1969 Daytona Motorcycle Racing - 8-Page Vintage Article

Description

1969 Daytona Motorcycle Racing - 8-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article.
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Florida, says the travel posters, is a
land of sunshine and tropical heatwaves
. a land where rain is a four-letter word
in more ways than one. And this balmy
reputation is quite probably one of the
reasons why some 1 5.000 motorcycle
enthusiasts were in the Daytona Beach
area around March 10th-1 6th.
The greatest motorcycle race in Amer-
ica and the Florida sunshine what a
combination! Unfortunately we never
got much sunshine or much racing. What
we did get was enough rain to halt the
250cc race halfway through and to
cause the complete postponement of the
big 200-miler!
The big Daytona speedbowl is coated
with an invisible (but plentiful) layer of
rubber dust and oil left by the screaming
tires and exploding engines of countless
190 mph stock cars or contestants in the
24 hour sports car race that precedes
the motorcycle events by just a few
weeks
A whole day of non-stop sports car
racing makes the tight Daytona infield
turns as slippery as the Cresta run
whenever a shower of rain brings the oily
rubber dust to the surface and the
immediate effect of this, if it happens
during a motorcycle race, is for riders to
start dropping off like flies.
Thinking of last year's 250cc event,
when a sudden rainstorm brought over
20 riders down in one lap. the AMA
officials were quick to bring this year's
race to a halt as soon as the few spots of
rain that had fallen before the start
turned into a steady drizzle
This was no doubt a wise move for
riders, including aces like Art Baumann,
had already started to hit the dirt
The following day. however, the fans
had been promised racing rain or shine
and several thousands of them took the
promoters at their word and started
filling the stands despite steady rainfall.
Packed mainly in the under-cover
S 12.00 seats, the fans waited for the
start of the 200 Mile race They waited
and waited, and waited. !
While the fans were getting restless
the 88 riders and the myriad AMA
officials were hassling it out in the pits.
Some riders were prepared to race, some
weren't: some of the AMA officials
thought the show should go on, some
didn't.
At midday there was a riders meeting
and the officials promised a decision at
2pm Not many of the riders felt like
blasting off in an 88-strong pack around
the rain-soaked Daytona bowl. There
was a speed differential of as much as 50
mph between competing machines and
with visibility down to nil because of
flying spray and two-stroke smoke, there
was every chance of a huge accident.
But the riders were there to race and if
the AMA said the race was on, then race
they would.
Tensed up and nervous as only racers
can be. they waited — along with the
fans — for the 2pm decision. Rumors
kept filtering through the pits . . . accord-
ing to the gossip, the start was going to
be at any time from 3pm to the following
Sunday
Riders and mechanics sat hunched in
their pits, spectators sat hunched in the
stands and announcer. Roxy Rockwood,
sat hunched over his microphone val-
iantly talking himself hoarse over nothing
in particular in a brave attempt to keep
everyone interested
At 3:1 5 pm — over an hour later than
promised — came the decision The race
would go on exactly a week late!
The frustrated crowd hurled chairs and
abuse out of the stands and the frustrat-
ed racers hastily consulted their budg-
ets
Some of the factory teams were
spending in the region of S3000 per day
to keep their massive teams of riders and
service crew in Daytona Beach now
they had to stick it out for another week
Some private runners just had to pack
their bags and leave for home broke
and without having a ride at all
For the spectators it was even more
galling Most of them had taken their
annual vacations to make the trip to
Florida for the 200-miler Now they had
to leave without seeing a race and with
no prospect at all of being able to use
their rain-check ticket.
How can you use a rain check when
you’re back at work in Wisconsin or
somewhere?
For most of these guys the 200-miler
was the race that they had come to see
— even though there was a great
program of events for most of the
previous week Now they had to go home
and wait until 1 969
First actual races of the speed week
were the Sportsmen events and even
these gave an indication of the speeds
that were to come.
Young Pennsylvanian, Gary Fisher,
won his 250cc heat race at an average
speed of 93 139 mph while Mike Cone
from Texas took the second heat at
92 763 Both speeds were higher than
any Sportsmen races ever run on the
Daytona circuit.
In the 250cc final, however, Fisher
had to give best to Gary McGoron from
Miami Beach while Cone retired. In
beating Fisher. McGoron averaged
90 469 mph.
All three were riding Yamaha 250cc
production racers and his too, gave a
foretaste of the week's action.
There was no doubt about it
Yamaha was the bike of the week and
this point was hammered right home
during the Thursday qualifying sessions
for the 200-Miler
Remember the Harleys last year?
Racewinners and fast qualifiers they may
have been in 1968 but they never even
got a look-in at the 1 969 qualifying.
Here's one of the entrants
working off some of the tension
of pre-race waiting. Don’t laugh,
those unicycles are one of the
best methods for perfecting
balance and coordination.
Rayborn and Pierce diced back
and forth for many laps until
CaKs Kawasaki gave him
temporary shifting problems.
Rayborn and Pierce were running
second and third here...
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