CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
I
t was a reunion 40 years in the
making. Last month, Florid-
ian John Long was invited to a
round of the Canadian Superbike
Championship at Canadian Tire
Motorsport Park (formerly known
as Mosport) to commemorate the
40th anniversary of the series and
Long's victory in the champion-
ship's first race.
"It was humbling to be invited,"
Long said of the commemora-
tion. "They were very gracious
putting all that together. Funny
story—the bike I rode 40 years
ago was in a BMW museum in
Germany and the reunion organiz-
ers were in contact about getting
the bike shipped to Mosport for
P108
CELEBRATING CANADA'S
FIRST SUPERBIKE RACE
road racing stars, headed from
Laguna Seca (the final AMA round)
cross-country to Mosport (about
an hour east of Toronto) to race
a round of the FIM Formula 750
Championship.
Veteran Long, at the time a
columnist for the long-defunct
Cycle Guide magazine, was in
the middle of everything during
that September 40 years ago. He
raced his own Longevity Racing
Yamaha TZ750 in the F750 World
Championship event, a Yamaha
TZ250 in the typical support class,
and then piloted a BMW in the
Superbike races. He entered
nearly all the races at Mosport that
weekend.
the anniversary celebrations. The
Germans said, 'Yes, we'll send
you the orange superbike that won
Daytona.' And the Canadians kept
saying, 'No, we don't want that one.
We want the red, white and blue
one with the number 36 on it.' And
they kept saying, 'Why do you want
that one?' They had to explain three
or four times that they wanted that
one because it won the very first
Canadian Superbike race."
Back in 1978, Long was bat-
tling for the title in the burgeoning
AMA Superbike Championship.
Ultimately, Long tied on points with
Reg Pridmore but lost the title in a
tiebreaker. At the end of the season
he, and many of the other AMA
(Above) John Long, racing his G.S. Tuning BMW
R90S to victory in the first Superbike race in Canada,
held at Mosport in 1978. (Left) John Long (left), who
won the very first Superbike race in Canada, poses
with current Canadian Superbike riders Jordan
Szoke, Ben Young, and Michael Leon.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
ROB
O'BRIEN
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
COLIN
FRASER
