VOLUME 59 ISSUE 7 FEBRUARY 15, 2022 P109
restoration from the crankshaft
up, and I'd only ridden it about
four or five times. I stopped at
a stop sign and the bus didn't
stop. It was horrible. It put me
in the hospital for four months,
and I had another four months
of rehabilitation. And, of course,
the motorcycle was trashed. That
ended my motocross career."
In college, Gietl studied electri-
cal engineering, and he worked
in the parts department at BMW
importer Butler & Smith during
his college days. After school,
Gietl worked for Automation Dy-
namics and helped develop elec-
tronic systems for NASA and the
Polaris submarine project. When
the company decided to con-
solidate operations in Houston,
Gietl, who was married and had
two children by then, decided he
didn't want to move, and he went
back to work for Butler & Smith.
The timing of his return to BMW
couldn't have been better. Ameri-
can executives were looking to
shake BMW's stodgy image as an
old man's touring machine and,
working part-time on the proj-
ect, Gietl helped build a pair of
endurance-racing BMW/5 Series
Boxers that finished one-two in
an endurance event in Danville,
Virginia, at what is now Virginia
International Raceway, in 1969.
Development continued and
BMW had excellent success in
the low-key world of American
and Canadian endurance racing.
That spurred BMW on to develop
a short-lived AMA Formula 750
(later called Formula One) ma-
chine to compete against the
powerful Japanese two-stroke GP
bikes. The racing Beemer had en-
gines originally designed to spin
at 6000 rpm, yet Gietl made them
reliable at 10,000 rpm. The bikes
had some success in qualifying
heat races but never finished very
well in the Nationals.
The introduction of BMWs
R90S in the mid-1970s coincided
with the explosion in popularity of
Superbike racing. It was during
the AMA Superbike Champion-
ship's inaugural season of 1976
that the racing team, under Gi-
etl's direction, reached its zenith.
Butler & Smith BMW showed
up at Daytona in 1976 with a
strong team comprised of Reg
Pridmore and Gary Fisher, and
Gietl had another bike on hand
to use as a backup. West Coast
sales manager Matt Carpi con-
vinced Butler & Smith owner
Peter Adams to field the backup
bike with Steve McLaughlin.
"I was overridden on that
decision," Gietl said of adding
McLaughlin at the last minute. "I
Reg Pridmore en
route to victory on the
Butler & Smith BMW
in the Superbike
Production class at
Laguna Seca in 1976.
