My Laverda Years

By Malcolm Wheeler

My time racing a Laverda came about almost by accident. I had been riding a little Aermacchi in some classic races and in the Formula 3 TT for the Brightman brothers, from Nottingham with some success, but Cleve Brightman fancied a new challenge. Formula 2 was a great class at the time, (late seventies/ early eighties) with 350 two strokes, mainly TZ/LC hybrid Yamaha’s pitched against 600 four strokes. The popular four stroke tool was either a Ducati twin or Honda four. But as I said, Cleve liked a challenge, and bought a brand new, box stock, Laverda Montjuic.

My first impressions weren’t great. After a few miles on the road to run in the motor I rode the noisy little orange monster at a Cadwell Park test day. And, to be honest, I didn’t like it much. Compared to the ‘real’ racers I had been riding it had strange handling, didn’t steer particularly well and disappointingly didn’t feel all that fast. All you Monty owners out there please stick with me ‘cause the story does get better.

The plan never was to run it as a production racer, so the handling and steering wasn’t an issue, long term. But it seemed a shame to leave it in the workshop until we had a frame sorted so we entered it in a few production races. And you know what? With good tyres, a steering damper, and an adaptation to my riding style it gave us a few good short circuit results.

Formula 2 allowed special frames, forks and brakes; in fact you could build a pukka race bike around what started out as a stock engine. The Harris brothers were Cleve’s chosen chassis builder, and although not quick in fulfilling the order the end re sult was to prove well worth the wait. Using their tried and tested design, with widely spaced trellis rails and the engine as a stressed member, the finished article, which arrived early in 1982, was a picture.

Trouble was by this time we had run out of money, Cleve had poured a considerable sum into the motor. By the time the chassis was ready this had been taken out close to the 600 limit for the class, with lots of Cleve’s tuning skill going into the cylinder head work. With little or no budget left we aimed at just the Formula 2 TT, and assembled the thing with standard forks, heavy weight standard wheels, and the roadster brakes. A friend knocked up a tank as a favour, another did a good deal on the fibre glass, and at long last it was up to Cadwell Park to test.

Our budget special was impressive right out of the blocks. With only one set of wheels slicks didn’t come into the equation, but within a couple of hours of carb set-up time, to tune into the short open meggas, which had been designed with the aid of Cleve’s five pound calculator, and a bit of suspension adjustment the lap times were good enough for us all to look forward to the TT.

Finally in the Island practice passed much like any other. The only problems we had were minor and no more than you would expect from what was effectively a new race bike. An ignition wire came adrift, caused by the vibration. Strangely enough this tailed off above 10.000 rpm and was smooth at 11,000, but so much of the TT circuit is ridden by short shifting, and making the motor pull, that numb toes and fingers proved a bit of a problem. Another victim of the vibes was a fairing bracket and steering damper mount. From the first lap it was clear that the bike wasn’t slow, the handling was acceptable, and only the standard cast brakes and road callipers, even with the best pads we could lay our hands on, let the side down a bit.

Race day arrived all too quickly, but each practice session had brought an improvement in both the bikes performance and mine. To be honest I was expecting a decent result, if everything held together, although Cleve was a little less optimistic. From the flag I settled in quickly and the fuel stop at the end of lap two saw me in fifth place. The motor hadn’t missed a beat and from a quick glance, while the fuel trickled in, all the oil was still on the inside.

The next lap flew by with my signal station at Windy Corner showing me in fourth. I found out later that the jubilant waggle of the foot as I passed the Grandstand to start my last circuit was misread by Cleve and made him even more nervous. He needn’t have been, fourth it was for our garden shed special. George Fogarty, aboard a factory Ducati, was fifth. With Cleve’s smile finally cracked a celebration was called for.

