Interestingly one of Len’s 1986 bikes sold recently (May 2020) at Grays Online.

YouTube video above.

OK, why not have a 6-hour production race as well!  Originally known in 1970 as the Castrol 1000 because the prizemoney was $1000 – a tidy sum considering the winning Triumph Bonneville 650 cost just $1,150!

This WikiPedia link gives a nice history of the event and emphasises the importance Japanese manufacturers gave to the race, it certainly was a serious test then (and would be now) for any production machine.  There were some famous GP riders that raced here as well.

In the 1986 video above Len Willing is being interviewed at the start and suggests that the Kawasaki was competitive with the Suzuki 750 that won the race the previous year. So it would have raced but I don’t have any results.

Interestingly Rob Phillis won the 1983 race as a factory Suzuki rider on a Honda! What the?

Honda had brought out two new bikes, the VF860R I think, for just this race. But they simply weren’t going to make it running at full throttle for 3 hours, so the riders used the old VF1000R’s. Due to a conflict with their other factory rider Suzuki weren’t entering a bike, so being parked in the pits next to Suzuki were the new Honda’s. In a great example of sporting comradery Honda allowed Rob to ride one of these new bikes and Suzuki were more than happy as well to act as the support crew for the race.

The deal was apparently only finalised at 6pm the night before the race, so Rob had never ridden the bike until the actual day of the race! A great story.

Despite being 6 seconds slower Geoff Johnson repeated his success in 1985, this time on the maligned Honda VF1000F beating the GPz900r’s into 2nd (Bill Simpson) and 3rd (Howard Selby).  Amazingly Kawsaki’s filled seven of the Top 10 places that year, I’m guessing they were all GPz900r’s.

In 1986 Suzuki’s outstanding GSX-R1100 broke all previous lap & race records producing the first sub-20min lap by a production machine, taking the first nine of the top ten placings.  The winning elapsed race time waS almost 2min faster than the closest Kawasaki (1:02:44), almost breaking the magical one hour race time at 1:00:38.  Even the Class B GSX-R750’s race time was Faster at 1:02:10, so just two years after her release the GPz900r was well and truly eclipsed on the track.

There is no embarrassment here – it simply shows the extraordinary development of motorcycles that followed the GPz900r and just how darn good the Gixxer is on the track.

Because the previous Production TT races were only held up 1976, it’s also hard to gauge against these bikes.  In that year I’m guessing the iconic 250LC Yamaha actually won the race from a crazy assortment of other machinery, including 900’s from Kawasaki, Ducati & BMW.

But with an elapsed time of 3:54:09 and average speed of 87mph the performance jump to 1984 was massive.

1984 Image: www.mcnews.com.au

To put Australia’s premier annual Easter motorbike race into perspective – Bathurst was a THREE HOUR race, the Isle of Man TT event is just over ONE!  And with concrete walls, limited run-off on many corners and at that time a 1.9km long main straight down off the mountain it wasn’t for the faint-hearted, and has long been considered too dangerous to race motorcycles.

I’ve info that Aussie legend Rob Phillis on the GPz won the race in 1984 from this ACT BMW Motorcycle Club monthly journal and I’ve also found a 1986 YouTube video where Len Willing says he won the race last year with the bike, so perhaps he also won it in 1985?

Mar 2021 Update

From the great man himself,  Robbie.P says although he did ride the bike he can’t recall winning any Production Races on it in 1984!  

I only ever rode a GPZ 900 in 84 production races and it boiled its head off in the pit stops or busted a gear box in the 6h or run out of brakes in Tassie , and I crashed in someone’s fluid at Bathurst leading the production class of the 500 race in an outright podium position against the F1 and supers . And I can’t remember winning any production races in 84 , but I did in 85 on the Hone GSX750 proddy

Officially 1st, 2nd and 5th.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/classic-motorcycle-mechanics/20190513/281724090984928

Because the previous Production TT races were only held up 1976, it’s also hard to gauge against the 1984 bikes.  In that year I’m reading that the iconic 250LC Yamaha actually won the race from a crazy assortment of other machinery, including 900’s from Kawasaki, Ducati & BMW.

But with an elapsed time of 3:54:09 and average speed of 87mph the performance jump to 1984 was massive.