Daytona 1961
DAYTONA 1961
IVAN J. WAGAR
WE REFER TO DAYTONA as our "classic." What is a classic, really? Is it a European Grand Prix with a hundred entries total and four or five factories represented? At this year's Daytona, the 26th running of the race, there were almost 750 entries and, just to prove that the factories are interested in America's most prestigious event, no less than nine manufacturers prepared special equipment. At the distributor level, some three or four more brands received encouragement or support.
Or does classic mean close, hard fought racing? Again Daytona would have to score on this count, for every race produced spine-tingling duels among the leaders, not to mention the usual dog eat dog battles throughout the pack.
To Gary Nixon went the first Daytona double for his two days of brilliant consistent riding. Yamaha scored seven out of ten for their third straight win. Triumph, besides taking first and second places in the 200 miler, brought all of the factory prepared twins home; five of them in the first ten places.
Harley-Davidson scored an Amateur 1, 2, 3 with super-smooth Walt Fulton Jr. scoring a win on his first ride on the Milwaukee big-twins. But, as if someone were getting even, none of the Italian built 250s finished in the first ten. In fact, none of the team bikes lasted the distance. Harley did set the fastest qualifying lap around the oval when Freddie Nix clocked an amazing 140 mph.
Kawasaki faired no better with their factory entries. Plagued by carburetion problems all week, the star-studded team of Mann, White, Elmore and Savage was never in contention. Private owners on standard Al-Rs came in 9th, 10th and 11th, which is a rather good showing for the first year. One of the most outstanding rides of the whole week was put in by young California amateur Art Baumann, who was in fourth spot until his Kawasaki lost a big end due to lean oil mix. The Kawasakis will bear some watching when the initial teething troubles are sorted out. Dick Mann said his would run like a good five-hundred, occasionally.
Team Hansen turned up with three of the most beautiful orange and white Honda 450s imaginable, one being ridden by another young amateur, Jim Odom, in his first road race. The sound from the Honda on its 132.8 mph qualifying lap was incredible as Jim broke the existing amateur record by over five mph. As each phase of speed week activities progressed, tension mounted and the promise of record shattering racing became nearer reality.
200 MILE EXPERT
No less than six machines broke last year's qualifying record of 134.148, set by Cal Rayborn. Triumph and Harley split three each, with Hammer being the fastest of the Triumph brigade and second fastest qualifier at a speed of 135.746. Just inside the old record and considerably faster than his teammates came Dick Mann, BSA, at 133.353 to take seventh place on the grid. The next man in shocked everyone at the speedway: Mike Duff, who turned in an incredible 132.742 mph average on the oval, riding a 350 Yamaha which was being raced for the first time. Certainly a preview of things to come when the 350 limit becomes final. So it looked like another Harley/Triumph battle with "dark horse" Duff adding a little spice.
When the flag fell, it was Hammer and Nixon as they slowly pulled from the pack on the opening lap around the oval. At the end of the first lap, Dick led across start-finish and the pair entered turn one, side by side, with a three-second lead on the pack. For the next one hundred miles these two riders put on a tremendous display of high speed skill as they slowly left everyone else behind. Except for one lap, Hammer was always in front at startfinish to pick up lap money at $25 a time, but through the infield it was anybody's game as they lapped the slower traffic.
On his 26th lap, Hammer pulled into his pit for gas, letting Elmore move into second place. Dick's stop went well but, after going back out, he slowed considerably and lost even more time to Nixon. There was almost panic in the Triumph pits; the six machines had run well all week with only very minor adjustments being necessary. But soon Dick was again chiming on both cylinders and going like the wind, with 28 seconds down on Nixon. At the end of the race we learned the reason for Dick's lagging. At the pit stop he took a rag from a mechanic to clean the inside of his visor, and sat on it as he went back onto the course. A loose end of the rag was sucked into a carburetor, choking off the one-cylinder!
