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Rider presents condolences to the household and pals of Dr. John Wittner, DMD, who handed away Feb. 15 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on the age of 78.
John Wittner was initially often known as “Dr. John” to the sufferers in his dentistry enterprise; nevertheless, earlier to graduating along with his dentistry diploma from the College of Pennsylvania College of Dental Medication, he studied mechanical engineering at Lehigh College. He used these abilities in his spare time from his dentistry follow to tinker with tuning Harley-Davidson engines for the aim of highway racing. In 1983, he bought a Moto Guzzi Le Mans, which longtime motojournalist Alan Cathcart stated in his e-book Dr. John’s Moto Guzzi was primarily as a result of Wittner “thought it seemed neat, and in addition had a pushrod motor just like the Harley’s he was aware of engaged on.”
Wittner had one other motivation. “I purchased the bike with the only real intent of forming a crew of pals to go Endurance highway racing with it,” he instructed Cathcart. “I had labored on and ridden a lot of Guzzis, and knew they had been terribly dependable, the right weapon for Endurance competitors.”
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Thus was born Dr. John’s Guzzi racing crew, which went on to win the 1984 U.S. Endurance Championship’s Middleweight class with an ideal 100% ending document. In 1987, Dr. John’s Guzzi rider Doug Brauneck received the AMA Battle of the Twins championship on a Le Mans III developed by Wittner with the monetary assist of Alejandro de Tomaso. For the subsequent decade, Wittner labored as an engineer for Moto Guzzi on the firm’s manufacturing unit in Mandello del Lario.
“Dr. John and I turned pals in the course of the mid-Nineteen Eighties,” Cathcart stated, “when the bikes he created had been raced efficiently to 3 AMA Nationwide titles by the crew he established to carry Moto Guzzi to the fore once more within the USA. The saga of the previous dentist and his numerous Dr. John’s Guzzi racers reawakened consciousness of the historic Italian model at a time 40 years in the past within the late Nineteen Eighties when its profile was at its all-time lowest ebb, even amongst devoted fans of the marque.”
Cathcart was in a position to monitor take a look at every of the bikes created by Wittner and determined roughly a yr in the past to write down Dr. John’s Moto Guzzi to doc Wittner’s achievements, “each as a devoted engineer and an extremely heat human being.”
The e-book is out there at www.motoitaliane.it.
John Wittner’s full obituary from Donohue Funeral Dwelling is included under.
See all of Rider‘s Moto Guzzi protection right here
John A. Wittner
Oct. 27, 1945 – Feb. 15, 2024
A legendary innovator for Moto Guzzi and driving power within the motorbike neighborhood, Dr. John A. Wittner, DMD, age 78, of West Chester, PA, handed away on February 15, 2024. He was the son of Howard Wittner and Victoria (Shenker) Wittner, and brother to Ken Wittner, who pre-deceased him. “Dr. John,” as recognized to pals, colleagues, sufferers, and members of the motorbike neighborhood, was intensely devoted to his craft, whether or not it was complicated dentistry with out ache — or mechanical innovation and next-level mastery in motorbike engineering.
Learning mechanical engineering at Lehigh College (at all times with a love of fixing issues), he utilized his inherent expertise and abilities to assist enhance human efficiency, and graduated from College of Pennsylvania Dental College, as DMD, and was associate to Dr. Invoice Deal, in Deal-Wittner Dental Well being Group for a few years. However for many years, he stored on constructing engines for motorbike racing, channeling the magic into Moto Guzzis that received and received and received.
In the future, he reached a turning level whereas engaged on a pal and affected person within the dental chair – who inspired him to take motorbike racing from the native to the large time. And that’s how the legendary Dr. John’s Crew Moto Guzzi was launched and went from an skilled, dominant group of regional racers to profitable and dominating the 1984 AMA Nationwide Endurance Racing Championship on the Daytona Firecracker 400. And went on to design and engineer distinctive marques for Moto Guzzi in Italy, leaving an historic legacy for motorbike racing.
Dr. John was a Vietnam veteran, loyal pal, and impartial particular person who at all times rose to a problem and who’d quite be burning rubber than anything.
Providers and Interment are Personal.
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