United States Grand Prix
UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX
High speed, professional, Continental road racing with an ear-splitting four-cylinder roar.
JOE PARKHURST
NEARLY EVERY RIDER of any consequence in world standings was in Daytona for the United States Grand Prix, and staged the most impressive road race ever seen there. England's Mike Hailwood, Gary Dickinson, Jim Baughn, Alan Shepherd, Joe Dunphy, Phil Read, John Hartle, B. J. Davis, W. Scott, Dave Degens came. South Africa's Paddy Driver, New Zealand's Hugh Anderson, Canada's Mike Duff, France's Jack Findlay, Germany's Hans-Georg Anscheidt, Japan's Morishita, Mitsuo and Fumio Itoh and Ito, Switzerland's Luigi Taveri, Italy's Tarquinio Provini, Argentina's Jorge Kissling and Benedicto Caldarella, and many more, from every corner of the world.
For the first time the United States Motorcycle Club's Grand Prix was to be of truly significant value, due to its designation as a world's championship point standing event. Almost every qualifying speed was an increase over previous records, with Mike Hailwood's 99.749 heading the list on the 500cc MV Agusta four. Bert Schneider from Austria on the remarkable 250cc Suzuki four went around the 3.1 mile course at a shattering 96.55 mph average. Hugh Anderson took the 50cc Suzuki around at 76.375 mph, and Bert Schneider startled everyone again on the 125cc Suzuki with an average of 87.371 mph. Things looked very interesting indeed. California's Don Vesco, winner last year on a Yamaha, came off during practice, breaking his shoulder and taking him out of contention for the scheduled 250cc race. Vesco qualified last year at an average speed of 96.325 mph, a record at that time.
A total of 125 riders were scheduled to race, riding some of the most exotic machines in the world, and some pretty ordinary ones as well. All eyes were on world 500cc champ Hailwood's MV and the only other machine thought to be a contender in the final, and most important to most, event of the day, the 500cc Grand Prix; the 500cc Gilera four brought from Italy via Argentina to be ridden by Argentina's co-holder of the 500cc championship, Benedicto Caldarella. Though Hailwood was pretty well regarded as the favorite, Caldarella was considered a bit of a dark horse as his record in Argentina was impressive, including one event on the Gilera four.
1963 Federation Internationale Motorcycliste 50cc and 125cc world champion Hugh Anderson, again captained Suzuki's teams in these classes, the 50cc to be hardly a contest since their only opposition was the Kreidler team with machines known to be slower but such stellar riders as Anscheidt, the burly Tarquinio Provini and friendly Luigi Taveri. Obviously it was to be a show of brand-name strength. Honda had chosen not to support the event, a pity since their chances of winning were quite good after their showing in the Japanese Grand Prix at the close of the 1963 season. Rumors flew wildly about, and no truly sound reason was given by Honda for not appearing.
50cc RACE
Like a swarm of angry gnats, the oftenshifting, bicycle-like, 50cc machines flitted into action with Isao Morishita's Suzuki leading; on lap three Anderson surged to the front. Mitsuo Itoh's Suzuki made a hot race of it for eight laps but Morishita overtook Itoh on lap 10 and Anderson won by 500 yards averaging an incredible 78 mph. Itoh came in third, 100 yards behind, followed by Anscheidt's Kreidler, Jean Peirre Beltoise of France on another Kreidler and Lee Allen of St. Louis, running in pretty fast company, on a Ducati.
Featherweight Luigi Taveri, and the arch-type Italian Provini's Kreidlers did not finish, in company with the painfully slow Tohatsu of 204 pound Henri Goodman of Orlando, Florida.
