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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125465
Slam bang action and non-serious spills highlighted the first of what is to be an annual event at the short track races at the Sacramento fairgrounds. • • CANCILLA CANCELS NUMBERS (Results on page 21) Held in the horse show arena and rodeo grounds just a few feet from the famous mile track event, was a crowd pleaser from start to finish with close racing and bar-banging the byword. Four Novice riders, four Experts and one Amateur were the heat race winners. All classes ran against each other in all events. The Novice riders again came up with the upsets and won two of the four semi-main events. Gus Lauer was the Trophy dash winner with the main event going to Phil Cancilla. Dick Hammer and Sonny Burres were involved in crashes but both carne back the following day to compete in the 20-mile national championship race. Race promoter, J.e. Agajanian stated that the Saturday night short track will now become an annual affair each and every year prior to the national on the mile. ASCII Half lile St.-, Nixon Makes Markel Mark The eastern invaders kept up their victory parade for the second straight week on the local half mile with Triumph ace Gary Nixon duplicating the feat achieved by Bart Markel from two weeks ago. Nixon joined Markel as the only outof-state rider to ever win an Ascot main event. The .. Baltimore Bullet" did it the bard way by running third in the heat race, winning the semi-main and then lining up in row two for the feature. Nixon's run for the flag was assisted by Gene Romero on the openinglapwhen the S.L.O. tiger unloaded in front of all the field except Mel Lacher and Nixon. Both riders shot to the low side and were clear while the rest of the field were playing dodge-em with Romero. • • What No Beezers? . Spills a-pl.nt! W"" on th. p.ogram as AMA short t.ack .acI.s racld around thl rodlo a.lna (not. bull chutes In background). • Romero was not injured in the main event spill and nailed the trophy dash win earlier over Dick Hammer, Lacher and Guy Louis. (No BSA's in the dash tor the first time since Hector had hair.) Lacher held the lead for over two laps before Nixon sliced by and went on for a most impressive win with room to spare over Chuck Jones and Chris Draayer. Chuck and Chris swapped second back and forth before Jones broadsided by Draayer and regained second place at the finish time. Point leader Sammy Tanner again took his lumps for the second straight week. He was the last rider to make the final after running tourth in the semi. In the feature it was even more pressure with the champ running a distant sixth. The weekly Amateur tussle was again a big guess untill the last lap when Johnny Isaacs found the right groove and passed Ron Kruseman to take the lead and the win for the third time this season. The race had to be stopped the first time ou t ta the end of two laps when Mark Todd kissed the wall on the south turn and tell off. Kruseman led all laps except the last one. And Now, , ., Suzuki 2y Gus Laulr, IS4y OIl Glnung, 92y Butch Cord" and IS4y Danny Dayles get away good In thl trophy dash at Sacto. All riders used 2S0cc machines, Laulr's Bultaco won It. Local boys made out good as Lau" and Cordlr arl both from Sacramlnto. Davies Is from Mill Valley. THE FINISH LINE By ROXY ROCKWOOD • .- IT WAS ONE OF TIiE ROUGHEST two weeks in history tor the local aces. Nixon rapped them twise, at Ascot on Friday night and again on Saturday night at Tulare. Fearless Freddie Nix grabbing the big win away trom Tanner right at the line last Sunday at Sac. Markel zapping the troops two weeks ago at Ascot. It's been a long hard season. Sammy Tanner came within an eyeblink of becoming the first rider to ever win the Ascot and Sacramento nationals. He turned in a great ride but missed by live feet, at the most. Markel and Lawwill had their own little hassle with first one and then the other bouncing out of the groove. As usual, Markel made no excuses after the races. Bart drove his Flint special into all turns much deeper than any otber rider has ever gone. Losing his air cleaner didn't help the tuning any. Nix is a great IitlJe rider. His best efforts to date have come in short track events but is now in the same class with the class of the field wi.th that fine ride at Sac last Sunday. Don Hawley turned in a great job of riding in the heat race up at Sac and onlY some problems with other riders SAVE BIG MONEY ~ Two Big Locations ~326-3810 2073 W. Pacific Coast Hwy. 583-3409 ,6101 Atlantic Blyd. in the turns kept him from a high finish. Swede Savage filled in for George Roeder and was on his way to the final in the heat race until II bugs" set in. It seems as though Roeder was busy back in Ohio getting himself married. It was curtain time for Gerry Seguin as an Amateur and he made it a good one for all but the last lap. His time trial and heat race runs were Amateur classics as were nine of the ten miles in the feature. John Carter was the surprise of the Amateur class wh en he came back twice to finally grab the win with a super smooth ride on the Jack Hately BSA. Nix, Tanner, Markel, Lawwill, Nixon and early in the race, Romero, put on the best main event ever recorded at Sacramento. II now rivals the now departed Springfield for mile track action. Too bad we don't have a couple more events out this way on the big, fast miles. Could well happen in '67. Aggie threw a short track race at the Sacramento fairgrounds on Saturday night on what has to be the shortest track ever run. It was a thrill show from start to finish with the fans sitting right on top of the well-lighted action. A couple of Novice riders reaUy surprised some of the veterans. saturday night, October8th with a night TT that features not one, but two jumps. Track owner Will Tice says that he will continue to run TT races every Saturday night as long as the weather holds out and then switch to day TT's at least twice a month during the winter. This means that professional riders can look forward to running next year every Saturday night at the new Irwindale track. Tice also has a dirt oval on the outside of the TT track wt will wait till later to see what he will run and when. And Now, , , S.G, V, With Ascot going to daytime TT event the new San Gabriel Valley Speedway has its grand opening on You're in Good Indoors Too Short track riders should start getting ready as Long Beach and San Francisco are going to start indoor short tracking with a bang under the AMA banner in a few short weeks. Long Beach Arena will open its second season with two nights of indoor on November 18th and 19th. San Franciscoand the Cow Palace comes in a few wee ks later. Nixon to Nippon Gary Nixon head for Japan this week to ride in a road race. The first top American rider since Nick Nicholson will get a chance to show what the really top rate American riders can do. Ilill have more on this later. Last Ascot 2-Header this Friday The last Ascot double-header night sho,:" runs this weekend with half milers on Friday and the TT boys going under the lights for the last time. The TT's then switch to daytime events, A new name in the Novice classbroke into the winner's circle with Mike Morton and a Suzuki X-6 blasting the point leaders off the track in a wire to wire run for his first win. It was the first professional win for the Suzu ki brand in half mile competition this year although Morton has been knocking at the door in recent weeks. Marty MacDonald ran second with Larry Pruett, the winner the previous two weeks, pulling a third and having his season win streak stopped at six straight. CANOGA PARK ~ 7233 CANOGA AVE.346-3700 BUTCH CLARK One of the Service Managers at LONG BEACH HONDA 341 W. Pac, Cst. Hwy. 591-1305 11747 E. Carson 860-1354 5105 Atlantic 423-1433 4328 E. Anaheim 439-0943