VOL. 55 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 P117
you could rev it up and you could
feel the bike squat," Kidd explained.
"It did the same thing on the track.
You'd accelerate out of a turn and the
thing would just squat and hook up.
On the Yamaha it would just never
squat. It just never seemed to settle
coming out of the turns and would still
be sliding out towards the wall when
everyone else was on the gas and
squirting away."
While the Yamaha was being
developed, Kidd was allowed to ride
one of Lawwill's Harleys on the big
tracks. That put Kidd in the unique
position of probably being the only
rider in history being paid by Yamaha,
but racing a Harley in competition.
"Coming into the '81 season I
was fully committed to the Yamaha
project," Kidd said. "And at the start
of the season I raced Yamaha short
track bikes at Houston and then won
at Ascot. Then I started doing well on
Mert's Harley and before you know it, I
was in the hunt for the championship."
Kidd, battling for the '81 AMA
Grand National number-one flat
track plate may have proved to be a
downfall for the XV project. Sud-
denly, with the opportunity to win his
first national championship, Kidd's
priorities changed.
"All of a sudden in my eyes, devel-
oping the XV took a back seat to me
winning the number one," Kidd said.
Kidd only tried to practice and
qualify with the Yamaha a couple
more times in the second half of the
season, switching to the Harley on the
big tracks as he raced to victory in the
1981 championship in a furious battle
with Gary Scott and Randy Goss.
Filice was the sole rider for the
XV750 project in '82, Kidd, signing
with Honda and taking the number-
one plate with him. The closest Filice
ever came to making a national on
the XV was at the '82 Sacramento
Mile. He was leading the Last-
Chance qualifier on the final lap,
when he tangled with Jay Beach in
the first turn and got shuffled back
to fourth.
The program gradually fizzled out
that summer just as the team was
finding more power, only to have
it blow up several times under the
strain. Filice crashed and broke his
wrist at the July Indy Mile, forcing him
to miss much of the rest of the sea-
son. By then his road racing prowess
was coming into the forefront and his
focus too began to shift towards a
future on the pavement.
Steve Morehead tested the Ya-
maha at Du Quoin and was offered
a ride on the bike, but declined.
Ricky Campbell raced the bike at the
August Indy Mile and came within
one position in his semi of making
the main.
With the industry suffering a reces-
sion, budgets were being shaved
back and at the end of the 1982
season Yamaha pulled the plug on
the XV750 project.
"It was a shame that they
didn't keep working to devel-
op that bike," Kidd said. "I felt
a little bad for the way things
turned out when I suddenly
found myself with the champi-
onship in reach. Who knows?
If I hadn't been in the hunt for
the number one maybe we
could have really put more fo-
cus on the Yamaha and made
it into a winning bike. It had
a lot of potential and we had
all the right people in place to
make it workâit just needed a
little more time." CN
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Mike Kidd helped
developed
the XC750 but
a run at the
championship
changed his
focus.
Jimmy Filice also had a hand
in the XS750 project.
