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/137546
VOL. 50 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2013 Canadian importer, J.M. McGill of Toronto, setting a new record speed for the 200 miles by averaging 78.08 mph, despite crashing out of the lead in the early stages, and remounting. But in heading no less than 25 other single-cam Nortons that showed up in 1948 for the first Daytona 200 run after the war, Mathews could only finish second after a wheel-to-wheel battle with local favorite Floyd Emde's Indian, having lost time at a pit stop when one of his team spilled fuel over the bike, and the engine had to be stopped. Kick-starting the big tuned single was hard work, and bumpstarting it on the damp sand proved problematic – but the Canadian eventually got away and was originally acclaimed the winner, only for the results to be reversed after Indian lodged a protest, and AMA officials reversed the results after seven hours spent poring over the scoring charts for the 140-plus field of bikes in those pre-transponder days. Finishing second best wasn't what Norton's tough-minded boss Smith wanted, so the following year Norton returned, this time with another even more legendary tuner in charge, Francis Beart, famed also for his organization and astute planning. Beart rewarded Smith with three successive Daytona 200 victories for Norton on the Florida sand in 1949, 1950 and 1951, and that first '49 win saw a Norton clean sweep of Victory Lane over the 154-strong field, with Dick Klamfoth winning a grueling race lasting more than two hours by 15 seconds from works teammate Mathews. He in turn was seven seconds ahead of Tex Luse on a similar but privateer Norton. But in the 1950 Daytona 200 Mathews reversed the positions to finally repeat his 1941 victory with Klamfoth second, and in doing so the Canadian earned victory on its international racing debut for one of the most famous customer motorcycle race engines the world has ever known - the 'doubleknocker' DOHC Manx Norton single. Squeezed as an interim measure into the plunger-sprung Garden Gate frame of the existing single-cam Manx (the legendary Featherbed P89 chassis didn't appear for another year), the twin-cam Norton 500 was powerful enough to enable Mathews to win at record speed, averaging 88.55 mph, including stopping at half-distance for fuel, to defeat the factory 750cc HarleyDavidson and Indian Vtwins as well as Triumph and BSA, both of which had now joined in to try to offset their rival British marque's growing prestige in the USA. Klamfoth won again on an identical bike in 1951 at a record speed of 92.50 mph. In '52 he did it again, completing his personal hat-trick and four successive Daytona 200 victories for Norton, aboard a bike still fitted with the obsolete Garden Gate frame – so called because its plunger rear suspension gave the impression of the metal frame swinging on a hinge: and it handled like one! This win gave the British manufacturer and their American rider the last laugh, in overcoming what seemed a hometown decision to help out Harley, albeit in a race Klamfoth nearly missed. The 200-miler was supposed to have been postponed by a day because of wet conditions, so Klamfoth decided to spend the day fishing. When he stopped at a continued on next page