Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

1& WHITE LEADS 'ISA • WRECKING CREW' T OASCOT VICTORY A New Version of the Famed "BSA W recki ng Crew" Put on the Show of Shows This Year in the Expert Tr ophy Dash and Main E vent. Ralph White, Dan Ruby and sammy Tanner teamed up to supply the thr1lls, slides and close racing that are the weekly byword at Ascot Oval. El110tt Schul tz was the only rider to break the thre e man combination when he hand ed Dan Haaby his third heat race loss of the se ason. White and Ta nner each won thei r res pective hea t e vents . The Dew "Crew" teamed up for the (jrst time in the Trophy Dash and gave the lans a display of what the pro's can do under a full head of steam, with no obstructions. • I Sonn Nutter (19) and Cliff La mb (63) avoid Joe Klocow. y It looked like a repeat in t he final with Haaby and White banging bars a nd rubbing whee is through the first twelve laps with Tanner right behind. La p eight and lap twelve found Haaby and White crossing the lin e dead even, then White shot to the front on la p 13 and wra pped up his third feature win of the year . Two more tha n he scored all la st se ason. What a Dash! OOOPS White and Haaby were wheel to whee l for the lead and the win all the way from the .start to the final turn. Tanner . runnin g in thrid, full- bored the corner and roared wide to the outside an d then passed both Da n and Ral ph coming down the final st retch for his 6th Dash win of the year! The recent red-hot challengers, Gene Romero and Mel Lacher. short circulted in the heat races. Romero fell on the north tum in the opening lap trying to beat White. Lacher did the same thing on the same tum on the same lap trying to outride Tanner. Neither rider was Injured. T he rlibl combin ati on - Ralph W e, l uner Gary Bray, sK ond pl ace Dan Haaby. hil Racing ente rs the 13th week this Friday night w111 both Haa by and White contlnulng to Inch up on T an ne r' s point lead. Ea ch of the three riders has won the Main E vent the last three weeks. A mid-se as on runoff is in the makmg for this Fr ida y night. Schmidt Sails The Amateur s contin ued their position swappin g once aga in with J oe SChmidt from Dist. 36 coming up to score his second Main E vent of the s eason and his firs t in a month. Fast improving J ohnny Isaacs came from way bac k to ta ke second before the laps ran out . P oint leade r Casper Greif had to win the semi to ge t into the fina l and the n pulled out all the stops t o finish a distand third. Larry Pruett again s hot the front and stayed there in the Novice heat and Iinal to bag twin wins in the " B" class. It was his 9th straight hea t race win of the year and his third Main event caper. Be still is a distan t third in the current poi nt standings behind Marty MacDonald and Don Roberts. MacDonald could pull no bet ter tha n a fourtb pla ce this wee k in the Main Event but did manage to get bac k in the win column by winnin g his heat ra ce for tbe firs t time since M 20th. ay Roberts was turned back in the heat race by Dan Ke IlY but came bac k to pull a second i n the final a nd move to within te n points cif taking over the lea d in the Novice di vision. (Results on page 14) • .. SCRAMBLIN AROUND By Maureen Le e • We hate to see good Ascot A-nateur class ride rs walking around the pits on a SuIXIay, wishing they could ride. They should be out getting a little practice. for from good Amateurs a re good Experts born. Once a month is is not good enou gh for a man who is tryi ng to do well at As cot. Th a t fine edge is lost fast without cons ta nt P ractice. As an instance of what "i ll happen if this rule continues , co nsider a young man by the name of J ohn Spragu e. Every TI he does exce ptionally we 11. On Sundays he rides in the sc rambles i n the 250 Amateur class on a Bultaco, and on a big bike be waiis in the Open Amateur. Next year. with his luc k holding. he sh ould make Class C Amateur without any trou ble. Now. unless this rule is changed, ther e goes J ohn.(We're usin g this particular rider as an example, remember.) He will not be able to keep on riding his bi g bore at the scrambles, gaining practice and getting bett er week after week . He will have to dep end on that once a month at Ascot to develop his talents , unle ss he travels a round the state a little and as an Amateur. that can be tough. T he majority of the Amateurs are not spons ored, and most of our top Exp ert TI riders were developed durin g the days when a rider could ride when a nd what he wished. More TTs A sudden increase in l ocal profess ional T'I' events is probably not the answer either. Any race fan knows the sad story of what happ ened to th e wonderful little dirt -track midget cars . • • Oranl e County Is the scene of _ kly ACA short hck races. Here, t he start of a 250cc event. Too many sp ons ors and too many associations jumped on the bandwagon, all