Race Watch
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DANNY ESLIK AMA PRO RACING
MOTORCYCLE RACING'S BEST RACES EACH MONTH
ICONS Nixon, Mann, Russell
AGES OF DAYTONA 200
DAYTONA
A personal recollection of 45 years of motorcycle racing at the World Center of Speed
Kevin Cameron
The first year I went to Daytona was 1969, the year after Harley-Davidson's high-tech mods to its venerable flat-head 750 KR V-twin ended Triumph's hard-won domination. Buddy Elmore and Gary Nixon had won in 1966 and ’67, but in ’68, the best Triumph could manage was sixth and seventh, while Cal Rayborn took the 200 in both ’68 and ’69. Right behind him in 1968 were the air-cooled Yamaha 350 twins of Yvon Duhamel and Art Baumann—a big step from the brand’s 1967 first-try finishes of 18th and 19th. Change a-coming!
The AMA met at the end of October, in the year of Triumph’s rout. After limiting 250s to five-speeds and banning water cooling, it resolved that maximum displacement of OHV engines be raised to 65OCC for expert and amateur racers. Walter Davidson proposed 650 be changed to 750, seconded by Harley dealer Dud Perkins. It carried, 27 to 15, with effect from January 1,1970. The way to the future was open: Triumph and BSA were back in business with their new triples. Honda’s CB750 four could replace the unsuccessful 450-twin-based projects. And Harley readied an iron 750 top end for its 11-year-old OHV Sportster.
Dick Mann won the 200 on a Honda in 1970 and a BSA in 1971. Mann seemed to come from nowhere because, like Ray Harroun winning the first-ever Indianapolis 500, he chose the pace he thought realistic. He let the faststarters and tire-eaters fall by the wayside. New Zealander Ginger Molloy was seventh on a Kawasaki Hi-R (soocc was still the limit for two-strokes), but he would be second in the Soocc world championship on a similar bike.
Next, the AMA Competition Congress took the momentous step that would put US roadracing on top of the world: It set a 75OCC limit for all comers, including new 100-hp two-stroke triples from Suzuki and Kawasaki. In the 1972 200, we thought we were having a bad day, but the fact was, chassis, suspension, and tires from the past weren’t enough. Tire-friendly Yamaha 350 twins were one, two, and three in the 1972 and ’73 200s, with Don Emde and Jarno Saarinen the winners. Why? The little Yamaha equaled the power-to-weight ratio of the four-strokes, and instead of being factory specials, anyone could buy one.
Daytona became the one race every manufacturer had to win, as it led sales in the greatest motorcycle market the world had ever seen. Daytona was the fastest track in the world, with the fastest bikes in the world, ridden by the fastest riders in the world. Now came Yamaha’s Chosen One, Giacomo Agostini, on the TZ750 that would win every 200 from 1974 to 1982. Born-again Gary Nixon challenged on a Suzuki triple, only to crash out.
In 1976, Kawasaki brought its new water-cooled KR750 triple. That same year, Yamaha introduced the monoshock 0W-31, which won in Johnny Cecotto’s hands. Nixon was second on the new Kawasaki, Pat Hennen third on Suzuki. But as Formula 750 was outshone by soocc GP, the Daytona 200 lost factory interest, allowing privateer Dale Singleton to win in 1979 and ’81. AMA broadened the field in 1980 by adding i,025cc four-strokes, the best that year being a heavily massaged Honda on which Ron Pierce finished seventh. In the i,ooocc Superbike class, factories got a taste of what it would take to finish, and the new “Formula l” showed how hard it would be to do that with souped-up streetbilces.
HOW TO WIN DAYTONA
Once might be luck, twice coincidence, but winning a 200-mile Superbike race five times (and finishing second
twice by the slimmest of margins) points to a systematic approach that worked well on various machines. Here, Mr. Daytona, Scott Russell, reveals his secrets.
MENTAL PREPARATION.
considered every scenario: who might be racing against, how it might play out, how I would handle different situations.
4 DESIRE AND CONFIDENCE.
I wanted to be the best, and I told myself all week I could do it.
