Yamaha brought in the big gun, Eddie Lawson, to win this race for them. The grid was full of great riders like Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Mike Baldwin, and Fred Merkel. Too bad Freddie Spencer wasn't there to defend his victory of '85.
Darn, this brings back memories. Where has the time gone. I had a GSXR-750 back in 1987 for four years and even had my wheels painted white to look just like Kevin's ride.
Our team was there. I got to give pit signals at the base of the tri-oval, right there by the edge of the track. It’s pretty incredible watching 80 screaming bikes come ripping by at 175mpg or more.
Three riders in this field, Lawson, Rainey, and Schwantz, will win seven of the next eight 500cc World Championships. In fact, from 1978 through 1993 there were only three non-American 500 champs: Lucchinelli ('81), Uncini ('82), and Gardner ('87). 13 out of 16 is a pretty nice run! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇮🇹🇮🇹🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@ianrawlings2546 It was flat track that was the training school for the 2 strokes. The brutal power of the GP bikes favored the rear wheel slide style and the flat track Americans took to it very well. Even Gardner and later Doohan from AUS were ex Flat Trackers down under.
Utter domination. And look at the podium places over that period, probably very few that had less than 2 Americans on the podium. Revered as heroes in Europe. In the US, zero recognition outside of racing circles. Multiple world titles don't get you so much as a cup of coffee.
Man this grid had some definite "who's who" of Motorcycle racing. It's really sad what I read about the AMA Superbike series now a such a shadow of its former self today-very sad.
now its 2020 and the Daytona 200 has been reduced to a 600cc club race where no one goes to watch .it use to be a big party in the infield , stands packed ..now nothing . thanks A.M.A. you did well ruining something else over the last 30 years ..that's why any one I know is not a member of the a.m.a anymore
Really enjoyed watching this race for the first time in 2023 while knowing what the leading riders would go on to achieve! What a race. Commentry was hideous though, verging on painful haha. I take it the script is read out and played over the recording afterwards. It would be difficult to sound any more like they are reading it...
Had to cringe listening to it, I have to agree. Wes Cooley had a very bizarre delivery which didn't help. Mega hero champion but not so great with the commentary.
I'm sure Denis Torres was a nice guy but his over emphasis on his delivery always drove me nuts. Great race, I remember watching it on TV when it first aired. Thanks for sharing!
Actually, the GSXR 750 changed everything. The reason Lawson had better tire performance was more of a Michelin vs. Dunlop issue. Michelin then, at Daytona had better endurance. From my experience, from 86-96 Michelin generally had better endurance.
Agreed, but both the GSXR and the FZ were really close up and down the spec chart and compared pretty evenly. The difference was the GSXR looked much cooler, and as such was a massive success comparatively and has lived on to today. The FZ750 evolved into the FZR750 and 1000, which eventually became the R1 of today with a different name and much different look. For me the GSXR was huge for the weight savings. Even today modern bikes are heavier. Buyers can't really 'see' the lightness so it's not a factor for marketing, but for racing it is the most important variable even over power. The average rider doesn't have much awareness of this unfortunately.
Spencer would have been on the older tech. Honda, and it wouldn't have happened.... the '86 FZ750 changed everything in racing. Every factory moved weight forward and lower, like the FZ had. Notice Lawson didn't get tires when everyone else did? That was because with the near equal weight distribution, the tires wore more evenly... rear heavy bike eat the rear tire quickly, and 'push' the front tire into corners too hard. Eddie had smoother corners, lower center of gravity, massive power!
+ Mainly "steady" Eddie's style was very easy on tires.. he didn't slide the rear nor the hardest braker. He just wore down the competition with even pushing of both ends, consistantly, all race.. more like 250cc lines. I think I heard he went his first 3 GP seasons without crashing in races, practice or off season testing. Astounding!