Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/241255
CN III ARCHIVES P86 BY LARRY LAWRENCE LIGHTWEIGHT ROAD RACING REDISCOVERED F or decades there has been a gaping hole in the history of American road racing. Media guides and online records make it easy enough to go back and find past AMA Superbike and Daytona SportBike and Supersport winners. Even for defunct classes like Battle of the Twins and Formula One you could always find past winners online if you dug a little bit. But until very recently when motorcycling journals American Motorcyclist and Cycle News made their back issues available, the years 1963 through 1976 of the old AMA Lightweight class (later called Formula 2 and lastly 250 Grand Prix) was lost history. The problem was that, in spite of being an ultracompetitive class that featured many of America's best racers, for whatever reason the AMA never deemed the class a National Championship until, at the very earliest the late 1970s (although there seems to be no clear-cut definition of exactly when it was designated as such, and trust me I've searched). So even though AMA Lightweight races ran on nearly every weekend of an AMA Road Race National, since the races weren't officially part of a National Championship, records of the races were never kept -not even by the AMA. It's fortuitous that thanks to these digitized versions of AM and Cycle News the rich history of the long forgotten form of road racing is starting to see the light of day again. The class was amazing. Not only did it bring GP racing to the pro ranks of American motorcycling, complete with fully faired road race bikes for the first time, it also featured the best of the best. Riders like Dick Mann, Gary Nixon, Kel Carruthers, Steve Baker and Kenny Roberts. The other unique aspect of the class was that it gave amateur riders (later designated the Junior class) the opportunity to race head to head with the Kenny Roberts (60) and Kel Carruthers (73) were the two winningest riders in the early era of AMA Lightweight road racing. Experts. In today's terms think of all the riders from Superbike, Daytona SportBike and Supersport coming together to race in a smaller-bike class with relatively equally matched machinery. The thought of a Supersport rider winning against the Superbike and DSB guys would practically be unthinkable. The same thing was thought in those days, that Amateur riders could never break through and beat the Experts, but it did happen on a couple of occasions and was big news. The records indicate that a young Ron Pierce was the first Amateur (or Junior) to break through and beat the Experts when he won the Lightweight class in Carlsbad, California, in 1967. John Long also accomplished the feat of beating the big boys at Pocono in 1973. The Lightweight class also kept some riders in the racing game. 1965 Daytona 200 winner Ralph White was trying to run a business back home in Southern California and race at the same time. He needed to fly to the races. When HarleyDavidson wouldn't agree to pay for that he left the factory team, but was able to keep racing when