Why We Ride Page #4

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Ed Kretz did some

pretty amazing things,

and he did it basically on the same

motorcycle. It was a little Sport Scout.

With that same bike, he won

the last Savannah, Georgia race,

which, at the time,

was a massive race.

He won the first Laconia ever

on that bike,

which is a massive race,

and he won the first Daytona.

Ed Kretz and those guys racing

at Daytona, on the sand?

Seriously? Who does that?

I mean, and how do they go

that fast? I wanna know.

And then Daytona become the biggest

race of the year for motorcycling.

The real tough part

about Daytona,

which would put most of

the people out of the race,

was either coming down the straightaway

and going into the north turn,

you started getting into

the loose, chopped-up sand,

and then also transitioning

from the sand onto pavement,

you know, you got the little sandy

stretch there, where you've got pavement

with sand all over it and there's a lot

of guys spinning out, coming through that,

or where they'd stuck in a

little rut and everything,

and then same thing

at the other end.

The beach course went

from when Ed won in 1937

and it went through 1960.

Ed's winning Daytona,

it was a big deal.

From that point forward, that

beach has never been the same.

It's motorcycling history.

You know, I feel so fortunate

that I'm a person who was there,

when some of these fellas won,

riding on the beach.

Daytona kinda paved the way

that you were a road racer.

It's the

ultimate test of man and machine.

Two hundred miles, flat out,

as hard as you can go,

and may the best man win.

You know, you see it on TV and you

don't realize just how big that place is.

It's the first race of the year,

everyone's got all these expectations

of what's gonna happen.

That was the race, I mean,

if you could win Daytona, that was the race.

There's a certain air that

surrounds it that to me is a bit magical.

It's like you get to be a part of

something a lot bigger than yourself.

The history and the vibe

and the feel around the race track.

If you can get your name in that

history book, that's a pretty big deal.

Tradition is everything and

the Daytona 200 is one of those ones,

it's like you gotta chalk it up. You've

gotta win the Daytona 200, it's the ultimate.

It's every racer's dream

to get up on the banks of Daytona.

To sit in the grandstands and

feel those motorcycles fly by you,

then to hear their exhaust and

everyone cheering, and... It's a blast.

It was huge. I mean, I won the 200.

Not too many people can say they have.

My father won the race in 1948,

but to this day we still remain

the only father and son

to have won Daytona.

It's definitely my proudest

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