Coe’s Unique Ride
& The Secret of Dr. S
His Spondon-Rotax was super-fast at Daytona ‘87
by The Umarell
Monday, May 12, 2025
Henny Ray Lawrence
Coe remembers: "The first time Phil (Schilling) and I officially met was at a roadrace in Riverside. Our introduction was made through my friend and high school and riding buddy Mark Homchick. At the time Mark was already racing a Phil Shilling TZ 250H as a novice. Mark’s racing for Phil seemed (to me) as almost a sidebar to the Daytona winning Ducati Superbike effort between Cook and Phil, almost stress reliever and something more to keep Phil’s mechanical side occupied. That side of Phil was amazing, he loved the mechanical side of things. In fact, Phil’s nickname to those close to him was “Doctor S.” You’d think the “S” was for Schilling, it wasn’t. The S was for Shim, as it was shims and their perfect stacking that kept the Ducati Desmodromic valve train functioning at peak performance, shimming that Phil had mastered."
It’s rather bulbous-looking bodywork actually gave Coe an aerodynamic advantage on the high banking and long straights of Daytona and as a result he had one of the highest trap speeds of any of the 250s that week.
The Rotax was a tandem two-cylinder, water-cooled, two-stroke with custom hydro-formed factory pipes fitted by Stuart Toomey. The bike utilized a Yamaha TZ fork, Ohlin shock, Brembo brakes, 16" Marvic mags fitted with what were the first true radial motorcycle road racing tires (Michelins).
Coe battled for the lead early in the Daytona AMA 250 Grand Prix race and ran among the front runners all day before running the Rotax out of gas on the final lap.
— ends —
