YAMAHA POWERS ON
The 1974 season would see machinations of epic proportions and internal friction within the team, along with some serious changes to a motorcycle that had shown huge potential.
Despite losing their rising star rider, Jarno Saarinen, the previous season, Yamaha’s racing team knew they had a job to do and a title to compete for.
Rod Gould was Yamaha’s European PR chief and would go on to be European race team manager; as winner of the 250cc world championship on a Yamaha he knew how a racer’s mind worked. Gould was instrumental in brokering a deal between his employers and Giacomo Agostini. The Italian multichampion had become increasingly disenfranchised with his long-term employer, MV Agusta, and their perceived lack of development with factory 500s in the face of the growing threat from Japanese two strokes. Agostini was at the top of his game, but realised that retirement was only just over the horizon. He wanted to go out on a high, but probably felt he was being played off against MV’s other hugely capable rider, Phil Read. After much discussion and bartering the Italian announced his move to Yamaha in December 1973.
The 1974 OW20 caused numerous raised eyebrows when it was revealed yet, in reality, the bike’s development was only a rational evolutionary upgrade of an existing system.
Yamaha had been using monoshock suspension on its moto crossers since 1972 so it was only logical the set up would find its way on to the GP bikes. Aside from more suspension travel, the new system added a much needed degree of triangulation to the rear swing arm, thereby improving handling.
Internal friction proved to be part and parcel of the factory team with Agostini asking for changes in chassis geometries, whilst the Japanese engineers refused to accept the rider’s input. At this juncture the top Yamaha mechanics didn’t want to share knowledge with the Europeans who were actually working on the bikes, and this scenario regularly turned toxic. Finn Tepi Lansivouri had been signed up as the team’s second rider, but would go on to have an inauspicious season, firstly getting to understand the fiery 500 and then suffering from a poor components situation with the Number One rider getting the best of the parlous parts supply situation.
The start of the season didn’t go well with bearing failures and the Italian’s bike running out of fuel at his home Grand Prix at Modena. Fortunately, a pair of wins at Austria and Holland at least confirmed the transition to two strokes hadn’t wrong-footed Yamaha’s star rider. With race bikes being very much work in progress, the factory came up with a much revised motor mid-season that was some 20 kilos lighter. Haunted by the Imola fuel issue, the factory also used the tail piece of the OW20 as a supplementary fuel tank, but it was all to no avail. MV rider and now arch rival Phil Read beat his old teammate by more than a minute at the Spa. In Sweden Barry Sheene’s Suzuki seized, taking Agostini down with it, breaking his shoulder and effectively ending his season prematurely. Lansivouri went on to win the race, but the rest of the season saw Read retain the title for MV. At least Yamaha could take some solace in the fact that they won the manufacturer’s title. The factory was still on a learning curve, but at least now knew that their premier class GP machines half the potential to take the ultimate accolade.
Over the closed season of 74-75 a lot of R&D went into the OW series. That the concept had potential was a given, but the devil was in the detail.
The R&D team was painfully aware that small iterative steps of fine tuning were the way forward. Perhaps 1975 might see the Iwata factory finally win the premier title?
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