Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

V A INT GE Paul Smart'sImola200-Winning Ducati 750 front-end ch a tter we a lw a ys seemed to get there in th e old d ays fro m the Marzocchi forks m a king itself felt, even on th e new su rface. Hard on th e gas d own th e next short s traigh t; the n some ha rd work n e e d ed t o b rake fo r Clear wa y s w h ile flickin g from side to side; then han g rig h t o ff w h il e t ryin g to ke ep th e b ike a s upri gh t as p ossible, to avoid grou nd ing out the righ t-hand ex ha ust. Thi s already has a flat sp o t in it th at Pa u l a dmits to bashi n g in back in '72 to make life eas ier for hi m self on th e tighter. Br iti sh tra cks . Bu t the fact is tha t, w ith th e distin ctive o ne-up (left) / o ne-d o w n (rig h t) ex h a us t p ipe layout Ducati on ly ever adopted on its '72 lmola b ikes, he wou ld n' t have suffe red to o many p r oble m s a t the H utch tha t yea r, since a reverse-d ir ection Brand s ha s only one right-h and er. . It was th e same a t Im ola in '72 (Acque M inerali w as th e o nl y right tu rn); hence th e unique la yo u t, be cause Duca ti was w orried about burning th e .rid e rs ' legs if b oth p ipes w ere h ig h-ris e . So th e re that's w h y! A ny way, rid i n g th e r i gh t w a y a round Bra n d s today m eans yo u ta ke lots o f ca re t o avoi d g rou ndi ng th a t ri ght ex h a us t, especia lly w it h the sho rt rea r shocks . To beg in wi th , these were s e t too soft (S ma r tie -boy laid off t he Sma rties when he u sed to go racing " or so h e saysl), so th at th e rear ti re w a s rubbin g th e underside of th e seat a t Botto m Bend a nd alo ng th e fro n t s tra ig h t. H owev er, afte r cr a nking th em u p to the hardest of th e three sett ings, there a re no more problems. Rea lly, th o u gh, onc e you ' re p repared to w o rk a t m aking it s teer, th e Ducati has no vices for a bike of th i s era - e s p e ci all y o ne w i t h thi s much power o n tap. Bu t to gi ve yo urself a thrill I defy a ny red-blood ed Ducatisti n ot to a p p re cia te, fire up th e lm ola w inner, si t the re for a m oment a t rest to reli sh the so u nd of o ffb eat thund e r ec hoing fro m th o s e o pen exha u sts , th en clic k into firs t gea r on th e one-u p righ t-foot gearchange - a nd p rete nd you ' re chasing A go's MV off th e Imola sta rt line as you gas it u p hard a nd P au l Sm art' s lmola 200 vic tory in 1!}72 established Ducati as big-bike manufacturers in the minds of enthusiasts aro und the world (who had previou sly only thou ght of the Italian ma rqu e as purveyors of sma ll-ca pac ity singles, so me with the eccentric addition of desrnod rornic valve gear), bu t it nearly didn 't happen at all. For as Paul recalls, it was his wife, Maggie, who accep ted the offer of the rid e for him, when it came from the boss of Duca ti just o ne . week before the race! (Above) Paul Smart and "01' number 16." 42 Now the energetic 54-year-old ow ner of a motor cycle ma in dealershi p in his hom etown of Maid stone, Sma rt still has the crucial ability to look back with wry amusemen t on a roller-coaster I fl-yea r racing career that had some lows as well as its fair share of highs but - perhaps wi th the exceptio n of his Imola 200 win - has never achieved the wo rld recog nition it dese rved . For Smart was in ma ny ways a key figure in the wa tershed era o f mot orcycle sport, th e world -class ride r who lin ked two genera tions of rid ing skills as well as the contras ting compe tition phil osophies of two continents. Long before the first wave of America n riders like Pat Hennen and Kenn y Roberts came to ply the ir trade in Europe an d pave th e wa y for the U'S. takeover of G P rid er rosters th at happen ed in the 198Os, Smart had begun a minia tu re on e-man migration of his own in the opposi te dir ection. And almost alone among th e last top-level expone n ts of th e big British singles, Paul sw itched successfully not on ly to (Above) The c hassis used o n S mart's 750 Ducatl wasn't just based o n th e pr od ucti on version , it was the production version , even equipped with the lugs for the eenterstand, racing the 250/ 350cc Yamaha two-st roke s at the GP level, he also moved u p with equal su ccess to the bigbike Formula 750 class which u ltimately spawned today's superbike racing. Few riders - not even Agostini or Pa ul's brot her-inJ , Barry Sheene- prov ed as adaptabl e as he was, nor aw achieved so mu ch success on so many differen t kind s of bikes - and tracks. Paul Smart started racing in 1964 on a 125cc Bultaco, as a typical product of the cafe-racer crowd - a fact which explained his tra demark ha nging-off riding style which - with the 1970s adven t of slick tires, improved grip and increa sed angles of lean - was copied by a w hole generation of modern-day riders . However, they might have thou ght twice about do ing so, had they known why Professor Smart reall y di d it in the first place. " I wa s handic a pped ' back