1967 Yamaha 250

In 1967, Gary Nixon won the two biggest road races of Daytona Bike Week riding for two different factories. He won the Daytona 200 for Triumph the day after riding this factory-spec Yamaha 250cc machine to victory in the 100-mile “Lightweight” race at the same track.

“Things were just different back then,” he explained. “Both Yamaha and Triumph wanted a rider for Daytona. I think I got $1,000 to ride the Yamaha, and $300 to ride the Triumph.”

Nixon, who passed away in 2011, noted that he rode this Yamaha two-stroke 250cc machine for the first time in practice sessions at Daytona. He said it was a certified screamer.

“It was a great little 250,” he said. “That thing ran 148 mph.”

This bike was the product of two worlds. It combined the frame of Yamaha’s RD56 grand-prix bike with an AMA-legal motor from a TD1C production racer. And Nixon says the combination worked perfectly at Daytona—except for one part.

“I think my clutch cable broke on the first lap,” he said. Yet the bike was so good he could still run at the front, holding off Dick Hammer, riding a factory Suzuki, for the win. The next morning, Nixon and Hammer were teammates on the Triumph squad, riding 500cc Triumph T100/Rs. The two again battled for the lead until Hammer’s bike slowed and then he crashed trying to make up ground. Nixon took the victory with a new lap average speed of over 98 mph.

Nixon’s Yamaha 250 is on loan to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame from Rick Soles. You can see it and many other machines that helped shape motorcycling in America at the Hall of Fame museum in Pickerington, Ohio.