VOLUME 59 ISSUE 27 JULY 6, 2022 P127
Many considered Dick Mann
to be the "old man" of the circuit
and past his prime. But on the
strength of his road race and TT
performances aboard a factory
BSA, Mann surprised everybody
and won the 1971 AMA Grand
National Championship. Mann
edged out 1970 champ Gene
Romero, who raced for Triumph.
But in '71, youngsters like Mark
Brelsford, David Aldana, Jim
Rice and a brash Junior out of
Modesto, California, named
Kenny Roberts, were on the
rise.
Road racing was also becom-
ing a more significant part of
the overall American motorcycle
racing landscape in '71. The Brits
still essentially ruled the roost,
yet the Japanese makers, with
a history in Motorcycle Grand
Prix racing, started putting more
resources into the road racing
side of the AMA Grand National
Championships. Yamaha, Kawa-
saki and Suzuki were all devel-
oping ever more competitive
road race machines. And it was
on the road courses of America
where worlds were colliding,
which will be the focus of our
journey back to 1971.
It was the waning days of Mil-
waukee muscle in road racing.
Harley-Davidson's XR750 had
been launched in 1970, but in
'71, Harley was still running the
early iron-head version of the
XR, and the bike was underpow-
ered and prone to overheating.
BSA and Triumph were running
powerful inline triples with a
good mix of speed and handling.
Yamaha had yet to come out with
the game-changing TZ700/750,
and they were still contesting the
road race Nationals with a sweet-
handling and speedy TR-2B, a
350cc twin-cylinder two-stroke.
Suzuki had the heavier TR500
500cc air-cooled two-stroke
twin, and Kawasaki, like the
Brits, were on the three-cylinder
bandwagon, but being 500cc
two-strokes, they were a very dif-
ferent beast. Blazingly fast, the
Kawasaki two-stroke triples were
temperamental, prone to seizing,
and guzzled fuel at an alarming
rate.
The opening National road
race in '71 at Daytona featured a
massive factory presence.
"I can't think of a year when
there were more factory riders in
America or anywhere than 1971,"
said Don Emde, who raced for
the BSA factory team that year.
"Just our BSA/Triumph team had
10 riders at Daytona. Dick Mann,
David Aldana, Jim Rice, Mike
Hailwood, and me on BSAs, plus
Gary Nixon, Gene Romero, Don
Castro and Tom Rockwood and
Paul Smart on Triumphs."
Kawasaki, too, had a massive
Daytona effort headed by factory
riders Ralph White and Yvon
Duhamel, as well as a slew of
factory-supported machines for
Mike Duff, Cliff Carr, Walt Fulton,
Dave Smith, Ginger Molloy and
Rusty Bradley (who tragically
died after an early-race crash in
the 200).
Kel Carruthers
(73) rode the
smallest bike in the
Nationals in 1971
with his factory
Yamaha 350.
His acceleration
disadvantage cost
him. He lost three
road races by
mere inches, here
losing to Harley's
Mark Brelsford at
Loudon.
