CLASSIC WORLD
Dr John Wittner, the American dentist turned Moto Guzzi tuner and then Guzzi factory engineer, has died aged 78. Alan Cathcart knew him well
DR.JOHN AND I became friends in the mid-1980s, when his bikes won three American national titles. The saga of the former dentist and the various Dr John’s Guzzi racers reawakened awareness of the historic Italian brand at a time when its profile was at a low ebb, even among dedicated enthusiasts.
A year ago, I decided to write a book recording John’s achievements, both as a dedicated engineer and an incredibly warm human being. He was eager to collaborate and our final interview took place last November. The result was published in Italy by FBA Moto Italiane, in the very same week that John left us.
I am pleased he was able to see the finished book before he passed away.
In 1983 John had bought a Moto Guzzi Le Mans, with a pushrod motor like the Harleys he was familiar with. Having trained as a mechanical engineer before he took up dentistry, Dr John appreciated the Guzzi’s rugged engineering.
“I bought it to go endurance road racing,” he said. “I’d ridden and worked on several Guzzis, and knew they were extraordinarily reliable.”
In its debut year of competition, the Dr John’s Guzzi Racing Team won the 1984 US Endurance Championship’s Middleweight class, with a perfect 100% finishing record. In 1985, after Wittner sold his dental practice to concentrate entirely on bike racing, his Moto Guzzi won the overall 13-race US endurance title outright, beating a fleet of Japanese fours.
In 1986 he looked for new challenges, reasoning that defending his endurance title meant getting stuck in a rut, but the lack of suitable races meant that his Guzzi hardly turned a wheel. He’d entered me to ride it in the Isle of Man TT that year – only for the bike to land in Hamburg rather than Liverpool on its transatlantic journey.
Flat broke after two seasons of endurance racing, Wittner staked everything on going to Italy to camp on the doorstep of Moto Guzzi boss Alejandro de Tomaso – and got lucky. De Tomaso recognized Wittner as a man who could help rejuvenate the marque’s staid image, subsidising the creation of the Stage 3 Guzzi racer, with a new spine frame and cantilever swingarm.
Ridden by Doug Brauneck, the new bike broke the six-year Ducati/Harley-Davidson domination of US ProTwins racing, winning the 1987 championship. De Tomaso was so pleased he gave Wittner the prototype eight-valve V-twin motor on which Guzzi engineers had been working, to help development by racing it in America.
On
