KEL CARRUTHERS

For all of us in American road racing in the 1970s, Kel Carruthers was the man who always found a way. When Kenny Roberts went to Europe in 1978, it was with Carruthers as tech chief. Three successive 500cc World Championships were the result.

Breaking into Australian racing as a teenager on home-built machinery, Carruthers made himself the one to whom Honda entrusted a replica RC161 four-cylinder 250 Grand Prix bike. That was a machine notorious for weave during corner exit, but Carruthers discovered that if he stayed down and pushed the machine up, acceleration became stable.

Five years at the Australian top