4 HARD WORK.
We set up the bike to be comfortable on the banking and good through the infield. I focused on the exit of the chicane so I could get a good run back to the finish line.
4 SMARTER LINES.
I used tighter entries and exits in the two horseshoe infield turns. Using those lines, I could brake deeper and accelerate harder.
4 TIRE MANAGEMENT.
Daytona tires don’t have a lot of grip, but with careful management,
I still had grip late in each stint.
-Nick lenatsch
Honda, therefore, sent its “armored onslaught” in 1982 with a purpose-built i,ooocc four-stroke racer, the V-4 FWS. Riders Mike Baldwin and Freddie Spencer were fast, but their many tire stops let Graeme Crosby through for the win on a hastily built-from-parts Yamaha oW. Hondas were second, third, and fourth. That was the last win for the basic TZ750 design.
Following Honda’s initiative, Yamaha enlarged its square-four two-stroke 0W-60 500CC GP bike to 695CC. Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson finished one and two. The same design was enlarged to 750 the following year. At the time, tuner Erv Kanemoto joked that engine boxes in the Yamaha garage were labeled, “Open this box if it won’t go 200 mph,” and, “Open this box if it won’t lap under two minutes.”
Reckoning four-stroke reliability sufficient, AMA in 1985 switched the 200 to a 75OCC Superbike formula. Production bikes had evolved, making them inherently more durable and race-worthy— not “factory hot-rods” as in the early air-cooled days. First came Honda’s 1983 Interceptor, the motorcycle that made handling a selling point, and then Kawasaki
Ninjas and Suzuki’s 1986 GSXR750. The success of AMA Superbike led to the coming of World Superbike in 1987. AMA Superbike now enjoyed a golden age of multibrand competition, and Superbike (both AMA and World) evolved from hopped-up streetbikes into four-stroke Grand Prix.
Yet after the 10 factory Superbikes blazed past, the rest of the field rode close-to-production Supersport 750s—the bikes privateers could afford and on which some made a good living from regional racing contingency payments. This was two-tier racing, exciting because of exotic factory bikes but strangely segregated.
In 2005, concern that rising Superbike speeds were incompatible with the Daytona track stepped the 200 down to a 6oocc class humorously called Formula Xtreme. And in 2009, control of AMA Pro Racing passed from the AMA to Daytona Motorsports Group, led by former AMA Pro race director Roger Edmondson. Inspired by a schematic version of how Big Bill France made NASCAR great, DMG set about driving the factories out of AMA racing. There may even have been some “settling of scores,” as Suzuki and top series rider Mat Mladin received special
scrutiny. Nothing went as planned, and the once-great 200 dwindled into little more than a club race. A year later, Edmondson said, “I underestimated the importance of the factories to the series.” The sight of new AMA Pro Racing COO David Atlas gravely shaking hands with remaining team managers became iconic.
FANSCHOICE.tv
During Speed Week this past March, AMA Pro Racing announced that roadracing and dirt-track would be live-streamed on NASCAR’s new Internet site, FansChoice.tv. The coverage I saw in the Daytona International Speedway media center was not deficient in any way, presenting “multiple viewpoints with live timing and scoring.”
Just like the “Superprestigio” Spanish dirt-track event in January, this shows TV does not require gigantic networks or billion-dollar buildings in New York City to bring our sport to large audiences. Livestreaming reaches all the digital devices of our era.
Next, in a staged production, riders, team managers, and series officials were arranged in two rows on a stage to recite their support for the 2015 return of the
Daytona 200 as a SuperBike event. This reverses the past mistake of assuming that because “600s look just like SuperBikes,” the change made no difference to spectators. It makes a huge difference, and AMA Pro Racing wants the Daytona 200 to return to its former status of presenting the nation’s top riders on the fastest motorcycles on the fastest track in the country.
As a final positive bulletin, AMA Pro Racing announced a sixth venue for the 2014 season: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in July.
These three changes represent a significant rebounding of AMA Pro Racing from the depths to which it had fallen since 2009, giving hope to those who want to see US riding talent develop in a dynamic series and then go on to challenge the world as past champions have been able to do. -KC
