Jack Findlay’s TZ750
Australian Jack Findlay was the privateer’s privateer – a man who epitomised the precarious existence of the band of self-funded, self-driven riders who peopled the grids of European road racing during the 1960s.
Racing every weekend in any event that would pay them at least a modicum of start money sufficient to live off, Findlay and his companions were the supporting cast to the titanic battle between Japanese and European factory teams. This was captured for all time by French movie director Jérome Laperrousaz in his film Continental Circus, an atmospheric against-all-odds epic starring Jack Findlay, accurately depicted as the underdog hero battling against the might of Honda and MV. Born in 1935 in Mooroopna in central Victoria, Jack had an undistinguished racing career Down Under, in between working as a trainee accountant at the local Commonwealth Bank. But in 1958 he became one of the many Antipodean riders who headed to Europe to join the Continental Circus, and after purchasing in 1962 the bike he will always be associated with, the unique McIntyre Matchless G50, he became the prince of the privateers, finishing third in the 500cc World Championship in 1966 to the ubiquitous Agostini and Hailwood duo, and second to Ago in 1968. But whereas several of his Circus companions were blessed with lucrative Japanese factory contracts, Findlay seemed to be the forgotten man – until 1973 when Suzuki finally came calling. By now based in Milan, in the workshops of Italian brake specialist Daniele Fontana, Jack had scored his first 500cc World Championship race victory at the Ulster GP in 1971 on the Jada, an air-cooled Suzuki TR500-based special concocted by him and Fontana – hence the name. Since it was entered as a Suzuki, this represented the Japanese firm’s debut win in 500cc GP racing, and earned the Aussie a Suzuki Italia contract for 1973, to ride a watercooled factory TR500 XR 05 twin in 500GPs, as well as a TR500 XR11 for the inaugural Formula 750 FIM Prize series – one step down from a full-on World Championship. On the 500 Jack scored his most important career race victory by winning the Isle of Man Senior TT, while on the XR11 he finished third in the points table behind debut Formula 750 champion Barry Sheene on a similar bike, after winning the Swedish round in Anderstorp, and finishing on the podium in Finland and Canada. This led to a full Suzuki factory contract for 1974, in which Jack ended up as Suzuki’s best-placed rider in both championships, ahead of Sheene,
finishing third again in the F750 series and fifth overall in the 500cc points table on the new RG500 XR15. The experienced Aussie played a key role in developing the new square-four – although it was teammate Barry Sheene who gave the bike its debut race victory at Assen that year. However, age was also now starting to tell against Findlay in Japanese eyes, and at the age of 40 he was dropped by Suzuki from its 1975 team. It was back to life as a privateer, and by then there was only one bike for a self-funded rider to consider going racing with, the new four-cylinder Yamaha TZ750 on which Jack’s compatriot John Dodds had won the 1974 F750 title. However, by the time Jack Findlay was apprised of his fate by Suzuki, it was late in the close season, and all of the new TZ750B models being constructed by Yamaha for 1975 were already spoken for. Compared to the previous year’s debut 694cc TZ750A version, this was a full 748cc in capacity, thanks to cylinders bored out to 66.4mm from 64mm, producing more torque and an extra 15 bhp, for a top speed of 167mph. However, rather confusingly, a further 46 examples of the 694cc version were also made available under the TZ750B label from October ’74 onwards, before Yamaha switched mid-winter to building the fullsize variants, still designated as B-models. With the help of fellow-Aussie Kel Carruthers, Findlay obtained one of these 694cc crossover TZ750B models, purchasing it with the financial support of Melbourne Holden dealer Reg Hunt, himself a successful car racer, and preparing it in Fontana’s workshop. There, the duo modified the frame to take longer travel rear shocks, fitted Fontana’s trick magnesium brake calipers, and increased the engine’s power from the smaller motor’s 90bhp mark, to 125bhp. But as well as the FIM’s F750 series, Findlay decided to use the Yamaha to do double duty in the 500GP class, by fitting TZ250 cylinders and heads to the TZ750 crankcase.
