Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

has inc reased theirs of late. All I can say to Mr. Lo ren Wilson is that compe tition in any business or sport is good. For years , the A.M.A. had had no co mpe titi on, and we ar e trying , in our meager way, to promote a ditterent concept of thi s sport . Th ere ar e many people who agree with us and many who do not. At least you have a choic e no w as to which s id e of the picture you would like to s upport. Apparently y ou do not like our s ide , the re fore . I sugges t you do eve ryt hi ng pos s ib le to improve your s ide. By both sides bein g be tt ered . it can only he lp t he s port and inc rease t he pop ula rity and the growth. the National Circuit Around tile country wilb tile Californians By Annette Ca mp (Co ntinue d from l as t week ) June 24. 25 and 26 proved to be rather exciti ng days and inte resting. The weekend had three half-miles in Ohi o, i ncl udi ng the io-xne National in Columbus . Friday ni ght was at El dora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohi o. Thi s i s quit e a track . It has ve ry high banks and is a lmo s t like riding i n a coffe e cup. Although most of the rid ers enj oy ed racing on it. it proved to be rather a dangerous track. T here were s everal spills , one of which was a fatal. It happ ene d in an ama teur heat. Bill Johnson, 50m from Shawnee , Oklahoma, went down in turn ' three , hitting the fenc e hard, bouncing back onto the track and becoming unavoidably ent angle d with another rider. Bill was one of the bet ter amateurs t rav eling th e c i rcul t. He i s survived by his wife . Neil Keen too k a fourth in his heat , but wen t ou t in the first lap o r the main with motor troubl es. cal Rayborn took a third in his heat and a fifth in the fi nal . Phil Hawk was plagued ag a in with motor troubl es , but he rode hi s s pa re bike to take a s i xth in hi s heat. Red Mc Kee n and his wHe J udy , mad e their a ppeara nce here, co ming from their tou r of the Easte rn races. Re d and wHe will also make their racing circuit home in Waukegan . The main was won by Gary Nix on , wit h Da rell Dovel pushing him all th e way to take second. Ronnie Rall was thi rd and Bat es Moneaux was fourth . That night most of the riders drove t o L eban on. Illinois for Saturday night's race. Many other riders who would attend national went to Le ba non also. It is a very well known ' ni ght befo re the national " race and is supposed t o be a great thing to attend and ride . Th e track itself is good and liked by most of the ri ders . But what a big farc e this " grea t (ha) race" really i s. T he people real l y turn out for the motorcycl e ra ces in the State of Ohi o. At Lebanon ther e was probably abou t s even thousand people and out of th es e was a relat ively s ma ll number of dirty sh irts. Maybe a co uple of hunar ea. But e ven in their s mall number. co ul d and did do a lot of unn ecessary dama ge. They gav e performance s all evening in back of the grandstands where the street bikes were parked and th e ra cer s were pi tted. Such as pourin g be er on one a nother , bei ng obscene , ra ci ng up and down the parking lot on their bike s. throwing bee r on bik es parked ther e an d gen erally being a nuisan c e. Tb ere was al s o a large number of tbe m gatbered i n t um three . F inally a rter takin g on a lot or (ire wa ler and j ust as the Expe rt qualifyin g bea ts got s ta rted , lbe y knock ed the rence in on t he tra ck . They did this twice. T hey al s o thr ew bee r bottles and fir e cracke rs on the tra ck . Th e police ignored the m a nd almo s t Datly refus e d to do anythin g abou t them, givi ng a feebl e excuse. When the Expe rt bea ts got s ta rted. the Ex pert rid ers refused to race until the co ndition was corrected. So the a nnouncer gi ves the s t reet meanies a li t Ue talk. As he was saying · pl ease don' t throw an y mor e botUes on the tra ck" , one was thrown by s uc h a character , rolling to a s to p by the Expe rt racers who wer e accumulated ju s t behi nd t he start-finish line. It wa s retrived by a well known expe rt , who walked up to t he fence and not too poli tely threw it back on him. This dirty sb irt imagined be would come over the fence onto the tra ck and hi s buddies would be beh ind hi m. He was sadly mistaken . He wa s greeted by seve ral expe rt rid ers , who gave him a few friendly (not too) tap s . A co uple more of his buddi es dec id ed to come to hi s resc ue.. T hey were gi ven a warm wel come (not too) . Arter this example, the re " a s no more troubl e with the di rty s hi rts at the race tracks for the res t of t he wee kend . Yet it is too bad that the racers the mselves, who put on a good s how, ri sking their lives for too litUe money, also ha ve to co ntend with uns a fe co nditi ons, s pectators of all kind s wan de ri ng through the pits , hei ng in the i nfield. crossing the track whenever ~ .. {"l .!l a: § 'I: ;>, ,Q • .. 3 :> f E~perts blas t awa~ T packed grandstands at Le banon. Ohio. or many re fe ree s and t hei r helpers who do they pl eas e and lie t neir own poli ce , know th eir job very well. whil e the promotor s its ba ck a nd gets E ven tho ugh it was a lo ng a nd a ho t fa t. day , all t he riders entere d in the TenAft er th e commotio n P hil 'Ha wk, Jim Mile National , put on great racin g for a McMurren , Ne il Keen and s ev eral othe r gran dstand and fen ce li ne s packed to ra cers still ref us ed t o rid e. It was really the brim with enthusia s ts. T exas Jack too bad tha t all the otber rid er s didn't McNea ry too k a third in the third amas tick togethe r a li ttle lo nger . by refusing teu r heat and a fifth in the a mateur final. to rid e. an d may be the promotor wo uld I thought this was except ional a s it was ha ve realized that a ll owi ng the s e unhis third time on a