Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES P122 BY LARRY LAWRENCE CANADA'S PIONEERING RACING STAR B illy Mathews was a Canadian racer who is best known for his two victories in the Daytona 200. His 1941 win on the beach course at Daytona marked milestones in several respects – it was the first victory by a foreign rider and the first win for a non-American motorcycle (Norton). Mathews came back to win the 200 again in 1950 and became the only rider to win both before and after World War II. Yet for all his impressive accomplishments Mathews' racing career in America was also marked with controversy. He lost the 1948 in what he always felt was a scoring error and even more unfair was the denial of his entry into America in 1951 because of his political affiliation. Mathews hailed from Toronto and was known as an all-around racer in Canada. He raced everything from scrambles, to flat track, road racing and even speedway events. His first racing motorcycle was a 1924 Rudge Special that he raced in the early 1930s. Mathews began racing in an era when a rider could race nearly every night of the week and both days on the weekend during the summer months. As he progressed through the ranks, Mathews would leave his Hamilton, Ontario home for months at a time chasing the fair circuit in the United States. His 1941 victory at Daytona was totally unexpected. The Harley-Davidson and Indian factory efforts were at the race in full force. Harley was debuting its new WRTT model and was riding a three-race winning streak at Daytona. Mathews took the early lead in the race on his Norton, but crashed in the early going and fell behind the leaders. Fortunately for Mathews, his motorcycle wasn't damaged and he continued the race. He charged back through the field and worked his way back up to second behind Indian's Jimmy Kelly. Kelly looked to have a safe lead, but with just four laps to go his engine quit and Mathews moved ahead and cruised to victory. Despite crashing, Mathews set a new record speed for the 200 averaging 78.08 mph. His Norton Manx's 500cc engine was the smallest to win Daytona to that point. After World War II, Mathews accepted an invitation to race in Great Britain for a speedway team called the West Ham Hammers for the 1947 season. He returned to Daytona in 1948 and nearly won again. In that race, he battled with Floyd Emde for the lead until having trouble during a pit stop – Matthews had difficulty finding his crew among the crews of the other 154 entries. And then one of his crew spilled gas while fueling and Mathews had to shut off the Norton. The team then had trouble getting the big single restarted on the wet sand and Mathews fell behind. Towards the end of the race Mathews closed in

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