BSA's first Daytona 200 victory came in 1954 when Bobby Hill came across the finish line on a 500cc twin-cylinder racer followed by four other BSA riders. That romp would suggest the start of a new era of dominance by BSA, but it was not to be. When the Daytona 200 moved from the old beach course to the new Daytona International Speedway in 1961, a BSA rider had still not repeated Hill's victory. And as the years went on, BSA became less and less of a factor in roadracing, leaving Harley-Davidson and Triumph to battle it out in the United States.

The Rocket III

Fresh back from the first-ever Anglo-American Match Race Series, the BSA factory team at Road Atlanta in 1971. From left: me, Dick Mann, David Aldana and Jim Rice. At Daytona my bike and Aldana's had drum front brakes like the one on Jim Rice's bike. We got that update while over in England. image by dave friedman from don emde collection

In 1969 the 750cc three-cylinder Rocket III was introduced by BSA with its sister company Triumph getting an almost identical version named the Trident.

Doug Hele, the man in England who was responsible for BSA and Triumph's racing efforts, aggressively set out to conquer the world with the new machine. He ordered special Rob North racing frames made up to fit the three-cylinder motors along with fairings and seats developed in the Royal Air Force wind tunnel.

One of the first races for the new machines was the 1970 Daytona 200. To supplement BSA/Triumph's American race team of BSA riders David Aldana and Jim Rice and Triumph riders Gary Nixon, Gene Romero and Don Castro, the legendary Mike Hailwood was brought out of retirement for a one-race stint for BSA.

In that inaugural event, both Hailwood and Nixon led, but center cylinder heating problems melted holes in their pistons and they were out, making way for Dick Mann and his Honda CB750 to record a first-ever win at Daytona for Honda. Since Hailwood was in the States only for Daytona, (and since Mann was fired by Honda after the win--Editor) Mann was hired by BSA to finish out the 1970 season on the BSA factory team.

Going For Broke (Literally)

A year later, the Birmingham Small Arms Corporation (importers of the BSA and Triumph brands) decided to step its racing program up even further. A Daytona 200 victory in those days was perhaps even more important than it is today in regards to sales impact. The Japanese brands were now moving into the big-bore world and the British knew they needed something impressive to secure their market position.

BSA and Triumph in America each had three of their 1970 machines left over that were being refurbished for the 1971 season; they were told that four new bikes would be sent over for Daytona giving them ten machines for the race. Hailwood was being brought back for a second try on the BSA team as well as British star Paul Smart for Triumph. So that meant that both teams could add one more rider each. Dirt track star Tom Rockwood was added to the Triumph team and I was hired to be the fourth member of the BSA team. While I had been riding Yamahas in roadracing up to that point, I was a BSA rider in dirt track and had a relationship established with the BSA company. And that gave me the opening for that last spot on the team.

So the lineup from the Birmingham Small Arms factory team for 1971 was Mike Hailwood, Dick Mann, David Aldana, Jim Rice and me on BSAs. On the Triumph side was Paul Smart, Gary Nixon, Gene Romero, Don Castro and Tom Rockwood (son of race announcer Roxy Rockwood--see sidebar).

Who Was Roxy Rockwood?

Much like announcer Richard Chambers is the voice of the AMA Superbike series today and Chris Carter is the voice of the Daytona 200, Roxy Rockwood (January 26, 1929 -- July 29, 1990) was once the voice of both the series and the 200. Roxy once worked for the Los Angeles Police Department, I think he may have been a motorcycle patrol officer (I'm not 100% sure on that). He also worked Friday nights for J.C. Agajanian at Ascot Park as the race announcer. In addition to announcing, he wrote a column from that appeared in Cycle News about the AMA Grand National scene, and also penned a story each week for the Ascot race programs. His column ran in CN from about the time the weekly began life until Roxy's death in the 80s. As the years went on, Roxy eventually went to work for Yamaha, and he also got race announcing work at Daytona and many other AMA Nationals.He had a radio show at Daytona in the late 1960s and 1970s. What set Roxy apart from other race announcers that I have seen through the years was his preparation. He would study the riders who would be racing the events he announced and kept a file card on each one that he referred to at the races. He could then provide information on the rider rather than just announce what the fans were seeing for themselves. Roxy would have a quick run down on the riders with where they were from, any nicknames, how many Nationals they had won, etc.--Don Emde

It was obvious that BSA and Triumph were going all-out. The riders were being outfitted in new team leathers and personalized jackets were made up to wear with our street clothes. A PR firm was hired and press kits were prepared, even decals were printed up for each rider as giveaways. While all standard operating procedures today, this was new stuff in 1971.

