Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128315
Sometimes,You've Got ~~---=~ To Believe ter finishing third in the 1971 Daytona 200 aboa rd a factory BSA, 21-year-o ld Do n Emde be lieved that he was going to in the 1972 Dayto na 200 . Then he got sacked. The mighty BSNTriumph team unexpectedly downsized to just one ride r per brand, leaving Emde , along with Dave Aldana and jim Rice o n the BSAside and Triumph riders Gary Nixon , Don Castro and Tom Rockwood, on the sidelines . "We all just went scra mbling for rides," Emde , now 53, remembers. "So first I made a swing through all the other facto ries, and no one had any room. They were all full. Then I called Mel Dinesen ." It was hardly a co ld call. As a Novice, Emde had partnered with Dinesen in 1969 to win the AFM number-one plate he did so we ll that he was bumped from No vice to Expert in road racing without having to pay his dues in the Amateur ranks . Later came the BSA deal and his th ird-place run at the 200 in '71 , followed by his being the third-highest scoring man in road racing-only points that year. It seemed, at least , that he was on the path to road racing success and that he perhaps might one day join his fathe r, Floyd , as a winner of the Daytona 200. But maybe not 1972. Then Dinesen agreed to help Emde out . "Mel had already put together a deal with Moto rcycle Wee kly, the pape r that was the co mpetition to Cycle News in those days, and they were going to spon so r jim Evans in the Amateur class," Emde says. "I talked to Mel, and he said, 'Sure.' He had o ne of the new six-speed Yamahas coming and said he would put me on tha t." But the bike was on ly a 350cc machine. It hardly seemed to be the right machine to use against the 750c c big bo res - with thei r 10 mph top speed advantage - that the co mpetition was bringing. Yet the little 350 suited Emde just fine. It cou ld've been a bicycle for all he cared. He believed he was going to win the 1972 Dayto na 200 . "I had a little information from talking to the guys at Dunlop that the big Suzukis and Kawasakis that were com ing down there that year were going to have a lot of A 118 motor on us, but that there were going to be some probl e ms w ith tires ," Emde reca lls. ':As it turned out, the problems they ended up running into were engine problems that to ok them out befo re they got too far down the road ." Nixon , Duhame l, Ron Grant, Paul Smart , all the big names were there on thei r big Kawasakis or Suzukis. But they didn't frighten Emde , who believed that he was going to win the 1972 Dayto na 200. "The two guys that I had figured would be tough would be Kenny Roberts, who really didn't have that much expe rience yet, and Kel Carruthers, who was really the guy that I thought I'd have to beat." Emde says. "I was worried about him beca use I knew tha t he was going to be on the same bike that I was going to be on. So w hen I we nt to Dayto na, I was focused on how to come out of it be ing the number-one Yamaha guy." Emde's Cinde rella story almost had an unhappy ending before it started when he crashed du ring the Int e rn ational Lightweight lOOK event the day before the 200 . "I had beat Kenny in my hea t race , and when the main event took off, I was run ning with Kenny, Dave Smith , Kel and Gary Fisher," he relates. 'Abo ut the sixth o r seve nth lap , halfway aro und turn one, I gro und the exhaust pipe and just highside d over the bars and onto my right shou lder. We rea lly thought t hat I had broken my shoulde r, but we went to the hos pital and had it checked ou t. It wasn't broken. I went back to the track and to ld Mel to have that 350 ready to go . Then I went back to the hotel and soaked in the bathtub for the rest of the day and into the night to get my shou lder as loose as I could get it." The shoulder was still smarting ple nty when Emde suited up for the Dayto na 200 o n Sunday. He could reac h forward to grab the handlebar and wo rk the throttle, but that was about it. It didn't matter. Don Emde believed that he was going to win t he 1972 Dayton a 200. "I was so confident that I was going to w in that I thought, 'If this sho ulder is all th at's going to sta nd in the way of me winning this race, then I'm just going to MARCH 17,2004 • CYCLE NEWS put it out of my mind,''' he re calls. Emde came off the grid in 10th place, chasing the charging herd of big bores and the lightweights o f Ca rruthe rs and Roberts. Then Carruthers tangled w ith anothe r ride r at the end of the first lap , running ove r a downed motorcycle and endi ng his chances