P120
CN
III BOOK REVIEW
BY ALAN CATHCART
M
ore than any other
Japanese manufacturer,
Kawasaki has tradition-
ally gone racing with the bikes
its dealers sold in their show-
rooms—even its three-cylinder
H1-R, the first two-stroke to chal-
lenge the Agostini/MV Agusta
duo for 500 GP victories, was
based on its H1 street bike. And
nowhere was that more impor-
tant than in the USA, where
throughout the '70s and '80s
Kawasaki's U.S. affiliate KMC
reaped a rich harvest of AMA
Championship titles and race
wins with bikes derived from its
customer lineup.
The man ultimately respon-
sible for fronting this operation
was Randy Hall, a South Dakota
dirt-tracker who, after spending
a year in Europe following GP
road racing's Continental Circus
in wrenching [spannering] his
British privateer mate Rod Gould
to the 1970 World 250 GP title
with a Yamaha, was hired on his
return Stateside as KMC's first
Racing Team Manager. In a 17-
year career with Kawasaki, Hall
held this post for 13 years, com-
bined with his role as Advanced
Engineering Manager in the
firm's R&D Center in Southern
California, KMC having recruited
Gary Mather to take over running
the superbike team from him.
Hall was charged with creat-
ing Kawasaki's official AMA road
racing team from the ground
up, initially in conjunction with
Team Hansen, later on his own.
He was thus directly respon-
sible for hiring such standout
stars down the years as Yvon
Duhamel, Gary Nixon, Eddie
Lawson and Freddie Spencer to
ride the lean, mean, Lime Green
machines KMC developed in
conjunction with the parent KHI
R&D team in Japan. In these two
separate companion volumes—
the first dealing with the two-
strokes, the second with KMC's
superbike years from 1978
onwards, with just a brief look at
KMC's off-road activities—Randy
tells the inside story of how it all
happened in a clear, concise
but very readable way, complete
with numerous tantalizing titbits
and slivers of data that only an
insider can impart.
So he confirms the rumor that
LEAN, MEAN
AND LIME
GREEN:
VOLUMES 1 & 2
