Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Mann's Finest Hour 30 YEARS A60. .. February 26. 1974 An artist' s render- 1 ing of a motocross ~ race r made the cover ..:: .. of Issue #7... Mal· :." calm Smith led the first two laps of the fourth annual Soboba I: ~ Grand Pri x in San :.-:::::. Jacinto. California. ~. However, Jim Fishback led the last two... Maico·mounted Rex Staten topped the 250 and 500cc Expert classes at 5addleback's CMC motocross, beating out such riders as Marty Smith and Jim Weinert along the way... Tony DiStefano (CZ) won the second round of the Florida Winter-AHA series in Hialeah over Mike Runyard (Suz) and Steve Stackable (Mai)... Over 1200 ride rs signed up for the SRACalico Ghost Run Enduro in Four Corners , California. Results wo uldn't be available for at least another week. 20 YEARS AGO•.. February 29. 1984 Donnie Can - - - -- - ta lo upi and Pete Hames each sat on the cover of Issue #7 for winn ing in their respective disciplines. Hames was touted as the top contender for the Grand National Rookie of the Year after a second and a sixth at Houston to start the year. Cantaloupi won the Edmonton, Canada, Supercross... Jeff Ward (Kaw) swept the 125cc Pro class at round five of the CMC Golden State Nationals at Sunrise. Johnny O 'Mara (Han) won the 250cc class, and Goat Breker (Kaw) top ped the SOOcc Pro class. Eddie Hicks (Yam) won the 80cc Expert event... Larry Roe seler (Hus) won the Moose Run in Red Mountain, Calif ia. Roeseler did so on a 250, orn which was rare in desert racing. ID YEARS A60••• February 23. 1994 We tested the ~=-r:.,..,,...,,~_ ATK 605 CCES and Husaberg 50 I FC thumpers , and for that we placed the m on the cover of Issue #7. The ATKfeatured electric start and retailed for $7295 and had a claimed dry weight of 275 Ibs. The Husaberg was considerably lighter (233 Ibs.) and cheaper ($6195), but it didn't have electric start ... Team Yamaha's Mike Craig stopped Jeremy McGrath 's streak at round five of the Camel Supercross Series at Tampa Stadium. Other Mikes Kiedrowski and laRocco rounded out the top three, while early crasher McGrath finished fifth. Ezra Lusk (Suz) came out on top of a banle with Robbie Reynard (Kaw) to win the I25cc main with Jimmy Button (Suz) gening third . fte r having reap ed w orld accolades for its champ ionship-win. ning racing pro gra ms in Euro pe, whe n Ho nda m ade t he risky decisio n t o field a squa d of CB750-based factory road racers at the 1970 Daytona 200, it attempted to stack the de ck heavily in its favor by se nding its top-night European team, headed by Honda Europe's racing honcho, Mr. Naka mura himself, and British road race aces, Ralph Bryans, Tommy Robb and Bill Smith. Four bikes were being prepared in Japan, howe ve r, le a ving one seat o p e n. Aft er assigning American Honda's national se rvice manage r, Bo b Hansen, wi th t he task of helping to organize the Dayto na effort, they also charged him with finding an Ame rican to ride the fourth bike on t he team. Wh en Hansen picked longtime friend and re ce ntly let-go factory BSA race r Dick Mann for the job, they scof fed at the idea t hat th e 36 yea r-old "dirt- tracker" w o uld eve n be in the hunt for victo ry. Hist ory wou ld prove the m wr ong. In his fantastic Dick Mann biography, Mann of His Time (Whitehorse Press) author Ed Youngblood chron icles, perhaps better than anyo ne e lse, the e vents of Dayto na '70. The book discusses the embattled politics leading up to the race, including how the European contingent treated Mann and Hansen w ith ignorance and disdain , how the pair 's skill in preparation and racing savvy averted certain disaster and delivered victory, and sheds light on the injustice that befell both men in the aftermath of that victory. He re are just a few excerpts taken from Mann of His TIme: "The bikes were strong during pract ice - 50 much 50 that Hansen was disappointed when Mann qualified fourth . It earned Honda an impressive fro nt-ro w start, but based on practice times, Hansen had expected bette r. Then Bo b Jam es o n, his chief mechanic, came to him and said there was fore ign matter in the engine oil. It t urned out to be the cam chain te nsio ne r, w hich was be ing rap idly hammered into ob livion by th e quic k rise and fall of the rad ical rac ing cams. T he engi ne w o uld have to be e ntire ly re built, and th ere was se rious doubt that it would last 