That title
IMAGINE MISSING THE
four opening rounds of
a world championship
season and still going
on to win the title. That’s
what Aussie legend Kel
Carruthers did in 1969.
Busy campaigning the
125cc, 350cc and 500cc
championships, it wasn’t
until the series’ fourth
round at the Isle of Man TT
that the opportunity arose
to throw a leg over a 250cc
machine.
A maiden TT victory
impressed his new Benelli
bosses so much that he
rode the Italian machine
for the remaining
eight rounds, and his
consistency paid off.
He finished second
to Pasolini next time
out at the Dutch TT,
followed by a third at Spa-
Francorchamps’ Round 6.notcomeuntilthe
Ulster Grand Prix, after
he had finished fifth
(Sachsenring), third
(Brno) and fourth (Imatra),
but a second-place finish
in the penultimate round
at Imola put the talented
Aussie in equal second on
points with Swede Kent
Adersson, and they were
both just one point shy
of points leader Santiago
Herrero.
The 21-lap finale was
held at the dangerous
but picturesque Opatija
road circuit in Croatia and
the 31-year-old Aussie
picked up his third win of
the season, four-tenths
of a second ahead of
teammate Gilberto Parlotti
and some 6.5sec ahead
of Andersson, to claim his
one and only Grand Prix
World Championship.14,500rpm and had eight speeds. Ossa’s two-stroke
single was a very different motorcycle – only
42hp at 11,000rpm but much lighter and more
manoeuvrable. The MZ and Yamaha twins were in
between, w ith 56 and 45hp respectively.
Going into the final race in Yugoslavia,
Carruthers was in a three-way title fight with
Herrero and Andersson. He won the race,
Andersson was third and Herrero crashed out.
Benelli planned to defend its title in 1970, but
problems at the factory left Carruthers without
a ride. His only option was to buy a TD2 and a
TR2 350, but demand for these game-changing
machines outstripped supply. He was lucky to find
two bikes in the US, through Gould and racer/tuner
Don Vesco. This was the start of a 20-year career
with Yamaha. Carruthers could have retained the
250 title in 1970, but the TD2’s contact-breakers
kept failing, usually when he was in the lead.
“At the end of 1970 Jan and I decided we’d done
this long enough – we were going home to Australia.
Then Don Vesco said, ‘Hey, if you want to race in
America for a year, you can use my shop and my
dyno,’ so we went to America, thinking we’d stay
one year.”“Eddie was very good
on a good bike, but Kenny
was better on a bad bike”
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