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VOLUME 56 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 12, 2019 P107 The problem was AMA officials said Askland's front tire went over his grid line at the start, automati- cally DQ'ing him from the heat. Fortunately, his buddy Ron Pierce came to the rescue. Pierce also had a grid issue in his Super- bike qualifying heat and actually measured the grid and found the spacing between rows was two-feet shorter than the AMA's rulebook stipulated, so Pierce's and Askland's penalties were both thrown out. That meant Askland would start from the inside of the second row instead of the back of the grid. Any question of how Spencer might fare as a first-year expert was answered in his heat race, when he challenged Mamola for the lead early on, before his Kanemoto-tuned Howard Rac- ing Yamaha began misfiring, and Spenser dropped to fourth. Mamola was the defending AMA 250 Grand Prix Champion and was riding a very special Bimota- framed Yamaha that was a full 40 pounds lighter than most of the other Yamahas in the race. He won the pole. Askland's Yamaha was a very special machine built at the fac- tory by Carruthers. It featured a lower-slung chassis and narrower fairing enabling it to slice through the wind more efficiently at top speed at Daytona. Askland had actually ridden essentially the same bike two years early to vic- tory at Sears Point, again when Roberts got dinged up a bit and didn't want to race in the 250 class. "I think it was the same bike Kenny raced in the 250 GPs in '78," Askland said. It should be mentioned that Ka- wasaki was creating all the buzz coming into the race. With de- fending 250cc World champ Ball- ington leading a team of KR250s, also ridden by Mike Baldwin and Mang. All three Kawasakis quali- fied on the front row, but Baldwin (clutch) and Ballington (overheat- ing) were out after only a few laps on the final leaving Mang to uphold Kawasaki's honor. It was the three young Ameri- cans breaking away from the drop of the green flag. From the pole Mamola led, only to be passed by Spencer before the lap was complete. And it went on like that with an incredible 24 lead changes in 26 laps! The pace was torrid. At the finish the race record, set by Gregg Hansford in 1978, was shat- tered by nearly two miles per hour. Mamola was a beast on the brakes, but that hammering on the brakes cost him. His front brakes faded to nothing. Plus, his bike's gas tank developed a leak, so he fell behind, and it became a two-man battle for the win. With a few laps to go, both Ask- land and Spencer slowed hoping the other would lead out of the chicane on the final lap. "Freddie wasn't buying it, so on the white flag lap I thought, 'Heck with it, I'm just going as hard as I can and try to gap him,'" Askland recalled with a grin in his voice. "In the kink, we'd usually lift the throttle to get through there. Well, on the last lap, I went through there wide open, pushed the front and almost went off the racetrack. I thought, 'Holy smokes, that was close!'" In the chicane they hit traffic. For a brief second, Spencer got stuck behind a lapper, but he still had a shot. He pulled out of Askland's draft but came up about a bike-length short. Askland won, but for him the drama wasn't over. "Right before the start of the race, I was on the starting line, and Kel leans in and says, 'Oh, by the way, if you get in the winner's circle, make sure you pound on the gas tank on the cool-down lap. I don't know if it's too big or not to pass inspection.' "I'm looking at him, going, 'This a factory effort, are you kidding me?' He says, 'I think it's okay, but just pound on it like you're excited.' So, on the cool-down lap, I'm going down the back straightaway, and I'm just whaling on the top of the gas tank with my fist, like 'Yahoo, I won! And I'm thinking 'Oh man, I hope I'm dent- ing the tank.'" Askland never got to race the special Yamaha again, but he says it was a ride he'll never forget. "I posted a picture on my Insta- gram from the winner's circle that year with Freddie and Randy, and I said something like, 'Pretty good company.' It was special, that's for sure." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives