(Say, What's Castro _Doing Up There?)
M
N
1:,
~
c,
...
M
'"
o
infield due to a co mbinatio n of more
guts and the deepest braking of any of
the riders.
Long ha d pulled to within five
seconds of Fis he r o n lap 22, wi th Castro
a short distance behin d fo llowed by
R o n Pierce and Dave Smith who had
dropped off their earlier pace. Steve
Baker m o to red his Deeley Yamaha a
safe dista nce a head of the
Evans/Baumann/D uHamel fight, while
Bob Winter s fille d o ut the top ten .
Fis he r had stretched his lead over
Lo ng to eight seconds by the 23rd lap ,
while Castro began closing in to make
his bid for second before the checkers.
Long still hel d second going onto the
b an kin g on t he w hite flag lap , but then
slowed le tting Castro swoop by on the
straigh t. Jo hn dej ec ted ly beat o n his gas
tank in frustration , coasting to the
finish. _
Lo ng, aware that the gas would be
close, had set out to draft Castro on the
start/finish straigh t an d then slingshot
by . But fue l starvatio n resu lte d in
engi ne seizure, putting .an end to a good
ride . " It 's a shame," J o hn said later.
"Those were the best cyclinders I ha d."
Castro, although no stranger to the
winner's ci rcle, appeared to be . the
h appiest rider in victory lan e , perhaps
savori ng the p ossibility that this may be
the first of many road race wins to
come . Fisher appeare d to be thin king of
another time, when he had put together
an easy co mbin ed win and gone on to
sweep the National as well.
N
Castro cuts through traffic against the vastness of Daytona. Here he goes by Peter Baer,
If you wan t to win in company like th is' you have to mInd th e detail s. Note wh ere"Gary' s arm is.
