Italian Speed Merchant

Reno Leoni became one of the icon builders in the early days of AMA Superbike racing. (Leoni collection)

Reno Leoni dreamed about being involved in motorcycling from the time he was a small boy in Italy. He not only lived his boyhood dreams, he became one of the legends in the early days of AMA Superbike and Battle of the Twins competition. Leoni tuned race bikes (primarily Italian brands) and won dozens of AMA races with riders such as Mike Baldwin and Jimmy Adamo.

Leoni got his start in the motorcycle industry in 1951. At 15 he went to work for the NSU importer in Italy. He then moved to the Morini spin off Minarelli before landing at Ducati.

At Ducati Leoni became a test rider. His focus was on gearboxes and he and a fellow tester would ride Ducati 350cc singles 1000 kilometers (620 miles) every day.

“We would ride to Milano in the morning and stop to have lunch,” Leoni said. “Then we would ride out and back to the Ducati factory. Sometimes we would ride with other factory testers from Morini and Mondial. We always rode in pairs in case one of the bikes got stuck on the road. I think we only had to call the factory twice to bring a truck to pick up a bike. It was only because of a charging system that did not work properly.”

Ducati sent Leoni to America in 1965 to diagnose and correct a problem the single-cylinder bikes were having here. What was supposed to be a six-month job turned into a 35-year stay in America for Leoni.

Leoni built bikes for leading amateur racers in the late 1960s such as George Rockett, Torello Tacchi and Frank Camilleri, but he really came into his own when Superbike racing took off in the 1970s. He built a speedy Ducati 750 Sport for Ohio racer Jonathan White. By the mid-1970s Leoni was in full Superbike mode building a Ducati 750SS  ridden by Motorcyclist Magazine Tech Editor Tony Murphy.

Kurt Liebmann and Mike Baldwin tore up the AAMRR and WERA club races on Leoni-built Ducatis in the mid-1970s. That was followed by the introduction of the Moto Guzzi Le Mans in 1975. Turning the mild mannered sports-touring Le Mans (shaft drive and all) into an AMA Superbike winning race bike is what took Leoni from a well-known regional builder to one of national repute.

The breakthrough win came at the Loudon Superbike race in June of 1976 with Mike Baldwin at the controls.

Baldwin dominated the Loudon race on the Berliner Moto Guzzi, in one of the largest margins of victory in AMA Superbike history over the factory BMWs of Gary Fisher and Reg Pridmore.

Leoni's paring with rider Jimmy Adamo produced 31 national wins and two national titles. (Leoni collection)

In perhaps Leoni’s proudest moment his Moto Guzzis went one and two at the 1977 Charlotte AMA Superbike race with Baldwin winning and Liebmann finishing second over the Yoshimura Kawasaki of Wes Cooley.

“These wins were fantastic for Moto Guzzi,” Leoni says proudly. “They sold out of all the Le Mans they brought to America and a lot of riders started racing the bike.”

In 1982 the AMA Battle of the Twins was formed and its earliest star was Jimmy Adamo on a Leoni-tuned Ducati. Adamo won the first two AMA Battle of the Twins Championships and went on to win an incredible 31 AMA Twins nationals.

Leoni eventually moved back to Italy. He wasn’t able to stay retired long. With the rising popularity of the late 1950s era Ducatis in vintage racing, many of the friends Leoni made in America began calling on him to build their vintage motors.

“They made me to do all these engines so they can do the Motogiro,” Leoni says with a laugh.

“Reno was a genius,” said Torello Tacchi, who raced bikes built by Leoni. “Whenever one of his bikes showed up at the track, you knew it was ready to race.”