Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1017116
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE H urley Wilvert's third-place fin- ish in the 1974 Daytona 200 goes down in history as one of the most improbable in the history of the race. In five years of nation- al racing Wilvert had only finished on the podium once before and that was at another superspeed- way with a road course—Charlotte Motor Speedway. Still, the 1974 field was one of the deepest in the history of the Daytona 200. By then the foreign rider entry phenomenon was in full effect. In spite of the fuel crisis going on in the country at that point, fans still managed to pack Dayto- na International Speedway. They came to see the legend Giacomo Agostini make his Daytona debut. That was big news, as big as it gets in motorcycle racing, and an estimated crowd of 60,000 were on hand, very likely the largest crowd ever to that point to see a motorcycle road race in America. Wilvert barely even got to Daytona that year. Kawasaki had to endure drastic cutbacks to its racing programs in 1974, due in large part to the gas crisis. From a team of five and sometimes even six factory riders in 1973, it was down to just Yvon Duhamel and Art Baumann. Kawasaki's Road Racing Coordinator Randy Hall P124 HURLEY WILVERT: 1944-2018 for new parts. Such was the case in the '74 Daytona 200. Wilvert was given a Randy Hall-designed prototype frame, which actually gave him a handling advantage over his teammates. In the race Agostini showed why he was seven-times 500cc World Champion. After a bit of a battle with Gary Nixon, Ago set sail and easily won the race. In a race full of attrition, Kenny Rob- erts, with a cracked exhaust on his Yamaha, nursed it home to managed to keep Wilvert on the team, although Hurley was not factory contracted, and if he was to have a mechanic he would have to pay him out of his own pocket. Wilvert brought his friend George Vukmonovich on board to turn the wrenches. Wilvert made due with parts from the '73 H2-R machines, while Duhamel and Baumann got updated '74 models. But Wilvert was a mechanic extraordinaire. He and George V took his cobbled together Kawasaki and made it sing. Being the B-rider meant that at times he was used as a test bed Hurley Wilvert took third in the 1974 Daytona 200, finishing behind only Giacomo Agostini and Kenny Roberts, on the factory Kawasaki.