A racing motorcycle and sidecar outfit
that became the hero of a motorcycle-racing Cinderella-story in the
1960s will go on the auction block this fall.
The privately built motorcycle and
sidecar was ridden to a Sidecar World Championship in 1968 by Helmut
Fath and then by Horst Owesle in 1971. It will be auction by Bonhams
at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in Britain on Oct. 17.
Fath won the world title in 1960 on a
privately-owned BMW, but was injured and stayed out of racing for the
next few years. When he attempted to get back into the sport, BMW
turned him away.
Fath developed his own four-cylinder
race engine, named it URS for the village of Ursenbach in Germany
where he worked on the engine, and then with sidecar rider Wolfgang
Kalauch stormed over the BMW team to win the championship.
Fath was later injured again and
retired from racing, but rider Horst Owesle and passenger Peter
Rutterford eventually won a second title for the URS rig.
The motorcycle and sidecar are expected
to bring about £80,000 ($130,000 Cdn) and will be auctioned beside
some other important motorcycles, including a 1977 MV Agusta that was
considered the world’s fastest production motorcycle when it ran 147
mph for a magazine review.
Fath was a noted tuner as well as racer back in the day. An interesting story. His “home made” 4 cylinder URS beating BMW in the sidecar class was big news in the day, and he remained a winning crew chief in the 250 GP wars of the 1980’s.