Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1472533
Instead of big factory efforts, Yamaha's focus was on its fac- tory support team of Don Vesco Yamaha, with Kel Carruthers riding a Yamaha TR2-B, backed by a large contingent of privateer entries. Suzuki had Ron Grant, Jody Nicholas, Art Baumann, Ron Pierce and Geoff Perry. Harley-Davidson also had a considerable factory effort with Cal Rayborn, Mert Lawwill, Mark Brelsford, Rex Beauchamp and Dave Sehl, along with a gang of other Harley-backed riders like Larry Darr, Larry Schaefer, Ron Widman and DeWayne Keeter. If you're keeping count, that's at least 33 factory or factory- backed riders in the '71 Daytona 200. If you add in the gaggle of riders getting Yamaha support for the race, you were well over 40 riders getting at least some form of factory assistance in the race. Smart won the pole on a Tri- umph Trident, while the Harley's of Rayborn and Brelsford were second and third. Emde and Hailwood rounded out the front- row starters. Approximately 38,000 fans showed up on race day and witnessed rookie Gary Fisher surprise everyone by taking the lead on his Krause Honda CB750-based racer. Fisher's bike broke early, putting "Mike the Bike" Hailwood into the lead, followed by Smart, Rayborn and Mann. A broken transmis- sion dropped Rayborn, Harley's main threat, out of contention. Hailwood and Smart battled up front, swapping the lead, with Mann playing it typically con- servatively in third, within sight of the leaders. The torrid pace set by Hailwood and Smart cost them. Both riders dropped out with engine problems leaving wily veteran Mann in the lead. Mann cruised to victory over Romero and Emde, giving the British triples a clean sweep of the podium. The following month at Road Atlanta, Kel Carruthers made history by giving Yamaha its first "big bike" National victory. Car- ruthers put on a master class, biding his time and preserving his bike in the early going before taking over the lead from Har- ley's Rayborn, getting a quick pit stop and pulling away to a domi- nating victory over Mann and White. Interestingly, Carruthers, at 33, was the youngest rider on the podium, with Mann 37 years old and White 36. Mark Brelsford showed the iron-barrel Harley XRTT could be competitive when it lasted. In front of 28,000 fans at Loudon, Brelsford gave the iron XRTT its only National road race victory in a thriller when he out-drag-raced Carruthers' Yamaha out of the final corner to win by about six inches. And how's this for brand diversity? At Loudon, the top five finishers were all on different brands: Harley, Yamaha, BSA, CN III ARCHIVES P128 A variety of brands were competitive at the National road races in '71. BSA, Yamaha, Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki all won road races, while Triumph and Suzuki also earned podium finishes. Here Jody Nicholas leads the pack at Loudon riding a Suzuki.