This shot, made at Daytona in 1973, has had a life of its own for years on the internet, and was given the name by acclamation. That is myself in the whiskers, and on my barn-job 750 Kawasaki Triple is my English rider, the late Cliff Carr. The belly button girl is his wife, Diane. She knows how to make cheese-and-chutney sandwiches.

Tear your eyes away from her shy gaze long enough to look at the drive chain. Why is it lying slackly on the swing-arm? That’s because we brought two bikes to the speedway that year, and this one had in practice sneezed the broken-off small-end of a connecting-rod, the wristpin and bearing, plus aluminum chunks and grit out through the exhaust port and into the right-hand pipe.

There is no engine in the bike in this photo. There is a scurrilous rumor that I pushed it through AMA tech like that.

When my helper, Dave Peters (who later became a millionaire driving a Snap-On truck)) and I were shuffling the bike—now with the other engine—forward in the line of bikes making a second try at qualifying, a stab of adrenaline told me the pipe was full of junk. We whipped off the fairing and pipe, and I shook out the pieces. I poked with a long screwdriver to be sure nothing was jammed in the 20 mm ID tailpipe. See what an idiot I am!

The bike ran well on its second engine. Thus began the year when we were never sure, when an engine nearly cut itself in half, whether the rod had broken or if the piston had broken up first. In Texas I realized that the forged two-ring pistons that had been reliable the year before were now cracking above the wristpin bosses after as few as 50 miles. But that’s another story.

How do I know this was 1973? That’s because the bike wears Kawasaki’s Gifu fairing, with its projecting chin. When I consulted some senior MIT aero people about it, they told me that during the war it was found that radar dipole arrays produced less drag if there was a semi-flat surface behind them. Seems the flattish surface pushes a “haystack” of stagnant air ahead of itself, reducing air velocity through the dipoles.

What is Gifu? That is where Kawasaki have their wind tunnel. In conversation, our Kawasaki race tech, Mr. Yoshida, told me, “At Gifu…many smart guys.”

The seat was standard issue but if you read what’s on the round sticker, you’ll find it says “Kawasaki Road Race.” That identifies us as “B-Team.” Real factory guys had different stickers that said “Kawasaki Factory Road Race.”

Gotta keep these fine points in mind.

After Laguna, when two B-Team riders finished 1-2 (Gary Nixon and Cliff Carr) I suggested to Nixon (with a wink) that we have T-shirts made, saying, “B-Team Your Ass.” With a worried look he replied, “I don’t think that…would be a good move.”

What are those wheels and front calipers? I bought them from California inventor Dan Hannebrink. His brand name was Monotrack, and many a game was played by combining syllables from each in new, rewarding ways. California speech.

Remember that back in the 1960s, Harley had designed a miniature race bike called “The Midget,” built on 16-inch wheels 20 years ahead of their time? Goodyear had made the special tires. Hannebrink had made mag wheels in both 16 and 18 diameters, and had persuaded Goodyear to drag out the 16-inch molds and pull a few tires for him.

Elliot Morris began making his well-designed mags later that year. The Harley ‘Midget’ reached testing stage, but after a few laps the factory riders reckoned it would be hard to do 200 miles tucked in on that tiny bike.

And the Belly Button Girl? Women remain always mysterious, especially to men.