What Might Have Been

In the early 1970s, activities at Daytona started on the Monday of Bike Week. The format was practice on Monday and Tuesday, off on Wednesday so they could hold Amateur races at the track, then back to action on Thursday for practice and qualifying. Friday and Saturday were the race days for all the pro classes except the Daytona 200, which ran all by itself on Sunday.

In order to be sorted out right from the start, BSA rented the racetrack at Daytona for us on the Saturday prior to Bike Week. That was the first time I saw the bike that I would be racing at Daytona. A funny side-note to the whole race story was that this was also the first time any of the staff from BSA and Triumph company here in the U.S. got to see the four new bikes that were brought over from England. And everyone, including me, were pretty shocked when we saw them.

The guys at BSA/Triumph in America were of the understanding that the new bikes would be "pretty much the same" as the 1970 bikes, so over the winter BSA had gone ahead and painted the names and numbers of Dick Mann, David Aldana and Jim Rice on their bikes from the last season and I would get the new bike. Since the other three bikes were rebuilt from the ground up, they figured we'd all have identical machines

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. The new bikes were lighter, and had a lower profile which got them quickly dubbed the "Low Boy" models. 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."

But my feelings of winning the lottery were short-lived and soon turned to "what might have been." 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. While they assured me that they had confidence in me for the future, they needed Dick Mann to ride the new bike as he was considered the leading rider on the team for the championship chase.

What could I say? I was the new guy on the team, and figured that I was just beginning a long career with BSA, so I did not make a big deal out of being demoted from the new bike to one of the 1970 machines. As it turned out, Dick's name and number were painted over mine on the new bike and I got the bike that Dick was going to ride, and that was the same bike that Hailwood had ridden the year before.

While I was disappointed at the time, I will admit that the decision by BSA to put Mann on the new bike did prove to be a good one for the team, as Dick not only won Daytona on that machine, but he then went on win the 1971 AMA Grand National Championship. In those days we raced both roadrace and dirt track—who better to "do it all" than my old friend Dick Mann? It was the right choice.

Over on the Triumph side, Gary Nixon was getting the bad news that Gene Romero was being moved onto the new Triumph. While Gary had won the championship for Triumph in the late-1960s, his badly broken leg from his famous Santa Rosa crash made him less of a factor in dirt track racing and the team's golden boy was now Gene Romero, the defending AMA champion.

Dunlop Versus Goodyear

Early in Bike Week practice, I get used to my new ride for the 1971 season. This is the same machine that Mike Hailwood had ridden at Daytona in 1970. image by dave friedman from don emde collection

When the 1970 season had ended, the only tires that most riders in America had ever ridden on were Goodyear Blue Streaks. Since BSA/Triumph were the U.S. importers of Dunlop tires, the company approached the riders and asked us if we would race with some new Dunlop tires they had brought over with the new bikes. This was an awkward moment, as my feelings were negative, as were all the other American riders except Dick Mann, who said he'd give them a try. My reasons for wanting to stay with Goodyear were: (1) I had worked with the Mike Babich and his racing staff from Goodyear for a couple of years and had a nice working relationship with them. (2) I knew how Goodyears worked and had no idea what the Dunlops were like and (3) Goodyear had a contingency award posted while Dunlop had none. In those days there wasn't much money up for grabs and you had to look at every opportunity.

I was trying to keep an open mind to the Dunlop idea however and 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."

One of the next evenings, Don Castro and I sat with Mike Hailwood in the bar of the Plaza hotel where the team was staying (it's now the Adam's Mark on the beach at Daytona). I saw this as an opportunity to get Mike's read on the Dunlop issue. He had never ridden on Goodyears, so he couldn't offer a comparison. And then 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.

(Sidenote: When race day arrived, Mann, Hailwood and Smart were on the triangular Dunlop KR73 tires and the other seven riders were on Goodyear Blue Streaks. When the BSA/Triumph team went to England a few weeks later for the Match Races, we all switched to Dunlops and never again went back to Goodyears. The new Dunlop KR73s gripped better and the triangular shape made the big 750cc triples handle much better.)

Birth Of The Match Races

As the story goes, the Anglo-American Match Race Series was born right there in the bar of the Plaza Hotel during Bike Week in 1971. All the big wigs of BSA and Triumph from England and the United States were there one late night, along with Chris Lowe, an English promoter who put on a weekend series in England each year during Easter.