200 miles. Hanse n told the British team w hat the Americans had discovered and warned that the ir cam chain tensioners were pro bably damaged. Again, they dism issed his advice. "j ames on told Hansen that a careful, total rebuild would require as long as two days , which would take them right up to race day. Hansen went to Mann, explai ned the situation and told him he might as well go to the beach or find some othe r way to re lax for a couple o f days . He apologized that there would be no time fo r additional practice. Mann shrugged off the situation and said , 'Hey, I neve r won pract ice ye t..: "W hen the green flag fe ll [Ma nn) A st reaked away, init ially leaving a field of BSA and Triumph triples far behind. The British Honda riders all disappeared in no time, falling out with eng ine failures and leaving only Dick Mann to finish playing Honda's doubtful hand at the high-stakes table o f the Daytona 200. Mann could tell when the Honda began to lose its edge, a nd he throttled back, letting [Gary) Nixon 's Triumph, Mike Hailwood's BSA and Ron Grant 's Suzuki pass. He settled in, riding o nly hard enough to keep the leaders within reach. Eventually, all three re tired, moving Mann back into the lead during the wa ning laps of the ra ce ..." As the race w ore on, so did the cam chain te nsio ner, but Mann and Hanse n had the experience to deal with it . Hanse n began posting lap tim es and split tim es between Man n and th e seco nd -place rider eac h a nd every lap. Mann knew exactly w hat to do with this information. He deliberately slowed his pace to re duce stress on th e engin e, sacrificing his lead by approxi mately a second a lap. But he knew how ma ny laps we re remaining, and he knew exactly how much advantage he had to play with. Gene Romero's Trium ph was coming on strong, but he had a lot of ground to catch up , having run off the course earlier in the race. Mr. Nakamura either didn't understand or didn't agree with t he strategy when he confronted Hansen and said, "You are losing a second a lap. Tell him to go faste r!" It was the last straw. Hansen and Mann had been treated like second-class citizens all week by Nakamura's team o f impo rts , who had ignored Hanse n's advice and o nly shamed the brand w ith engine failures and miserable ride r pe rformance . He was run ning three sto pwatches and trying desperate ly to he lp Mann nurse an ailing motorcycle home to a w in. He turn ed on Nakam ura and replied , "You get back ove r that wa ll (meani ng pit wa ll)! We 're trying to win a race he re!" Mann went on to win the race by eight seconds, becoming the (irst to ride a Japanese brand to victory a t the Daytona 200. Despiteriding a souring motorcycle, he still broke Cal Rayborn's 1968 speed record for the race by aver one mile per hour. overaging 102.697 mph for the distance. As popular as Mann 's win was, you wouldthink that because of it he and Bob Hansen would be lauded as heroes by Hondo. Instead, there was a shorn of 0 postscript to Dick Mann's . (inest hour. Youngblood continues the story "When Dick Mann and Bo b Hansen left Dayt o na, Dick had no ride, and Bo b Hansen had no job. He had left Garde na as Honda's national servi ce ma nage r with seventy-five people under him . When he returned, his name did not eve n appear on Ho nda's organizatio n chart. Apparently, w ithin the con text of Japanese face and honor, all of the prest ige he bro ught the com pany through th e skillfully execute d Dayton a debut and victory was cancele d by his co nfro ntation w ith Nakamura. But both Mann and Hansen landed on th e ir fee t . Bob Hans en was snatch ed up by Kawasaki, w ho wired him to develo p thei r new Formula 750 racing program around the three-cylinder HI R. Hansen gave th em thei r first Natio nal victory a little over a year later when Yvon DuHame l won Talladega . As for Mann, BSA had inked a one-race deal w ith Mike Hailw ood , and when he returned to England , they had a spare Rocket 3 available. They immediately reconside red the ir dec isio n to terminate America's grand old man of AMA racing . BSNTr iumph racing chie f Pe te Colman contacted Mann to offer him spo nsors hip, consisting of dirt -track parts and salaried, full-factory road racing su pport. It proved a smart decision, since Dick Mann delivered his second Dayto na victory to BSA in 1971." eN

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