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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1524398
VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P137 weren't winning America's races. Outsiders from Finland, Australia and Canada were getting those wins. It would happen again this day at Road Atlanta, when a 23-year-old New Zealand rider named Geoff Perry would stand atop the victory podium. "Geoff was a really good guy, who came from a motorcycling family," said Don Emde, who was briefly a teammate with Perry for U.S. Suzuki. In 1972, Emde was a beneficiary of Perry's misfortune at the Daytona 200. Leading with just one lap remaining, Perry's Suzuki snapped its drive chain, handing the win over to Emde, who was riding a Yamaha 350. Both men would return to Day- tona in 1973, this time as team- mates on the bright blue Suzukis. "It [racing] was in his blood," Emde said. Indeed, Geoff Perry's father, Len, was a well-known rac- er in their home country, and he had young Geoff on his own mo- torcycle by the time he was eight years old. As a young adult, Geoff worked briefly as an airplane mechanic, but the major compa- nies were noticing his skills, and after winning three New Zealand road race championships, Suzuki brought Perry to America to race in the AMA series. The Road Atlanta National be- gan in the same fashion as many of the road racing events of that era, with the biggest of the crackling two-strokes out in front as Kawasaki's Yvon Duhamel and Suzuki's Paul Smart battled early for the top position. Neither man would finish, however, with Smart crashing in a hairpin corner and Duhamel running so far off the track that Cycle News wrote, "Yvon did some riding in the fields that could've won money in Saturday's motocross." The scrum for first place was now between Yamaha team- mates Kenny Roberts and Kel Carruthers, but closing rapidly on the duo was Perry on his Su- zuki. He would first displace Roberts, then take the lead from Carruthers on lap 11. The race, according to CN, "became a well-executed demonstration of the art of road racing with all the speed, skill, and savvy mixed into an explosive package that was pure dynamite." Farther back, Kawasaki's Duhamel had gotten back on track, figuratively and literally, and was closing on the leaders, shaving off two seconds per lap. But there was not enough time to catch the Perry/Carruthers battle, who would exchange the lead twice on the white flag lap, setting up a fantastic finish. Carruthers led into the final corner and had a "tremendous drive off the high line." Unfortu- nately, the former World champ also had a tremendous wobble at the very same moment, giving Perry, who had cut in tight and inside, the break he needed. The big Suzuki crossed the finish line just inches ahead of Carruthers, making this Road Atlanta fin- ish one of the closest ever in an AMA road race. After three years of trying and coming oh-so-close, Perry had won his first AMA road race. He returned to New Zealand; one month later, on July 22, he board- ed Pan Am flight 816 to return to the U.S. for a testing session at Laguna Seca. The flight departed Auckland before stopping in Tahiti to refuel. From there, the flight continued non-stop to San Francisco. Shortly after takeoff from Ta - hiti's Faa'a International Airport, the plane inexplicably veered hard left. A loud cracking sound was heard and the plane, a Boe - ing 707, plunged into the South Pacific Ocean. One man survived; the crew of 10, along with 79 passengers, perished. No of - ficial cause has ever been listed for the crash, and the flight data and cockpit recorder were never found. Geoff Perry's body was never recovered. One month after Perry's death, a racing crash at the British Grand Prix claimed the life of another fellow New Zealand road racer, Kim Newcombe. And in De - cember 1973, Cal Rayborn, a two- time Daytona 200 winner, lost his life in another racing crash at an event held, oddly enough, in New Zealand. Rayborn, a longtime Harley-Davidson rider, had just signed a deal with Suzuki, pre - sumably to take Perry's vacant seat. Rayborn's death took place on December 29, near the end of a year that had become a very dark season for motorcycle road racing. 1973 had delivered great competition and exciting fin - ishes, but when the year ended, the grid was missing five of our greatest racers. ...It was the worst of times. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives