The Verve Of Erv: Remembering Kanemoto’s Kawasaki Flat Trackers
Kanemoto’s “wide frame” Kawasakis on display. In some ways Kanemoto’s bikes sounded better than the TZ750 powered Yamahas which came later.
In the annals of American motorcycle racing, there is hardly any feat more celebrated—no story more recounted—than Kenny Roberts’ epic win on the famed TZ750 flat tracker at the 1975 Indy Mile. It was an amazing accomplishment befitting of a living legend nicknamed “The King.”
But, there is one aspect of that historic event that is often overlooked, or not even known, and it’s a detail that fades more and more as time goes by.
The Yamaha TZ750 was actually not the first or only multi-cylinder, two-stroke 750cc flat tracker to compete during that era. In fact, that screaming, bumblebee-liveried bike, with Kenny Roberts in the saddle, wasn’t even the first multi-cylinder, two-stroke 750cc flat tracker to win an AMA-sanctioned mile flat track races, either.
That honor goes to Kawasaki, Scott Brelsford, and none other than Erv Kanemoto.
Over the span of three years prior to the 1975 racing season, Kanemoto–who, of course, went on to become world famous as a tuner and crew chief for Grand Prix World Champions Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Kenny Roberts Junior, Max Biaggi and several other well-known riders–had been working on a 750cc Kawasaki H2 three-cylinder two-stroke flat tracker.
Unlike the TZ750, which was conceived from the beginning as a production racebike with a liquid-cooled four-cylinder engine, the Kawasaki H2 was a production streetbike.
Also known as the “Mach IV,” the H2 was an air-cooled triple that had a reputation in its day for being the biggest, baddest two-stroke street-going motorcycle of all time. To this day, the H2 is equally revered and feared by those who remember it.
In a Herculean effort to conquer the rioting hordes of Harley-Davidson XR750 flat trackers that were virtually unbeatable in AMA Class C flat track racing, Kanemoto shoehorned the Kawasaki triple into a Champion racing frame.
He actually built two bikes, both with Ceriani front forks, spoked Akront aluminum front rims and, oddly enough, cast aluminum “mag-type” rear wheels.
Riders? In 1975, Yamaha had decided to go with just Roberts as its sole rider, which meant that Don Castro was out of a job.
So, Kanemoto hired Castro to ride one of his beastly creations and for the second bike, Kanemoto hired Scott Brelsford, the younger brother of 1972 AMA Grand National Champion Mark Brelsford. Castro rode bike #11 and Brelsford rode #19.
Kanemoto, Castro, and Brelsford showed up at the AMA Regional Championship Stockton Mile in California on July 6, 1975. Castro was unable to qualify for the Expert Main, but Brelsford did qualify, and he also won the race.
It was the first official win for a two-stroke in AMA Expert mile flat track competition, and it happened more than a month prior to Kenny Roberts’ celebrated Indy Mile win on his Yamaha TZ750, which occurred on August 23, 1975.
