P11 Baja Racer
P11 BAJA RACER
WHEN NORTON MADE DIRTBIKES
IF A BIG-BORE OFF-ROAD THUMPER seems out of character for Kawasaki, consider that in 1967, Norton, builder of the ultimate British road-burners, stunned the U.S. market by unleashing a 750cc dirtbike.
Called the P11, it was a minimally street-legal Twin developed by Norton’s West Coast distributor, ZDS Motors, for desert racing and trail riding. The P11 was a melding of 750cc Norton Atlas motor and Matchless G85CS scrambler chassis, and the CW editors of the day gave this child of selective breeding an excellent roadtest review, praising it for possessing stability, versatility and improved engine reliability over earlier versions of the Norton Twin. In fact, they had enough confidence in the Pll to field one in the inaugural running of the Mexican 1000 in 1967. Jerry Platt, a friend of the magazine, teamed with desert racer Vern Hancock to finish sixth in class and 18th overall, completing the 1000-mile run down the Baja Peninsula in 38 hours, 15 minutes, although the bike took a terrible pounding in the process.
The following year, Team Cycle World returned to the Baja 1000 to race another PI 1, the one seen here. Things didn’t go well for Platt. Riding the first leg, he encountered flat tires and was soon out of spare inner tubes. Unable to forge on, he was forced to leave the bike along the course, catching a ride to the next town to hunt down a tube. Returning several hours later, he was distraught to discover the Norton stolen.
“It was about a year later that I caught wind of a bike sighted in Ensenada with a Team Cycle World decal on it. I drove down and after a four-hour search, traced it to a body shop where it had been left for repairs,” remembers Platt. He paid a $5 repair bill to liberate the Norton, and continued racing it in enduros until 1973 when it was mothballed in favor of a Honda XL350.
The P11 sat idle until four years ago when Platt gave the bike to his good friend and riding buddy, Gil Vailencourt, a 52-year-old collector of vintage dirtbikes and the founder and current co-owner of Works Performance Suspension. Vailencourt is an active vintage motocross racer and enjoys riding his antiquated bikes in Baja. “Anybody can ride a modem bike” says Vailencourt, “I find it more interesting and fun being on a piece of history.”
The fun started with a two-month ground-up restoration, mostly handled by John Zainer, a retired music teacher and another of Vailencourt’s friends. “When I got it, it was basically sound, but it looked terrible,” says Vailencourt. “The wheels were so rusty they looked like big red stop signs. We took it apart to its bare components and plated everything that needed to be plated and painted everything that needed paint, then reassembled it. I wasn’t really trying to restore it so much as just trying to get it running, so it’s not technically correct if you look at it close.” Apologies aren’t necessary. Gil Vailencourt’s modified Pll showcases one of the rarest Norton models and faithfully represents the spirit of the big desert sleds that once prowled the wide-open spaces of the Southwest.
—Don Canet
