I
t was 50 years ago today...
well, not quite today, but on
Saturday at the Misano GP it
was exactly that since Phil Read
won the Italian GP at Monza at
Yamaha. Teammate Mike (later
Michelle) Duff was second,
beating Jim Redman's Honda
by .3 of a second.
It was enough, under the
quaint scoring system of the
time (counting only the six best
of 11 races) to secure the first
of seven world titles for Read,
and the first of 37 for Yamaha,
by four points. Under today's
system, counting all races, it
would have gone the other way,
Redman claiming 58 points to-
tal to Read's 50; but it hardly
matters, since teams and riders
could tailor their campaigns to
suit the system, and Read won
five races to Redman's three.
It was also one of the classic
duels of a classic era of nascent
Japanese rivalry, and a mile-
stone in a battle between Hon-
da and Yamaha that continues
to this day. A reminder that rac-
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
A FIST IN THE FACE FOR
A BUMP IN THE RACE
P138
