Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Allow: DIet Puree (109/ down lD It on b1s 50ec Monellal In tile Class II GP. Below: Le Mans Sill I bike event. l:r,. sbrt of an ACA Suzultl-mauntod Ron Grantlrles aut the new Orange County Intemallonal Raceway. GRAND PRIX STOPS TRAFFIC By Maureen Lee Photos by Bill Pettigrew. Dave Gooley & Dennis Greene With a Santa Ana wind blowing in eamest, the largest tum-out of road racers at any California road race (187) and a brand new track, the Orange County A.C.A. National Road Race went off with a bang Sunday, October 15. After plenty of practice, racing got Whether you race, sell or just ride motorcycles, the cool ones from Kawasaki keep proving themselves every week in all forms of competition. For the ultimate in performance, reliability and quality, it's Kawasaki, the only motorcycles in the world built by an aircraft manufacturer. ASCOT PARK, C1LlFOIIIII1 FUTTRACI Fri. Oct. U H1LF~LE 8 lap Novice Fi nal 1st. STEVE PEDERSON - KAWASAKI ORANGE COUNTY INTERNATIONAL ROAD RACES, EI TIN, Caut. SIMIJ, OetMer 15 Production class races l00ce 1st ROGER BAEDER - KAWASAKI USee 1st FRANK SMllll - KAWASAKI 350ec 1st BYRON BlACK - KAWASAKI 35O-5OO-Open Combined 1st Overall BYRON BlACK - KAWASAKI PreciSIon engineered and manufactured by Kawasaki AIrcraft Co_, Ud., Japan Full line covered by unsurpassed 12 mo., 12,DOO mile written warranty. W"te: American Kawasaki Motorcycle. P.O. Box 2066N2. Gardena. Cah(. 90247 underway with the 50-lOOcc G.P. Dave Smtth was off the grid first and never gave ~ bis lead, with the tower clockIng bim through the traps at 77 mph (same as bis riding number) on bis powerful little Power Research SPeclal. Tom Howard (Yamaha), RudY Galindo (Yamaha) and Jeff Pasternak (Angel) had a real one going for the next three places disproving the point that road racing isn't fUn for spectators to watch. Howard finally dropped out leaving GalIndo In second with Pasternak right after bim. In the Tower Turn GalIndo took a bad fall, dropping back to fifth (those painted lines for the drag cars tended to be slippery), was UP and away again and ended tbird In class. The 50cc Class I winner running In the same race was Tony Nicosia (Suzuki) and the Class II was Mondial-mounted Sid Chambers., 'Ibird place man Paul WUde (Yamaha) made It across the line by the skin of bis teeth, coasting I :Ibe Lightweight Production class went to Bill CodY (200 Bultaco) bis first crack at road racing and he looked terr1!1c. Suzuki-mounted David Damron held the lead for the first two laps then CodY got bim going down the straight. Frank Smith (175 Kawasaki) had tbird over-all until Steve Galbralth (200 Bultaco) passed bim. Another Kawasaki rider, Roger Baeder took the lOOcc win In the combined class and you could say it was Kawasaki's day, after the Heayywelght Prodnctlon class ran. ODe of the most thrilling races was the big bore production, the combined 25D-350-5GO-Open race. Dick KllgroeDO a 450 Honda had the early lead but bebiDd bim was Byron Black on a350 Kawasaki. As the race progressed Black got Into the lead and although the bigger machines were going hard they just couldn'tcatch the 'saki tbat we timed at 90.45 one time and 93 mpb another, on the official trap clocks in the tower. 'Ibe remarkable thing is tbat the bikes were st1ll accelerating hard wben the clocks shut off as they are set purely for dragsters. A pat on the back for tbat little production machIne! Spectators were entertained by only two sidecars although three practiced. The team of Pridmore and Caesar DO a TrJ umpb went around the turns really showing the crowd how a "kneeler" car bandles and were clocked at close to 90 mph. 'Ibe other team was Amrosi and Farrara Wbo were defln1tely experiencing handling ditficultles on the Tower Torn. 'Ibe car wbeel was coming completely up and off the ground despite Farrara's efforts to hold it down. In the 250 Grand Prix class Ralph Wbite (Kawasaki) was the early leader just blazing away, but went down on the fourth lap moving Art Baumann (Yamaha) into the lead spot. An

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