in m y cafe-racing days by being a keen BSA , owner," says Paul, " whereas all my mat es at the Busy Bee an d Ace Cafe had Tri umphs, an d the only way to keep up with them on a Shoo ting Star wa s to scra tch like ma d, which meant everything grou nded, So I su p pose I used to try to keep it all as upright as po s sib le b y hanging o ff, and t h a t stayed wit h me w hen I.st ar ted rac in g." Worki ng hi s wa y u p th e Britis h ran ks, Sma rt first mad e his mark by fini sh ing second in the 1967 Pro duction 1T on a 750 No rto rcbu t unlike so many Brits then and since, Paul's horizons were much wider than the Isle of Man, and he mov ed up to GP racing wit h the help of spo nso r Joe Fra ncis, for whom he raced 250/350ce Yama . has to a succession of pod ium GP finishes in Germany, Finland , Sweden, East German y and Ulster in 1970-71, as well as ridi ng a Seeley G50 in the SOOcc GPs wi th rather less success . This was because the two -st roke era wa ~ by th en we ll and trul y born , and Paul Smart wa s one of the first top rid ers to figu re tha t out. Havin g won the Bol d 'Or 24 Hours for Triumph with Tom Dickie in 1970, he was includ ed in the British compa ny's Form ula 7S0 wor ks team for 1971 including the Daytona 200, in which he set the fast est ' qualifying time but retired with mechanlcal problems whil e leading. However, that had opened Smart's eyes to U'S, racing, and for 1972 Paul signed wi th Team Han sen to race the wo rks-ba cked Kawa saki two-stroke triples in America, jetting back and forth across the Atlantic to race in Europe as well , on no nconflicting d ates. That was how he came to be avai lable for the Ducati ride tho ug h in fact, it wasn't Smart who Ducati boss Fredmano Spairani first approa ched to ride for the Bologna factory on the racin g debut of the firm's new 9D-degrce V-twin desmo, in the 1972 Imola 200. [arn o Saarinen and Barry Sheene both turned down the idea of riding what they saw as a lumbering an d un competitive long-w he elbase V-twin fo ur-s trok e again st the best that Japa n and Britain could prod uce. It was left to Barry's sister, Maggie Smart, to accept the rid e on her husband Pau l's behalf. "Pa ul wa s racing th e Kawasaki at Roa d Atlanta when Ducati called me in California, where we we re living," recalls Magg ie. "They needed an answer right away, but there was no way I could get hold of Paul, so I made the decision and accep ted for him . It was only the week before the Imola race that they called, but I kn ew h e wasn 't d oing a nyt hi ng, a nd the m on ey seemed good - so I said yes. When he called me later that night after th e Atlant a race, he we nt mad , 'I' m not ridin g that bloody old thing: he said at first - but then we had a fam ily discussion over th e phone, and he cha nged his mind !" Hyi ng from Atlanta (where he'd finished 'second on the H1R Kawasa ki 750cc triple) to Milan via New York and London, Smart arrived in Hilly after a marathon 23-hour pl an e jou rn ey to find himse lf bein g hus tled straight from the airport to the Bologna factory . Ducati wan ted him to test the new 750cc V-tw in he was set to race at Imola , at the nea rby Mod ena aeroautodromo. Wha t he fou nd awa iting him there amazed him. "There was th is flash y new bus with plate-glass side s in which all the race bikes were tran sported aro und so people could see them," remem bers Paul, "and there wasn' t just one bike for me: They'd built 10 of them - two each for all four riders (Sma rt, longtime Ducati tester Bruno Spaggiari, Ermanno Giuliano and British import er Vic Camp's rider Alan Duns combe), plus two spa res. That' s when I realized this was a very serious vent ure, by a company that was d etermined to win.' Suddenly, I felt a who le lot .bett er abou t coming all this way to rid e for them ." That feeling barely survived the initial laps at Modena, for Sma rt was less impressed with the Ducatis at close hand. "They were fitted with skin ny little 1T1oo Dunlop production t ires, a nd hu ge steeri ng da mpe rs th ey didn't need , because wit h a 60-inch wheelbase, they wouldn't go ar ound corners, anyway! They felt pretty awful to rid e, eve n afte r I'd per suaded Ducati to fit some racing tire : there seemed to be so me confusion s in their minds as to wha t Form ula 750 really was all about. They seemed to think it was a glorified Modified Production race with tuned eng ines and stree t tires - hence the street frame on th e racers, complete wi th lugs for the centers tand ! - whereas I knew better than most from racing in the USA tha t th is was Grand Pri x racin g with big mot or s, and no half measures would suffice. However, even afte r I'd got them to set the bike up as a ra cer, it still seemed so slow : There was loads of torque, but with the 9O-degree V layout, it seemed to be firing every other lamppost." Maybe so, but as anyone who' s ever raced a Ducati V-twin will confirm , appearances can be d ecepti ve. ,

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