It's a historical irony that today examples of the iron-barrel Harley XRTT-750 road racer are thinner on the ground than the superior alloy-engined XRTT that replaced it. Obsolete the minute the new bike took to the track, the iron XR racers simply faded away. This example, a factory-support machine first ridden by Larry Darr at Daytona in 1970, is one of the few to survive.

Darr, winner of dirt-track nationals, campaigned the XRTT on asphalt during the 1970-71 seasons and remembers the bike fondly despite its unfortunate tendency to not finish races. "It was a lot of fun to ride, it handled well and was fast," he says. "I ran with eventual winner Dave Aldana on his BSA at Talladega for the first 15 laps – until the engine blew." Despite tuner Edgar Fuhr's best efforts, like all iron XRTTs Darr's ran hot when wound tight, with predictable results. There was good reason the bikes were nicknamed 'Waffle Irons.'

Like many of its kin, after its competitive days were done the bike ended up in parts in the back of a garage, but luckily that's as far as the dispersion went. On the trail of another race bike, noted XR specialist John Steel recognized the Darr components, made a deal on the spot and headed back to his Hi-Speed shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio with his new prize. Amazingly, very few important parts were missing, just the special cylinder heads needed to run the dual racing Tillotson carbs, and the exhaust system with its 'down-and-up' top pipe. The factory heads were sourced online at no small cost, while Steel borrowed an original set of pipes to use as a pattern and replicated the exhaust. Thankfully, the massive Fontana four-leading-shoe front brake had not been sold off to some café-racer builder

Instead of a full restoration, Steel reassembled the bike with the found parts so that it now authentically represents the XRTT as last raced, including the original yellow-painted bodywork favored by Darr and his fellow racers from Ohio. It rolls on period treaded Goodyear road racing tires. While the chassis and cycle parts were being put back together, longtime Harley dirt-track tuner Carl Patrick went completely through the motor.

Sold with the motorcycle will be period photographs, pertinent magazine articles and Darr's own account of his racing career with biological side notes. This XRTT and its ephemera represents a rare racing find, a package that we're fortunate to have intact once more.