Don loved the Kuhn Norton and the friendly team spirit when he used it for the
1972 Match Races. Here he leads USA team captain Dick Mann.

“When I raced for BSA in 1971, the team bikes came to tracks pretty much the same, but then they let the riders and mechanics work together to get things working for each specific rider. What I observed going on in 1973 was the Japanese mechanics all having lots of meetings in the middle of the garage and then they would all go back and rip something apart and do the same change to all the bikes. There was one pretty big thing that happened at Daytona that I recall that the Japanese were not too happy about. After the first practice session that week, all of us came to the pits complaining that the bike would not pull too well out of the new chicane on the back stretch. The reply from the Japanese was “what chicane?” Apparently they were never told that the chicane had been added and the bikes were set up for the old track like 72 (when I won) and this was a total surprise. So the mechanics ordered all the team bikes back to the garage and they totally re-did the carbs and gearing to better work with the new layout… there is no way I would have finished the race without the chicane (I was the only Suzuki to finish). My tires had cords showing at the end.” As it turned out, Don had thought that his 350 Yamaha would no longer be competitive against the larger 750cc competition. He had miscalculated, and Jarno Saarinen won the race, on his similar Yamaha twin.

Race bike development has gone full circle, the emphasis now is on control and getting power usefully to the ground. In the mid 70s, the bikes were making huge leaps in power and displacement, while chassis development had not kept up. Hanging on for dear life to some rolling nightmare, was often the reality that riders in the 73-74 era got to explore. Don confirms the experience, saying “The 1973 TR750 was easily the scariest bike I ever rode. I was back on a Yamaha after Daytona. Having ridden both the BSA and the Yamaha, you could confidently ride them as hard as they could be ridden. The Suzuki was a big and tall bike with a wobbly hinge feel to it. The handlebars would go back and forth an inch or two in a steady wobble around the banking, which explains the tire wear problems. Normally when you get on the banking, you could relax your hands and draft along. In 1973, you were hanging on tight thru the banking, and then try to relax your hands on the infield straights.”

Adding to the mix was the miserable safety standards of the day, the poster child being the horrible crash in the 250GP at Monza in 1973 that claimed Pasolini and Saarinen. Journalists and riders had approached the organizers complaining over the unsafe condition of the racing surface, which had been oiled down by a slowly circulating Benelli in the previous 350cc race. Those who complained were threatened with being ejected from the circuit or Police arrest. Pasolini led from the start, and at near top speed at the end of the long front straight, he hit the oil in the fast Curva Grande, and crashed to his death. Saarinen was close behind and never had a chance. 14 riders were involved in the crash and ensuing inferno, many seriously injured. Yamaha withdrew its team from world championship racing for the rest of the year in disgust, publishing a booklet about the accident.

Don recalls: “Saarinen was a Yamaha rider like I was at the time, we met first when he came to race at Ontario in late 1972. He came back to the U. S. in March for the 1973 Daytona 200 and won the race. They used to hold an awards banquet at Daytona in those days. Afterwards, my wife Tracy and I caught up to Jarno and congratulated him on his impressive win that day. He was off the next day to prepare for the upcoming Grand Prix series and we wished him well. I never saw him again. I raced in a club race at Riverside, California on May 20th that year and heard the news of the crash on radio on the way home. I have always felt that the sport was deprived of seeing his greatness fully realized. In his short career, he won a 250cc World Championship, won the Daytona 200, the highly competitive “Race of the Year” in England and many other events. There is no doubt in my mind that had he lived, the sport would know the name Saarinen as well as it does Agostini, Hailwood or Roberts. There was never a blacker day for Yamaha than that day.”

In July, former teammate Geoff Perry was lost in an airplane accident, when the commercial airliner he was taking to the Laguna Seca National, was lost in a crash off Tahiti. At Laguna, no longer riding for Dinesen Yamaha, Don was riding a privateer Yamaha 350 and was lapped. “I just didn’t have the right bike, and I wasn’t making any money at it. It was the first time that I had been lapped. When I was younger there was a rider who was once a great champion at Ascot, but he stayed around too long. Later when I was doing the Junior Nationals, he was still racing and I remember coming up on him in practice and almost ran into him because he wasn’t on the gas anymore. I don’t want to be that guy.” At the end of 1973, fellow San Diegan, close friend, and Harley-Davidson legend Cal Rayborn had signed to race for Suzuki for the following season. In December, racing on a Suzuki 500 twin at Pukehohe, New Zealand in a minor event, Cal crashed to his death. It had all become just too much.

Summing up his feelings at the time… “After my experiences on the Suzuki at Daytona and then all the bad stuff the rest of 1973, made me decide to hang it up. I figured I had gotten the best I was going to get out of the sport and decided it was time to move on to something else.” It was time for another Emde to make his mark on the racing scene.

 
Younger brother Dave was no slouch on the tarmac either. Seen here, BMW mounted,
he gives future world champion Freddie Spencer a wet weather riding lesson.

Don’s younger brother, David Emde made a splash at the 1976 WERA Grand National Final at Texas World Speedway, battling with newcomer Freddie Spencer on his way to winning the Formula Two race. In the Formula One race, he finished 2nd which was enough to clinch the WERA number one plate in the class. David was further rewarded with their Grand Prix Rider of the Year award.

David was also making an impression on the AMA scene, finishing fourth in the 250 National Championship in 1976. The following year, winning at Pocono and Riverside, racing against Randy Mamola and Steve Baker, he became National Champion in the 250 class, also finishing 2nd at Daytona in the Superbike class riding the factory Kawasaki, beaten only by Cook Neilson on the famous Old Blue Ducati (the subject of their recently reissued model). In 1978 he finished sixth in the Formula One standings, and third in the 250 class championship. In 1979 he was seventh in Formula One, and 8th in Superbike, taking 3rd in the Superbike race at Daytona on a Yoshimura Suzuki. David had clearly arrived at the top tier of American racing, but victory at Daytona eluded him. There was precious little success in 1980, but he won the 250GP at Kent, Washington in 1981, in a year that was primarily a Lawson benefit. Again finding success in the 250GP class, David won at Laguna Seca and Sears Point in 1982, and Laguna Seca, Mid-Ohio, and Talladega in 1983, taking 2nd in the Championship.

Next >

BACK