The Scene

THE SCENE

IVAN J. WAGAR

WHAT a fantastic Daytona Speed Week! No less than 17 foreign riders to do battle with our best road racing specialists. The current 250-cc world champion, Kel Carruthers, gave an absolutely perfect display of high speed control, as he wiped the board in the 250 combined race. Among the other foreign stalwarts were Ralph Bryans, former world's 50-cc champ, and the incomparable Mike Hailwood, nine times champion of the world.

"Mike the Bike," as he is known to the hundreds of grand prix riders that have tried to beat him, is even some what of a Daytona legend from the old United States Motorcycle Club days when the U.S. Grand Prix was still in existence.

It is no wonder that the race pro moters were a little shocked when they learned at the last minute that Hailwood, already quite famous at Daytona for his car racing exploits, was due to ride in the 200 mile race. One official told me, "Even on last minute notice, we doubled the crowd of any AMA race at the Speedway, and mostly due to Hailwood."

I had heard rumors during my trip to Japan that Honda had contacted Mike to race a 750 Four at Daytona. They even went so far as to suggest that negotiations were being made through Castrol Oil, one of Mike's basic con tracts. Nothing was said in this column about the speculation that Mike might be at Daytona. In fact, knowing the way stories shift around a bit in Japan (my biggest understatement ever), I did not place much faith in the possibility that Honda would even be at Daytona.

The next thing I knew about the whole Mike Hailwood scene was when I met him in the pits at Daytona. We are fairly good friends as a result of my interview in Holland three years ago and a~bar stop or four in Japan in 1967. Mike flatly stated that he was never contacted by Honda or Castrol to ride at Daytona. The first thing he knew about the possibility was when BSA made the suggestion, three weeks before the event. Because he has always been keen to ride AMA Daytona, Mike iumDed at the chance.

Unlike some of the foreign riders, both Hailwood and Carruthers agreed that Daytona would be the race of the year. They were particularly impressed with the early week performances of Ron Grant and Gary Nixon, and the very high caliber of riding by at least another dozen American riders.

Quite staggering was the amount of truly exotic machinery. Seven factories turned up with racing motorcycles that would bring tears of joy to the eyes of any European grand prix race promoter. Carruthers was staggered by the speed of his 350 Don Vesco Yamaha, and Hailwood felt the BSA Three's perfor mance was comparable to his GP Honda .Four of 1967.

And, indeed, the CB 750 Hondas obviously received as much attention to detail as any four-cylinder GP machine that the factory has produced.

All of this considered-the very best American riders, the big foreign contin gent, the exotic machines-it is some wh~it sad that so much secrecy sur rounds the plans of some of the fac tories. There is a good possibility that many more people might have attended the races if the motorcycle press had been able to preview the riders and machines.

There are two things~ that can make the Daytona crowds grow. The first is the foreign riders and the sparkling interest they inject into the whole pic ture. The second is bigger purses, some thing quite difficult to achieve. Big purses mean big crowds. I wonder how many spectators would go to Indianap olis if the purse were only 10 grand. By the same token, Iwonder what the Daytona grandstand would look like if the riders were going for $100,000. People like to think they are paying to see the big time, regardless of the sport. When the prize money is big, and when the event is international in stature, it becomes something other than a Sunday afternoon sportsman event.

In the past this column has com plained about the AMA's near indiffer ence towards contingency money. But contingency money is still money, and should be included on the entry form for every major event, as the car race sanctioning bodies do for their drivers. Also the contingency figure should be added to the purse and advertised by the promoter in his pre-race publicity.

The advertised purse for the 1 00-mile Amateur race was a measly $800. Rusty Bradley, however, pocketed another $5,000 in contingency money from Kawasaki and completely insured his expenses to finish college.

The future of Daytona? Already, to the manufacturers, it is the world's most prestigious race. To the point, in fact, that by the middle of Daytona week I canceled my trip to the Isle of Man this year. The TI just will not be the same after this year's Daytona. Continued emphasis on the foreign rider participa tion and the purses wili make next year's Daytona the second biggest race of the'70s.