FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RACING
LEGEND GARY NIXON AND KAWASAKI--TOGETHER AGAIN
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 7, 1995)
-- Proving his mettle by winning the first Battle of the Legends race on Monday,
Gary Nixon, a two-time Grand National Champion and 1967 Daytona 200 winner,
went back in time Tuesday to swing a leg over a machine as legendary as the man
himself; the Kawasaki KR750 he nearly took to the 1976 Formula 750 World
Championship.
Teamed
with legendary tuner Erv Kanemoto, Nixon was looking to become America's first world champion
roadracer. Riding the only Kawasaki in the field through and around a sea of
TZ750 Yamahas, the world title, which, by all accounts, should have been
Nixon's, became the proverbial defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
After
progressively building up a points lead in the championship chase, only a
scoring error at the Venezuelan round of the series kept America from crowning
its first world champion; which ironically would have come in the country's
bicentennial year. At the end of the season, results from this ill-fated race
were scrubbed, handing the title to Spaniard Victor Palermo. If Nixon's win at
the Venezuela round was upheld, he would have won the world championship by a
single point.
Racing
glory aside, after spending some time in Canada, this very rare Kawasaki is now
in the loving care of Bob Coy, a motorcycle collector from New Hampshire. The
machine was first bought from Kanemoto in 1977 by Canadian Ken Veasey and sold to Kevin Flecher, a local
racer and engineering executive. Flecher sought to race the classic machine,
but a shortage of spares and the threat of utter destruction of this rich historical
gem quickly ruled that out.
Kawasaki,
a company which has forged its reputation on performance, won the 125cc world
title in 1969 on a diminutive two-stroke machine. In the following decade Kawasaki went on
to build some of the '70's most memorable roadracers, based on its line of
triple-cylindered, two-stroke street bikes. The racers became to be
known simply as the "Green Meanies" due to their fearsome power and bright
livery.
This
particular Kawasaki Green Meanie, on which Nixon narrowly missed the 1976
Formula 750 world championship, is perhaps the most rare of all the Kawasaki
roadrace machines in existence. With less than 20 produced, this
one was ridden by a two-time champion to a controversial finish and was
thoroughly massaged by the world's preeminent tuner.
According
to Nixon, this KR750 still produces Kanemoto's hard-earned 125 horsepower that
came in light-switch bursts of wheel-standing antics, as well as its
thrill-a-minute trackside manners. In dubious understatement, he says, "It was
a bit of work to ride, but quite fun at the same time."
1976 KAWASAKI KR750 SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE: ........... Water-cooled, in-line
three-cylinder piston-port two-stroke
BORE x
STROKE: ........... 68.0 x 68.0
DISPLACEMENT:
........... 747cc
HORSEPOWER:
........... 125 at 9500rpm
CARBURETION:........... Three 36mm Mikunis
IGNITION: ........... Kawasaki CDI
TRANSMISSION:
........... 6-speed
CLUTCH: ........... Dry 24-plate unit
CHASSIS: ........... Tubular steel, double cradle
FRONT
SUSPENSION: ........... 38mm Kayaba
fork
REAR
SUSPENSION: ........... Box-section
swingarm with dual shocks
FRONT BRAKES:
........... Dual 296mm steel discs
with twin-piston calipers
REAR BRAKE:
........... 260mm disc with
twin-piston caliper
WEIGHT: ........... 308 lbs.
TOP SPEED: ...........180
mph
--END--
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