Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

first time in three years due t o a car racing co ntract in Australia. Behind BSA and Triumph comes Kawasaki who is the big question mark for Daytona this year. After fo ur years of perfecti ng the 500 tri ples they may abando n them an d switch to t he first t ime 75 0 triples . Kawasaki has spent many dollars trying for a winner and have the T all adega 200 to their credit. Dollars have bought Yvon DuHamel and Gary Nixon, two of the best in the road racing b u sin ess. For weeks p ublications had Pa ul Smart rid in g first a Triump h and then a Kawasaki. Early February found Sm art at Ontario, te sting Kawasakis so the "Triple-Play" of DuHamel to Nixon to Smart gives Kawasaki, or an y other Japanese brand, the best trio to ever run at Daytona. The kicker could be vetera n, and fo rme r winner, Ralph Whi te w ho has done m u ch in th e p ast t o get t he r adical jobs to h andle and perform in a winning manner. This pl aces th e BSA , Triumph and Kawasaki triples on an even basis with veteran Danny Macias beh ind the British ma ch ines and cag ey Bob Hansen back of th e J apanese effo rt . Both are classed as pre cision type managers who settle fo r noth ing but th e b est eff ort and equipment. Macias has a long winning record on the dirt and o f late o n the pavement. Hansen has a habit of popping up in first o ne cam p , and then an other fr o m year t o year . His . effo rts st arted with the Matchless G-50 5 0 0's in th e earl y 60 's wi th riders such as Wh ite , R omero, Ro ckwo od, Swede Savage, Ivor Llo yd and a few lesser kn own riders . Later he chan ged t o Honda and came up with Jimmy Odom, Dick Mann and a coup le of now-forgott en Europ ean riders. Macias h as always been known as a four st roke Briti sh m an an d the matc hi ng o f wit s b etween Danny and Bob wi t h th eir tal ented rid ers w ill b e an ad d ed a ttrac tio n t his y ear. Yamaha is b ack in th e factor y racin g game full time again this year o n the sam e b asis as BSA-Triumph an d Kawasaki. They continue to lack t he road racing depth in tal ent wit h th e majority of the te am made up o f full tim e d irt trac ke rs/part time road racers. T heir lone ace in the h ol e is su per smooth Kel Carruthers. The A uss ie now is a full time res ident of San Di ego , Calif., but has part ed ways with last ye ar 's tuner, Don Vesco. Carruthers, th e Atlan t a w inner last ye ar , an d foll ower o f Dick Man n all season long, is as go od a road racer as possible. The switch from Ve sc o to factory is pure dollars but doll ars cannot rep lace cubic inch es and it becomes more of a fact each rac e and season th at 350's can no t run with 750's, especially o n high speed tracks such as Daytona. Yamaha tried a 650 t win a t Daytona las t year a nd found ou t th a t th eir always reli able 250 lightweights were even faster. So again Daytona will find an other new and imp ro ved model o f the popular 35 0 twin under t he quick Carro thers, Yamah a has also co ntracted J immy Odom, Keith Mashburn and a fe w others t o bac k up Carruthers. Chuck Palmgren was dropped from th e te am this yea r but will ride a 3 5 0 o n a privat e basis. . Tried and proven Don Emde, third man- at Daytona last year o n a BSA, will ride a Mel Dinesen backed 3 5 0 ..Ernde is the p est hope for a Carruthers back-up for the yellow and bl ack b anner. The som ew hat d isappo inted Vesco will field at least .a two rider team of his own with proven Dave Smith, th ird pl ace at Ontario an d rookie Mike Lane wh o was dropped by Kawasaki at the en d o f last year. Lane will be one of man y eager ro o ks who have cut a path through the Novice and Junior ra nks the past two years . Hopefu lly , Lane and the rest will rememb er th at it is a 5 3 lap race and not try to win it all in th e first couple of laps. No rookie has ever won at the Speedway and ' 72 sh o uld be no exception. A new team will make a first time showing. The Norton 750 twins will finally co m pet e after many seasons o f false reports and no-show en tries. Th e tw o rider team will b e former Un ited Kingdom 500 champ io n, Peter Williams , who finished in th e top ten in '68 aboard a Matchless. With Williams will be t he current wo rld 250cc cham pion, Ph il R ead. R ead w ill also b e making his sec on d ap pearance at Dayto na . He rode a Yamah a in his only previous sh ow ing . The Re ad-Williams co m b inat ion is o ne o f the b est tw o rid er effo rts to ever race in Flo rida. The riders are test ed and p ro ven win ners b ut t he prod uc t will be spanking n ew and un t est ed. In fact, it is st ill d oubtful wh et her o r not R ead's m achine will b e re ad y . An old familiar name, Su zuki, may come out in a n ew suit. Suzuki h as dropped Ron Pierce this year and will go with Ron Gran t, A rt Baumann and J ody Ni ch olas. T h ey have th e same d eci sion to make as Kawasaki. Do they stay with the long tes te d 500 tw ins, or sw itc h t o the new 750 t rip les? T he fast twins we re somewhat of a disappointment last year but th e third p lace at Ont ari o b y Grant proved they can still go the d ist an ce in th e long · ones, a n aspect that has to count. Suzu ki wil l a lso bring bac k New Zealand's G eo ff Perry for a third try. Perry h as aga in d one exce p tio na lly well down under in re cent months. F ello w N.Z. rider Ginger Mall o y may show up at th e last minute as t ride a Vesco Yam aha. Grant and Nic holas w ent to Japan late in '71 t o test the ne w 75 0 tri p les and w ith each rep o rt , esp ecially fro m th e always optim istic Grant , the ma ch in es were five mph fa ste r wi th each writing. Ron fin ally got his, on paper, up to 180 mph !!! Horsepow er and t op speed hav e been kn