Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'7h, 1eaa 11144 111M Ue de~' t)"' ?1t~ C. « ~ w Z W ...J U >- U By Don Woods When Dick Mann won his second straight Daytona 200 this year his only comment after the race was that the race had been won in the garage. His three cylinder BSA had performed flawlessly for two-hundred miles at an average speed in excess of all but the fastest six qualifiers. Pushing hard early in the race, he had managed to survive the mechanical failures of the machines that had been in front of him. Dick had two men working on his machine as did all of the factory BSA's and Triumphs. His Tuner was Jim Dour, of San Francisco, California and his mechanic was Ted Hubbard, of Concord, N.C. The bike was one of four new bikes that had been prepared in England during the winter. The rest of the 10 bikes on the BSA and Triumph teams had been prepared in this country. Starting on the bike the week before the race the two mechanics prepared the machine better than any other bike in the race. Of course, the mechanics say that it took Dick's fine hands on the handlebars to win, but nevertheless, when the machine was torn down after the race, the engine was in such condition that it could have easily run another two hundred miles. We talked at length with Ted during the week before the race and several days after to get the information on how the bike was prepared and what it ook to get the big three to turn in a winning performance. We want to give him our thanks for bearing with us and giving us all the information for this article. Doug Hele was the guiding force behind the building of the new bikes. After the bikes were finished in Eng· land, Doug and his crew caine to Daytona with the macliines and the rest of the team's bikes, which had been prepared under the guidance of Danny Macias all assembled at Daytona on Saturday, the week before the race. At first the engines had some misfiring problems at high speed caused from a carburetor shroud. The shroud caused excess heat to build up in the carburetors, causing the float bowls to boil over. The shroud was removed and for Mann's crew that solved any engine tuning problems. The engine ran flawlessly from then on, leaving the crew to concentrate on getting the handling sorted out to Manns' liking. The first thing that was noticed was that the front brake was giving some difficulty. The Lockheed double disc brake had a special steel coating sprayed over aluminum for the discs. A change to regular steel discs solved this problem. None of the other machines with the aluminum discs had any problems. During hard braking applications, Dick experienced some difficulty with the steering head loosening. The ball bearings in the head were exchanged for tapered bearings. This solved that problem. The only tuning on the engine that was done from standard was a change from 250 main jets to 240 and using a spark plug that was one heat range colder than the other bikes. Some. experimenting was done with the needles in the carburetors to get the bike to accelerate off the corners beUer, but it was found that the standard settings were' best. Although Dick practiced hard from early in the week until race day, he never ran the machine as hard as he could until race day. Evidently, judging from the qualifying times and the lap times turned in during the race, a lot of other riders were sand bagging, too. On Thursday, Dick qualified the machine eleventh fastest. Good, but not so good when you're wanting to win. Checking the speed through the speed trap on the straight, the crew found that the bike was a little dow'n on top speed, turning 147.54 mph. Thursday night the two tuners and Mann made some changes and when they went out for practice Friday morning the bike turned 149.50 mph through the traps. Better bu t still not satisfaetory. Ted says that while he and Jim put in over 75 hours apiece during the week preparing the machine, Dick also worked many long hours assisting them. Dick has the ability to analyize what a machine is doing and getting the situation into words. Being Jln expert machanic himself, it made things a lot easier on the mechanics. Some other small, but important, modifications were made to tailor the bike to Dick. The bikes were all set up with 19 inch wheels, but Dick wanted an 18 inch front wheel. Also, most of the three's were set up with the rear shocks installed in an upside down pvsition to keep the rear end on the ground better coming off the corners. Ted and Jim found that with Dick's smooth riding style, the shocks could be left as is. Some of the bikes were very hard on tires, with lots of scuff wear resulting from hard practice sessions. After finishing the chassis setup, Dick's bike showed none of this scuff wear. Still not satisfied with the top speed of the machine, the mechanics disassembled the engine on Saturday night before the race. The engine had been perfectly prepared and showed no bad signs, but the two American mechanics sneaked the head out of the garage area and over to a machine shop where they performed a little magic of their