Mat Oxley: Giacomo Agostini’s bombshell move to Yamaha 

Fifty years ago the most successful motorcycle grand prix rider of all time walked out of the Italian racing stable that had made him a star and signed for a Japanese factory. Between 1965 and 1973 Giacomo Agostini rode MV Agustas to 110 GP victories and 13 world titles in the 500cc and 350cc classes. During that period the Italian four-strokes were just about unbeatable in the bigger grand prix categories, but the threat from Japanese two-strokes had been growing since the early 1960s, first in the junior classes, then the intermediate categories…

Agostini knew what was coming and timed his move well: “By 1973 I could see the two-strokes were getting faster and safer, while it was very difficult to find more horsepower with the four-stroke, so it was time to change.”

No one had seen the move to Yamaha coming, so when the announcement came it stunned the racing world. Ago’s main goal was to win the 350cc and 500cc world titles with the factory’s twin-cylinder TZ350 and four-cylinder 0W20.

But his first job was to debut one of the most renowned racing motorcycles of all time – Yamaha’s TZ750 – at the Daytona 200, one of the world’s biggest motorcycle races.

The previous year a two-stroke had conquered Daytona for the first time, when Jarno Saarinen rode a TZ350 to victory, ahead of two more TZs. The Honda, Triumph and Harley-Davidson 750cc four-strokes that had dominated previously were nowhere. If a 350cc two-stroke could beat the big four-strokes, imagine what a 750cc two-stroke could do.

One of Ago’s Daytona team-mates, Gene Romero, also switched from a European brand to Yamaha for ’74. The Californian had ridden factory Triumphs since 1967, which hardly prepared him for his first ride on a big Tee Zee.

“Jumping off the three-cylinder Triumph Trident onto a TZ750 was night and day,” said Romero, who died in 2019. “We tested at Ontario and, man, I’ll never forget it. I came out of a corner, got the bike all aimed straight, nailed it and it just took my face-shield and planted it against my face. I went, ‘Oh, my goodness this thing has got some power.’”

Indeed it had – 100hp, against the four-strokes’ 80.

“The TZ750 was like putting a V8 in a bicycle,” added Romero. “At Daytona ’74 we put good shocks on them and changed steering dampers, but at 155mph those things would wobble like hell on the front straightaway, so you had a choice of leaving the throttle on or backing off. It would scare you.

“The second day of practice I was sitting in the garage, about to go out and I was scared to death. I said, ‘This is it for me, I’m done with this, it doesn’t make sense.’ Then I realised if I quit, I’d have to get a proper job, so I just put on my leathers.”

The TZ topped out at around 180mph, a good 20mph faster than the ‘diesels’, as the riders came to call the four-strokes. Romero wasn’t the only rider worried by the power and handling of the TZ750, which started out as two TZ350 top ends, so the first engines measured 694cc.

“I was a bit scared because I had left my MV family”

“I was a bit scared because I had left my MV family after so many years and the 750 was so fast,” recalls Ago. “The fastest bike I had ridden before that was the MV 500. Also, the Yamahas were my first two-strokes, so it was so much work, but fantastic work, and a very emotional experience.”

Daytona had mostly been an American event, until the promoters widened its appeal by luring top Europeans to the 200. Ago was unquestionably the greatest bike racer of that time, so when he arrived in the States the locals tried to rattle him.

America’s reigning Grand National champion Kenny Roberts (he had yet to earn the epithet ‘King’) called his new rival ‘Ago-Daisy’, suggesting the Italian wasn’t tough enough to rough it with the Americans.

He was, of course. He led from the start, chased by Roberts, on another TZ750, and Barry Sheene and Gary Nixon aboard Suzuki TR750 two-stroke triples. Bike problems sidelined Roberts and Sheene, leaving Nixon to go after Agostini, but he pushed too hard and crashed out.

Thus Ago and the TZ750 conquered Daytona at their first attempt.

“I prepared very well for the race,” he adds. “I was very, very precise with the setting of the machine. Also in managing my system of riding this new kind of machine. The win gave me much more confidence for my first 350cc and 500cc grands prix with Yamaha.”

Agostini went on to win the 1974 350cc world championship but not the 500, a situation he put right the following year. Meanwhile the TZ750 grew to dominate big-bike racing around the globe. It won nine consecutive Daytona 200s and six successive F750 world titles, all the time getting faster and easier to ride.

“Oh boy, the first Tee Zee was scary,” recalls American Steve Baker, who won the 1977 Daytona 200 and F750 title with the fourth iteration of the machine. “It would flex the frame so bad that at I don’t know how many miles an hour it would get into a violent tank-slapper and you couldn’t stop it. With better suspension and tyres you could actually use the motorcycle and ride it hard.”

It’s worth noting that Ago’s move from an Italian brand to a Japanese one is mirrored by Marc Márquez’s recent move from Honda to Ducati. The world never stops changing.

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Mat Oxley has covered motorcycle racing for many years – and also has the distinction of being an Isle of Man TT winner
Follow Mat on Twitter @matoxley