Can the Harley-Davidson XR750 Still Win?

[Hugh Janus]

A half-century of development kept the XR750 at the front of the pack for most of that time. Now with the Indian FTR750 winning in dominating fashion and Harley-Davidson campaigning the XG750, could the XR ever win again? (Harley-Davidson /)

The previous two installments of this 50th anniversary series centered on the genesis and development of Harley-Davidson’s XR750, as well as the outsized contributions to its glorious history made by three titanic talents in Jay Springsteen, Scott Parker, and Chris Carr.

However, while those stories of the XR span from the ’60s into the new millennium and effectively defined the careers of perhaps the three greatest riders American Flat Track has ever known, it would be a great disservice to the bike to suggest its history ends there. In truth, the legacy of the XR750 transcends far beyond even those eras, heroes, and the sport of dirt track racing entirely.

Addressing that last point first, we could argue that no two-wheeled icon and their equipment have achieved the same sort of celebrity or has been etched so permanently into the public consciousness as daredevil Evel Knievel and his fleet of red-white-and-blue XR750s. What child of the ’70s didn’t have at least one Evel Knievel XR750 toy?

Evel Knievel brought the XR750 into nearly every American home. (Motorcyclist Archives/)

And the XR didn’t only succeed on dirt or in the air. Cal Rayborn was the hero of the ’72 Transatlantic Match Races on a roadrace-spec Iron XR750 TT, and then gave the Aluminum XR its only two GNC roadrace victories later that year at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Laguna Seca.

Mark Brelsford actually earned the first (and only other) GNC roadrace win for the platform in ’71 at Loudon on an Iron XR. A couple of years later, Brelsford’s Number 1 Aluminum XR750 TT went up in flames (along with his hopes of defending the Grand National Championship) in a dramatic crash at Daytona International Speedway.

A decade later, that same destroyed bike was pulled from purgatory and re-forged into a pumped-up 1,000cc XR-based racer that promptly won the Battle of the Twins race at Daytona with Springsteen at the controls. The resurrected machine was then dubbed “Lucifer’s Hammer,” wrenched by famed H-D tuner Don Tilley, and wielded by Gene Church. The pairing went on to claim the AMA BOTT crown for three years running from ’84–’86.

But even when taking only the XR’s flat track accomplishments into consideration, there’s so much more to the story. While Springsteen, Parker, and Carr did combine for an astonishing 183 main event victories and 19 Grand National Championship wins, simple arithmetic tells you that still leaves an additional 319 wins and 18 GNCs on the docket. Digging deeper, 55 riders other than the Big Three won races on the XR750, and 11 of those 55 earned at least one Grand National Championship aboard it.

Over 50 years, the Harley-Davidson XR750 has captured 502 wins and 37 Grand National Championships. Is a 503rd win possible? (Harley-Davidson /)

The full story of XR750’s reign also happens to be very much a modern one. Of those 18 non-Springsteen/Parker/Carr titles, the bulk of them came following Carr’s final Grand National Championship in 2005. It’s only due to recency bias that it feels like the recent history of American Flat track can be summed up as the rise of the Kawasakis—culminating in Bryan Smith’s 2016 crown—followed one year later by both Harley-Davidson’s pivot to the XR750’s successor, the production-based XG750R, and the return of Indian Motorcycle with its purpose-built XR killer, the FTR750. The reality is the XR750 played as the backdrop for all of those monumental developments, leading ubiquity to instantly seeming like antiquity.

The all-guns-blazing reemergence of Indian Motorcycle, in particular, had a massive impact on the sport. Indian followed the blueprint utilized so effectively by Honda in the mid-’80s with its once-dominant RS750 and perfected it with the added edge of three decades of technological advancements to call upon. 2000 Grand National Champion Joe Kopp was brought onboard in a testing and developmental role in 2016 and found the FTR to be instantly familiar following a long and successful career campaigning XRs.

Indian’s FTR750 has dominated since its arrival. (Indian Motorcycle /)

“It has a purpose-built engine like in the XR750… I wouldn't say they copied it, but there are a lot of the same things, like a four-speed transmission and big heavy flywheels on the crank…a lot of similarities,” Kopp said. “The only thing that's really different, I'd say, is the modern technology with fuel injection and ignition timing and stuff like that.”

Kopp gave the all-new FTR750 its AFT debut in a shakedown ride at the 2016 season finale ahead of its impending full-scale 2017 campaign. The 47-year-old turned heads with his seventh-place run in the Indian’s maiden performance at the Santa Rosa Mile, but that effort was largely overshadowed by Brad Baker, who gave the XR750 a proper send-off by winning the machine’s final outing as a full-factory racebike in blowout fashion.

There was no denying Indian Motorcycle the spotlight the very next day however, when it enacted the next stage of its plan for dirt track domination. Yamaha had beaten H-D and its superior XR750 in the ’70s thanks primarily to the singular brilliance of Kenny Roberts. Honda had then done the same with its outstanding RS750 and a pair of superstars in Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert in the ’80s. Indian took it one step further. It hired the series’ three most recent Grand National Champions, Smith, Baker, and perhaps the biggest catch of all, Jared Mees, assembling its own version of the “Wrecking Crew.”

By that point, Mees had been well on his way to expanding the exclusive “Titans of the XR750” club to four. Before signing with Indian, he’d already claimed four Grand National Championships on the XR and ranked seventh in the machine’s history with 20 victories to his credit.