As the liquor flowed, the discussion reportedly got into whose riders were the fastest, the Brits or the Americans? In England we were referred to as "The dirt boys," since we raced both dirt track and roadrace events. Their guys were roadracing specialists. So the solution they came up to find out was to ship us over to England and Chris Lowe would add a Match Race series to his Easter weekend events at Brands Hatch, Mallory Park and Oulton Park. Five Americans (Mann, Castro, Aldana, Rice and me) versus five top Brits. (Actually it was going to be six against six, but Gary Nixon crashed in practice and broke his wrist, so they dropped it down to five against five.)

If I had been in the bar that night I would have asked our guys "what were you thinking?" But I didn't get that chance, so about mid-week we got handed a packet that included an itinerary for a trip to England. We were told it was just some kind of exhibition. When we got to England we found it was more like Custer's Last Stand. Here we were matched up against the likes of Paul Smart, John Cooper and a bunch other British short circuit veterans on the tracks they had all grown up on and all of them with new "Low-Boy" BSA and Triumph triples. Only Mann and Gary Nixon (who was riding Romero's Daytona bike) were on "Low-Boys" and the rest of us had the taller, heavier year-old machines. We ended getting smoked pretty badly in that first series, but we still had fun and set the stage for a series that eventually would see Americans winning over there.

New Procedure At Daytona

Prior to the 1971 race, the procedures for qualifying and starting the Daytona 200 race was pretty unique. For qualifying, instead of using the track we raced on, they used to just run around the 2.5-mile oval. This was supposed to have originated a decade earlier as the AMA wanted to use the high speeds of qualifying as a way to promote the sport. Then, the starting procedure for the race was that when the flag fell, the field took one big flying lap around the oval before entering the infield. This was intended to be a way to spread the field out before getting into the infield portion of the course. The field, by the way, all took off at the same time, there were no "waves" like they have now. They also had not yet installed any chicanes on the back straightaway.

For 1971, the AMA decided to scrap the qualifying around the oval idea and for the first time we used the actual racetrack. It was good news for me since my 1970-model bike was about five miles an hour slower on top speed than the four new low boys and it helped me qualify better than I probably would have the other way.

I got a good lap in, just a shade slower than the fastest qualifier Paul Smart and his "Low-Boy" Triumph. No one was surprised how well Smart ran, but what surprised everyone was that when the day was done the second and third fastest qualifiers were the aging Harley-Davidson v-twins ridden by Mark Brelsford and Cal Rayborn. They must have really ridden the wheels off their bikes in the infield, since they were down on top speed to the BSAs and Triumphs. (This turned out to be their moment of glory at Daytona that year, as both of their bikes exploded motors early in the race.) I ended up qualifying fourth fastest, just ahead of Hailwood and so the front row lineup for Sunday was Smart, Brelsford, Rayborn, me and Hailwood.

The Race

Leading 3-time Daytona winner Roger Reiman during the race. We traded places more times than I can remember during the 1971 race and I was able to lead him across the line on the last lap in our battle for 3rd place. image by dave friedman from don emde collection

While the AMA had changed the procedure for qualifying, they kept the starting method of taking one lap around the oval at the start of the race. When the flag fell and the race started, the disadvantage of the old triples to the new ones soon became apparent. Smart and Hailwood moved to the front, although they were soon joined by a very fast Honda 750 ridden by Gary Fisher, who took the lead down the back straight. Luckily, his motor only lasted ten laps or we might have had a Honda repeat of Dick Mann's 1970 win.

By the time I got to the east banking on lap one, I felt like I was going backwards. The older model fairing on my bike had a much larger frontal area than the "Low Boys" and just pushed too much more air on the banking and straightaways. I came across the start-finish line in about eighth or ninth place.

Going into turn one the first time, I figured I'd take it easy going in as I didn't want to get into trouble early in the race. I was following Yamaha rider Kel Carruthers into the turn when a rider came by me very quickly and ran into Carruthers and high-sided off his bike. It turned out to be Kawasaki rider Rusty Bradley, the rookie rider who had impressed everyone the year before in the Junior class. No one can be sure now, but he apparently misjudged his approach to the turn with all of the traffic and ran out of stopping room. He reportedly tumbled a number of times on the pavement and later died of head injuries.

I cannot say for sure that it contributed to his death or not, but Rusty was using one of the new Buco polycarbonate helmets that were on the market then. I was a big believer in fiberglass helmets as were many other riders, but Buco was the "new kid" in the helmet business and were pushing hard to recruit riders to use their helmets.

Whatever the cause was of Rusty's death, I will say that a very promising career was snuffed out. Rusty and I were both Novices the same year, so I had raced with him many times in 1969 and 1970 and can say that he surely would have been a top performer in the years to come had he not died that day.

