Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Former Daytona 200 winner Don Emde (Above) Former Daytona 200 winner Don Emde is taking the lead role in two separate projects that could ultimately have a very positive impact on the past and future - of motorcycling. (Left) Though he iater went on to join his father, Floyd Emde (left), as a Daytona 200 winner, Don Emde was also a hell of a dirt tracker. Emde now says that he hopes to make dirt track racing viable as a career in itself, discouraging riders from jumping ship to other forms of racing. ~ A t;J ~ By Scott Rousseau iiI e's done it all, seen it all. Now it looks like he's going to be in the middle of it all again. No, former Daytona 200 winner Don Emde isn't looking at climbing back into the saddle in the hope of.rejuvenating what was once a successful professional racing career (though you might sometimes catch him donning the leathers for an occasional vintage race). He is, however, going to be about as involved in the racing game as he ever was, except that this time, Don Emde is going 'to be doing some serious racing off the track. As the chairman of the board of trustees for the American Motorcycle Heritage Foundation and the newly appointed representative of AMA Pro Racing in the dirt track arena, Emde is currently involved in two ambitious programs. His role with the AMHF has placed him in the race to build motorcycling's first Hall of Fame, a shrine to the pioneering men and women who have guided the sport - both from the race track and from within the entire industry - to where it is today. And perhaps even more ambitious is his mission to bring a greater awareness qf dirt track racing by actively seeking ways to involve the motorcycle industry in anticipation of the coming Project 2000 makeover. Emde will proclaim the dirt track gospel with the message "A Proud Past - A Fantastic Future" to any and all companies he can get to listen. It would be hard to argue against Emde's qualifi€ations for either project. As a top-rated Novice in the late '60s, Emde earned his way through the ranks in both dirt track and road racing, becoming the first man ever to earn a dual license from the AMA, which allowed him to compete as a Junior dirt tracker and an Expert road racer. His ascension to the top of the podium at the Daytona 200 just a few short years later set several records, as he joined his father, Floyd Emde, to make for the first father and son ever to win the race. Emde gave the Yamaha two-stroke its first-ever Daytona win, and he did so on a 3S0cc twin, sharing a record with the late Jarno Saarinen as riding to victo.r:y on the smallest-displacement machinery to ever conquer the place. In 1973, Emde finished seventh in the 200 aboard a Suzuki 7S0cc triple before retiring at tKe end of the season. On the business side of the industry, you could argue that Emde has accomplished at least as much as he ever did in his racing career. He has worked in sales at 'the dealer and aftermarket levels, he was the vice president of marketing for Bell Helmets through the mid-'80s, he has been the publisher of such recognIzable titles as Motorcycle Collector and the trade magazines DeaJernews and Parts. He has even written two books, one about the Daytona 200 and the other about the BMW Battle of the Legends. Still, with the projects on Emde's lront burner these days, it would seem that there are still tough rows to hoe ahead for the 47-year-old. But win, lose or draw, OI:te thing is certain enough: Emde's gonna go for it. Obviously, your background appears to make you a ripe candidate for these projects. How and when did you get involved in them? Actually, I had been involved with the Heritage Foundation first, and that g~s back about five years. That had to do with the days when I was publishing Motorcycle Collector magazine, and I was really making the rounds in the antique and vintage side of things, which 1 still continue to do. I was invited then to come on to the board of the Heritage Foundation, and about two years after that I was elected to be chairman. I'm now in my fourth year a chairman of the Heritage Foundation. Where that has evolved is that, first of all, the Heritage Foundation had in its mission to create a Hall of Fame, but the bigger problem was just to make the Heritage Foundation solvent. That was the main goal. Two years ago was actually the first time where we reached a break-even point, where we brought in enough revenue to cover all the expen?es. We started some discussion then about the last part of our mission: to create a Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

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