Battle of the Legends
BATTLE OF THE LEGENDS
DAYTONA '93
WHEN THE GREATS GO RACING, THE RACING GETS GREAT
ALLAN GIRDLER
JEFF SMITH PROBABLY PLANNED THE whole thing.
Smith is executive director of AHRMA, the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association. He’s also a retired racer and a former motocross world champion. One of AHRMA’s Daytona projects, along with the usual sort of vintage racing, was the staging of BMW’s Battle of the Legends, a race to be run on stock BMW R100Rs by a select field of famous riders.
What these riders are famous for is, of course, racing.
So it came as sort of a surprise that at a dinner before the races, Smith got up and told the assembled competitors that while he wasn’t exactly suggesting anything like a fixed race, still, it was a fact that each man has already put himself in the record books in national and world races. Real races.
It follows, Smith deadpanned, that whatever happened in this event would have no effect on record books, reputations or bank balances, there being no prize money at stake. What he wanted, Smith said, was an exciting race and a safe race, with everybody looking good and nobody doing anything to put themselves in peril.
On the surface that made sense. BMW naturally wanted the fans to see heroes, and machines on which heroes perform well. BMW’s tech guys had spent months making all the machines as equal as human and electronic skills could make them.
Even so, to look around the room at the competitors was to see...competitors. And to think, “Oh, yeah. Right. Being safe and sensible is how these guys got here.”
In alphabetical order, the field was composed of David Aldana, dirt and roadrace national winner from the 1970s; Hugh Anderson, former world champion from New Zealand; Don Castro, former Yamaha teamster; Yvon DuHamel, the French-Canadian roadracer; Don Emde, winner of the Daytona 200 in 1972; Bart Markel, three-time AMA national champion; Gary Nixon, Daytona winner and twotime AMA national champ; Reg Pridmore, who won the national Superbike title three times, once on a BMW; eight-time world champion Phil Read; three-time Daytona winner and former AMA national champion Roger Reiman; George Roeder, a national winner from the 1960s; threetime AMA national champion Jay Springsteen, the only man in the field still active in professional events; Don Vesco, roadracer and former holder of the motorcycle land-speed record; four-time world roadrace titlist Walter Villa; and retired BMW roadracing and enduro team rider Walter Zeller.
There was practice for the race, but no qualifying. Instead, there were two five-lap heats, with starting order based on age. The pole position went to Zeller, who at 66 was the oldest rider, and the outside spot on the last row went to Springsteen, 35, the youngest.
Back when promoters wanted races that were more than just exciting, they@ called a reverse grid “Australian Pursuit,” and the idea was that the fast guys from the back pushed their way to the front, no quarter given.
This wasn’t quite like that. In actual fact, putting 15 motorcycles in three rows of five on Daytona’s wide starting area gives lots of room to go fast and select different lines and not really get rough.
Having said that, one must add that it took two laps for the fast guys to get into a pack in the front and the rest of the field to-sorry, but it’s so-string out behind.
Thought One: Jeff Smith must have had his mind in neutral when he told these guys they weren’t really supposed to race, that it wasn’t for money and fame so it didn’t matter.
Thought Two: Smith raced, he knows that racers do it because they’re racers and it’s never been for money or fame. He knew this all along, just as we know what happens when you put a sign that says “Wet Paint” on the wall.
But we needn’t be rude here. No point in listing who was in back. Instead, in no particular order because the order changed a lot, it was Nixon and Springsteen-both wearing number 9, but in reversed colors-then Aldana, then DuHamel.
Interesting. Springer and DuHamel had a fíne duel at the 1992 Legends race, and they began early on the first lap of this one, with Springsteen getting slightly past the limit of his cold tires and DuHamel wagging a warning. Then Springer discovered he could use more brake later and jammed through.
Aldana, meanwhile, was learning how things really were. This was his first time in the Battle of the Legends. Before the event, he’d said he was pleased to be included and that he understood this was mostly for fun, so he would ride in the spirit of the occasion.
So, when he pushed past DuHamel and Springsteen, and was a couple of bikelengths in the lead, he suddenly slowed and lost the gap, as if he had missed a shift. While he was off the pace, Springsteen and DuHamel shot past, locked in mortal combat. As they went onto the back banking on the last lap, DuHamel was second, so he could slingshot past and into the lead. Which is what he did.
But he made his move too soon. Springer jinked this way, then that way, as DuHamel made his R100R as wide as he could, then zap! Springsteen was in front just in time for the flag. DuHamel was a foot or so back, then came Aldana, then Nixon and Read, who’d been in a fight of their own.
Just before the start of the second heat race, Jeff Smith pulled a second prank: another reverse grid, this time based not on age but on the first heat’s finishing order, with Springsteen on the back comer again, DuHamel next to him, then Aldana, Nixon and Read.
Once again, it took two laps. The difference this time was that Aldana was in front.
Before the start of the second heat, he said he didn’t plan on making the mistakes he’d made the first time. His first mistake was to have believed that this was just a show. His second was forgetting he was racing a streetbike with a streetbike shift pattem. He’d been in third gear and meant to get fourth, but pushed the wrong way on the shift lever, racebike-style, and got second, which unleashed the rev limiter. By the time he had it all back in control, Springsteen and DuHamel were gone.
Not this time. Post-race, each man was asked how the machines had been, and each said equal, with maybe DuHamel’s and Roeder’s off a fraction but not all that much. Aldana, perhaps due to modesty, said he suspected his BMW was a touch stronger than the others, which allowed him to get several lengths and then simply be out of reach, never mind about putting on a show or being a sport.
And that was that. Well, not quite. Springsteen and DuHamel once again fought it out, passing and repassing. This time, though, Springer went into the last half of the last lap leading. DuHamel tucked in but didn’t quite have enough steam to get around. Nixon nipped Read again, followed by Pridmore, Villa and Emde.
The official finish was based on the two heats, of course, so Springsteen’s first and second gave him the title, with Aldana’s first and third next, then DuHamel with second and third.
Time now for two last thoughts.
Nixon was known in his prime for competing, and not making excuses. Same now. The machines were equal, he said, and “Aldana was faster than we were.”
Walter Zeller, the oldest man in the field, spoke briefly at the awards dinner. When he began racing, he said, he’d been told that it was a fact of the sport that each time out, one rider would be the last to finish.
“Today,” he said, “I was that rider.” And he smiled.
So crafty Jeff Smith got his safe and exciting race after all. □
