Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

David Aldana looks at Daytona from the privateer's side of the fence! By David Aldana David A Idana begins his 15th year as an Expert-ranked racer with the running of this vear's Daytona 200. A Idana first drew national attention when he finished the 1969 racing season a the top-ranked A mateur (now] unior) rider. He entered his rookie Expert year with a BSA factory ride and in that rookie season, 1970, scored three of his four career National wins. A long with many top 10 performances, his 1970 wins in the Talladega 200-Mile Road Race, Terre Haute Half Mile and Indianapolis Mile earned him third in the final point standings behind Gene Romero and]im Rice. The film On Any Sunday, which covered the 1970 Grand National Championship season, and his racing performances made Aldana an "instant" superstar. When BSA packed it in, Aldana began campaigning as a privateer and is perhaps best remembered from tho e years for his unique leathers, among them a "skeleton" and a "Superman'~ design. Aldana has raced in Europe for many years, both as a member of the American Match Race team and as a Honda and Elf-sponsored endurance racer. He finished fifth in last year's Daytona 200. We hope you find his candid comments regarding Daytona as interesting as we did . .. Editor. . Daytona is a tough place, especially for a privateer. It's time for a privateer to preview this race, not a factory guy. Now pay attention. Let me tell you about Daytona. It was only three years ago, 1981, that Dale Singleton and I raced for first place in the Da t 200 y o,:!a . We had the two fastest bikes on 14 the track that day, Dale's was thefastest and mine broke. Dale won the race. He was a privateer like me, and there wasn't a full effort by any factory. Honda didn't have anything at that time, Kenny Roberts was off rac- ing. Dale, a privateer, had been testing tires with Goo~year and he had hiS motorcycle deflOllely set up for Daytona better than anyone else that year. But we raced, two privateers, two guys trying to make a living racing, and he won. ow look at last year. Roberts qualified at 1:59 followed by Lawson and Spencer and the other guys with factory bikes and then came the three (Above left) Their 1983 battle was brief. but both Kenny Roberts and Freddie Spencer are odds-on favorites to win the Daytona 200. (Above) Roberts and Giacomo Agostini savor the 1983 win. fastest privateers on TZ750s: me, Nick Richichi and Steve Baron, at 2:08. Everybody else was way behind. I never go into a race thinkin' I'm gonna get beat, but can you imagine that! r was talking to (my tuner) Don Vesco before the race about it, and when you line up and you're eight seconds a lap down on the pole, think about eight seconds a lap times 52 laps, you're gonna be Lhreeand a half laps down at the finish. That's not even taking into consideration that Roberts has a pit crew that has been with him for four years, and pit boards run by the same people, and factory bikes. That team's hard to beal. Privateers like me, we're trying to scratch up sponsors, trying to find enough money to rent a garage in the pits and pay for the hotel so when I come back from my 5,000 mile jaunt I'll have something more than some publicity. We go to the races and try to make money. but when it gets to the point where the fastest privateer is eight seconds a lap off, what more can you expect or hope for other than a good finish? In 1981 when Dale won and we ran real close together before my bike broke, then those three guys who were eight seconds off in 1983, could have been 1,2,3. The results could have been Aldana, Richichi, Baron. Without the factory guys being there. Or, for that matter, putting them on an old bike like mine. r think that if Richichi and Baron and I had works bikes last year we would have been right up there in the front with them. You can see the difference a works bike makes when you're timing with a stopwatch, timing the time it takes a bike to cover the banking from the infield exit to the chicane. We're giving away a second and a couple of tepths on every straightaway, every part of the banking, plus the shorter straights in the infield, where it's harder to judge because a guy might get a better drive than another guy. You give away four or five seconds a lap right there and it's preuy impossible to make up that much when you're on the same tires and the same asphalt and the same size wheels and you go around the corner aDd things drag or they start to slip, and that's the limit. You can't go any further than that without crashing. When you find yourself riding like that and you see somebody go whizzing past you down the straightaway in between corners it's real frustrating.

• Cover