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When Giacomo Agostini beat a seasoned field of racers in the Daytona 200.
By Kent Taylor
If 1970s Hollywood had been looking for a good motorcycle racing screenplay, perhaps something even more compelling than Little Fauss and Big Halsey, then the 1974 Daytona 200 road race could’ve delivered the goods. Picture this: a heart-throbbingly handsome Italian World Champion, racing for the first time on a new and very different motorcycle, comes to America to compete for the first time ever in the world’s most prestigious race. Awaiting him on the grid are both seasoned Daytona veterans and talented, hungry youngsters, all of whom have hundreds of laps around the Florida track. Starring Gary Nixon, Kenny Roberts, Yvon DuHamel and of course, Giacomo Agostini. The only missing element was a beautiful actress, one whose star would not outshine Ago. Is Gina Lollobrigida available?
Giacomo Agostini was born July 16th, 1942, in the town of Brescia in Northern Italy. Italians and motorsport go together like meatballs and spaghetti, but if young Ago was going to do battle on a racetrack, he would first have to win over his parents. Even though they had purchased a Bianchi moped for their son, they stood firmly against any notion of him ever racing. Agostini was 18 years old before turning a wheel on the racetrack, with his first victory on two wheels coming in hillclimbing competition.
From there, it was a quick ascension to the road racing circuit, and he soon began winning events for the Moto Morini factory. In 1964, he won the Italian Senior Road Racing Championship. Switching to MV Agusta, he headed to the Grands Prix circuit in 1965. A breakdown at the final event relegated him to second place in the final standings in the 350cc class, but he returned in 1966 to win the 500cc title. Ago would win one world championship—and sometimes two, each of the next 11 seasons.
Agostini’s 1974 switch from his once-beloved MV Agusta to Yamaha made the Wayne Gretzky Oilers-to-LA Kings deal seem like an AMC Gremlin trade-in at Junior Samples Used Cars. Yamaha racing boss Rod Gould had masterminded the deal, and it shook the European racing world, with many wondering if the signing had been the right move. Agostini had spent most of his career with one motorcycle. Was the champion too far down the stream to switch horses?
There would be no greater test than what would await him in Daytona. The best American talent. A motorcycle he had never raced on a course that would be foreign to him. For a cherry on the top, Daytona temps topped 90 degrees that day.
When the green flag waved, the Italian got right down to business by grabbing the holeshot, with Hideo Kanaya, Don Castro, Gary Nixon and Yvon DuHamel following. He set a blistering pace, lapping riders on the seventh go-round. But by the ninth lap, the game had changed, with either Agostini slowing down or the tight pack behind him speeding up. Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts and Gary Nixon all passed Agostini, and each rider would enjoy a moment in the spotlight, taking turns leading the prestigious event.
For all of the hullabaloo surrounding the massive European and American Yamaha team efforts, it looked as if veteran Team Suzuki rider Gary Nixon was going to steal the TZ700’s thunder. “At the end of the 33rd lap,” Cycle News’ Jack Mangus wrote, “Nixon held an 11-second lead over Agostini. Nixon pitted for gas on the next lap and Ago, with still a second pit stop scheduled, took over the lead with Roberts a not-too-far distant second.
“Nixon was in and out of the pits quickly and returned to the fight with Ago and Roberts.” An apparently fatigued Agostini still had one more fuel stop before the finish. Had the World Champion overlooked the Americans? Had he fully grasped the magnitude of the mighty Daytona 200?
Perhaps. With a level of coolness that would’ve drawn a sneer from James Bond, Ago had taken an almost casual approach to America’s biggest motorcycle race. Off-season testing results in Japan had been somewhat discouraging and those in the know whispered that something was amiss. The early days of pre-race work at Daytona had done little to make them think otherwise. But Ago understood that the game he was playing was chess, not checkers. In his excellent book Yamaha, famed motorsports journalist Ted Macauley noted that “little seemed to disturb the Italian. As at the test session in Japan, Agostini motored round [at Daytona] at his own pace. He was unhurried, unruffled, but certainly aware of the criticisms that were inevitably being leveled at him. He was happy to be the slumbering giant…”
It was Dick Mann who once said that a motorcycle racer must go as fast as he can—but no faster. With the lead and with the race seemingly in hand, Gary Nixon chose to go faster. “Exiting the infield on the 37th lap,” Cycle News wrote, “Nixon threw his factory Suzuki away. The bike continued on around the banking, finally sliding down to the apron approximately 150 feet away from the twice Grand National Champion.”
That left Agostini back in front, with just one final pit stop between himself and the $15,000 first-place cash. Roberts, who had struggled with cracked expansion chambers on his machine, was well back in second, with Kawasaki rider Hurley Wilvert an impressive third. Giacomo Agostini, in his first-ever race on the Yamaha two-stroke TZ700, outrode many, outsmarted others and outlasted everyone else to take an electrifying win.
Just days after his Daytona victory, Agostini and his closest friends jetted to Manila for, according to Macauley, “a 10-day holiday of unbelievable luxury.” Island hopping, meat and drink, government receptions. It was a celebration fit for a king, one who had just successfully vanquished his opponents. Ago’s female guest for the event? The luscious Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida—in a supporting role, of course. CN
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