George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, was set in a near future when events and circumstances had gone far beyond anyone’s current day experience or expectations. For the Canadian road racing community, 1984 was a competition season where the evolution of the sport was established, but the trends were by no means as clear as they now appear in our collective rear-view mirror.
1984 was, in many ways, the calm before the storm for motorcycle pavement competition. The big year was right around the corner: 1985, with the arrival of the liquid-cooled, five valve Yamaha FZ750 and the game changing, alloy-chassised, lightweight Suzuki GSX-R750.
In Canada, 1985 was the last hurrah of the old guard of Canadian competition: that year’s Westwood, BC CMA national event was a hot mess, and the catalyst for the eastern-based RACE group to take over the national concept and build a true touring series for the first time. The stars of 1985 were Yamaha Canada’s Rueben McMurter and Suzuki ace Michel Mercier.
However, 1984 still pivoted on the steadily building separation between the old, F750 based rules for two-stroke pure race bikes, and the ever-improving street-based Superbike class.
The Yamaha TZ750 two-stroke, four-cylinder pure racer was still popular but getting exceedingly long in the tooth – the last new machines were produced in 1979.
Meanwhile, Superbike in the US had pivoted to 750 cc rules from the original 1,025 cc format, and the Honda VF750 Interceptor was the weapon of choice south of the border. Unfortunately, the HRC kits need to up-build the V-4 for competition were rare and expensive – $ 10,000 US.
In Canada, almost no one had a 750 cc Superbike. However, Rueben McMurter had both options: 1. the established 1,025 cc choice, the real, rare, limited edition “Eddie Lawson” replica Muzzy Kawasaki KZ1000J model; 2. Rueben agreed to support from Bike Show and magazine producer Bar Hodgson to get the needed Honda kit to build an Interceptor for use in the US with his successful privateer campaign.
So McMurter wasn’t racing much in Canada. His former mentor, Kawasaki’s long running superstar Lang Hindle, had retired due to injury after an incident at Shannonville at the end of 1982. Meanwhile the initial Canadian Superbike Champ, George Morin, had sold his Suzukis and retired, and was helping struggling racer Michel Mercier with sponsorship from Morin’s established supporters, Suzuki and CAM2 (Sunoco) oils.
Morin put together a Production class effort for Mercier with new but “old school,” air-cooled GS Suzukis, built by Mike Crompton out of the Leitner and Bush shop just outside of Toronto.
Mercier’s exploits on the under-powered but sweet handling 1984 GS550 were legendary, but initially his pace on the gigantic GS1150 attracted the most attention. This bike was truly big and bulky, and the diminutive Mercier had to climb all over the GS to get it to turn at the mostly tight turns of Canadian tracks.
Previously, Mercier had been Kawasaki production bike equipped, but in 1984 CKM opted to support former Amateur Production hero (Honda CB750F) and rookie 1981 Pro Superbike star (Kawasaki KZ900 based racer) Colin Gibb. Multi-discipline skilled much like former ABC Superbiker racer Mercier, Gibb had recently opened a dealership in Guelph, Two Wheel, that persists to this day.
Gibb would be equipped with a machine that is celebrating an important anniversary this season, since the GPZ900R was the start of the Ninja family of sportsters. The 1984 Suzuki might now be considered a gussied-up old design, but the first Ninja was liquid cooled with a 16-valve head, likely the first stock machine to come with over 100 horsepower as measured on a rear wheel Dynojet-style dyno.
The Ninja had a 16-inch front wheel and 18-inch rear, so trendy at the front (that fad would pass) and traditional at the rear. The forks featured anti-dive, a sales motivator that also turned out to be a dead end. The chassis allowed the stressed engine to be mounted low and helped drop overall weight.
However, it would be a few more years until Tom Cruise made the first Ninja truly legendary with an appearance in the successful “fighter plane porn” movie, the 1986 Hollywood blockbuster Top Gun.
Back at the track, the Gibb program and the Mercier/Morin team spent almost the entire season fighting for wins in the Pro Open Production class and were regularly up at the front with the F1 and Superbike stars in the feature class races. Gibb even briefly led the overall championship chase for the number one plate.
An issue with Gibb’s Ninja counter balancer required some creative, desperation service prior to the biggest race of the season at Shannonville, the Molson Superbike Challenge. Veteran fans still remember, with disbelief, the sight of the Ninja upside down getting the engine serviced in the S.M.P. paddock!
Meanwhile, Mercier had some serious issues as well, due to modifications to the Suzuki that were required because the very wide engine regularly dragged on the ground. The team was allowed to reinforce their side cover, and Kawasaki suggested that modification was performed in a manner that enhanced ground clearance on that side of the motorcycle.
Mercier and Gibb split the two major titles, and Mercier’s success lead to his elevated status as the recipient of a host of new Suzukis for the 1995 season: Superbike GSX-R750, Production GSX-R750, and the very first two-stroke, square-four RG500 middleweight proddie racer.
For Gibb, 1984 was the end of the road in terms of his impressive road race career. After four years as a Pro with considerable success, he opted to focus on his dealership and eventually moved to British Columbia, where he is still involved with off road and MX activity.
- From Colin Fraser and Presented by AIM Insurance
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