C
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AIN'T A WORL
by J ack Mangus
Ph o t os b y Gary Van Voorhis
DA YTONA BEACH , FLA ., Mar. 11 ,
19 73 - The Fly ing Finn ,Jamo Saarinen
ab o ard a Yamaha w atercooled 35 0, w on
the 32 nd an n ual Dayton a 2 0 0 run over
the new 3.84 mil e "chicaned " road
co urse aft er th e early leaders su ccumbed
to var ious forms of mechanical failure.
Yamaha once aga in assu med th e role
of gian t killer as th e maj ori ty of th e
so-called su pe rb ikes fail ed to go the
distan ce . Kel Carruthers an d Jim Evans
j oined Saarinen in vi ctory lan e t o make
i t a 1- 2-3 sweep fo r th e new
watercool ed Yam ah as.
Veteran Dick Mann, 1970 and ' 7 1
Daytona winner, ab oard a 750cc three
cy lin der Triumph and Don Emde, 1972
Daytona winner, ab oard a 750cc Su zuki
took th e fourth and fifth p lace s.
An es t imated 61,200 spe ctators
looked on as a st arting field of 9 4 riders
t o ok th e gre en flag in three waves .
Leaving the grid on pit row and entering
the infield co urse immediately rather
than taking one lap aro un d the oval as
in the past, the le ad ers of the first wave
were all o n Kawasakis, Yvon DuHamel,
Art Baumann and Gary Nixon opene d
up a gap between th emselves and
Suzuki' s R on Grant a nd another
Kawasaki rider, Masahiro Wad a.
DuHamel and Baumann rode wh eel
to wh eel with Nixon dropping back a
few y ards eac h lap as fir st DuHamel and
t he n B aumann w ould lead. The
t eammat es swa p pe d the le ad several
times each lap with DuHamel le adin g
laps one, two and four and Baumann
leading lap s three an d five through nin e.
On t he ten th lap th e p air en te red the
h o rsesh oe t um in th e infield and
encoun tered , accord ing t o Baumann,
"wat er, o il, debris - all so rts o f jun k. "
Bo th riders wen t d own as h ad first year
Expert an d Team Dirty rider Steve
D al g arn o m om ents before. Both
B aumann and DuH am el were up
im media te ly an d returned to th e race
minus th eir fairing bubbles. Dal garn o
was o ut for th e day.
BRELSFORD HUR T
T he sa me lap saw Grand Na ti on al
Champ io n Mark Brelsf ord and Larry
Darr, b oth aboard HarIey-Davidsons, go
down in a spec tac u lar and costl y
acci de n t. Darr and Brels ford had been
lappin g cl ose to o ne anoth er an d reports
hav e it that Mark 's gas tan k exploded,
eng ulfing him in a ball of fire, and then
D arr wen t down t o avo id the flaming
b ik e and rid er. Brelsfo rd suffere d a
conc ussio n, broken wrist and knee
injury , whil e Darr lost a large p ortion o f
leg muscle. Halifax District Hospital in
Ormond Beach reported Brelsford's
condi tio n as sat isfactory and Darr 's as
fair on Monday m ornin g.
Gar y Nixon, 1967 Day t on a 2 0 0
winner. look over the lead after
Baumann and DuHamel go t off, and
main tain ed a sma ll lead over Suzuki's
R on Gran t and Ge o ff Perry wh 0 were
At, the end of the race the dice was for third place. The contestants were Dpve Smith (201 and J im Evans (47). They got joined by Don Castro who, although one lap down, left them both behind.
Thmgs were resolved wh en Smith ran out of aas on the last lap to coast home for 14th.
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