Tz Tracker

TZ TRACKER

American FLYERS

Back from the banned

THE TZ750 FOUR-cylinder two-stroke is one of the most famous, and in famous, engines of all time. At its peak, the engine was flaming out more than 140 horsepower in full roadrace spec. Desperate to defeat the dreaded Milwaukee Wrecking Crew, Yamaha even mounted one in a flat-track chassis, which a very brave Kenny Roberts used to win the 1975 Indianapolis Mile—defeating Jay Springsteen and Corky Keener on the last lap after he essentially learned how to ride the evil bike over the course of the race.

“They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing,” a winded Roberts said in victory circle. Soon after, citing rider safety, the AMA banned the TZ tracker, only adding to its lore.

Consider this the 2005 version of Kenny’s bucking, roost-chucking monster. The bike’s owner, Mark Seifried, is an ardent two-stroke fan and a lover of historic racing. He runs a 350cc TR3-powered dirt-tracker he describes as a “true vintage” bike, as in all old parts, no fancy new frame or anything. It is undefeated in the hands of rider John Lundgren. He’s also restored one of Don Vesco’s old Yamaha Twin dirt-trackers and has owned many famous TZ-era racers, so when fellow TZ maniac Jeff Palhegyi put this 750 project up for sale, Seifried couldn’t resist.

Palhegyi had originally tried to build the bike to be much like the one Roberts rode in the’70s, for the simple reason that he had unsuccessfully tried for years to buy an original. After starting the project, though, he had a surprising difficulty.

“I ended up encountering a lot of opposition to building a ‘fake’ one,” says Palhegyi. “After putting up with that for a while, 1 decided to build a modern version using a new-style C&J frame with a big head tube, a bigger fork and updated geometry. A couple of years later I was down to getting the last 10 or 15 pieces, and 1 just couldn’t find the parts, got frustrated with the project and sold it to Mark. Two years later he finished it.”

Finished is what you see here. Rare sand-cast cases number the bottom end among the first 40 TZ700 engines produced by Yamaha. Because Seifried’s got plenty of 750cc cylinders in his parts bin, these were fitted rather than the more rare ones in the original smaller displacement.

“I finished it to race in Eddie Mulder’s West Coast Dirt Track Series,” says Seifried. “He had a runwhat-ya-brung race at the Sacramento Mile, but by the time we got done building the TZ, he didn’t do that race anymore.”

The C&J frame would be up to the task, especially with the Yamaha YZF-R6 conventional fork and modern 19-inch aluminum PM wheels. As a nod to its modern frame and suspension, the old bumblebee paint scheme is done in Yamaha’s current racing blue. The real beauty of the project was that it was built to run.

“Mark is an engine nut and mechanical fanatic,” Palhegyi says of the bike’s current owner. “He was the right guy to end up with the project.”

Let’s just hope Seifried can find the right series to race it. -Mark Hoyer