With motorcycle racing still in it's infancy Joe Emde shows the determination that flowed down the Emde bloodline.

Another revelation was regarding the tires. BSA/Triumph were the US importers of Dunlop tires and wanted the riders to try the new “triangular” tires. Almost universally, the American riders did not want to leave Goodyear, with their Blue Streak racing tires being the only tires that most had ever run on. Also important, given the salaries of the time, Goodyear had a contingency program where Dunlop did not. Dick Mann tried the Dunlops, so Don asked his opinion… “After the first morning of practice I cornered Mann and asked him what he thought of the Dunlops. His response was ‘I don’t think I’m going fast enough to tell.’ I thought to myself, “Yeah, right.”

Don next approached Mike Hailwood to ask his opinion of the tire situation, although he knew Mike hadn’t run on the Goodyears. “I commented that Goodyear had a contingency program but Dunlop didn't. Mike reply was ‘I’d rather win the race on Dunlops than worry about that.’ I think I never felt more like the rookie I was than the moment I heard Hailwood say that.” As it turned out, the Dunlops were a big advantage and made the big triples handle much better. Don stayed with the Goodyears for the Daytona race, but by the time of the Trans-Atlantic Match races, the entire team had switched over to the superior Dunlops. Despite the handicap of the old bike and inferior tires, in qualifying the California rookie was to provide a surprise for the team.

Daytona had changed the qualifying format for 1971 to what is now considered normal, running around the full race course (previously, the grid was decided by flying laps around the oval – No Chicanes!). Don had qualified his bike fourth, with only Paul Smart on the Dunlop/LowBoy Triumph (pole), and the 2 Harley Davidsons of Brelsford and Rayborn ahead. 5th on the grid was Mike Hailwood, with a similar machine to Smart’s. Bringing a knife to the gunfight, newcomer Don had out-qualified 8 of his 9 factory sponsored teammates.

At the start of the race in 1971, the field took the green and completed a full lap of the banked oval before heading down into the infield turn 1 to start lap 2. The ‘low boy’ Triumphs and BSAs had a huge aerodynamic advantage, and Don’s infield prowess could do little for him on that first lap around the banked oval at top speed. Don was swarmed by the more aerodynamic bikes, leaving him in 8th or 9th by the end of the 1st lap, heading into the infield turn 1. While Don was taking a conservative entry into turn one, Rusty Bradley on the Kawasaki behind misjudged the turn, flying past Emde and slamming into Kel Carruthers just ahead. Bradley was one of the promising rookies racing that year, but sadly he did not survive the head injuries received in the crash.

Soon the leading Honda and Harley Davidsons had retired from the race, and the leading group with Hailwood, Smart, and Mann on their ‘low boy’ Dunlop shod triples were running away. However, the development high compression heads on the bikes ridden by the 2 English riders caused center cylinder overheating and failure, ironically the same failure that put Hailwood out the previous year. At the finish it was Dick Mann winning, followed by Gene Romero on his ‘low boy’ Triumph. Don managed to get by Roger Reiman after a long passing and re-passing battle for 3rd, securing a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium for BSA-Triumph, with Mann’s win being BSA’s first at the Daytona 200 since 1954… on the bike that was originally meant for Emde.

On the Wednesday before the Daytona race, one of the girls from the PR trailer in the pits told Don to be sure to go to the trailer and get the information on the trip to England. “We knew nothing about it, be sure to bring your leathers and everything…we thought it was just an exhibition or a photo op seeing the factory sort of thing. On the plane ride over I found out that this was going to be a full-on race against these guys. When we got there the British papers were all full of the ‘who will win’ kind of stuff.” Don had received similar treatment to Daytona upon arriving in England for the Trans-Atlantic match races, finding that the new ‘low boy’ bikes had been assigned to others, and he was again relegated to the slower 1970 version, with the big Daytona tank… “We were told it was some kind of exhibition. When we got to England, it was really more like Custer’s Last Stand. Smart, Pickrell, Cooper… they were just gone.” Smart had his high compression special low boy from Daytona, and the similar bike Hailwood had run at Daytona was used by Ray Pickrell. Where they had overheated and failed at Daytona, they didn’t have these problems on these slower circuits.

Finishing 3rd at Daytona and taking 11th in AMA points for the year had certainly surpassed any reasonable expectation, so at the season finale at Ontario BSA informed Don that the same team was continuing into 1972, and that the contract would be in the mail. When the expected contract arrived after Thanksgiving, it was instead a notice that BSA-Triumph was reducing its support to only 2 riders, Mann on the BSA, and Romero on the Triumph. Don was told that he was ‘free to find his own arrangements.’ Less than 100 days before Daytona, Emde had been released. It was time to revisit his old arrangement with Mel Dinesen.

Don felt that his Dinesen Yamaha was obviously not the fastest bike going to Daytona, but it would likely prove to be the best. Although it was optimistic to expect a 350cc bike to defeat the much larger multi-cylinder racers, the Yamaha TR2B was an excellent handling machine and was reliable. Still, the concept of successfully racing a privately entered and dealership maintained/built Yamaha at Daytona, where no 2 stroke bike had ever won the 200, would seem to make the prospect of success unlikely. Factor in that the Yamaha was at less than half the allowed engine displacement and one must conclude that they were not the favorites. Despite all these facts, Don remained confident. The new Suzukis and Kawasakis were amazingly fast, but unproven. The winning BSA/Triumph triples from the previous year were always a threat to repeat as well. Adding to the difficulties, Don had highsided a Yamaha 250 in turn one the day before, battling in a pack with Kenny Roberts and Kel Carruthers. Landing hard on his shoulder, Don thought that he had broken it. It turned out that nothing was broken, but he managed to get through the next morning check-up at the infield hospital to get his clearance to ride. “It would have been impossible for me to ride flat track, but tucked in there isn’t a lot of motion, so it wasn’t too bad.”

Floyd Emde takes a well deserved refreshment after his history making flag-to-flag Daytona win in 1948.
Also pictured is Ed Kretz,  also a past winner of the 200 mile race.

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