Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 19, 2013 ERS OF ALL-TIME torcycle of the same basic design that remained competitive in AMA Nationals for 20 years. That's exactly what the Sport Scout did. Indianapolis racer Rody Rodenberg scored the first big national win for the Sport Scout when he won the 1935 AMA 200-Mile National Championship Road Race at Jacksonville, Florida. The 200-miler was moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1937 and Ed Kretz rode a Sport Scout to its most famous victory. Amazingly the Sport Scout changed very little during its 20-year racing span. Floyd Emde's 1948 victory at Daytona was the last national road race win for Indian's Sport Scout, but the bike remained competitive into the early 1950s, winning flat track races all during that period. 5. 1953 BSA Gold Star In Europe the BSA Gold Star was the definitive café racer and in the limited road-racing scene in America in the 1950s, the Gold Star was the motorcycle of choice. On the national level Nick Nicholson scored the Gold Star's first big road race victory when he won the novice race at Daytona in 1953. Novice and amateur class riders continued to win on the Gold Star throughout the 1950s and in 1960 Dick Mann gave the classic machine its breakthrough AMA National Road Race victory at Laconia. 4. 1973 Yamaha RD350 As the club road racing scene grew in America during the 1970s it did so largely on the back of Yamaha's RD350. The Yamaha was light, agile, simple, reliable and cheap (you could buy the 1974 model off the showroom floor for $908). The RD was a giant killer. It was not uncommon for the little two-stroke, air-cooled, vertical twin to compete head-to-head and often beat 750cc, four-stroke productions bikes of the era. From its birth in the early 1970s until the introduction of Yamaha's FZR400, the RD (and its RZ liquid-cooled model) was the bike to beat in 400cc production racing. The RD350 served as a training platform for countless racers who went on to race AMA Formula One and Superbike. More notable for its use in club racing than in the AMA pro ranks, Dick P87 Fuller notably raced an RD350 to fourth in an AMA Superbike race at Laguna Seca in 1976. 3. 1952 Harley-Davidson K Model From 1952 to 1969 Harley-Davidson produced the Model K for the street and its modified version was the KR. The KR was easily the most dominant road-racing machine in America during the 1950s. This was the bike that gave Joe Leonard the very first AMA Grand National Series Championship in 1954. Additionally, on the strength of his road racing performances, Brad Andres earned the 1955 AMA Grand National Championship on a KR. To give you an idea of just how dominant this motorcycle was, the Harley-Davidson KR won every American road race national from 1955 through 1959. To illustrate the strength of the design consider that fact that Cal Rayborn won three National road races in 1969 on the 17-year-old KR design against a horde of more modern Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki two-stroke models. 2. 1969 Honda CB750 The Honda CB750 launched the modern Superbike era. Club racers in Southern California and on the East Coast quickly adapted the powerful street bike to the track. In 1970 Dick Mann finally won the Daytona 200 after years of trying and he did it on a CB750-based machine. This motorcycle was a game changer. 1. 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 Unquestionably the Suzuki GSX-R line of motorcycles is the best known and most raced production motorcycle of all time. The launch of the GSX-R750 in America in 1986 was revolutionary. This was the first street motorcycle to bring GP geometry to the showroom. Suzuki backed the launch of the GSX-R line in America by offering lucrative club-racing contingency money. Doug Polen famously went out and made a small fortune chasing Suzuki money races across the country. The GSX-R line went on to become the most successful machine in AMA Superbike and Supersport racing. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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