Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

- INDY ROAD RACE .. 00 ~ OS a.. .., "" RAY.BN illS. LARiLL TAKES OYER POINT LEAD • 0> • Cal Raybom scored bis second Natioaal Championship win of bis ...: career, aad the first this year,at Indiaaapolis Raceway Park's 110lIiler. Raybom, lite wimler last year of the Carlsbad road race Nation1IJ = al, dogged tile rear wIleel of defending chaIIlpion, 'Gary Nimn, for 32 'OC = 'C of tile 59 laps before taking over aad going on fur the win willt a new . Ralph White, riding the Norm Lee "J reco~ ~ NIX~n ",!en~.to the PIts two laps Co:! later WIth. IgmtlOn troubl:-s and wll:S ~ n.ever agaIn on the track lD competl- Co:! ...:I tion. Ray!:J?rn then breezed .to his U seC?ond natlonal road race WlD and >.. maIntained a steady 20 second lead u over Dick Hammer, wbo second. finished Hooray For Calif. It was a big day for California riders as Mert Lawwill rode in for third place to give Dist. 37 all three places in the winner's circle and also give Mert Lawwill the National point lead for the first time this year over Nixon. As is typical of road races, there were many setbacks due to engine problems and - fall aowns. Chris Draayer was the first to go. He was running 4th, right on the rear wheel of Rayborn when he shot off the track. The utah ace then fell trying to get back on the track and broke his carburetor and was out. Triumph, worked his way from the back to well inside the first ten only to drop out with ignition troubles. Roger Reiman, riding one of his best races this- year, led the opening lap and then came from second to take the lead away from Nixon on lap 12 befcre dropping back again to seCOID and then to third behind Rayborn before he too dropped by the wayside after the halfway point in the race. Bart Markel climbed the racing ladder all the way to 4th place before dropping out with a burned piston a few laps after Reiman pulled out. The tightest race at the finish and the late laps found a duel going between George Roeder and Dick ~ewell for 4th place. Earlier it also Included former Daytona winner, Buddy Elmore. An e;dra-long gas stop for Newell saw him drop off the pace set by Roeder but the late laps had the El Monte veteran, on a borrowed TT machine, again closing to within passing distance of the Ohio Farmer. Rayborn, Hammer and Lawwill were the 0 n1y riders on the same lap at the finish of the 59 lap grind on the extra fast Indy Raceway Park course. The weather was ideal, it was the first major road race win for H-D since Rayborn won Carlsbad last5eJtember.Cal was H-D mounted on a factolY rig prepared in the plant in Milwaukee. The 250cc Lightweight Race The race for the small bombs can best be described as, Nixon and Yamaha. or, Yamaba and Nixon. This band~nd-glove combination swept the boards clean like they did at Daytona. It also kept Yamaha's win streak going as Don Twigg also won the title for the Banzal Boys at Laconia last June. Nixon jumped light to the front with an early challenge from Suzukimounted Dick Hammer. Earlier, Nixon and Ron Grant had won the two Qualification heat races but Grant was one of the last off the starting line in the .final and was .running well back in the pack early in the feature. As Hammer st d to drop back from the flying Nixon, Grant was moving for Suzuki like a streak of Japanese lightning. The last laps saw Grant catch teammate Hammer and the race for second went right down to the finish YAMAHA WINS AT INDY TAlES FIYE OF SIX 250(( EVENTS 1* flag with Grant taking the spot on the last lap alter much bassling with Hammer. Dickie Neweli replaced the injured Bobby Winters on the Yamaha team and raced in for fourth with Laconia winner, Don Twigg, placing a distant fifth. The Kawasaki team saw Dick Mann come up with starting problems on the line: Mann spotted the entire field close to a lap before getting underwll.Y. The rallid redhead who now calls New York his home then came from way back to finish a closing lOth place. The first Amateur across the line in the combined event was California's Walt Fulton. Although Walt rode a H-D in the Amateur big bike event the follOWing day, he was Suzukimounted for this one in the 250cc race. He placed 11 tho Yamaha kept its fantastic ~ob SCene- in tact and placed six riders and machine s in the first eight positions. It was again a new record for Nixon and his YDS-5 five-port Yamaha. Amatenr Big Bike Event The best race, perhaps, of the entire tWo-day race meet came in the event for the Amateurs. The -California Kids,- Art Baumann, Walt Fulton and Jimmy Odom, raised havoc, just as they did in the early laps last March at Daytona. Baumann and Fulton ran one-two in the Qualificafion heat race with Odom, a late entry and starting in last position, racing from last to finish a closing fifth. Jim Deehan placed third with Indiana rider Larry Roberts in fourth, a few feet ahead of Odom. The fi nal and it was Baumann and the HOlDa 450 strai&bt to the lead with Fulton a close second and Odom right behirxl on the Matchless 0050 in thi rd. These three hot prospects for future Expert stardom made it an early lap runaway until Odom fell off and dropped back to 9th before he was again back in the race. Here Comes Odom Then the suspense set in. Odom was picking off rider after rider from the back, Baumann was throwing oil all over his machine and himself with a large blue cloud of smoke pouring from his machine and Fulton was starting to slow due to mechanical trouble s. Odom climbed all the way to fourth and overtook Ronnie Widman. Then the duel was on with Odom pulling even aID Widman regaining the edge by a matter at inches and feet. Both riders were closing on Baumann and Fulton. Both caught and passed the slowrunning Fulton in tbe late, late laps and went by like Fulton was tied to a post. Then they set sail on Bau- mann. Gary ixon, of Baltimore, Maryland, the hottest rider in the 1967 season, aboard the Yamaha he won the Daytona 250cc race with, does it again, this time in the 50 mile road race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. •• where he set a new record time and speed of 36.41 minutes and 82.8 mph. It was not to be, however, as Art rode in for the win, minus any oil and plus loud engine noises. Widman managed to hold off Odom for second and Jimmy lost his first National event in the last five tries. It was Honda, H-D and Matchless in the Winner's circle and Baumann bad ridden a perfect race. Odom bad made one mistake aID Widman finished with a broken clutch cable. Fulton limped in for fifth, position. Deelan also fell off, remounted. and finished in 11 th. East coast rider. Jim .Anzalone, on a Triumph, took fourth. Novice 250cc Race JSf ' . .e-A. . . ..,.,." - Garr liIG•• YWHA °In the sixth race - the first Amateur·Expert heat, Dick Newell on a Yamaha finished second behind Ron Grant aboard a Suzuki. START SOMETHING NEW - RIDE THE WINNER YA AHA Yamaha grabbed seven of the first ten places in the Novice race but two Kawasaki riders took two of the top four places. One SUzuki was also in tbe front spots with a 6th place finish. It was a big day for the first-year riders from the state of Michigan as four of the first five places fell to contenders from the Wolverine state. The winner was Yamaha-mounted Dave Bloom from Ann Arbor. Michigan who had a sizeable lead over veteran Indy Novice Bob Wakefield, Kawasaki-mounted. Wakefield was also a Novice back in 1962 when the only other National road race meeting was held at Racewll.Y Park. Yamaha captured both of the heat races with Bloom winning one and Duane McDaniels from Detroit winni ng the other. (Results on PIlle 16) SEE 'AGES JJ &J2 fOI PIIOTOS

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