Father and son win at Daytona ! Don Emde at the 200 Miglia di Imola Revival

Throughout the long history of the 200 Miles of Daytona, never a result such as this was accomplished : a father and son win the same race. An achievement only the Emde family reached.

In 1972, Don Emde won the famous American race, following into the footsteps of his father Floyd who had won the same race in 1948, aboard his Indian.
But the son also went into history as being the first to win on this mythical track with the smallest displacement two stroke engine. He won before Jarno Saarinen (who also participated aboard a Yamaha 350cc), it was the start of a 13-year long career with the company marked by three tuning forks.

Born in 1951 in California, he became passionate about motorcycles at a very young age, as his father had a motorcycle shop. Together with Bob, his older brother and later on with David, his younger brother, he very quickly frequented the tracks, first Motocross and later on Dirt Track. In both disciplines, he soon became famous in Southern California. He also started with road racing, and took on riders such as Gary Nixon and Cal Rayborn aboard his 250cc.

His results in 1970 got him a seat with the BSA team, alongside Mike Hailwood, Dick Mann and David Aldana. This allowed him to finish third at the 200 Miles of Daytona, behind Mann and Romero.

The financial troubles of BSA caused the end of their collaboration and in 1972, Don got a Yamaha 350cc prepared by Mel Dinesen.
During that edition, the Suzuki’s and Kawasaki’s set the best lap times during the test sessions, but had to cope with different mechanical and roadholding problems. Emde had good hope and started off carefully, increasing the power gradually. At the 48th lap (out of 53), he took the lead and he won with only 150 metres advance on Ray Hempstead.

It was the apotheosis of his career, in 1973 he quit racing but stayed active on the motorcycle market. First as a consultant for Bell helmets, afterwards as an editor and finally he started writing books, more particularly about the history of the 200 Miles of Daytona.