daytona: better tha WORDS & PHOTOS: GREGG BONELLI
You may have heard that there is nothing like Daytona. That’s true, but it’s not what you think. I’ll try to be more specific since our season begins there next year. Motorcycles left the beach and came to the Speedway in 1961. I came six years later; my college newspaper boss having told me I didn’t have what it took to race there. If you can race there, you 14
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can race anywhere they said at the time, and that’s true still. It is not the world’s most difficult track, nor is it the longest or the most dangerous. But it is iconic in the singular bludgeon it uses to beat down those who think themselves brave enough to do anything—Speed. You can go faster, longer, than anywhere else and still be road racing. Oh,
yes, the Isle of Man has longer straights and the mountain course is unparalleled. But it is public road and looks like it, even out in the remoteness of the empty meadows. Going fast on a public road, or something that looks like it, is relatable to our everyday riding experiences. It’s thrilling to go flat out through the village past
AMERICAN HISTORIC RACING MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION
DECEMBER 2021
