1966 Yamaha 350cc TR2B

• Ex-Jody Nicholas AMA race bike
• Used in the film 'Little Fauss and Big Halsy'
• Fully restored to film-used condition
• Original four-leading-shoe front brake

Yamaha's 250 and 350cc two-stroke road racers have been called the 'Privateer's Friend,' and there's no doubt that 1970s' starting grids would have been substantially reduced in participants and excitement without these prolific 'production' racers. In AMA Expert road racing, for instance, the prior accepted path to success was to build a Harley-Davidson or Triumph using a well-trod combination of optional factory and aftermarket components chosen from an approved list.

"Yamaha cut through that like a hot wire through styrofoam," says Kevin Cameron, longtime technical editor at Cycle World magazine, and before that a noted two-stroke race tuner. "The beauty of the production-racer concept was that word: production. Because the engines were built on essentially production crankcases, it was possible to crank out a run of 200 bikes quite easily and cheaply. Yamaha production racers were the Colt six-gun of road racing—their sale prices were a small fraction of what it would cost to handcraft a Triumph or Harley that was even close to factory level."

All the Yamahas needed to be track-ready was safety wire, a good set of sticky tires and a full tank of pre-mix. Derived from the TD1, the 250cc TD2 and 350cc TR2 arrived in 1969 and were immediately capable of winning races thanks to a comprehensive redesign that saw engine porting and expansion chambers updated, superior Mikuni carburetors adopted, and the chassis, suspension and brakes all greatly improved.

At the Daytona 200 that year, notice was served when Yvon DuHamel and Art Baumann finished 2-3 behind Cal Rayborn's factory Harley-Davidson, despite their TR2s having less than half the displacement of the winning KR750. In 1972 Don Emde, riding a privateer TR3—in essence a TR2 with six-speed gearbox—took the Daytona win, the first-ever for a two-stroke, with many more to come.

AMA Hall of Famer and two-time national road race winner Jody Nicholas campaigned this TR2B, which had an interesting side job as one of the on-screen bikes in the 1970 film Little Fauss and Big Halsy. A racing buddy movie, it starred a young, often shirtless Robert Redford, supermodel Lauren Hutton in one of her first roles, and the late Michael J. Pollard, best known for his Oscar-nominated turn as the scene-stealing sidekick in Bonnie and Clyde. The TR, in Nicholas' #58 racing livery, served as Pollard's mount in race scenes shot at Sears Point Raceway. Nicholas was to have doubled for Pollard in the action sequences, but his employer at the time, the U.S. Navy, had need of his skills as an E-1 Tracer pilot, so Scottish road racer Davey Scott did the riding.

Following Nicholas' ownership, the Yamaha was raced once at the Bonneville Salt Flats, then put away in storage until the mid-1990s when the current owner acquired the bike. A complete mechanical and cosmetic restoration was undertaken, with the only non-original parts employed being a replica Air Tech fairing and a period Don Vesco swingarm. The original round steel swingarm is included in the sale, and the original fairing, a spare engine and sundry other parts are available for purchase post-sale should the buyer be interested. The restored TR2B was last ridden by Nicholas and David Aldana for demonstration laps at Daytona International Speedway.