half mil e and big wanted and not need ed cree ps entran ce arren Flickenger of Den ver, motor. W to a race caus es nothing but trouble for Co lora do crashed in hi s qualiryin g lap all who really enjoy motor cycling and doing his motor i n ev en though he did contribute so much to make it a great qualify tor the ama teur program. s port. Sid Carlson, Sam T anner and Jim Th e next day at the 10-Mil e National McMurren were all in t he first Expert in Columbus. Ohi o. the racers had t o heat. But none made it to t he first four c ontend with still mo re ditticulties. T he places that went to the main. In th e tra ck was in terr ible shape and the racer s s econd heat was Neil Keen who als o wer e pitted in hot sun from ear ly morndidn't make it and Cal Rayborn who ing to past s i x i n t he evening. Th e heat c ras he d rather vigorously. The third was almost unbearable . Last ye ar they beat was won by Mert Lawwill , who wer e pitted i n an other area that had went on t o take a we ll-earned third in shade and wa s much c loser to the startthe Final. Chris Draayer of Utah was finish line. The program was unn ece sthird in the second heat , but ran into sarily long and no mechani c s wer e al George Roeder whe n he went down in lowed on the infield , whereas th e ni ght t urn one , in the Ii nal , putting him out of before anything or anybody wa s admitted co ntention. He s uttered a leg inj ury, t o the infield, but will he back to raci ng soon. The sam e refe ree was in charge all T he T e n-Mile as Cycle News rea ders wee ke nd and the general opinion of those know, was won by the one and only Bart who wer e involv ed with the ra ces. inMarkel, who had held the title befo re in c l ud ing s ome V.I.P.'s.was that he didn't 1962 and 1964. Th e picture closes with d o a very good jo b. into consideration the first three finishers sipping milk out t hat a refer ee' s j ob i s n' t e asy . I have of bot tl es at the finish line and smiling. come to the co ncl usi on i n my travels (Conti nued ne xt week ) from ra ce t o ra ce that ther e ar e not ve ry ~ ~ IJ.. _~ 1966 BS,tl ~ ~ u'Gitw; 1;".., <71. IuI.4. lfOM' jtM Gte ;". ~ ~ IJ.. f;Iwk"~ .. ~~ By Ro xy Roc kwood An other double-header went into the books from last we ekend. These o nce a month Ascot twin bills have proven t o b e very popular the last fe w yea rs . The qu estion most ofte ned asked around As cot when the TT boys roll in is , " Won de r what the big bikes and the e xpert s would l ook like on that ne w s ho rt course t hat the no vi c e ride rs run? " Fant a s t i c , wo uld be the o nly word for the description. Take a few rid ers of the s lide artist T oo Many Amateur s? type, li ke Dick Hammer . Ski p Van In the last few ye a rs 250cc raci ng L eeu wen, Ge ne Romero and Ed. Mulder has created a n all time high amount of and ra ce them on this little twister an d ama t eur riders who only race a t As cot it would really put on a show. once a month and s eldom any of t hem It may come to this some day . as no ad van c e to expert i n less than two or matter how ha rd t he officials and rid er s three years. try and no matter how smooth the show Th e no vi ce problem has been solved runs. the TI' s ar e unable to fi nis h e by putting t hem on a s ho rter course. W until around II :30 p.m, now hav e an amateur problem that tinds The mai n rea s on is that the lighto ver 50 rid ers in this c la s s eve ry tim e weight rul e is starting t o cat ch up with a rac e is run. As cot. In past ye ars the novic e and It is a mish-mash clas s of first year a mateur c l asses were not too bi g for amateurs, hit and miss rid ers and j ust good racing. plain fun lovers who ha ve heen ar ound for yea rs . At l east one rider comes out fo r e very TI t hi s year who ma de a mateur in 1959 ! Amat eur s hav e to score 40 points to move up to expe rt and racing once a month just doesn't seem to catch it. It i s not uncommon to s ee a rider finish in the top twelve in Ascot poi nts one season but fall short of t he required AMA points to move up. Trying to predict a winner in the amateur. TI class is like picking a winner in the Iris h Sweepstakes. One month one rider is red hot , the next time out he either miss es the main event entirely or falls o n his head and picks up tailend points. Only th e first four riders in every amateur race pick up AMA point s. to JUJIL, -. ~! ,tlidD.- • ~. • • Nati onal TT Comi ng VICTOR II. wilvliMr;_t IuJ. ;". II. • THE FINISH LINE You're in Good Company llJ,,§ a.f1IlJA HIJ",Ja • • ~ 7 THUNDEBBOLT SPITFIRE WIre II ~ ~ ~ ~ at u.~'4.~- Long Beach Honda 5105 Att.tk GA 3-1433 4328 l ....iI 439~43 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••• ED BLAKE will serve you personally al LONG BEACH HONDA 5105 Atlantic Blvd. 4321 E. Anaheim St. 423-1433 & 439-0943 BSA Head.. arters il LtIIg Beach 431 W. Pacilic Coast Hwy. T he s cram ble for nationa l entry blanks was rec ord- breaking last week as the deadline was Saturday night . A remi nder to all i rde rs--the national TI at Ascot next year will run the same time as it will this year. The rid ers that still want to enter or were late with the ent ry can still e nter by paying the $25.00 late entry fe e ri ght up t o tb e night of time t rials. It all goes to th e national point fund for th e t op ten experts in the final standings at the end of the year . Th e best rul e in the book. The F riday ni ght c has e is on again this week withElliottSchultz co nti nuing to l ook better than e ver. Sam T a nner has his work cut out for him the la s t half of the season with Ralph White and Schultz putting o n the pressure . Sammy now has s cor ed 30 wins thi s ye a r and at the present rate is a ci nc h t o break the one year all time mark of 55-with a little cooperation from Ralph and Elliott. •

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