Jared Mees took four GNC titles on the XR750. (Dave Hoenig/)

Since joining Indian, Mees has only accelerated his assault on the record books, storming past Springsteen in all-time wins (now with 48 to Springer’s 43, trailing only Parker’s 94 and Carr’s 78). And as a result, the perception of his place has likely been forever altered; the same way Ricky Graham, who took the 1982 Grand National Championship on an XR750, is best remembered as the master of the RS750, Mees seems destined to be most closely aligned with the FTR750 after his racing days are done.

Mees clinched the FTR’s first title in its opening attempt with two races still remaining in the 2017 season. With the championship already locked up, he entered the penultimate race of the year in Fort Worth, Texas, riding a run of five consecutive oval wins—a streak that likely would have been eight if not for some uncharacteristic start line mishaps at Lima Half-Mile.

Similar to the situation that helped pave the way for Honda’s overwhelming success in the ’80s, Indian’s ascent transpired while H-D’s factory race program was most vulnerable, deep in the development phase of the new XG platform.

Yet, despite being “officially” left behind, the XR750 still had some fight left in it yet. Privateer Jeffrey Carver Jr., showed up for the Lone Star Half-Mile in a van with just crew chief Ben Evans in tow and a single XR750.

Jeffrey Carver Jr. earned the XR750 its 502nd win. (Scott Hunter, AFT/)

“We actually broke our Kawi the week before,” Carver explained. “We thought we were going to have to ride the backup, but its motor wasn't as good. We were sitting there at the shop, and Gary Goodwin was there. He had given us an XR, and he was like, 'What about that bike?'

“ 'I don't know… We’d need two of them.'

“ ‘Welp, you’ve got one good one and that's all you need. Imagine being the last one to ever win a race on an XR750.’

“Man, I was so fired up. I'm not one to say, ‘Hey, we're going to go to this race and win.’ I just let the energy play itself out.”

Even with a field stacked with Indian FTR750s, H-D XG750s, Kawasaki Ninja 650s, and Yamaha FZ-07s, nothing stood a chance against Carver and that XR750 on a slick Texas Motor Speedway surface.

“When you’re on a track, the XR delivers the horsepower down to the track. When it gets slippery, the XR just has the characteristics to really hook up to the ground,” nine-time GNC winner Parker said. “The Yamahas struggled at that in their era and the Hondas struggled at that for a period of time too. That's the big thing. It will hook up to the racetrack where the other bikes would struggle trying to get tires to hook up onto the dirt.”

Mees just couldn’t catch Carver in Texas as the privateer took the last win for the XR750. (Scott Hunter, AFT /)

“I had been close—podiums and running up front,” Carver said. “At the beginning of that year, I was going to quit and maybe try to find something else to do, at least part time. I didn't even know if I was going to the West Coast for the races. To come out and have that drive and that grit, I didn't care, you had the factory Harleys, the factory Indians. To be able to go there and win—it was just amazing. I just had this determination in my eyes that day.”

Only one rider could so much as keep Carver in sight that evening: Mees, who finished more than a second and a half back in second.

“I tried so hard to gain on him; I couldn't bridge the gap,” Mees admitted.

Carver's mechanic Ben Evans proudly celebrates the victory. (Scott Hunter, AFT /)

As the weekends and seasons continue to add up, Carver’s underdog victory in Texas seems more and more likely to go down as the XR750’s last hurrah. He did wheel it back out at the Atlanta Short Track early in 2018 to score another podium finish, but the series has only further fallen into Indian’s clutches. Since Carver’s upset, the FTR750 has taken 34 out of a possible 37 main event triumphs. Meanwhile, while improving, Harley’s factory XG750R racebike is still looking for its first.

While impossible to predict at the time, Carver did give the XR750 one final bragging right. The FTR750 closed out the decade with 47 wins. And thanks to Carver, the XR750 ended the 2010s with 48. Granted, the FTR amassed those wins in much less time.

The XR750 is now largely absent from AFT competition. Danny Eslick did manage to score points on it last season at Lima, serving as a fleeting reminder of the potential of its continued relevance.

“Sure, one hasn't won since 2017,” Kopp said. “But we really haven't seen them much on the track since then with a real capable rider. Honestly, there are some tracks—if I was 20 or 30 years younger—I would still choose the XR750 at times over an Indian, honestly.”

Kopp in the midst of his 2000 championship hunt. (Dave Hoenig/)

Asked if he believed it could still win, Parker said, “I do. I really do. Why would you not expect it? My career ended in 2000. Twenty years later they kept tweaking it here, tweaking it there. You can have a 1,000-horsepower motorcycle, but you've still got to hook it up to the ground, and that's the key issue. Just because you've got a faster, more powerful bike, doesn't mean you can go faster around a circle.”

“I know you could still win on that thing,” Kopp added. “There are certain tracks where it’s favorable in my mind. A slick clay car track—the slicker the better for that thing—and with a more rounded straightaway, it would be hard to beat still. I’m confident in that.”

The XR750 has become widely considered to be the most successful racebike in motorcycle racing history, perhaps the greatest vehicle in motorsports history. Is there even any competition? What other machine boasts a half-century reign spent transforming talents into heroes and heroes into legends? And best of all, this legacy might not yet be fully written.

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