Buddy Elmore stopped for gas one lap after Hammer and, despite the problem with the rag, Dick was then in second place. Gary lost 11 seconds when he pitted on the 30th lap, leaving Hammer down only seven seconds. With the pit stops out of the way and everything back to normal, racing in the usual American way of no team orders, Hammer was riding like a man possessed. Scratching every foot of the way through the infield, his ride could only be described as meteoric. Then disaster. On the 31st lap, the front wheel broke adhesion as Dick braked for turn one, only four seconds behind Nixon, and he and the machine parted company at something like 100 mph. But in 1 Vi minutes he was back in the race — in seventh place, where he stayed for the remainder of the race with a suspected broken collar bone.
When Elmore saw that Hammer was out of contention, and realizing Gary would ease up to play it a little safer, the previous year's winner came to within seven seconds of the leader with five laps to go. But Gary had been given the signal and pulled the gap back to twelve seconds at the finish.
During their Nixon chase both Hammer and Elmore were hand timed at two minutes 17 seconds, representing unofficial 100 mph laps. First and second place lapped the entire field at least once.
Fierce battles were being waged back in the pack, particularly in the HarleyDavidson brigade. All of the riders seemed very evenly matched in performance and the Markel, Reiman and Rayborn scrap continued until Markel went out with engine trouble. Don Vesco, BSA, and first year expert, Jerry Seguin, H-D, fought wheel to wheel until the BSA packed it in.
The two three-fifty Yamahas of Murphy and Duff suffered minor problems. Murphy lost considerable time when a plug fouled, and Duff had a split gas tank which led to much pit time while the tank was changed. The machines were further handicapped by having to remove one of the five speeds from the transmission to meet AMA class C rules. Yamaha decided to take out first to allow closer ratios in the box. This meant they were using the normal second cog for low gear, and the riders had to slip the clutch considerably out of the tight left-hander leaving the infield. Despite these problems they still managed to finish 18th and 19th, which is rather good for a first showing.
Another first time effort that cannot go unnoticed was the steady progress of the two Team Hansen 450 Hondas. Swede Savage somehow broke his rear brake pedal off at the pit stop, after riding with a broken tachometer from the early laps. Consequently, from the pit stop on, it was front brake only. After the race, Swede said that at times it was necessary to downshift early or crash; he chose the former, which meant the engine was overrevved unmercifully, but it didn't blow up. He also said it was better that he lost the tach; otherwise, he couldn't have stood the punishment the engine went through. Even with these handicaps, Savage finished tenth with teammate Larry Shaffer two places behind.
AMATEUR 100 MILER
Pole position was claimed by 18-year-old Jim Odom, when he really surprised everyone with that amazing qualifying lap on his Hansen Honda. And to show it was no fluke, Jim and Walt Fulton both accelerated away from the pack as they took their first lap around the tri-oval. The two already had a good lead as they swept into the infield for the first time to begin the second lap and from that point until the eighth lap the two California teenagers put on a great show, sharing equally, three apiece, the number of laps they led across the start-finish line. On the eighth lap, however, the jolly game came to an end. Jim grounded the very low Honda exhaust pipes coming out of the infield and all but totalled the beautiful Honda — the end of a brilliant ride. Coming through the pack, almost unnoticed, was another young California ace, Art Bauman, BSA, but despite a spirited ride, the bike finally gave up and Art was forced to retire from second place. When Baumann went out there was no further challenge to a Harley-Davidson "first three." Even though Fulton got off near the end, he won by almost a minute
and a half. Walt, the son of a famous racing father, is only nineteen and the first rider ever signed by Harley-Davidson as a road racing specialist. He will compete in all of the major Amateur road races during 1967 as a full-fledged Harley team member. Actually, he is the only rider to win the Novice race at Daytona one year, and follow it up with an Amateur victory the following year. Can he make it three in a row with an Expert win next year?
