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/125718
co ~ !l. .. 0. "GET SMART!" Was The Battle Cry... And Bugs M (Continued from page 1) line astride one of Gary Nixon's old Triumphs. This year Gary split from Nixon Enterprises and found himself a kitted Honda 750 to ride. Rex Beauchamp pursues two other big bikes. Twice in a row Dick Mann proved he is the man to beat at Daytona. Below: Fans enjoyed the "turn indicator" racing style of the outstanding Paul Smart. Way down 11 th on the list of quick qualifiers was 36-year-old Dick (Bugsy) Mann, last year's Honda winner, this time on a team BSA. TRAGIC START AMA President j.R. Kelly took the network radio microphone to say uGenUemen, start yOUT countdown." As the 38,500-person gallery strained its eyes toward the first turn, wave after wave of lusty machines poured onto the banked wall. Roger Reiman (H-D) and Larry Darr (H-D) had trouble getting started. Reiman, a former back-te>-back Daytona winner got away very late. Leading the thundering swarm around the oval was Yvon Duhamel on his new Kawasaki ride and right behind was young Fisher. Mike Hailwood was 3rd, followed closely by Paul Smart and jody Nicholas on the team Suzuki. Lurking there behind the leaders was the wily Mann. As the motorcycles rounded turn one into the infield on the first lap, tragedy occurred. Rusty Bradley, the 21-year-old junior whiz, who became the highest paid road racer last year thanks mainly to Kawasaki contingency money, dropped to the asphalt. Steve McLaughlin and Duane McDaniels went down too, without serious harm. But Bradley suffered a severe skull fracture and died in the Speedway infirmary at 7 p.m. that night. Meanwhile Fisher outraced Duhamel and led the Canadian and the two Englishmen through the paces for four laps. "That Honda didn't half go!" exclaimed Hailwood later, uttering a British obscenity. Mann stuck to his plan, keeping the BSA within easy reach of the other four. Soon Fisher's short-fuse Honda began to fade. But he had proved his point in ten laps, before 'it stopped altogether. The young man can ride! Hopes for an all-American victory flickered when Cal Rayborn's gearbox froze dumping him on the track. The crew completely rebuilt the box in a long pit stop and sent him out to prove the power of the revised XR in the 30-some laps remaining. Cal lapped at terrifically fast speeds (2 min. 5 sec. around the 3.8/mile course) but patriotic hopes burned dim. It seemed only to be a question of which Englishman would win. 200 is a lot of miles. Attrition and spills began to take their inevitable toll. The Suzuki team sat glumly on the wall. Hailwood's BSA ate its valves in 15 laps. Photos by Don Woods & Chuck Clayton Read all about Daytona Speed Week ... Right: 105 Texan B Ii!t'tweight almost out Smart strai laps of the 2 Duhamel crashed safely but spectacularly in the horseshoe turn. RECORDS SET EVERY LAP Records fell with every passing lap. The average was better than 3 mph faster than last year's record speeds. Gary Nixon raced grimly on, somewhere in the first ten, conscious of the 11mm steel pin holding his thigh together, until his Triumph quit. Smart and Mann were one-two, treating the fans to a terrific drafting duel. The Triumph and the BSA were very evenly matched, except Mann seemed to have just the tiniest bit more speed on the straights a fact which probably surprised him at first, since Smart, the factory's favorite, was given the faster hike. Then the reasOIl apparently became clear to Mann. Smart's exhaust megaphone emitted a trace of smoke as he sh u t off for th e near-vertical wall, and continued to smoke just a bit when he got on it again. Mann backed off and let Smart collect the 125-dollar-a-lap leader money while Bugs nursed his engine and waited the distance stretched - 28 seconds - a full minute separated them. Mann paused in the pits for a quick dose of gasoline and paced the Britisher through lap 40 of the 53-lap chase. MANN'S STRATEGY PAYS OFF Meanwhile Gene Romero crept into 3rd place and the late-starting Harley of Roger Rieman was listed as 4th! Probably the world's greatest natural road racing talent. Mike the Bike got put in the pits by. fragile set of valves. D..