eager to make money for themselves and the drivers. No one made any money and the great day s of the midgets passed. They forgot one thing. Budgets can be stretched onlY s o far for entertainment and then the specta tors diminish. ORANGE COUNTY M.C. HOSTS PRADO By M auree n Lee Good riding pins some hair-raising crashes were featured at the Oruge Connty M scrambles at Prado Park. Tony Simon aboard the .C. 450 Honda from Honda of Ontario rode the combined Amatenr-Expert 500cc ud really did well in the first molo. He was up there really charging Slidin Clyde Comes On hard with the biggest names in the local Sunday scrambles on the fastest singles around , asking and expecting no quarte r. In the second moto going full blast into turn one on the start , down he we nt in a spectacular c ra s h. The Honda was badly bent but Simon ha ppi ly escaped serious injury. We're waiting to see just how well this guy will do when he has a bit of e xpe rie nc e in riding with the Experts under his belt. That 500cc Expert class is rou gh! T he two bridegrooms, Jim Hunter a nd John He yn e ma nn, were first and second. No doubt celebrating , since the day before was their wedding dav , The 350 Experts were ,,'lId and woolly. ClYde Litc h and Jo hn Rice . both on Hoodas , were scooting aro und the tracll., some times on and some times off the actual ci rcuit. Of the two , althou gh Clyde won out, you would have to say John R. was the most spectacular! But at a ny rate, the 21" Expert class is coming bacll. into its own again. The 250 Experts had a new leader Sunday. Jim Bassey on a Suzuki ended up the eve ntua l winner . He coo led it on the first mota until the old senses got sharpened up for the day and then ZAP! Doug Yerkes took a second and last wee ks' winner Car l P a tric k a third . In fourth place was yo ung Deway ne Jones aboard a new 250 Bultaco doing a very good job against such vet erans as the first three in the cla ss. J oe Hamilton conti nued his winning of the 200 Amate ur-Exp ert class all though Jerry Davis , also on a Bultaco, was very close at times, making Hamilton reallY concentrate on his riding . As usual. the little ones opened the day. with Lloyd Daley taking the 50 class on his Honda. The 100ce Amateur class went to an other Honda with M. Cross ab oard . J im Bassey aga in made it his , day by winning the lightweight sweepstakes event aboard the Suzuki and then going on to win the Open Exp ert class aboard his Triumph. Lotsa Novices Left until las t (tradit ionaly ) were the Novices. O.C .M.C. eve n schedul ed the 250 Novic es for the e nd of the day as that is where the greatest number of entries appear. T his proba bly contributed to a bit of confusion since most lightweights a re pre-conditioned to the fact that they alw ays ride in the momIng, Still, they put on a good show with S. Lohof! aboard a Bultaco the eventual winner and Greev es -mounted George J ohnson in s ec ond. T he 500 Novices had BSA-mounted Ed Beeching as their leader at the e nd, and T riumph-rid er Mike Chamberlain in second. Did You Lose Something? Th e O.C.M.C. ar e also holding a box of goodies left in the pits. These include items of importance to any rider and can be claimed at the O.C.M.C. clubhous e. (Result s on pa ge 14) Short Track Slants: ORANGE COUNTY SPEEDWAY T he s hort trac k races this wee k at Orange County Spee dway looked like a re-run of the previous week . with Russ Robinson again winning the 100ce main and Rick woods winning the 250cc main. In the SOcc class. coming back after losing last week to iB1l1 O·Neill. was the perennial winne r. Dave Smith on his Tohatsu, followed closelY by his brothe r Mike, also on a To hatsu, The 100cc main was cons pic uous with the absence of the high point man. Rick Woods. who, while way out in front in his heat race , upon receiving the yellow flag, throught reasons unknow to the c rowd and , as it turned out, to Rick himself, accepted the yellow nag as the checkered flag and allowed the field to pass him. He was there by ent, lea ving elimi nated from the M ~in E V Russ Robinson to take his se cond 100cc Main Eve nt win of the se as on. with Don Kelly on a Honda and Ga ry Calkins on a Yamaha following cl ose behind. The' 2500c B main saw Mike Spitzer out for the first lime on a Harley-Davidso n, taking the lead from the start a nd hitting it all the way with his nea rest co mpeti tors being sal Acosta on a Bul ta co, followed Iby' Bob Grauer on a 160 Honda . T he 250cc A Main saw Rick Woods, the current 250ce points leader. ta king the fourth straight 250cc main event win on his Ducat! and showing Bultaco mounte d J im Berry the way ar ound the tra c k, wit h Johnny Balaam on a Harley-Da vidson Sprint i n third and out-of-town favori te Pat Gosch, also on a Harley-Da vids on, finishing fourth. Spectators who re(Continued on pa ce 18) • •

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