DAYTONA 1971
Rider-by-rider account of how the famous US 200-mile race panned out 50 years ago
The field hurtles into Turn One at the start of the 1971 Daytona 200. It was the age of the superbike and motorcycling was riding a huge wave of interest Stateside at the time, with manufacturer support for the race at an all-time high. The American philosophy of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ was never more prevalent and the works team entry for the race was huge. BSA and Triumph had five riders, each on triples. Harleydavidson fielded six of their ironbarrel XRTT V-twins – plus four really top-class privateers. There was an emerging two-stroke presence, too (all still air-cooled bikes) with Kawasaki fielding eight works or semi-works riders on 500cc triples, Suzuki with four on the 500cc twin twostrokes and Yamaha with seven riders on 350cc twins. And while 1970 race winners Honda decided not to bother with a factory team of CB750 fourcylinder four-strokes in ’71, the brand was represented by dealer Ronnie Krause who ran a Yoshimura-built CB750 for Gary Fisher.