125cc RACE
In this category, Hugh Anderson's advantage was much more emphatic since the four-machine Suzuki team had no real competition and the only "factory" opposition was the Zanella from Argentina to be ridden by the other co-champion in the Argentina 500cc class, Jorge Kissling, which had fallen prey to the excessively high-octane fuels furnished by the promoters. Two attractive CR-93 Honda twins were being prepared by the super-enthusiastic Bill Hannah's Honda firm from England, to be ridden by tiny Gary Dickinson and Holland's Jan Kostwinder. Dickinson, a soaking wet 104 pounder who had qualified with 28 pounds of lead in his pants as the class has a minimum weight of 132 pounds for the rider, turned a respectable 79.104 average under the four Suzuki team men's high 80 mph averages. Anderson qualified at 89.876, Austrian Bert Schneider 87.371, Mitsuo Itoh 89.978; and Isao Morishita 87.839, leaving little question as to which make of machine would come home the victor and which the vanquished.
Itoh led on lap one but Anderson overtook him on the second and built an enormous lead to the finish. Racing was to be seen, though, between the other Suzuki team members as Itoh and Schneider traded the second position seven times in the course of the race. On the 20th lap the Austrian was leading but Itoh inched to the front and placed second, 12 seconds behind Anderson. It was the first time this event, and the 50cc as well, were run on the 3.1 mile course. As Anderson crossed the finish line for the second time in one day, a New Zealand flag was hoisted up the flag pole. His average of 88.504 mph, another new record, was a surprise even to Anderson, who lost both races to Itoh last year. He left for home after the next day's racing, then to Japan to test a new version of the 250cc four. Suzuki's 250cc star Ernst Degner was not at Daytona, as he was hospitalized at home. Thus ended an interesting day of races. That evening the U.S.M.C. hosted the riders, press and officials at a cocktail party at one of Daytona's better hotels.
250cc RACE
Race day dawned clear and warm, as the most popular cliche for a race report goes, but nonetheless appropriate. Mike Hailwood set the pace for the day by howling around the beautifully banked tri-oval for one hour at 144.8297 mpli, thereby breaking the record set by John Hartle at Monza in italy in 1958 on a 35Qcc Gilera. Hailwood's 500cc MV Agusta four hit speeds up to 160 mpb on the short straights and made a sound not soon to be forgotten by the lucky fans.
Using one of two machines flown from Italy (the other to be raced later in the day), Hailwood displayed his great skill holding the big machine to the same line, up the banking and down onto the three levels of the circuit, each time around. Count Agusta has done us a favor by putting the MVs in Mike Hailwood's keeping, but this will probably be the last year for Mike "The Bike" on motorcycles as he was to begin his car racing career two weeks after the U.S.G.P. at Daytona in a Ferrari sports car. Mike and his equally well-known father, Stan Hailwood, left Daytona the next day for a rest in Nassau.
The 250cc event looked in the beginning like it was to be the first real contest of the series, and had it not been for one of the most appalling chain of dropouts it would have been. Bert Schneider qualified the wild Suzuki water-cooled four, at 96.556 mph, a stunning performance for so small a machine. Phil Read's Yamaha toured at an average of 94.256, his teammate Fumio Itoh ran up an impressive 93.915 and Alan Shepherd brought the East German MZ in at 92.384. It was not going to be a walkaway. Provini disappointed all when his Benelli four seized in practice, leaving him the beautifully prepared, but hardly competitive, single cylinder machine to race. Sr. Benelli himself was the star member of his pit crew; he admitted to an investment of over $60.000 in the four so his great disappointment could be felt.
American Federation of Motorcyclists star Ron Grant, in company with Orrin Hall and the Parilla that carried Norris Rancourt to 250cc leadership in California, qualified right behind Provini's 86.767 mph at 86.224 and the wise were anticipating great things. Alan Shepherd, probably the hardest working rider at the meet, worked endlessly at preparing the MZ, a potential winner, but the State Department's refusal to allow a visa for the Zchopau East Germany's mechanics meant he would have to prepare the machines alone. Though Shepherd admits to being only a "fair" tuner, his abilities as a rider, and his sportsmanship are top calibre championship quality.
Two contenders for 250 honors were out of the running; Don Vesco came off of the factory rotary valve Yamaha twin during qualifying, breaking his shoulder; Frank Perris broke his ankle while qualifying the Suzuki.
