MARCH
1974: YAMAHA TZ750
The Daytona 200 was Agostini’s first time on a banked circuit, first time in the USA and first race on a two-stroke. But that two-stroke was the new Yamaha TZ750…
In March 1974, Giacomo Agostini flew into Florida, USA, to start the biggest adventure of his life. The 31-year-old Italian heart-throb had raced MV Agustas since he was 23. Now he had defected to Yamaha and was very apprehensive. The Daytona 200-miler – arguably the world’s biggest motorcycle race at that time – would be his first assignment for the Japanese factory.
Ago had quit Agusta for two reasons. First, he disliked the team’s new manager Count Rocky Agusta, nephew of the marque’s late founder Count Domenico.
“Rocky liked to be the big boss – ‘I’m Count Agusta, I’m the team owner’,” says Ago. “I think he was jealous of me.”
Second, he knew that the writing was on the wall for MV’s four-stroke machines. “By 1973 I could see that the two-strokes were getting faster and safer, while it was extremely difficult to find more horsepower with the four-stroke. So, it was time to change.”
And what a time to change! Agostini’s main priorities for 1974 were the 500cc and 350cc world championships, but Daytona was for big bikes. Purely by chance, Ago’s arrival at Yamaha coincided with the company unleashing its fastest motorcycle, the TZ750, which had been designed to conquer Daytona and the Formula 750 world championship.
The four-cylinder two-stroke stunned even seasoned pros when they first rode it.
Mexican-American former factory Triumph rider Gene Romero – nicknamed the Flying Burrito – was one of the riders chosen to test pre-production prototypes in late 1973.
“Jumping off the three-cylinder 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 and 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’.”
Meanwhile, Agostini flew to Japan to test at Yamaha’s super-fast Fukuroi test track near Hamamatsu. For many years Ago had seemed to live a charmed life at MV, usually enjoying a considerable performance advantage over his rivals. An American journalist sent to interview him in the 1960s surmised that the superstar It
