SERIOUS PROBLEM

My engine problem turned out to be a little more serious than just a common two-stroke piston seizure. It might sound impossible, but what had actually happened was the engine lost a piston circlip on the left cylinder. Everyone at the time agreed the only way the motor could have stayed running was because of the high speed. If it had happened in the infield at 80 or 90 mph, the rear wheel would have immediately locked solid, but at 160+ it was gradual enough to keep the parts moving. After the race when Mel pulled the motor down for the AMA inspection they could see the marks left by the circlip as the pressure augured it into the side of the piston and collapsed the ring.then, apparently when I let the clutch back out, it spit the circlip out the exhaust pipe and restarted. I found after that I needed to slip the clutch a bit coming out of the tight turn one, but otherwise it ran great. As I began my charge to get back to the front part of the pack, I noticed I was running with Phil Read, who would go on to win seven world road racing titles in his illustrious career. A member of the John Player Norton factory team for Daytona that year, Phil had apparently had a bad start and was just getting into the flow of the race. So I tagged on with him and we began passing riders and had a nice battle back and forth for the next 90 or so miles. As expected the big 750s started falling to the wayside, but most did not last long enough for the tyre problem to put them out. It was mostly ignition problems and other gremlins. A little before the halfway point I saw 22 and 25 on the big infield scoreboard.that meant that Phil and I were now running in the top five. At that point Suzuki’s Art Baumann had led nine laps and was out. Yvon Duhamel then led four laps for Kawasaki and when he went out Jody Nicholas put Suzuki back in the lead. He was up front for 14 laps but right at about the 100-mile mark his rear tyre let go. Fortunately it happened as he entered the infield and he avoided the devastating type of blowout on the banking that Barry Sheene would suffer a few years later. When Jody went out, Gary Fisher took the lead on ayoshimura Honda 750, but his lead was shortlived when his oil tank broke. The 350ccyamahas were right on the edge of making 100 miles on a tank of gas, so I came in on the 27th lap. My gas refuelling equipment was home-made by my dad. He had taken a metal trash can and adapted a lever and quick-fill dump spout which it worked great. He got me fuelled up with 6.4 gallons and back on the track in nine seconds. Phil Read had stayed on the track when I went in and he took over the lead of the race when Fisher went out. Unfortunately for him, his Formula One style refuelling system did not operate as smoothly as my dad’s trash can system. As I heard later, the connector did not clip solidly onto the tank and gas spilled all over him. I believe it also stalled the motor. Poor Phil lost about 45 seconds with his misfortune and I never saw him again in the race. He would finish fourth. When I came out of the pits after my gas stop I saw rider 99 a little way up the track.that was Ray Hempstead, a goodyamaha privateer from Florida and we were now 1-2 in the big race. I was trying to cut into Ray’s lead, but it was coming kind of slowly.then as we entered the infield one lap I noticed my old BSA team-mate Dick Mann exiting the pits. He had apparently had some ignition trouble on his 1971 BSA triple – the Bsa/triumph factory didn’t actually cut their race programme off 100% after 1971.They kept their top guys for each brand: Mann on the BSA and Gene Romero on his 1971Triumph. Dick was inbetween Ray and me as we exited the infield that lap and suddenly his BSA was running great. So as we got on the banking, I pulled into his draft and on the back straight, he towed me right past Hempstead and into the lead. Thanks old friend. I owe you one! Not long after taking the lead, rider 96 was being shown on the leader board.that was Geoff Perry from New Zealand and he was on a Suzuki 500cc twin. He was riding great and as I went past the start-finish line he drafted past and, I assumed, into the lead. As we went around turn one I didn’t really have anything for Geoff and he pulled out a slight lead on me. I kept my pace going, as Hempstead was not far behind, in fact I think we may have swapped our positions back and forth a few times right towards the end. Then, as we went through turn one beginning the 50th lap of the 53-lap race, I saw Geoff quickly pull off to the side. His chain had broken!