Ogier Laverda
Fast Orange
Twenty-fourteen marked a personal milestone; it was the 30th anniversary of one of my most satisfying international race victories, on a bike whose quixotic creation and improbable success was made all the more satisfying by the fact it was achieved on such a minimal budget, writes Alan Cathcart.
Back in 1984 it was still possible to go world championship racing all over Europe out of the back of a Transit van. Or actually, in the case of Maurice Ogier’s 600TT2 Laverda, out of the back of a threecylinder two-stoke Wartburg station wagon made in former East Germany, that was equally individual if considerably less high-tech than the bike it carried back and forth across the English Channel from Ogier’s base in Guernsey. In a racing career spanning four decades, I’ve personally raced more than 150 different bikes – but few of them, exotic as some were, aroused as much interest as That Bloody Laverda, as it rapidly became known among the owners and riders of tricked-out, high-tech, molto expensivo 600TT2 Ducatis, and the like who had to contend with it. So here to mark the anniversary of its season in the sun is the inside story of Maurice Ogier’s TBL. Ogier is a gifted car mechanic, one of that hardy breed of native Channel Islanders bred on selfsufficiency, who earns his living maintaining the high-end wheels of the tax fugitives who live on his home island of Guernsey. But in his spare time, besides accumulating an impressive collection of historic 125cc Grand Prix racebikes, Mo was for many years a successful car racer specialising in hill climbs and sand races, though he’s also circuit raced single seaters and sports cars. An inveterate biker since his late teens, he later began racing on two wheels as well, competing in classic bike events all over Europe on bikes ranging from a TZ700 Yamaha to a 125cc MV Agusta. This is a man whose versatility is matched by his ingenuity. We might never have started the Laverda project but for sharing a grassy bank at Signpost Corner during the 1981 Isle of Man TT with a mutual American friend named Will Harding. Harding, an EX-AMA Superbike racer, at that time in the throes of founding the USA’S AHRMA historic racing club, together with some friends from his home state of Florida, was staying in my London flat on an extended visit to Europe, and mentioned that he’d like to have a crack sometime at racing in the TT. This triggered the germ of an idea in Maurice’s mind, and by the time Will returned home later that summer, he was signed up to ride in the 1982 Formula 2 TT race as team rider for Ecurie lies Normandes – Channel Islands Racing. The bike Maurice had in mind for Harding to race was the 500cc Laverda Montjuic, a limited edition racer-with-lights derived from the Italian firm’s rather bland Alpino streetbike, which he’d bought new in 1979 after attending the Barcelona 24-hour race the previous year, when the two factory prototypes blitzed their 500cc class rivals in the Spanish marathon, finishing ninth and tenth overall against the more powerful but also thirstier and less nimble one-litre machines. That earned the Monty its name, as well as the respect of many others besides Maurice Ogier – though when his brand-new bright orange bike duly arrived, it turned out not to be a close replica of those factory racers in terms of engine performance, though it handled like a dream while completely lacking in social respectability – it has to be one of the noisiest streetbikes ever sold! In the next couple of years Maurice covered around 5000 miles on the road, before he had the idea of developing it into a racer. The TT Formula F2 class had begun to take off, catering for four-strokes up to 600cc in capacity and 350cc two-strokes, in each case using the major engine castings of a homologated production streetbike, with the same size carburettors as stock and everything else free – including the chassis. Laverdas had begun doing reasonably well in this category, although being only 500cc they had an inbuilt disadvantage. At this time Battle of the Twins was getting off the ground in USA and would soon spread to Europe, so here were two international classes the bike might be reasonably competitive to go racing with.
“BACK IN 1984 IT WAS STILL POSSIBLE TO GO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RACING ALL OVER EUROPE OUT OF THE BACK OF A TRANSIT VAN.”