Following Bradley's first lap crash and Fisher's motor failure on lap 10, the race leaders were formed into two groups. Up front there was Hailwood, Smart and Mann, all on their new "Low-Boy" triples and Dunlop tires. I was in the next group along with Gene Romero ("Low-Boy" Triumph), three-time Daytona winner Roger Reiman (Harley-Davidson XR750, Kel Carruthers (Yamaha 350) who had managed to avoid crashing when Bradley ran into him, and Gary Nixon (1970 model Triumph triple).

On lap 15, Hailwood was in the pits with smoke billowing out of his three-into-one exhaust pipe. For the second year in a row he was out with a melted center cylinder. We learned after the race that Hailwood's BSA and Smart's Triumph had higher compression heads on them than the American's bikes and the sustained high speed at Daytona resulted in too much engine heat to last 200 miles.

When Hailwood dropped out, the running order was now Smart leading, Mann in 2nd, Romero was up to 3rd and Reiman and I were trading 4th and 5th every lap or two. This remained the same until the 42nd lap of the 53-lap race when Smart's motor expired due to overheating just like Hailwood's had.

Everyone from BSA and Triumph involved with the 1971 Daytona 200 effort was in Victory Lane after the race. The head man from England Doug Hele is seen in the background with the white jacket and two black stripes. Gene Romero (left) is getting interviewed by race announcer Roxy Rockwood, while Mann and I soak up the moment. That's my dad Floyd Emde behind my left shoulder. He won the race back in 1948 on the old beach course. In this photo you can also see the difference in the look of Romero's and Mann's 'Low Boy' triples with the 'mail slot' oil cooler inlets versus my 1970 model. image by dave friedman from don emde collection

Mann was now all alone in the lead with Romero a safe distance back in 2nd. While Roger Reiman and I battled away, I could see Gene a few seconds up ahead, but I just couldn't gain anything on him. I had my hands full just trying to get ahead of Roger.

While I didn't end up winning the race that day, perhaps the best prize I received was the riding lesson I got from Reiman. He was very smooth and I never saw him make a mistake the whole 200 miles. I had never raced with him before, but it was no surprise to me that he had previously won Daytona three times when I saw the way he rode.

I don't recall today exactly how or where I passed Roger the final time, but I did get ahead of him and finished the race in 3rd place behind Mann and Romero. In Victory Lane the BSA and Triumph people were ecstatic over the 1-2-3 sweep.

The Future Wasn't As Rosy At It Appeared

So BSA finally got its' second-ever victory of the Daytona 200. The company had waited 17 years since the first one and they were now holding the cards in America. As mentioned earlier, Dick Mann went on to win the 1971 AMA Grand National Championship just ahead of Gene Romero. The team capped off a great year at the season finale at Ontario, California when John Cooper came over from England with the latest version of the BSA "Low-Boy" triples and won the race.

I had some motor trouble at Ontario, but still finished in 11th place overall in the AMA points (combined dirt track and roadrace), and better yet, I was ranked 3rd in points scored just in the roadracing events. Only Mann and Carruthers has scored more roadracing points that I did for the year, so I felt pretty good about my first year with BSA and looked forward to the future. Before I left the track at Ontario, the BSA folks told me they were planning on the same team for 1972 and that a contract would be sent to me.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, a U.S. Postal truck stopped at my house with a letter from BSA. I expected that it was my contract. Instead, it was a letter from BSA V.P. Pete Colman. In it, he congratulated me for my success in 1971 and then dropped the bombshell: BSA/Triumph had decided to pull back its factory race program and would field only Dick Mann and Gene Romero for 1972. I was "free to make my own arrangements" for 1972, the letter went on to say. "Free to make my own arrangements?" I thought to myself. There were only about a 100 days until Daytona (but that's another story).

Cut loose from the factory support program along with me were Gary Nixon, David Aldana, Jim Rice, Don Castro and Tom Rockwood. We were all pretty shocked, as it seemed that the company was in great shape. With all the money they had been spending on racing, there was no other way to look at it.

What we did not know was that over in England, the Birmingham Small Arms Corporation was in very dire straights financially. The massive cutback in their programs in America were just the first of many changes the company made to stay in business. Eventually the BSA brand was killed off and a consolidation was made with Norton to try to save the company. The new company called Norton Villiers Triumph operated a few more years until the whole business eventually caved in.

My only regret of the 1971 season with BSA was that we all didn't have equal machinery as I would have liked to seen what I could have done with it. But now knowing how badly the company was doing behind the scenes financially I know why they could not outfit us all with new bikes.

Fortunately, I got on the right bike for 1972 and got my Daytona 200 win, but I still have many great memories of being a part of what was then the biggest investment that any company had made at that time to field a race team in the United States.