At the end of the first lap, Phil Read's Yamaha led and Fumio Itoh's Yamaha had seized, Schneider's Suzuki four retired with trouble. Read led for a lap then his machine quit, leaving Alan Shepherd as the only real contender. Shepherd's MZ blazed off alone, lapping the entire field. For part of the race Provini's Benelli single ran not far behind with Ron Grant on the Parilla a short distance back, but the handsome Italian single dropped out on the 20th lap leaving Ron Grant in second. Despite a fuel stop Joe Dunphy from England, astride a Greeves Silverstone finished fifth with Tony Murphy on a Nicholson Motors' Silverstone right on his heels. Results incorrectly show Murphy coming in 8th. Murphy and Dunphy staged a marvelous go for most of the race, and Tony did credit to the American riders by running all of the way with the well-known Dunphy.
Bo Gehring from Washington, D.C. placed third on a pitifully inadequate Bultaco, one lap behind Grant. Gehring's machine, and his competitive spirit, were exemplary of fine amateur sportsmanship. Only 21 of the 35 starters finished; Shepherd's prize money of $400.00 hardly paid for his trip, but the 8 points towards World championship in the 250cc class was well worth the effort.
500cc RACE
Speculation as to the outcome of the 500cc event supplied the best entertainment of the week and, from the first, Caldarella and Hailwood plummeted to the lead on the Gilera and MV fours. Spectators were treated to a concert of the wildest sounds of racing engines ever heard away from the European Continent as the two fours screamed off the fastest laps any motorcycle has ever made at Daytona. Hailwood got the race of the week from the young Argentine rider as they exchanged the lead time and time again, until Hailwood's father gave the 24 year old Englishman the "go" signal. He promptly racked up three laps at over 103 mph while Caldarella lost all but 4th gear in his Gilera, taking him out and leaving Hailwood to his glory alone.
Meanwhile, back in the pack . . . the duel for second spot was fantastic as Phil Read, Matchless G-50, John Hartle, Norton Manx, and Mike Duff, Matchless G-50, battled it out right up to the very last lap with the finishing order being; Read, Hartle and Duff. Paddy Driver, on another G-50 Matchless, came in fifth. Driver, Read and Duff were riding Tom Kirby-prepared Matchlesses, the most beautifully set-up machines at Daytona.
A marvelous show was given by Tony Murphy again, to no avail, this time riding his potent 350cc Honda. Though promised compensation for entering the 500cc race as a 350, Murphy was denied his rightfully earned money at the end of the race when told there was no 350cc class, a fact he was conscious of from the beginning. We deplore such tactics; Murphy deserves much credit for his efforts as he not only finished 7th in the 500cc class, lapping George Rockett's BMW, but qualified at an impressive 91.020 mph, faster than many of the 500's.
Hailwood and Caldarella lapped all starters by the 19th lap, and only 12 of the 24 starters finished. Hailwood was more than two full laps ahead of second place man Read, and only two other riders finished 39 laps of the scheduled
41; Driver and Pariott. Hailwood never let up and dashed off the first ten laps at a 98.484 mph average, at 20 laps it was 100.008. at 30 laps 100.480, and at the 41st and last lap 100.166 mph. His victory sweetened the defeats he suffered at Daytona in 1961 and 1962; his MV is valued at over $12,000 and is one of only 12 in existence.»
UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX
Time of Race: One hour. 16 minutes and 9 seconds. (New Record) Average Speed: 100.166 miles per hour (New Record) Fastest Qualifier: Miko Hailwood 99.749 mph (New Record) Fastest single Lao: Mike Hailwood 103.3 (20th Lap) (New Record)
250cc CLASS — 125 KILOMETERS
Time of Race: 53 minutes, 28 seconds Average Speed: 91.187 miles per hour (New Record)
50cc Class —60 KILOMETERS
Time of Race: 30 minutes, 38 seconds. Average Speed: 78.933 miles per hour (New Record)
125cc CLASS — 100 KILOMETERS
Time of the Race: 44 minutes, 8 seconds. Average Speed: 88.504 miles per hour (New Record)