In this way, what is certainly the most versatile but also the hardest-worked Yamaha TZ750 ever raced came into existence, although Findlay was forced to opt out of racing in the first round of the F750 series at Daytona, for financial reasons. So it was one month later, on April 9, 1975 that he made his Yamaha debut with a fine fifth place overall in the Imola 200, after finishing seventh and fifth in the two 100-mile legs as the last rider not to be lapped by winner Johnny Cecotto. The Findlay TZ750B was then converted to a 500 for Jack to finish tenth in the German GP at Hockenheim on May 11, then back to a 750 again for the non-championship Moto Journal 200 race held in front of 80,000 spectators at Paul Ricard on June 8. However, to take advantage of the good start money on offer, Jack needed to shuttle back and forth by private plane between the south of France and the Isle of Man, where he’d been signed up by the 830cc John Player Norton in the Classic TT. This was a disastrous outing, though, since after lapping at 98.68mph in practice, the Aussie’s JPN started the race with a misfire which failed to clear, leaving Jack to retire two miles from the start at Braddan Bridge. But at Paul Ricard two days later, fate smiled on him with a fifth place finish on the Yamaha behind winner Agostini, with the rear tyre worn down to the canvas after Jack chose to save time by not changing it at his pit stop. One week later, the official FIM F750 series restarted in Belgium at the fast public roads Mettet event, where Findlay kept up his run of good results by ending up third overall in Round Three, with third and fourth place finishes in the two 100-mile legs. His Mettet result had lifted Jack to fifth place in the F750 points table, and one week later he was up to third, with a fourth place overall finish in the official French round at Magny-Cours, with fifth in the first race and third in the other, although Barry Sheene won both of them. This came after a careful consumption calculation following the first race convincing Findlay not to stop to refuel in the second race – a gamble which paid off, and essentially won him the title at season’s end. But after it was converted back to a 500 again for the following week’s Dutch TT held six days later at Assen, the Yamaha suffered its first DNF when Jack
– but this was deemed by Yamaha management to be an act of treachery, ordering their local importer Venemotos to pull Cecotto from the rest of the series, even though he‘d been Sheene’s and Suzuki’s closest Yamaha-mounted rival up until then. Jack Findlay now assumed that role – but in spite of the fact that the sold-out TZ750 had become a serious profit centre for Yamaha, he never received so much as a free set of piston rings from the Japanese firm as support for his efforts to land the FIM title by beating Suzuki’s star rider.
Instead, the following week the four-cylinder Yamaha became a 500 again for the Czech GP at Brno on August 17, where Jack qualified fifth on the grid, and was running sixth in the race when his front brake failed on lap 5 – fortunately, without disaster on the public roads course lined with houses and telegraph poles. The Findlay Yamaha became a TZ750B again for the eighth round of the F750 series at Assen on September 7, in which Jack had his best result of the year, finishing second overall after a pair of 100-mile races each won by Yvon DuHamel on his Kawasaki H1R triple. Barry Sheene retired from both races, but still led the points table 45-40 over the Aussie privateer, with just one more round at the ultra-fast Hockenheim circuit three weeks later.
But there’s no such thing as a cast iron certainty in racing, and sure enough at the British championship round at Cadwell Park the following week, Sheene broke the lower ball socket of his right knee by falling off stunt rider Dave Taylor’s Bultaco trials bike while pulling wheelies in the paddock! This left him unable to ride at Hockenheim, meaning that if Jack Findlay finished first, second or third overall in Germany, he would indeed win the FIM World title at the tender age of 40. And that’s exactly what happened, after Suzuki drafted in John Williams to take over Sheene’s bike, and brought Stan Woods and John Newbold on similar machines to try to prevent the Aussie scoring sufficient points. But Jack duly clinched the title by a single point, 46-45, under the system which saw a rider’s best five results count for his final total. This came after finishing third overall on the day, with third in the first race and fourth in the second. But by depriving Suzuki of a second World F750 title, Findlay provided the right kind of payback for their decision to drop him for his season in the sun. “I’m certainly not happy about Barry being in hospital with a broken leg,” said Jack afterwards, “but I’m also happy that my strategy for the series paid off. I realised from the beginning there was no way to go out and try to beat the works bikes in a straight battle, so I decided to focus on scoring points regularly, and to keep on being there at the finish as consistently as possible. It’s the first time I’ve raced a Yamaha, so it was a matter of learning all over again, but that’s one of the joys of being a privateer! Luckily, the TZ750 was good from the start, and didn’t require a lot of work – but when I raced it as a 500 four for the first time at the start of the season
But by depriving Suzuki of a second World F750 title, Findlay provided the right kind of payback for their decision to drop him for his season in the sun.
fitted with TZ250 barrels, a lot of people laughed at its performance, saying it was too heavy and underpowered. Well, the time and effort we’ve spent on it has proved worthwhile, and I managed consistently improved performances on it as the season wore on. One of the best things that happened to me this year was meeting up with Derek Booth, who’s been a superb mechanic and deserves a lot of credit for making the bike so reliable. It’s been a great year, and a very satisfying one after the disappointment of losing my Suzuki ride.”