75 MILE NOVICE
Although this year's novice speed was down on the 1966 Walt Fulton/Suzuki speed, it was difficult to realize that the contestants were actually novice by anyone's standards. The 180 rider field was divided into four groups for qualifying heats with the first 20 in each heat going to the final. The first heat was won by Dave Smith, Yamaha, at 90.1; second, and fastest, heat by Terry Ernest, Yamaha, at 90.6, with Ron Muir, Suzuki second place;
third heat went to J. C. Klusmayer, H-D, at 89.5; and the fourth heat by Kenny Stephens, Yamaha, at 89.8 mph. With 80 novice riders going to the final, things promised to be very exciting, particularly since the Sprint of Klusmayer showed such a turn of speed, for we had picked Dave Smith to win the third heat.
From start flag to finish most positions were in doubt to the end. The lead changed 13 times, but Kenny Stephens on his very quick Yamaha was first to finish despite the strong challenges of Ron Muir.
250 COMBINED AM/EX
Four qualifying heat races decided the 80 fastest riders for the 27 lap final, and it certainly looked like a Yamaha field day. The first five-lap heat was won by Gary Nixon at an amazing 97.5 mph, which is a new record. Mike Duff, on another team Yamaha, won the second heat at 94.8, followed in by the brilliant Art Baumann, Kawasaki, who bested Tony Murphy on a team Yamaha. Frank Camillieri really flew on a standard TD1 to win the third heat at 92.1 mph. Fourth, and slowest, heat was won by Norman Stoval on a TD1 at 90.8 mph. Dick Hammer just barely qualified, finishing 20th in the first heat, after running into engine trouble with his Suzuki. His engine was stripped and rebuilt between the heat and final, but Dick had to start in the 16th row with no break-in time.
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When the flag dropped to start the 100mile race, Nixon, Duff and Winters screamed into the lead. The Yamaha team bikes showed a marked superiority in speed and handling over any of the other front runners. But what most people didn't notice was Dick Hammer just gobbling up places, and by the end of the first lap he was already halfway through the pack. Up front, Nixon and Duff started to pull away from Winters, who, in turn, was pulling away from the field. Duff was the fastest rider through the high-speed, lefthand turn three, but Nixon was quicker through the tight hairpins. Duff passed Nixon on lap three, and again it was obvious there were no team orders as these two diced side by side. On lap five, Duff slowed and finally retired on lap seven with ignition trouble. Mike's was the only team Yamaha to give up all week. Last year's winner Bobby Winters moved into second place when Duff went out. Hammer, by this time, had worked his way up to fifth place, but had to get by Don Twigg and Dick Newell, who were putting.
in superb rides on TD1 Yamahas. On the 17th lap. Hammer finally forced his way by Winters and started after Gary. The way Hammer rode from that point on is almost indescribable, as he reduced the lead at the rate of almost two seconds every lap. On the 22nd lap he passed Gary, and these two riders put on one of the finest duels ever seen anywhere. With only one and a half laps remaining. Hammer slowed slightly and Gary toured home to win. When Hammer went by on the last lap, his left foot was back on the expansion chamber. The reason: the left foot peg and rear brake assembly had come adrift!
Ron Grant, riding the same machine at Carlsbad a few months ago, had the same trouble and was forced to ride half the race with no rear brake. But at Daytona, where a win could be decided by the distance lost in braking into one corner. Hammer couldn't possibly make up for the handicap, especially with a two-stroke that offers little in the way of engine braking. It will be a long time, however, before we forget the very high level of skill displayed by both Hammer and Nixon.
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Time of Race: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes, 32.65 seconds. Average Speed for Winner: 98.227 miles per hour
(New Record)
Old record held by Buddy Elmore on Triumph in 1966
at 96.582 mph.
Leader by lap: Hammer 1 thru 19. Nixon 20. Hammer
21 thru 25. Nixon 26 thru 53. (Final)
Total posted awards including manufacturer awards and
lap money at $25.00 per lap — $15,750.
Nixon led for 29 laps. . . . Hammer for 24 laps. ■