for victory. Y before et Emde could take any comfort in that , his own machine falte red . "It started to seize on about the third lap, on the East Bank," Emde reme mbe rs. "I saw the tach start to lose rpm, and it was obvious that it was se izing up, so I pulled in the clutch and started coasting toward the pits with a dead engine ." But this was not the way it was supposed to end . After all, Don Emde believed tha t he was going to win the 1972 Daytona 200. "I was so foc used that I remem be r thinking, 'If I go in, I am not going to win , it'll be over,''' Emde says. "So , instea d of going into the pits, I veered to the right and just rolled down along the apron of the racetrack toward the finish line and let the clutch out. And it just started running again. I was back to 30th , but I just started to work my way back through the pack." He still needed a minor miracle to get his dream back on track. That miracle came in the form of Phil Read and the john Playe r Norton. "I don't know how Phil was so far back, but he and I just started working our way through the field , and that's w hen st uff started happeni ng," Emde says. ''A couple guys crashed, and Kenny [Robe rts1 went out with a Oat tire. The big Suzukis of Nixon and Duhamel had ignitions go out. jody Nicholas was still leading on one of the Suzukis, but his race ended after he wore his tire through to the chords. I came in for my stop, and it only too k us about nine seconds to complete it. Read came in, and his crew nearly drowned him in gasoline ." Emde pressed onward , his only competition in the re maining d istance was to be Ray Hempstead , who simply could not muste r up the faith to stop Don Emde , the man who be lieved that he was going to win the 1972 Dayto na 200. Emde passed He mpste ad for the lead on lap 4B and led the rest of th e way. In do ing so, he set tw o rec ords. First, he joined his fathe r, Floyd, as a winner of the race. To this day, th e pair is the on ly father and son to have recorded Daytona 200 victories. Secon d, he won on tha t little Yamaha 350, the smallest-displacement engine ever to win the 200. Emde's w in ranks as one of the all-time upsets in Daytona 200 histo ry. "That very we ll could be ," Emde says. "But in my mind I just eliminated all the things that would make it so that I could n't win." They say faith can move mountains. At the 1972 Dayton a 200 , it moved Do n Emde into Victory Lane. eN 40th Anniversary 30 YEARS A60. •. March 19. 1974 Legendary road racer Giacomo Agostini blitzed across the cover o f Issue # 10on the way to victoryat the Daytona 200. The 13-time World ~==",,=t:::~!J champ won $14,960, while second-placed Kenny Roberts got $7995, and third-placed Hurtey Wilvert got $4800... Roger DeCoste r (Suz) won the Daytona Supercross - well, at least the 500cc class- over Rex Sta ten (Hon) and Gary Semics. Pie rre Karsmakers (Y won the 2SOcc class over Buck am) Murph y (Pen) and Rich Tho rwaldson (Suz)... In a field of Yamaha 2SOS, Don Cast ro won the 250cc Junior Expert Combined classat Daytona. The top 20 were allYamahas. Kenny Roberts finished a close second, whileGary Nixon finished third. 20 YEARS A 6 0 .•• March 2 1, 1984 Marlboro Y amaha's Kenny Roberts dragged his knee across the cove r of Issue # lOon hisway to winning the Daytona 200 for the second year in a ro w. How e ver, at the e nd of the race, Roberts said he would not race Daytona again, due in part to the problem with lapped riders. Fre ddie Spe nce r (Hon) and Ron Haslam (Hon) rounded out the podium... Wayne Raine y (Yam) smoked the 250cc GP class at Daytona... Alan Cath ca rt (Lav) won the Lightweight Modified BOn event... David Bailey (Hon) won the Daytona Supercross over Rick Johnson (Y and Johnny O'Mara (Ha n). am) Bob Hannah (Ha n) crashed out of the lead when his front-brake lever got caught in a fence lining the track. 10 YEARS A60••• March 16. 1994 Mike Hale (Hon) was on the cover of Issue # 10for winningthree CCS Sprint races at Daytona... Eight of the top 250cc riders leaving the start line at the AMA 250cc National MXChampionship opener in Gainesville accompanied Hale on the cover. Mike laRocco (Kaw) won the event with 2- 1 finishes over privateer Yamaha rider John Dowd (5-2) and Suzuki's Brian Swink (1-8). Jeff Emig (Yam) won the I25cc overallwith 1-2 finishes over Honda's Steve Lamson (4-2), Suzuki's Ezra Lusk (2-4) and Kawasaki's Rob· bie Reynard (9-1). Reynard held a sevensecond lead at the end of lap one in moto two... RC Cola announced it would sponsor the Harley-Davidson factory dirt track team for 1994.