Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTERVIEW Dick Mann: Part 2 close I'd stay to th e wall on th e way o ff th e banking, though, a nd I did try to keep track of it a t Da ytona by wa tch ing the flags fro m time to time by the p its, beca use it co uld qui te often change on yo u during the race . I was never very goo d a t th at sort of th ing, and it used to a maze me wh en riders wo u ld co me in a nd say th ey kn ew whe re they 'd finishe d because they 'd been wa tch ing th e scoreboard! I always had to co nce ntra te 100% on where I was going just to stay in contention, and usually depended o n how the bi ke was beha vin g o u t in th e ope n o n th e banking to tell me if I was doing th e right thing. We a lways though t the wall ga ve us more protection if the wind ca me from th e sea, so we'd ru n righ t clos e to it, but it was nothin g I would ever wa nt to have to prove!" Personally speaking, my own most vivid mem ory o f this part of Da ytona Interna tional Speedw ay is of being grad ua lly o verta ke n b y th e g ia n t shadow o f Eastern fli ght #882 from Miami as it overhauled my 135 m ph Ducati in landing on the adjacent ru nw ay of Dayton a's Regi onal Airport, j us t o ver the other side of that walll Spe a ki ng o f slowcoach Du catis, did Mann ever in d ul ge in th at favo rit e Daytona pastim e of drafti ng bi kes th at were slig h tly faster th an hi s own? " I drafted every th ing! If a bi ke came past go ing 80 mph faster than m e, I'd try to get hi s draft! I felt it was important back in th e '60s when we rode unfaired bikes, and it's im po rtan t now whe n strea m lini ng has beco me q uit e so p his tica ted. It 'll always be important, I gu ess, because whe n it comes down to it: everything we've just talked a bo ut in terms o f getting th o ugh the infield quickl y is co m ple tely u nimporta nt com pared to yo ur speed o n th e ba nking, and if you ca n inc rease that e beyond what it ought to be by drafti ng so meone, that's really wo rt h doing. " An y tips to prospective drafters or draftees? " Well, I' ve ta lked to a lot of people, and I know there's a th eory that bein g drafted slows you down so that it's so meth ing you want to try and sto p so meo ne do in g to you, but I' ve th ought 'a bo u t it a lot and I can 't see it mak es a ny di fferen ce. But drafting so meone yourself - ah, that's vital, either to increase yo ur top speed so as to stay with someone, or to pick u p extra momentum so you ca n slingshot a bike of eq ual performance. The o n ly th in g I ca ll reall y say is th at it's a matter of judgem en t and th erefore of practice: do it , and experime nt wit h different tech n iq ues till you fin d out wh at yo u need to do. J us t remember if you 're drafti ng a two-strok e to always stay sli gh tly to o ne side in case he seizes - it, though! Back in the 60s we tried not to think about what would happen if th at occu rre d, and it often did. Really, though, yo u were only making yo urse lf feel better, because a t those so rt of speeds you 'd have difficulty avoiding an accident that happened 100 ya rds in front of you on th e banking, let alone right there by your front wh eel. I had many, many near misses, but if I'm honest none of th em were such close shaves as we encountered on th e paved section of th e o ld Beach Course. That was reall y dangerous!" The ch ica ne at the end o f the back stretch on th e Tri-Oval was only added in 1974, the year of Dick 's final rid e in the 200 -mil er a board a TZ700 Yamaha. " It was really necessary ," says Dick , " beca use by th en th e bikes had grown so fast that turning off the back judgement and timing, but the~ so is' most of road racing, isn't it? Takes practice, too." H ow wo u ld Dick Mann su m marize Da ytona? "Very d ef initel y, it 's a paradox ica l track : all the minu te details which wouldn 't make a scratch of differen ce in the Isle of Man become magnified at Daytona and make a ll th e d iff er en ce there. PI us th e r ace a t Dayton a isn 't abo u t lap times: it's abo u t fin ishing, and you have o n ly to look a t the cou n tless number o f people who have led th e Daytona 200 o nly to dr op out th rough ei ther rid er err or or mechanical problems to realiz e th at far more than in other races. It's so very easy to race hard at Daytona, but so very difficult to finish th e race. Because th e accent all th e time is on speed, speed and m ore speed, rid ers get carried a way a nd forget that th e most stra ig htaway ont o the steep bankin g a t top speed of 160 mph-plus meant th at it was reminiscent o f pitching i t into a turn on a half-mile dirt oval. The back end was threat ening to break away a t a n y moment, and th ere was a big strain on tir es a nd su spension that I don't th ink th ey were th en ready to accep t. Plus, in stalling th e ch ica ne gave you some where else yo u co uld try to o u tbra ke and overtake someo ne, which Daytona badl y needs. I on ly raced th ere once wi th the chicane, wh ich for years they used to bu ild righ t up like a wall o f stra w so yo u co uldn ' t see the exit till you were actua lly into it , but it gave th em so me very spe ctacu lar cras h p hotos wh en someo ne wen t in to th e stra w! I found th e c h ica ne d ecep tiv e, because it was difficult to realize j us t ho w fast you co uld take the first part, and how late in turn th is mea nt you co uld bra ke. Yo u can sta y o n the bra kes a ll the way th rough th e gradual left-hand lead into th e chica ne, co ming down o n th e Yamaha to third gear ou t of si~ or maybe seco nd - I don' t recal l. I'd figure to fin ish my bra kin g j ust as I la id the bike over to th e rig ht for the fir st part, drift o u t to the lef t in the middle, the n get it u pright as soon as possib le a nd ge t th e power on hard for the dr ive o u t. Aga in, th ere's a bump wh ere the paved section o f th e chicane meets the banking again, but since you're not laid over, this doesn 't upset the bike li ke it does in Turn 5. Doing the chicane a t Daytona well is all a bo u t Gary Nixon, the 1967 Daytona 200 winner, rode a Suzuki in the 1974 race .. Going three-abreast in pursuit of the leader on the high banks at Daytona. im portan t factor about the rac e is not how fast you Can go on the banking, bu t that th e race is 200 miles long and very gruelling because o f th e high speeds. If Daytona were a lOO-miIe race, it would be no race: th e 200 miles is what makes it. It ca n tak e you several years to figure out how to win the Daytona 200, and in my case it took 15 years a nd th en I won it tw ice in succession. Both tim es I had bikes thai were fai rly competiti ve but very far. from bein g the fastest things in th e race , yet I was able to bring th em into Victory Lane by going just fast enough to 'win a nd yet o u tla st all the faster mach ines. Eac h tim e I rea lly thought my way to the chec kered fla g, and I was rea lly p leased with th e way I ra n the race. I should have wo n again in 1973, wh en I ra n the same bik e I won on back in 1971, but pa inted up to look like a T riump h in stead of a BSA, but beca use of in ternal team p roblems I never ac tually got to ride th e bik e in practice, which meant I had to sta rt from th e back o f the third wave, in 80th pl ace on the grid. I can honestl y say th at was my best race ever in my wh ol e li fe: I didn 't make a single mi stake, I rod e th e whole 200 miles a t abso lu te maximum spee d , skidded th e tires in every turn, n ever missed a passing m anu ever and finished fourth, exactly the sa m e d istance behind (J arno) Saarinen wh o won as I had sta rted behind him in the th ird wave. After that I had the Yamaha ride, but then I didn 't actually retire, just decided I wouldn't race any more till I had a good ride: I'm still lookingt'xa

• Cover