own t o get lost somewhere b etween Japan and Dayto na in past y ears b ut if th e Suzu ki three is anywhere near t he speeds t hat Ron "says" it is th en th ey could have their first Dayt ona win and third road race vic to ry o n the AMA circuit. Look fo r Su zuki t o go with t he new triples in spite of what o r what not may h appen. It looks as th ough the days of the 5 00 's are o ver even tho ugh they came close a t ime o r two in th e p ast . For th e first time in the histor y o f the race that dates back to 19 37 o n th e Bea ch co urse and during th e later d ay s at th e Speedway , Harley-D avidson will not send a factory rider o r team. T h e end of th e era fo r th e bra nd t hat has wo n more Dayto na races th an any other ac t ually st arted five years ago with first th e co mi ng of the Yamaha 35 0 twins and lat er th e multi-cylinders of BSA, T riump h 'and Honda. T he first experiment fo und seven n ew type twins with drastically changed frames . Six failed to finish b ut o ne stayed running and won. Ea ch year •••••••••••• since it became more obvious that the days of the tw ins , any kind of twin, was numbered but Harley has been known as a stubborn competitor that will co m e back and win when not expected . T his is still true on the d ir t b ut not at a super speedway. Si n ce early in 19 70, Harley has been experimenting with an a llo y twin engine. On d irt it is very fast and reliable. On pavement in the long races it is st ill questionable but tests last October at Ontario and more recen tl y at Daytona have proved it to be perhaps nearly as fast as the triples. But a rule th at was created and pushed into effect ye ars ago by Harley-Davidson people that requires 200 machines before gaining racing approval, has forced th em to withdraw from Daytona·72 . Many years ago 25 machines were required , later 100 and in recen t years, 200 . T he AMA of lat e has strictly enforced this rule with any actual ma chine by machine co unt t aken by design at ed officia ls. One sh ort o f the required t otal and y o u w ill no t ra ce. H·D was set to go t o Day t ona with Cal R ayborn, a two time win ner , Mer Lawwill, who h as a sec ond pl ac e t o h i. cr edit , and Mark Brelsford, who has ye to ' whip Dayto na but ma y b e the best road rac er in t he Milw aukee ca m p at this time . Harley has no w st ated that d ue t o su pplier problems they do no t have 200 models o f the type they want t o race, they d o n't even h ave two do zen . They have a lso stat ed they will not release an y o f th e th ree rid er s to co mpete o n o ther b rands at Daytona. The entire H·D affair wi ll be a my st ery for man y months to com e. Daytona h as run th e Na ti onal eac h y ea r a t the same t ime, give o r take no more th an one week end o ne wa y or the other in mid-Marc h. T he engine has been tested for tw o ye ars . T here must be o ther circ ums ta nces th at en te r in t o the withd rawal of th e ea rly American made machine to c o nt est Daytona ea ch yea r. A nother brand, MV -A ugu st a , finds t h emselves in the same sit ua tion. The co m pan y jo ined th e Al'vlA late in ' 7 1 and short ly after request ed th at a machi n e co un t b e starte d. A month b efore Daytona they were st ill mo re th an 100 units sh ort of th e re q u ired 20 0 so app raren tly th e first Ameri can preview of Mr. Agostini will be held u p ,... for perhaps another year , o r maybe in October at Ontario. .. The 200 req uirem en t is .fo r the "individ ual, the privateer , the so-called ~ "Little Gu y " in racing that man y fee l ~ mu st st ay in maj or p ro fessio nal racing....: It is also a rule to insure th at American ..: racing does not become the ::E one-of-a-kind type that has created ~ many yawn in g events in Europe for w many y ears . Z Da ytona will have many, many big w and little gu y s o nce agai n for d Daytona-72. It may also h ave some no t so new Harleys b ut Dayto na has become so big and gained world-w ide attention to the point. th at anybody and everybody is important that goes fast. Records will be broken and o nce gain th e Americans will meet the challe nge of the " ""peans, which is what it is 8, G Kel Car ruth ers. abo ut at th e p rese nt ti me . machi ne will A m ulti-cylinder probably win but which brand an d which rider is more of a gu ess th an eve r befo re in the his t ory o f t he even t. Ove r 50 ,00 0 pe o ple will pay th e good American gree n to be o n hand to see for themselves. Thousa nds mo re will be list ening to the rad io broadcast of the race and a t least two charte r planes will b e flyin g from Europe , loaded to cap ac ity , to cheer th eir favori t e fo rei gn rid er , hoping for a firs t -time vict ory . Mo st o f the h o t els have long be en bo oked so lid fo r the wee k, tw o moto rcy cle sho ws will ru n fu ll bore day and night , t he Webco radio show wi ll ai r the behind the scen es s tu ff nig htly and o nly t h e b est will have a chance fo r th e $30,0 00 p urse in t he " 200 " . Every maj or mo torcy cle p ublicatio n in t h e US and fo reig n coun tries will b e on hand to co ver wh at has b ecome th e road racing event of the yea r for America and t h e rest o f th e cycle racing world. T E THRILL IS ON A Color Film Featuring DAVID .ALDAMA. Narrated by Ao l.Y Rockwood. See the big names in prof essional racing get it on at action-pack ed dirt tracks fro m coast to coast Fl at track ex c ite ment at its bes t Admiss ion $2.00 at the doo r. York, Pa. • LOUISVi lle. Ky. • Terre Haute. Ind. Troy , Ohio . Col umbus. OhtO. San Jose . Cali f. and more. A isoUQ D JO RMEY THE SU......ER WAVES OF KAVAI SOON TO BE RELEASED IN YOUR AREA . ._ ,." """ rii ;,...,"' ;.. .. ••

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