheel with Klinzmann, McClenon says, “We called him Handsome Harry and he and his family had Big Al’s Restaurant down by Disneyland and were really good people. I had a great time being on the track with guys like Harry. He was a little more serious about his program than me. I was simply getting on the track to try to save my driver’s license and keep from getting arrested road racing on Angeles Crest Highway.”
You can read about the wild and woolly early days of AMA Superbike racing by signing up for the Cycle News Archive back issues at: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/