Cw 25 Years Ago April, 1964

CW 25 YEARS AGO April, 1964

ROUNDUP

BACK IN 1964, MOST OF VS CUR rently at Cycle World had to be content with riding a

Schwinn with a card in the spokes.

Motorcycles weren't quite in the picture yet.

But one event in the motorcycle world had just taken place that would effect all of our lives, 25 years later. It was the US GP at Daytona International Speedway, and it was the subject of a feature story in the April,

1964, issue. The reason that particular race had such a lasting impact

on the sport wasn’t because it was an enormous success—far from it. The race was a flop in every way, from competition to attendance. And that, perhaps, explains why motorcyclists had to wait until 1988 to see the return of GP racing to the U.S.

Editor Joe Parkhurst summed up some of the problems the event faced in Roundup. There were virtu-

ally no top U.S. riders entered, and even the Europeans didn’t put on much of a show, as Mike Hailwood lapped the entire field twice.

Parkhurst explained: “Thanks to a situation that at best I can call ‘unfortunate,’ our finest AMA riders did not compete at risk of not being allowed to race at the AMA’s Daytona event next month.” The event wasn't AMA-sponsored, and since most American spectators had never heard of Mike Hailwood at the time,

they stayed home. Of course, there are other reasons GP racing stayed away from America until now. But one thing is certain: If that 1964 GP had been half the show that we saw at Laguna Seca last April, the spectators would have insisted it come back the next year. Hell, we might even have two USGPs today. —Ron Lawson