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/1544513
VOLUME ISSUE APRIL , P143 The rocks and silt? Travel back to Septem- ber 14, 1971, for Cycle News' coverage of the Talladega 200 and see for yourself what the good ol' days were really all about. On this four- mile-long track, racers must carefully select their crash points, as only a smattering of automobile tires, tossed here and stacked there, separates them from the limb-snapping metal guardrails that snake their way around the Eastaboga, Alabama, infield. It appears as though Ford Motor Company was one of the sponsors of the event, because one of their trademark two-tone F-100s is parked so closely to the track that Don Emde and Kel Carruthers would have been able to inspect its Flex-O-Matic rear suspension as they raced by. A better idea would have been to move it a safe distance away from the high-speed action. On the track, riders and their machines wrestled with gremlins, some of the mechanical variety and some that made their pres - ence known in more dangerous ways. Carruthers lost his chance at a good finish while lapping a slower rider, who puzzlingly decided to drift out in front of the approaching champ. "With some 20 miles an hour speed over the slower machine, Kel's front wheel smacked the rear, tossing him over the han - dlebars and off the track," CN reported. Carruthers remounted quickly but "lost about 10 posi- tions during the whole fracas [and] had to spend two laps in the pits to get the bent machine in working order…" There is an old saying that "racing improves the breed," with "improves" being a fluid verb. On this day, Triumph's Gene Romero, Harley-Davidson ace Cal Rayborn, and New Zealand rider Ginger Molloy would all see their hopes dashed by DNFs. Improved does not mean unbreakable. The race is not to the swift, according to wise King Solomon, who apparently wasn't in atten - dance at Talladega in 1971, be- cause this race sure as hell went to the swiftest man on the track. Yvon Duhamel and his air-cooled Kawasaki triple took the early lead from Molloy and proceeded to run away. He began lapping riders on the seventh go-round, at one point having built up a 76-second lead. A thirsty two-stroke needs big gulps of gasoline, so Duhamel's Kawasaki was going to need two pit stops, versus the one stop needed by the four- bangers of Dick Mann, Don Emde and others. "'Wait'll he makes two stops,' veterans were knowingly saying, al - ready counting Duhamel out of the winner's picture." But the Kawasaki pit crew had apparently been practicing their fill- ups, with one pit stop taking just four seconds and the second just slightly longer at six seconds. The checkered flag for Duhamel fell one hour and 49 minutes after the green flag dropped. Second-place went to two-time Grand National Champion Dick Mann, with young Don Emde in third. It was the company's first victory in AMA competition, with another Kawasaki ridden by Ralph White in fourth. Duhamel would collect $14,100 for his win, which is $115,000 in 2026 money. Real gold right there! Yvon Duhamel would go on to win many more races in his career, though not as many as he probably should have. Victories at Daytona, Laguna Seca and oth - er tracks were within his grasp, only to be pried loose by crashes and mechanical woes. But shake and swirl away those frustrating breakdowns, the painful get-offs, and see the gold in the pan. Pick up the pieces and go home. CN Subscribe to more than 60 years of Cycle News Archives issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Kawasaki ran this ad the following week in Cycle News after Duhamel's Talladega win.