IF LOOKS COULD THRILL
DURING the Classic era of Grand Prix road racing in the 1950s and 60s, Czechoslovakia was the only Eastern Bloc country to mount a sustained challenge in the more prestigious larger capacity classes to first Western European, then, later on, Japanese supremacy.
“EVEN THE DEAD HAND OF COMMUNISM COULDN’T QUENCH THE CZECHS’ ENTHUSIASM FOR RACING”
Jawa’s finest hour came in 1961, when the firm’s legendary lead rider Franta Stastny finished second in the 350cc World Championship to MV’s Gary Hocking, with Jawa teammate Gustav Havel third. Stastny finished fourth in the 350cc title chase four times between 1960 and 1965, winning three GP races and proving a constant thorn in the side of the four-cylinder Honda and MV Agusta teams aboard his Czech-built twin. Stastny also took fourth in the 1965 500cc championship and a single 500cc Grand Prix victory at Sachsenring in 1966.
Resources were scarce in communist Czechoslovakia after the war and racing activities initially restricted to within the Eastern bloc. Jawa’s first racing 500 in 1950 was based