own. In practice on Sunday morning the engine would now turn 8300 rpm in top gear where before only 7800 could be turned. The English had furnished a beautiful racer, but it remained for the two Americans to breathe on it a little Ted Hubbard straddles the machine that he helped boost into Victory Lane with his fine wrench twisting and his quick pit service. before everything was just right. Race time came and during the first laps, Dick stayed back a little, just mnoing fast enough to keep the leaders in sight. Ted was assigned to fuel the BSA teams bike during the pit stops. He had practiced his job well and some super fast pit stops were performed during the race. When time came for Dick to come into the -pitS, he was in second place right behind leader Paul Smart who was riding one of the factory Triumphs. The BSA and Triumph pits were at the far end of the pit area and when the crew signaled Dick to come in for his gas stop, he focused his eyes on the pit board and then as he glanced back up at the track he was off on the grass in the first turn almost before he could get his eyes refocused. Motocrossing across the grass, Dick struck one of the mbber marking cones that line the course. Unfortunately, someone had driver a steel spike through this one to hold it in place Pulling into the pits, Dick had no feeling in his foot and his pit stop was delayed while a mechanic straightened his rear brake pedal. Dick said that it was several laps before feeling returned to his foot. RetuTning to the conflict, Dick found' himself down 28 seconds on Smart. His crew kept him informed as to his position and only Dick k!loWS if he could have closed the gap. Early in the race, while following Smart and Hailwood, Mann had closed a 150 yard gap in just a few corners through the infield and had pulled right alongside Hailwood, who was leading at the time. Mann has a habit of following the leader during a race until the last minutes when he proceeds to gas it up and try for the lead. Maybe he noticed the smoke emmiUing from Smarts' bike when he .shut off for the corners when he was close to him. Maybe he figured that he could hold his position and outlast Smart. Mann, being a true professional, never·talks much about what he was doing during a race. Smart blew, Dick got the lead and as he took the checkered flag his BSA was purring just as it had on the first lap. An accomplishment, to be sure, but when you ponder that th~ last lap of the race was turned several seconds faster than Mann had qualified, it's really something else. Viewfinders M.C.- Presents 4th Annual .SAT &SUN APRIL 17&18 /jRAND \~It~" P'811 $6.50 entry Mailentriesto:i~~~~~~~~~~~: U DlSur, A.M.A. SANCTIONED DISTRICT 37 POINT RUN ".A ••US A.D • • roc.oss Sun Valley, Cal. 91352 Mail.entry closes April 12th &trY --------------------------------------------- I VIEWANDERS MOTORCYCLE CLUB, INC. Motorcyd, Rac, I co_noN) Sjgnct~red required - fA NON-PIOfIT I I I I I I I I I I I I NAME __ _.._ .._. AO:li\ESS M _. ---.--.---.. _-- 10 __. I wHl c;:':ter in the R:i~ins er Distrid Riding No. _._.. Expire, ..:.._ ..__. _ _ .. Engine Numb. ·.ak. Motor __._ _.. M M _ •• _ _ • _ _ Sidecar Partn.r . being Cla... _ Amateur 0 Expert 0 . TT 0 ~.ereby C.,-rtlfy th.t I 11m tha, of ." 0' legal _ ~ cAL..,,"O"NlA CQYNTY Novice 0 0", • _._._.. min:>r. I furTh.r Notary lI'ublic ev.nts, h.r.by releasing the A.M.A., District 37 Spo,,", Commin.., property owners, and Vi~find.tl Motorcycle Oub, Ine. for any and all liabiliti••. Thi, Sta~en' of Oal&d thIS day of "'-M .roO eck_leda.a ~ COloInty ....a .. --" th8t to to I I I I I to De troe witt'll" ".tr\foo e..cwted V'te.....,.. IN WITNCU WIolI:MOII", I he "... oMclel Mel the tlflcete f _ t " " " 19__ _id trI. Pef'.otl whOM ".,.... i. h1MC,.jtleCl IMCl ef't'l• .o consent valid until January I, 1972 I" 8IICI to' Nfore ""e, trw ~....... • .11)' .....,..a all V;ewfinders Motorcycle Club. Inc. I I I I ~ wyeth th"t I hereby give my consent for .aid__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , minor, to compete In Cu. In. . ASSUM?TION OF THE IISK AND WAIVEI 0' PEUONAL INJUIY CLAIM Unc.:u the rul" end unction of the A.......n ~ AuocMtien, I ~ ceefwnI ....... ...,., with the ruin gowminl thi. contMt in _nnectioft with fhe, c.w..IU AMerican ~.. ..... - - - .., clollon and the Olstr'd Com mitt.. ond r ""'...... ClI'" to hold bkr",.I the."ul'I kon MOlon::ycle A..ocf."', the Vl......f,nd.rs Motorcycle Club, Inc. alNl any property ow 1MI any"'" all ,....,., ~n'f lou. Of injury to "''IIeI' .. ,...,.rty 1ft which I may k .e=:::.r=- ........ tast. I C~ .Iso egree ID a.,u".. ...,.....bility ,., any ,..,.", I ......... I hcye read this entry blank. Ves 0 No 0 Types of POints wanted - Desert 0 MX 0 SiATEMENT OF NOTARY ' fo. oppU ndo. 21 yeo" of.pl Club. I I Date -.. aTATI[ age, co A.M.A. Numbe, _ ..-- AGE __ PHONE • --.---.-..-;...- -----..- I.am a b:,"cfid. memb.r of the - '-'-'Mo .at ....)' N"C' 'encf . . . . IfIl . , . _ wnn-.. O · II -... ....... ~ _ ... """""'_.... . .. -------------~--------------------------------

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