Despite all the success in the 250GP class, perhaps David’s best performances were in Endurance racing, where he won the 1979 Ontario 6 hour race teamed with David Aldana, and finished 2nd in the 1978 Suzuka 8 hour race teamed with Sugimoto on the Yamaha TZ750, taking the fastest lap in qualifying. David’s goal to become the 3rd Emde to win the Daytona 200, went unfulfilled. He was killed in a road accident on his motorcycle in September 2003, pleasure riding on the backroads near Ramona, California.

Bob Emde captured doing his own spannering during his short but successful road race career.

For decades, Floyd Emde had continued to run his motorcycle shop and work with his children’s racing efforts as tuner and mechanic. He also served as the AMA district representative for San Diego. Floyd Emde passed away at the end of December, 1994.

After retiring from racing, Don Emde moved on to be the marketing manager for Bell Helmets. He has maintained his connections to the sport through his activities to preserve motorcycle racing history. He has collected an extensive number of images from motorcycling history, and is a publisher of motorcycle magazines. Don is also an author and his recently updated book on the Daytona 200 is the definitive history of the event. He also published the history of the BMW Battle of the Legends series that ran from 1992-1997, a series in which Don raced in every race, a quality experience which he compares to his days as a factory rider for BSA. Ironically 26 years after riding the BSA in an epic battle for 3rd with 3 time Daytona 200 winner Roger Reiman in the 1971 200, Don was following Roger in a battle of the legends BMW practice session at Daytona when Reiman crashed to his death.

Nancy Emde, Don’s sister, also has a racing legacy. A flat track dirt racing champion in the ‘powderpuff’ class for San Diego in the 1970s, she still rides successfully in off-road racing at the age of 50. As the owners of Trail Boss Tours, she and her husband run riding tours into the Northern Baja wilderness. 2005 brought her a fifth place in the Baja 1000. As an appropriate bookend to the Emde story of cycling success, Nancy rode the final 70 mile leg of the 2006 Baja 1000, winning the race in the small bore motorcycle class on a Honda XR250 and becoming the first female motorcycle class winner of the grueling Baja race in it’s history. It was yet another first for an Emde, San Diego’s first family of racers.

BACK