Possibly reluctantly, Jack Findlay switched back to a new customer RG500 Suzuki square-four for 1976, again with the assistance of Reg Hunt, but retained the Yamaha to defend his F750 title. But it was a lean year, with second place in the British round of the F750 championship his best result in that series, matched by second in the Swedish GP at Anderstorp on the RG500, en route to eighth place in the final points table. Jack retired from racing at the end of 1978 after a 20-year career racing in Europe, settling in France where he married Dominique Monneret, the widow of French star Georges
Monneret, and became a development rider for Michelin. Multilingual in French and Italian, as well as English, in 1992 he became the FIM’s Technical Director for Grand Prix racing, retaining the post until he retired in 2001.
After Jack’s retirement in 1978, as part of the sponsorship deal that made it possible for him to purchase it, his title-winning Yamaha TZ750B was sent to Melbourne. There, Reg Hunt retained it in its original title-winning guise for more than 20 years, until it emerged from hiding and was acquired ten years ago by Queensland collector Ian Hopkins. Fittingly, the Yamaha’s first public appearance for over a quarter of a century came at Jack Findlay’s home town of Mooroopna on July 29, 2006. That’s when a ceremony was held to unveil a bronze statue of Jack aboard his TT-winning Suzuki which stands today in a reserve in the centre of town, named Jack Findlay Park. The statue was the result of eight years of fund raising by a group of local enthusiasts who were determined that Jack’s achievements should be given the recognition they deserved. One of these was local classic racing enthusiast Noel Heenan, whose dream it was to bring the Yamaha to live in Mooroopna as a tribute to its most famous sportsman, and in 2010 he did so after raising the A$60,000 asking price to purchase it from Hopkins. ”I told my wife Victoria that we could probably afford it if we sold a few of our toys off,” says Noel. “We had a 1972 Porsche 911S that had been in a container for twelve years and never driven, and I sold a couple of my bulldozers, and a Mercedes van, and borrowed some money, so we bought it.” Still finished in its original distinctive blue and white colours, the Yamaha is essentially just as it was last raced, complete with many detail modifications by Fontana and Findlay. Sadly, Jack Findlay himself never saw it after it was exhumed from the Reg Hunt collection, since already seriously ill from emphysema, he was unable to attend the unveiling of the statue to him, and eventually passed away in May 2007. Seeing Heenan racing the bike today in Australian – and British – classic races is a fitting tribute to one of Australia’s greatest-ever motorcycle racers, and a true gentleman of the sport – the privateer’s privateer.
History on wheels
When Noel Heenan acquired Jack Findlay’s FIM title-winning Yamaha TZ750B in December 2010, the local council staged a civic reception for it, and Noel obtained a special licence in order to ride the four-cylinder race bike up and down Mooroopna’s McLennan Street main drag. Noel Heenan only began racing it after a comprehensive engine rebuild by Chris Di Nuzzo, Barry Horner’s passenger in the fearsome Irving Vincent V-twin sidecar who’s also an expert two-stroke tuner, thanks to the years they spent racing a Windle TZ750 outfit together. “Chris rebuilt the cranks with new bearings, fitted new rings to the same pistons, and replaced some of the gears that were getting worn, but otherwise did nothing else to the engine that Jack Findlay wouldn’t have done himself if he’d been preparing the bike for another season,” said Noel. “It’s still a 700, incidentally – Jack never converted it to the full 750cc motor that came out just as he got the bike, so he won the title on a privateer Yamaha giving away 50cc to the rest. But he and his Italian mate Daniele Fontana tuned it up to get 125bhp at 10,500rpm instead of the 90bhp the 694cc motor came with [105bhp for the stock 750s – AC], so that’s why it was competitive with the bigger TZs, plus it was mega reliable – Jack almost always finished a race, which as an impecunious privateer you had to do. That’s how he won the title, even without winning a round – Sheene’s factory Suzuki was faster, but kept splitting exhausts and such.” My half hour of riding the Findlay Yamaha in two different sessions at the 2104 Penrite Broadford Bonanza convinced me that this may indeed have been the nicest ‘70s two-stroke racer I’ve yet ridden, with pretty meaty midrange torque, and there’s even a surprising amount of engine braking for a ring-ding road racer. You can almost ride the TZ750 like a fourstroke, it pulls so well from low down. In spite of the wide, in-line engine, bulky exhausts and big 29-litre fuel tank, it seems surprisingly slim for a 750 when you’re sitting in the hot seat. Remember, this bike was created for the long haul, with every race in Findlay’s title-winning season a 100-miler or longer, so rider comfort was an issue. Yamaha’s largest-capacity production two-stroke racer made privateer customers into giant-slayers more than once, and none more so than Jack Findlay in 1975. It was a tribute to the TZ750’s qualities that so many riders all over the world earned a good living for the best part of a decade racing one of these bikes as the ultimate privateer tool – not only the most performance for the least money any factory has ever offered, but also, ultimately, the most dependable and user-friendly. They don’t come much better than this.