Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

ID EST eare MESSAGE By Ford Re id Baundln e alone 1IIrouch 1II e wlntly Ohla CGuntryslde cues Tam Pent an, In caad form. OHIO M BUFFS WORK TO R IC EPEAL BAD LAW Barl s " urray' s lwl~en el ne Last week's speed record, bettered again by Bori s Murray! As the process of elimination began at I rwin dal e Raceway, the t win engi ne Triumph set a new mark in miles per hour at 153.00 and won top bike honors. But it wasn't as easily acc omplished as U's wrItten In this column. A limIted number of tuning r uns kept qualifyIng times below par for the quarter mUe. Seven entrIes were In for top bike eliminations and the final tally yielded a total of sIx, since Don Mc Evoy' s twin engine TrIumph was set aside due to a scattered r ear engine. - Bob Ebeling led the field of six with the best elapsed time of 10.43 seconds. Ebeling was matched with Don Har r ts -s new twin engine TrIumph for r ound one of top bike contention. A green light found both machines out of the hole In a sync hronized movement, but HarrIs was crossed up and had to shut dOWD. Ebeling gathered an easy lead but los t U when his transmis sIon jumped out of gear and HarrIs straightened out the weavlngpath his double had taken and lifted the slides to full open. second match had Joe Smith and Boris Murray s ide by sIde . The greatest dlfference In this show of two top machines, was Murray's Bonneville fairing that bad been scraped of encrusted salt and donned for the quarter mile . On the green Joe gathered a mini second jump and looked good until the eighth mUepost when a s hift to third was missed. Boris Murray stretched out to a long lead that secured r ound vIctory and the new mUes per hour recor d of 163 fla t In 9,51 seconds . Despite the Har ley- Olvidsoo's uncooperative gearbox, Joe Smith's timing ticket r ead 10.14 seconds ! Third up for a r ace to the gold was Bob Braverman's twin engine Yamaha and the 45-inch Triumph of RIch RIchards. Jim Cook was riding for RIchards and did a good dead in the first eight, but a partial engine seIzure held the 45 hack as Braverman' s side of the strIp flashed winner's lights. Round Two 163 mph! Glory bel,thosetwo-strokesarequick. Ron Knapp's 2500c drag bike is using an engine which in its early days piloted Bob Braverman's 25lJec drag bike. The power must really be re a chi n g the ground, for Knapp Is setting elapsed times never approached by Braverman, except when the fuel was spIced with alcohol. Sunday at irwindale Knapp's best time ticket showed a fao1astic 11.72 elapsed time and U was only one of the many eleven second sprints. T ri umph blasled ta a recard By Bob E beli ng .• • Yamaha Record Of course the remaining three provided an odd number and Braverman drew the lucky straw that let hIm sit aside as Don Harris and Boris Murray had at It. TwIn engine Triumphs when side by sIde , belch ing nllro names thr ough brass ec ho tubes make quite a thunderous sound. The starting s ignal provided a show of equal reflexes but again HarrIs was plagued with crossIng - up and a Darrow mar gin of control, Murray was able to r un straight for another step closer to top bIke. Not much time had elapsed before Braverman and Mur r ay were banging on to projecting door handles or bumpers of the two cars and heading for the startIng area. Braverman s taged with a slight apprehensIon that the odds were not on his side, when face d against the 163 r ecord machine . As a result, when the green fla shed on Braverman had already left, just a shade too soon for a red light glimmered that gave an automatic win to Murray . The TrIumph needed that forfeit, for Murray's rear chain parted and be was forced to coast through the lights at the end of a quarter mUe . Lions A lot of entries, 90 per cent of which are tun1ng for the Nlne Hundred Dollar meet of saturdaY, March 23rd. WIth the big date only a scant three weeks away, entrIes were high and a great substitute pU director was standing in for Ed Thompson, Lions normal h\gI1 off1elal. Zeman ....as the man's name and because of the fine job done we will bereafter refer to him as Mr. Zeman. Stockers All shape s and sizes of quick contend ers. Four class winners consIstently knocking at a 12 second door with low 13 second times. Two Harleys, one Norton, one Suzuki were in this top group but to the surprise of three, Mike Lapolla rode his 750cc Norton Into a top stock bike victory. Lapolla also turned in the best elapsed time of all stock bikes at 13.01 seconds. Best In the mUes per hour group was Ed McDonald and a 55 incb Sportster at 100.11 miles per hour. Modified Its no real surprise to see Jack Murphy's 25lJec Suzuki win the top mod11ted title, espec ially when he turns consistent quick E.T" s like todays best of 12.56 s econds. That two- stroke s cream er is not strong in elapsed time only. "Old Man " Murphy's winning ticket showed a speed of 105.11 miles per hour . Gassers and quick times are of no secret to American Speed Cycle as attests the results shown with theIr 650Cc Trlumpb. WIthout question they wer e awarded top Gas honor s at Lions drag strip when the best ticket showed results of 11.89 seconds at 111.24 miles per hour. Atlrwlndale Raceway Nlra Johnson'S TrIumph gasser clocked a best of 11.63 seconds. 