Over the winter of ‘82/83 we went all out on the Laverda. On the strength of our 1982 result I managed to get some limited support from Slater Brothers, nothing for free you understand, but big discounts on consumables. They also allowed us a large stock of parts on a sale or return basis, which was to prove invaluable at that years TT. Moto Cinelli also mucked in, with Hoss Elm’s generosity starting a friendship that lasts to this day. He gave us a great price on proper race forks, floating Brembo discs, and gold line brakes. These we bolted to lightweight Astrolight wheels, in my opinion the most under rated race wheels in history. Cleve fitted a total loss Motoplat ignition and with the engine down re-balanced the crank to try to reduce the vibration. I invested in new bodywork, which was a reworked factory RG500 set, and with everything bolted back together the Laverda looked the business, even if I do say so myself.

Our plan was to do all of the World Formula 2 Championship, starting at the TT, and with rounds at Assen, the Ulster GP, and Villa Real. On top of this ambitious programme we hoped to fit in as many British F2 rounds as we could afford.

Just weeks before we headed to the Island we had a final shakedown at the Donington Park British round. Cleve’s engine work, along with all the weight we had pared of the bike, had paid off, and the bike felt quick. And the handling was spot on, with the new forks and brakes being a revelation after the previous season’s standard items. But our joy was to be short lived. On the second lap of the race, having just hooked top under the Dunlop Bridge, a rod let go! Free wheeling to a halt on the grass the damage was heartbreaking, with a hole in the top of the cases big enough to get my fist in.

It didn’t take long back in the workshop to fully asses the damage. Only the cylinder head was salvageable. Bits of conrod and piston had even travelled through the gearbox and destroyed that too. By the time Cleve had brought the motor back to life, using a combination of second hand parts and a big dip into our SOR TT stock, our season’s slush fund was exhausted.

If we thought Donington was like a bad dream TT practice was to prove a nightmare. The still present vibration cracked our second hand crankcases, the additional power found over the winter caused clutch problems, and the exhaust system and brackets fell to pieces. In fact by the end of practice week I had only completed one lap under my own steam, and that was while holding a carb on with my hand. To make the race we had to raid our spares kit big time and worry about the cost later. We fitted a brand new set of cases and reinforced and strengthened everything we could. But even after two very long days, and nights, it was safe to say none of us expected that I would see the finisher’s flag.

The one thing it did do was make it easy to formulate my race plan. With little hope of a finish I decided to go all out for a good lap time or two. On the first circuit I lapped faster than I had before, the second was even better, despite slowing to stop for fuel. As I rode to a halt Cleve, waiting with quick filler in hand, clearly didn’t know if to laugh or cry. Lap three was uneventful, and faster still, and the final circuit was just shy of 105mph, a respectable time in 1983, and I crossed the line in fifth. The bike which had almost beaten us in practice hadn’t missed a beat throughout the race and finished as clean as a whistle. Cleve met me down the return lane to the paddock with tears in his eyes. TT regular top place men behind me included Pete Wild, Steve Henshaw and Steve Cull, all running in much bigger budget teams. Even rostrum positions and much faster laps, which came in later years, didn’t feel as satisfying as that result. However, it could so easily have been a different story. Just two weeks later at Scarborough the clutch gave up the ghost on the second lap of practice.

The rest of the season was a massive disappointment. In the Formula 2 World round at the Ulster Grand Prix the ignition failed while I was running fourth, and at Assen an oil leak from the clutch cover, followed by clutch problems dropped me from a good seventh. By now we were really broke, even having to rely on the generosity of Jim Well’s sponsor, the late Colin Aldridge, to buy me a new rear slick to get me to the start line in Holland, so plans for a trip to Villa Real had to be scrapped.

Our Laverda had quite a sad ending. With a Moto Cinelli Formula 2 Ducati ride on offer to me for the 1984 season Cleve generously loaned the rolling chassis to Yugoslavian Laverda rider Vojko Princic, who we had befriended at the TT and Ulster. While in his possession the war broke out and our chassis was stolen.

Malc Wheeler August 2005