Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125433
6 WIllOW - Cent, with a tremendous le ad , follo wed very closely by Gordon Jennings, Jo hn Buckner (Jo hn had previously won the heat event for this race), Don Vesco, and Robert Fleckenstein. In Lap 2, Buckner had caught and passed Wilcox. Wilcox was running second and Jennings had moved into third spot, followed by Vesco and Dick Newell. From the second lap on, Buckner continued to move a way and dominated the entire event. But quite a hot contention was going on for second, third and fourth positions. Jennings had moved up into the second spot, followed by Wilcox and Vesco. On lap 6, Vesco was able to get by Jennings in some traffic and took second place; Jennings moved into the t hird position and Wilcox into fourth. At the same time, Fulton was able to move up from las t place in the first lap thro ugh the enti re traffic to fifth place on his Suzuki and Dic k Newell moved into si xth place. This is the order in which they finis hed the eve nt. Prod. Class to Michae l Because of ' the shorter days this time of year, the lig htweight and the heavyweight production bikes were run together but were stagger started. The lig htweight production bikes are 50cc up to 249cc. Heavyweights are 250cc to Open. On Lap I, a fairly newcomer to road racing but an old pro at flat tracking, Johnny Balaam, took the lead on his Suzuki, followed by Itoh on his uzuki and Larry Michael on his Triumph and Robert Ledford on a Norton and Walt Fulton III on his Suzuki. On Lap I, out of the first five machines, Suzuki was running I st, econd and fifth. On Lap 2, Itoh and Michael were able to pass Balaam, followed by Ledford and Fulton III. On Lap 3, Michael on his Triumph passed Itoh and moved into first place, putting Itoh in second place, foll owed by Ledford in third and Fulton III in fourth place . On an up-hill right bander on L ap 5, Michael left the course and went bounding OFF AND JUIPING AT ASCOT nOPE through the countryside. At the same time, the front runners were beginning to lap some of the lightweight machines. Itoh was caught in some traffic and so was Ledford, allowing Fulton to pass them and move into 1st place. Coming down off the hill, Michael was able- to re-enter the co urse and pass on the outside of some of the slower traffic whic h the front runners were c aught in and reg ain 1st piace. The las t event of the day was the 500cc and Open classes . From the s tart and going through Turri 1, Buddy P arrio tt was le ading, followed by Lance Weil & Dick Newell, Todd Millar, Jo n Grabe r and Don Vesco . In lap 2, F raser McAri nch had moved from 8th position through the traffi c up tbe bac k s traightaway into third position. Running in 4t h was Vesco and 5th was Millar. On lap 4, F raser, going through Turn 4 an upper right hande r, left the course and fell from his machine, moving Vesco into third place and Jon Grabe r into 4th, and Millar into fifth. Running in 6th place was Dick Newell . At the finish line it was Parriott, Weil, Vesco, Graber. Fi rst over-all in the open class was Ledfo rd, followed by Ron Hages t, Lance Weil, with special permission, was allowed to participate in this event and was not running for points or trophy, and on his extre mely fast 350 was abl e to finish 2nd over-all. This will give you a good idea how fast this machine is, and what an excellent rider Lance has become . Photo report by Ca rl Bartlett Additional Photos by Jam es Brammer • -- TT,~p» ASCOT PARI, CALIFORNIA SUNDAY, FEB. 13, 1966 ElPER1 .'_AIN DICI HAilER &TROPHY DASH TRIUIPH 2• .1 SkiD Ya. L •••••• Tri'.DII 3rd Eddi. 1.lder Tri. p AIATEUR lAIN EYENT RICH THORWALDSON TRIUIPH I'it CONCRETE RESUlTS INDOOR SPEEDWAY LONG BEACH, CALIF. SATURDAY, FEB. 12, 1966 Alai. EDDIE IULDER .. TRIUIPH • THINI OF WINNING • THINI OF TRIUIPH WESTERN DISTRIBUTOR: Johnson Mot_ Inc.. P.O. Box 457 PaYdena. California 91102 •