What's Up Doc?
What's Up Doc?
What ever happened to Dr. John Wittner?
Dentist to race-team manager to R&D engineer to military consultant isn't your normal career path, but for Dr. John Wittner, it's all in a life's work.
Having impressed former Moto Guzzi owner Alejandro De Tomaso (who died this past May at age 75) with his innovative and successful racebikes, Wittner in 1988 was hired to help put his ideas into production.
“They whisked me away to the factory in Italy, and I started spending more and more time there,” he recalls. “I gave up racing when we weren’t competitive anymore and became part of the design & development team, working on new models.”
Among these were the eight-valve Daytona 1000 subsequent “Dr. John Replica,” based on the final evolution of Wittner’s AMA Pro Twins racer, plus the 1100 Sport. “That came from the bike that won the 1987 championship,” he says. “It was essentially a two-valve Daytona. Its frame was designed right here in West Chester, Pennsylvania.”
That frame design, incidentally, has survived to this day, with a few subtle changes forming the backbone for the current V11 Sport and
Le Mans.
But while the bikes Dr. John helped create continue to roll off the Guzzi assembly line,
Wittner himself has moved on.
He left the factory in 1999, so had no hand in the MGS-01.
“I’ve seen pictures of it, though, and it’s beautiful,” he declares. “The rear suspension solution is very logical.
They’re really doing good work.”
Nowadays, Dr. John is employed as a consultant for TRW and Northrop/Grumman on unmanned military surveillance aircraft. Guzzi-powered, naturally. But with that program slated to come to an end soon, Wittner is looking to get back into motorcycles. He’s still an avid enthusiast, still owns a couple of his old racebikes, and helps a local dirt-track team. And lately he’s been getting into Supermoto, proclaiming, “That’s the most fun I’ve ever had.”
As for dentistry, Dr. John has hung up his drills for good. “Now I’m like the rest of you,” he chuckles. “I go every six months.” Brian Catterson
