Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

put his f ront wheel i nches ahead of the Honda and kept i t th ere to take second place 22 seconds behind Koshino and i n c h e s ahead of McLaughlin. 8 RIVERSIDE PlaORIAl 250cc 7l; Pr idmore's Triton outfit. -- e. - Ralph LeClercq (98) -i lpped to 175 win. ' Vic Hamuelll's Honda won 500cc Productio n race. First off th e line in th e third rac e was Ron Gran t on a Suzuki X-6 fo llowed by Pru ett on a Yamaha TD-IB and Koshino aboard th e works 125cc Suzuki. At th e end of lap one the order was Grant , Koshino who had dived under P ruett going into turn nine , and Pruett. A t turn si x, one of th e expansion chambers on Gran t's bike grounded becau se emergency repairs earlier had l owered it about an inch and Gr ant was down with the Suzuki sc reami ng its. heart out with no l oad. Pru ett was now second behind Koshino' s 125 with Buddy Parri ot t in third . Grant came back int o the race on th e four th lap but his engi ne soon sei ze d and he was out for good. Thi s same lap saw P arri ot t take sec ond f rom Pruet t and that 's the way th ey finished. K oshino (125cc Suzuki ) Parri ott, and P ruet t . . Production The four th race was t he largest with everyt hi ng fro m 50s to Sportst ers on the tr ack at the same ti me. The best part of this event was t he start . T he bikes were lined up on one side of th e track fa cing the ri ders across t he way and when the flag was dropped th ere was a patter of feet , silence, and th e t hundering, whispering, buzzing sou nd of nearly every bike you can think of being st arte d at onc e. One unfortunate spo rtster rider was still kicking and grunting, swearing and praying at the line long after the rest of the pack was out of si ght. Ho w th e scorer s kept track of this race is beyond me. In two laps th ey were sp read all around the cou rs e. Abou t . all the fan l earn ed from watching thi s event was that big bikes are faster than small bikes . Take a look at t he results to see how your favorite brand made out . • • Sidecars -' Ron Grant runs for It. This really wasn' t a rac e bec aus e there were only tw o outfits entered. The t eam of Reg Pridmore and Ernie Ca esar were driving a very nic ely turned out T ri ton (T ri umph engine, No rton f rame). The Norton engi ne, special fr ame chari ot of John Taliaferro and I an McKa lvie was truly a work of art . B eautiful as th e T aliafe rro/ K al vi e mount was , tho ugh, it just was n' t runni ng the way i t sho uld have. The machine was down on power and seemed to be having handling prob l ems. No contest it may have been , but dull it wasn't. T he sight of two men on one mot orcycle barrelling th rough t ho se turns will raise anyo ne's blood pressure . On th e left-ha ndlers , the dri ver leans as far to t he l eft as he can and t he passenger hangs as much as two-thirds of his body ov er t he side . T he situation i s reversed in the right -hand tu rns with th e driver l eani ng as far to the right as possible and his buddy sitting on th e rear fender behind him. Wow! Pridmore and Caesar were first across the line by half a lap. Mayb e next time that Norton of Taliaferro and Kal vi e will be runn i ng better. If it is, you 'll see quite a show if yo u're th ere to watch . 350, 500cc, Open Tali aferro' s Norton sidecar. RIVE RSI DE from page 1 50cc Tohatsu to a much modified Harley Sportst er; from a rotary valve, wate r-co oled 50cc S u z u k i works twin to a Harley KR . Holy racers! It was wild out th ere! 50 and 100cc T he first rac e of th e day saw B arry Herrmann on a P erformance Special (Suz uki? ) first off th e line and t hrough t he first turn with a howling pac k of tiddl ers after him. Haruo K oshino, th e odds-on fa vorite, was nearly last at th e start but by the first l ap, he had moved up to ei ghth p l a c e . Out of turn nine - Yoshio ~toh, Ko shino' s tea mmate ,: pulled eve n wi th Herrmann and at t he start/ finish line I t oh pushed hi s Suzuki production race r past th e 100cc P.R. Special and st arte d pulling away. On lap t wo , Koshino passed Herrmann and th e tw o Japanese rid ers l eft the enti re fi eld behind. Ko shino pass ed Itoh on the thi rd lap and at the finish three l aps late r i t was Koshino over Itoh by 13 seconds wi th Herr mann (fi rst IOOcc) a full minute behind. 125 and 115cc A t the start of rac e number t wo, Steve McLaughlin on a Honda CR-93 was first away with Koshino, aboard a Suzuki product i on racer hot on hi s tail. K oshino to ok the l ead at turn thr ee and first place was spoken for. B ehind the l eader a bat tl e qui ckly developed for sec ond bet ween Mc Laughlin and Ell ee on a 175cc Oss a. These t wo waged a see-saw fight thr ough eve ry t urn until Ralph L e Clercq nosed his 175cc Duca ti bet ween them on th e fourth lap. T he three- way race fo r sec ond co ntinued fo r t wo more l aps . On lap six Ellee dropped out when the flywheel of his Spani sh rac er came adrift . I nto turn nine, McLaughlin dived under L e Clercq and nosed ahead, but out of the turn and on the straight t he Ducati rider The big race was run last and what a race it was . W hen the starter gave t hem the go sign, Ron Jo nes aboard a Norton tw in fo r th e first ti me l ed the pack i nto th e first turn. He didn' t keep t he l ead for long because at th e end of the first l ap, it was Ron Grant on a 350 Honda fo l lowed by Jon es and th en B aumann on anot her Honda. On th e third lap, Buddy Parri ot t and hi s Manx had pa ss ed B aumann and Don V esco had mov ed i nto fifth with his 650 Matchl ess. Th e five f ront- runners st aye d i n tha t ord er until th e fi fth lap when Parriott pass ed Grant. Three l aps later, ' Parriott passed J ones to take th e l ead. The fi rst fi ve riders didn' t change positi on until t he tenth lap. Wi th t wo- thi rds ofthe rac e gone , Ve sco squeezed past B aumann into fo urth spot and the order was : P arriott, Manx; Jones, Manx ; Vesco , Match l ess (650); Grant, Hond a. Then follo wed a fi ve- l ap parad e with the big boy s fini shing in that order . Parriott-first 500 ; Ves co- first Open; ' Grant-first 350. (Pesults on page 12) . .. •

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