1 have a feeling In my bones that's either rheumatism or the signs of a great race comIng UP. Speed Fuel Bob Bogan's 650 Triumph and Millard Dlsharoons 55 Inch spor tster were the quick and fast mac hines at LIons . Although neither had class competition, they pr ovided good action in s hows of theIr OWD. Bogan clocked a best of 11.50 seconds and 120 miles per hour . Di shar oon's Spor ts ter turned In a time and speed of 10.62 and 131.30. Reme mber saturday, March 23rd, at 1:30 p.m, Is the day and time tha1 Lions drag strip will open the gates for a $900.00 bIke affatr. Cbances for trophies and gree ngreen money for man, woman, child, s tdehack, road racer, desert bug or whateve r! The cbange is being made at Irwindale to saturday afternoon and nIght racing, beginning on saturday, Marcb 16th. I hope my long johns don't itchl (Results on page 20) - We ' re going to wear belme ts ;" Paul Schl ez el said , - b ut we do n't need bi g brother to t ell us we ha ve to; " Paul i s a Toledo, Ohi o moto rcycle dealer and a me mber of t he Glas s City Motor cy cl e Club. Glass Ci ty membe rs are the people who' ve fin ally decided to do something about laws which restrict motorcycltsts . e 've all been griping abo ut the laws s ince they first s ta rted getting pass ed but most of us have fai led to do anythi ng constructi ve about c han ging them. - W ' ve all been yelling and sc rea mi ng ab out the helm et laws and other e restrictive legislation, - Paul s aid, - but we' ve be en yelling and screaming at each other. Now what goo d is it if 1 rid e a mo torcycle and yo u rid e a motorcycle an d we go around complaini ng to eac h other about th e l aws ?" So P aul an d the rest o f the Glas s Ciliers decided to do som ething. They started a l e gal fund and hir ed J ohn P. Henahan , a lawy er with e xpe rie nce de fending motorc ycle s and motorcycli sts i n c ourt . P a ul said Henahan hasn' t decide d wha t co urse of ac ti on to take yet b ut it looks li ke he will ask for a j udici al ruling o n the co nstitutio nality of th e law in the s tate, rather than ta ki ng a test case to court. - If we take a test c ase to co urt the ruling might come in a hurry but i t would just be for Lu cas Co unty ,- Paul s a id, - a nd we wan t a rulin g for th e whol e state ," P au l is no newcomer to the world of mot orcy clist harassment. Last summer he began operating a scrambles track i n southern Michigan, j ust a cross th e s tate line from T ol ed o . One ra c e was run and Paul was arrested. - T hey didn't come o ut and drag me away or anything," he s aid , -but they did take out a warra nt for my arrest, " He ' s currently appealing a co nvict io n in the case• . T he cl ub has had proble ms lik e that, too . They 'd planned a four hourmar at hon on lan d owned by a member and le ased to the cl u b. Bu t the long arm pu lied the s to ps on that one , too . But t he Ohio helmet la w is what th e club i s fighting now• .At last report a lmost $700 had bee n co llect ed from c lubs, dealers and individuals for the fig ht . P a ul predic te d that by th e end of F ebruary the club will have achieved half of it s $3,000 goal . - T here are 121 ,0 00 bik e s re gis tered in the state of Ohio;" Paul s aid, - a nd e ve ryone who ri des a bik e ought to be concerned about thi s law," - W might not win th i s th ing, - Paul said, - but we think we'v e got a good e case. Anyway we ' re goi ng to draw a lot of attention and let the m know we can't be pushed around, " If you ' d like to let th em know YOU c an ' t be pushed around the place to write is: Glass Ci ty Motorcy cle Club Legal Fund, 7216 Nebraska Avenue , T oledo , Ohio 43617. OHIO SANCTION SCHEDULE It looks like it's going to be a good year for competition in Ohio. At the DIstrict Seven (Ohio) sanction meeting recently 340 events were sanctioned for 1968. These, of course , won't be the only events held as many clubs will sanction races later in the year. The early part of the schedule Is almost entirely devoted to hare scrambles and moto cross . The list looks good with at least one race every week and as many as four li ned up for a sure to be cold February Sunday. In April the transaction from winter to summer racing begins . The honor of the first TT of the year goes to the PIrates of Youngstown. The race Is sche duled for April 14. By May there should be sc r ambles all over the place and enough spor tsman hill cli mbs and short tracks to keep mos t everyo ne happy. In June things really get hopping with as many as 13 events, Including eight scr ambles, a spor ts man hill climb and a sportsman shor t track, ail s cheduled on a s ingle Sunday afternoon. Several clubs in the state, Including the Nor walk Car dinals , Western Res erve Flye r s of Salem and Galion'S Sunset Ramblers, have lighted short tracks so ther e will be mor e than afternoon racing for Ohio racers and fans. In the fall cham pionship events roll around again and five clubs have scheduled them In different areas of competition. The Sunset Ramblers will hold the sportsman s h art track championship August 31. It will be held under the lIdlts. The district champion sportsman hill climber will win the honor at a Sportsman Hillclimbers mee t scheduled for September 8. The four hour cross country championship will be declded at a Blackhawk's meet scbeduledforSeptember 29. The state TT champi onship will again lhIs year be held by the Olyton Motor cycle Club. They've scheduled the race for October 20. And finally the s tate champIonship hare s cramble bas again gone to the SInging "'1Ieels. They've scheduled the race for Nov. 10, la te enough for plenty of mud to collect on the course. Another Interesting note Is that one Engli sh Trials was scheduled for the year . The " keep your feet up" competition hasn 't bee n too popular In Ohio but maybe this one scheduled for next fall by the Mound Riders will reverse the trend. A state champtonshtp enduro is not listed on the AMA sanction schedule. The event was held by the Athens Motor cycle Club last year • It looks like It should be a good year. Almost every weekend there is a race within easy drIvIng or riding distance of nearly anyone in the state. The events are there. Events to satiSfY the style of every competitor and the wishes of every spectator. But a schedule is just a piece of paper and U will take the support of every rIder and fan to make the year everything It promises . Like they say, racing - It makes the world hetter .

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