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CYCLE NEWS Mar .'2 1. 19 72 Page 22
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Geoff Per ry nearly saved it for Suzuki until a chain let go with minutes left.
The third wave gets on t he wall. Fr ight ening.
Kel Car ruth ers team Yamaha suffered an ear ly dea th.
Ray Hempstead .
DAYTONA
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA ., Mazch 12 ,
1972 - Don Emde led only one lap of
the 1972 Daytona 200·mile ro ad rac e,
but it was the glory one. Th e
21 ·year-old pro from San Diego, Calif.,
went into the long, furious chas e with
(everyone th ought) not much ch ance of
winni
.
another Kawasaki closed on th e pair of
leaders. Thegreen machine of DuHamel
set a lO-lap record of 110 mph in the
heat of com p etitio n, but by Lap 10 the
other two Suzuki boilers of Jody
Nicho las and Ron Grant were closing
fast .
I
Geoff Perry creeps up on sec ond -p tacinq Ray Hempstead, iust before Perry's misfortune.
By Chuck Clayt on
Photos b y Gazy van Voorhis
winner, led for on e lap o n th e Vesco
Yamaha but h e to o ra n o ut o f gas an d
pedaled very slowly to his pits.
The blue No rton of Phil Read th en
led the race for three laps until F lor ida's
Ray Hempstead o u t-spe d the wo rld's
250 cc champion on h is little Yamaha
ma chine was also a diminutive Yamah a
twin rid den by the yo uthful Dave
Smith. Fourth was th e fac to ry No rto n
750 twin o f Re ad and fifth was ano ther
Yamaha raced b y Fred Guttner o f
Detro it.
The first multi-c ylinder
pit st o ps.
Bob Ba iley . Ralph Whit e . an d Gary Hunt er
all got off at once on lap fo ur..•Tom
Rockwood par ked th e factory T rium ph wit h
a br o ken clutch cabl • ...Ga ry Fisher on t he
Honda four was so close to the front that he
appeared to be leading for several laps, but
