Kelvin Carruthers (born 3 January 1938) is an Australian world champion Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and racing team manager.[1] After his motorcycle riding career, he became race team manager for world championship winning riders Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson.[2]
Kel Carruthers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | Australian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | 3 January 1938||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Motorcycle racing career
Carruthers, as the son of a motorcycle shop owner, learned how to work on bikes from a young age, started riding at 10, and entered his first race at 12.[2] By the early 1960s he had won the Australian 125 cc, 250 cc, 350 cc and 500 cc National Championships.[2]
In early 1966, he moved to Europe with his family to compete in British and International short-circuit races,[3] including Grand Prix World Championship events riding a Drixton Aermacchi,[4] and for early 1969 season riding bikes for the Aermacchi factory.[2] Halfway through the 1969 season, he was offered a ride with the Benelli factory and won the Isle of Man 250 cc TT race. After the Isle of Man TT, Aermacchi released him from their contract to continue as a factory rider with Benelli and, he went on to win the 1969 FIM 250cc road racing world championship after a tight points battle with Santiago Herrero and Kent Andersson.[1][2]
After the 1970 Grand Prix season, he accepted an offer from Yamaha to race in America.[2] Yamaha asked him to tutor a young American dirt track racer named Kenny Roberts.[2] In 1973, Carruthers became the manager of Yamaha's American racing team. Under Carruthers’ guidance, Roberts would win the 1973 and 1974 Grand National Championship for Yamaha.[2] When it became apparent that Yamaha didn't have a bike able to compete with the dominant Harley Davidson dirt track team, they decided to send Carruthers and Roberts to Europe to compete in the road racing world championships.[2][5] With Carruthers tuning the bikes and offering guidance, Roberts went on to win three consecutive world championships in 1978, 1979, and 1980. Carruthers also managed Eddie Lawson to a 500cc World Championship in 1984.
Carruthers went on to work for several Grand Prix teams through to the 1995 season. In 1996, he took a job with the Sea-Doo watercraft factory racing team, helping them win several national and world titles.[2] He returned to motorcycling in 1998 running a Yamaha satellite motocross team.[2]
In 1985, Carruthers was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.[6] He was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.[2]
Grand Prix motorcycle racing results[1][7]
Points system from 1950 to 1968:
Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Points | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Points system from 1969 onwards:
Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Points | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)