I first met John Owens in the infield at Daytona International Speedway during Bike Week practice in 1979. I guessed John was from the U.K., given his fair complexion and impending sun burn – back in those days, all the visitors from the U.K. and Europe seemed determined to get a painful over-tan ASAP, to prove they made it to Florida in early March.
I chatted with John between sessions, and he proved to be from the New England area, as many of the top performers in road racing were during that era. John turned out to be a top performer too, and he showed me a calendar he had produced from the previous year, with a quality of shooting and production that certainly looked European.
After that, I would bump into John at events, most often at Bryar Motorsport Park – the infamous venue for the June Loudon AMA National races. John stood out for a number of reasons, including the use of large format cameras in the pits and paddocks – definitley far beyond the skills of most trackside camera people, and certainly taxing to restricted budgets – back then, you had to purchase film, too!
As a commercial photographer, John not only had the gear, but he knew how to use it. Another Loudon local, John Flory, would soon be the primary US shooter, and for some time the great Brian J. Nelson (from Minesota) has provided superb images of MotoAmerica action.
I haven’t seen John Owens since the early 1980s, so I was surprised and happy to get an email from him in late February, just as I was getting ready to head for Daytona. John had noticed that I was one of the first customers for his impressive new book Superbike An Illustrated Early History, featuring John’s images from the late 1970s and early 1980s with commentary by legendary journalist Kevin Cameron.
Owens wondered if I could review the new book for Inside Motorcycles, and I told him I was happy to do so, and he didn’t need to provide a review copy – I already had my hard cover in the library.
The book features a wide range of photographs, including action from the races, people and places in the paddock, and the lovely detail images of equipment that fans of John’s work (like me) would expect.
John shot in the early days of Superbike, so there are lots of air-cooled, four-cylinder, twin shock Kawasakis and Suzuki, as well as the pristine American Honda entries of the early 1980s. This includes the ultra trick CB750 and 900F-based traditional models, as well as the ground braking v-four, liquid cooled Interceptors.
One of the first races I covered as a working photographer and journalist was Loudon in 1979, an event that became legendary for the action (and carnage) that occurred during the event. At the time, the locals were very much in ascension, and Mike Baldwin (who, co-incidentally, looked like a relative of Owens) was the star of that show.
Baldwin’s big coming out party was at Mosport the previous fall, when he beat Kenny Roberts, Johnny Cecotto, and company to win the FIM World Formula 750 round at the track now known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Baldwin then scored a works Kawasaki deal, and at Loudon he piloted 250 cc GP, F-1 Feature class and Superbike equipment for the “mean green.” On Saturday Baldwin traded the leads with a teen-aged Freddie Spencer on Erv Kanemoto’s trick Yamaha TZ250 in the Lightweight National, earning a very close second with the unique belt-drive, in-line twin KR.
Sunday’s feature would be for the Formula One machines, but crowd attention was focused on the demanding Superbike. That turned out to be a battle between friends Baldwin and Richard Schlachter, with Baldwin on the big ex-Yoshimura Kawasaki and Schlachter piloting the slim Ducati Desmo v-twin of George Vincensi.
Baldwin wound up crashing into a pond, while Schlachter earned the victory on his classic 900 cc Super Sport. Baldwin would take more than a year to recover from a badly broken femur, and Schlachter would win two AMA F1 crowns and briefly compete in Europe in 250 cc Grand Prix.
The Baldwin/Schlachter battle was historic, and I for one do not have a good image of the pair together – I think I was conserving film for F1. But finally, thanks to the new Superbike book, I have seen the great image I knew must exist of that memorable dispute for the SBK win.
So, the point of all this is John is a superb photographer, and the images in the book from ”back in the day” are of true archival quality – much effort has gone into providing the best possible example of these old, shot-on-film pictures. Did I mention this is all in black and white, as most of what we shot needed to be, over forty years ago?
Obviously, I am very partial to this book. It reflects a time in racing that was really fun and entertaining, and offered a real raft of characters (suspects?). This book by Cameron and Owens obviously focuses on the most successful Americans, including Freddie Spencer, Wes Cooley, and Reg Pridmore, but lots of other fun individuals are in the mix – including ground-breaking Canadian privateer Rueben McMurter.
If any of these rings a bell for you, you need to ensure that Superbike An Illustrated Early History, winds up on your coffee table. The quality will keep you coming back to browse, and here’s hoping Owens has the well stored, historic images in hand for another book effort with Cameron.
- From Colin Fraser / Presented by AIM Insurance
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