Cook Neilson (born August 24, 1943) is an American former journalist and motorcycle racer known widely for his win on a Ducati 750SS at the Daytona International Speedway in 1977. He graduated from Princeton in the mid 1960s, [1] was hired as associate editor of Cycle in September 1967; promoted to editor in 1969, and is credited for making that magazine successful through the 1970s. While at Cycle magazine, he wrote a series of articles on the cookbook construction of a 160 mph (260 km/h) Top Fuel Harley-Davidson Sportster.
Neilson wrote briefly also at Car and Driver in the late 1960s, notably excoriating the 1968 Kadett LS 1.5L wagon in what has been described as an automotive assassination review, sacrificing the car in order to increase the magazine's prominence. [2]
During his motorcyle racing career, Neilson had thirty-eight starts and nineteen wins; all on the Ducati 750SS. He also occasionally raced for the Butler & Smith BMW team and the Racecrafter Kawasaki team. Neilson had three podium finishes at Daytona: 1975 (First), 1976 (Third), and 1977 (First). In the 1977 AMA Superbike Championship, Neilson finished just a few points behind the series champion, Reg Pridmore who rode a Kawasaki Kz1000. [3]
Neilson was inducted into the Ducati North America Hall of Fame, [4] and the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2006. [1]
In 2006, Ducati Motor Holdings announced a limited edition replica of Neilson's 750SS winning motorcycle, which he had nicknamed "Old Blue." [5] This motorcycle, named New Blue, was customized by the NCR racing house based in Bologna. The race replica is in honor of the 30th anniversary of Neilson's win at Daytona.
Cook crashed a Desmosedici RR, one of 1,500 produced, at a Ducati-sponsored trackday at Putnam Park Roadcourse on September 15, 2008. He was not injured in the accident.
In the Feburary 1968 issue of Car and Driver, Neilson authored a uniformly scathing review of the 1968 Kadett LS 1.5L wagon. The vehicle, which by all accounts was in fact a fairly well-executed example in its class, received a singly critical response from Nielson, with General Motors subsequently pulling its advertising from the magazine. Paul Niedermeyer, editor of the automotive history site Curbside Classics, would later call the review "sophmoric" and "blantantly contrived." Author Marty Padgett, in his book "50 Years With Car and Driver,” recounted that the magazine's editor had wanted a diatribe in order to increase the magazine's relevance. [2]
Car and Driver is an American automotive enthusiast magazine first published in 1955. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased it from its prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was founded as Sports Cars Illustrated. The magazine is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
AMA Superbike Championship is an American motorcycle racing series that has been run every year beginning in 1976. For most of its existence it has been considered the premier motorcycle road racing series in the United States. It is sanctioned by the AMA American Motorcyclist Association since its inception, and the promotion of the series has been licensed to several organizations over the years. Since 2015 the series has been run and promoted by MotoAmerica, who also manage several other AMA professional road racing championships, including the popular 600cc Supersport class.
Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood was a British racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1958 to 1967 and in Formula One between 1963 and 1974. Nicknamed "The Bike", Hailwood was a nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion, with four titles in the premier 500cc class with MV Agusta, and won 76 motorcycle Grands Prix across 10 seasons.
Benjamin Bostrom is an American former professional motorcycle racer. From 1995 to 2011 he competed in the AMA Superbike Championship, the World Superbike Championship and the MotoGP world championship.
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Raymond Scott Russell, a.k.a.Mr. Daytona, is an American former professional motorcycle and sports car racer. He is a former World Superbike and AMA Superbike Champion, has won the Daytona 200 a record five times, and won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 1993. Russell is the all-time leader in 750 cc AMA Supersport wins. In 2005, he was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
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The Kawasaki Kz1000 or Z1000 is a motorcycle made in Japan by Kawasaki, manufacturing commenced in September 1976 for the 1977 model year. The Z1000A1 was an upgraded model to replace the 1976 Kawasaki KZ900 (Z900), which in turn replaced the Z1 launched in 1972 in the Z series. It has an inline-four cylinder engine and a 5-speed transmission, in a 'one down and four up' configuration. Producing about 90 hp, it was one of the fastest production motorcycles of the era. The police model continued in production until 2005.
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Cycle was an American motorcycling enthusiast magazine, published from the early 1950s through the early 1990s. During its heyday, in the 1970s and 1980s, it had a circulation of more than 500,000 and was headquartered in Westlake Village, California, near the canyon roads of the Santa Monica Mountains, where Cycle's editors frequently road tested and photographed test bikes.
Elena Myers Court is an American professional motorcycle racer. She made history in 2010 as the first female to win an AMA Pro Racing sprint road race. She is also the first woman to win a professional motorsports race of any kind at Daytona International Speedway, on March 17, 2012.
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Phil Schilling was an editor at Cycle magazine from 1970 until 1988, including nine years as editor-in-chief. For his contributions to journalism and motorcycle racing, he was inducted to AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2011 and into the Ducati North America Hall of Fame in 2006. Schilling died in Santa Barbara May 26, 2015.
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