Don Emde, Inducted (1999) 1972 Daytona 200 Winner, Publisher With his victory in the 1972 Daytona 200, Don Emde became the first son of a former Daytona 200 winner to win the Florida classic. READ MORE HERE AT THE MOTORCYCLE HALL OF FAME	Floyd Emde, Inducted (1998) - 1948 Daytona 200 Winner Floyd Emde was the son of a California motorcycle police officer who also raced. Emde went on to become one of the foremost racers of the 1940s. READ MORE HERE AT THE MOTORCYCLE HALL OF FAME

THE EMDE FAMILY…SAN DIEGO’S FIRST FAMILY OF RACERS
By Norm DeWitt

Note: the following story appeared in the August 2007 issue of Classic Racer Magazine.

Don Emde is the best known of San Diego’s Emde family, his biggest day in racing winning the Daytona 200 in 1972. However, few know the long storied family history in motorcycle racing that has spanned almost a century, and that Don and his father Floyd are the only father-son combination to win the Daytona 200.

In the early years of motorcycling, Don’s Grandfather Joe Emde raced on the local dirt tracks of Southern California, while owning “Emde’s Garage,” a motorcycle and car repair shop in El Centro, California. He also became the first motorcycle policeman in Imperial County. Eventually he moved to the National City area, just south of San Diego, and became the first motorcycle policeman for the neighboring City of Chula Vista in the 1920s. One time his son Floyd was caught trying to outrun the police on his motorcycle, who wanted to issue him a speeding ticket. It made the local newspaper, and Floyd was in big trouble at home.

Floyd Emde was born in 1919 in Seeley, California near El Centro. By the 1930s, Floyd was racing on the various TT, flat track, and road racing courses scattered about the Southern California area. His plans to ride professionally were put on hold by World War 2. Post war, Floyd was immediately back on the pace, racing Speedway bikes, and winning the 1946 Pacific Coast TT Championships at Box Springs Raceway in Riverside. At that race he beat Ed Kretz, launching his professional career. The following year he made the major commitment, selling his house and with the Grandparents watching the kids, he and his wife Florence went on the road to race the AMA circuit. Floyd had a big wreck at Springfield, but one week later he won the Milwaukee Mile’s AMA national championship race. All of this was to pale in comparison to what Floyd was to achieve in 1948. At Daytona he was one of 153 to start the Daytona 200, run on the old beach circuit. Leading start to finish, he held off some of the biggest names of the day, including former winners. A highly versatile rider, he had achieved Indian’s last win at Daytona, and was the first to have led the entire event from start to finish, setting the course record. It was a dominant performance.

Although the BSA wasn't quite what Don was expecting it still did a great job.

Floyd retired in the 1950s to open his motorcycle shop in the San Diego area. Soon it would be time for the next generation of Emdes to begin racing. Bob Emde, the oldest of his 3 sons, won the 1967 Amateur class National flat track race in at Ascot Raceway in Los Angeles. Bob rode in the Daytona 200 once, running mid-pack. Meanwhile, Don was beginning to learn his chops on the treacherous race tracks that made up the west coast circuit.

It is hard for people today to visualize the twisty, narrow and dangerous road racing tracks being used in the 1960s, as Don recalls – “ I not only rode Carlsbad, but some great other tracks like Vacaville and Cotati that are in this league. The latter probably being the most dangerous place ever I ever rode. An old airstrip up by Santa Rosa and you had to pick your own line down the super wide straight, lots of gravel (deep in spots) and pot holes. Guys like Ron Grant and Art Baumann showed me a kind of “S” curve line through there. It’s hard, I’m sure, for a lot of the new folks in the sport to even think that serious race machines, 2 & 4 wheel, went around that little Carlsbad track. In the few years that they ran an AMA National there, some history was made such as Rayborn’s first ever AMA National win. My favorite tracks in my club days were Riverside and Willow Springs.”

In 1968, Don was riding his father’s Suzuki X6 flat track bike and a Suzuki road racing bike, but Don’s early road racing success was mostly on privateer Yamaha racers. All of his Yamaha bikes were obtained through Mel Dinesen, a Yamaha dealer from Bakersfield. Don – “While he got lots of technical and parts help from Yamaha, he did all the work and tuning. I won the AFM 250cc and 350cc Class Championships and the AFM #1 plate in 1969 on his Yamahas as a well as a little 100cc Hodaka he had. That was a good year for us, as well as 1970 when I won the Talladega 250cc race ahead of Nixon and Rayborn. Mel’s Yamahas were as fast as anything out there, and super reliable.” Don had also won the Novice National at Indianapolis, but the #1 plate had come against many of the top riders of the day, such as Ron Grant, Art Baumann, Steve McLaughlin, and Jody Nicholas. Don was the first to have a split rating on his AMA competition license, being an Amateur in 1970 for dirt track racing, and rated an Expert for Road Racing.

For the 1971 season, BSA-Triumph was pulling out everything they had in an attempt to win Daytona, running 10 bikes (5 BSA, 5 Triumph). Although he was running his Yamaha in road racing, Don was also a BSA dirt track rider, and that relationship resulted in him being offered the open BSA seat. At Daytona, the US team was completely unaware that upgraded bikes were coming to Daytona, expecting more of the same 70 spec racers. The 1970 bikes were prepared for the established American BSA factory riders (Mann, Aldana, Rice) and Don was to be assigned one of the 4 newer bikes once they arrived, the others being for BSA’s Mike Hailwood, and Triumph’s Paul Smart and Gary Nixon. As it turned out, the ‘low boy’ Triumph /BSA bikes that showed up were a revelation. Lower and lighter, they were a much more compact package than the 1970 machines.

Don recalls – “So there I was on that Saturday morning in the garage sitting on the bike with my name and number on it, an all-new Rocket III fitted with disk brakes front and rear and many other obvious improvements to the old bikes. So compact was the whole package that the oil cooler was stuffed into the front of the fairing with a thin "mail slot" in the nose of the fairing to allow the air to flow to it. Over on the Triumph side of the garage, Gary Nixon had that same “new bike for Christmas” grin on his face that I did as he inspected his new Triumph “Low-Boy.”

Don’s feelings of having won the lottery, was soon replaced by disappointment. The team management needed their top riders on the best bikes. Don- “I saw a meeting going on in the corner of the garage with Dick Mann and Gene Romero conferring with Doug Hele from England, BSA America’s VP of racing Pete Colman and the race manager Danny Macias. A few minutes later, Danny came over and explained that they did not know how much the new models were going to be improved and that the team’s goals were not only to win Daytona, but to also capture the AMA's #1 plate for the season.” Don ended up with Hailwood’s 1970 bike, and Dick Mann got Don’s new ‘low boy’ model. Defending National champ Gene Romero, was similarly assigned the Triumph version at Nixon’s expense.

Next >

BACK