Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

~ ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• REBEL CONQUERS SAN JOSE: ............................,,;r . Cll Keeter Wins On BSA Story by Carol Si ms Photos by W ilHam Cl a rk Professional AMA fl attrack rid ers f rom allover Cal iforn ia gathered at Santa Cl ara County Fairgrounds in San Jos e on Sunday af ternoon, June 16. The occasion was the final haIlmile event before Promot er Bob Barkhi mer' s IO-Mil e Nat io nal Champi onship race scheduled there J ul y 28. Q., Foll owing Gunter for fourth was Pa tr ick, ahead of Barda, Hardmeyer and Hall. In the Amateur class , Jim Rice and his BSA were practi cally unbeatable. He made It four MaIn Event victories in a row for an undefeated '6 8 San Jose win streak. And this tim e Rice qualifi ed fas ter than most of the Experts , won his heat race, was a close second to Bob Self (Royal Enfie ld) in the Trophy Dish, Rice Runaway Thai $50 bill you see winging away was promised to Suzuki rider Frank Gi llesp ie If he could win Novice !\l ain. #101' Kellh Mashburn (Yamaha), here leading, beal oul all competition• . DeWayne Keeler (Insel) roared 10 wins In every San Jose evenl he enle red. T he Ascol polnl lea der slarled on the eut slde of the fronl row forllle final, led from Ihe drop of sta rter LIS Morgan's flag. SlIdln' AI Gunler, Nal' l No.3, was Impress ive In flrsl No. Calif. appearance 01 '68 season on his G-SO M alchless. Alberl worked up 10 2nd In the M ain, was narrOWly nosed out on la st lap• ." is championship sewed UP. The season is As usual, Nor thern versus Southern CalI!ornia rivalry sp iced the action, and rebel r ider De Wayne Kee ter, current As cot point leader, journeyed north to claim a clean sweep of the Expert events - heat race, Trophy Dish and 15lap MaIn Event. Ruff and Rutty The track was rough, developing several holes, but seemed less dusty by the Dishes and MaIns . QuIte a few spills and restarts occurred during the day's program, however, as the groove became narrower and narrower. Keeter found the winning groove early. He went into the turns a little wide, then rode close to the pole the rest of the way. SkilltullY her ding the powerful Dick Kelm BSA, Keete r ' s lead was never in serious jeopardy throughout the 15lapper , Second place was another matter. AI Gunter, maki ng his fir s t San Jose appearance of the season astride his trusty Matchles s G- 50, had transferred directly to the Main, quall!ied for the Tr ophy Dish and leapt fr om the back row into runnerup spot on lap one of the fea ture. Running third was Triumph-mounted Ken Weakley. Behind the leaders , spirited sparring for position took place . Carl Patrick (Tr iumph), Johnny Hall (BSA) , Art Barda (Velo) and Dick Hardmeyer (Triumph) all exchanged sp ots frequently with the eventual outcome in doubt until the last lap. Unbeknownst to Gunter, his second place would also be conte s ted on the final ci rcuit. Weakley , moving uP strongly ('scuse the pun please), closed the gap .on the back stretch, challenged in the turn, got by and went on to take runneruP money. Said Albert of his last- lap zap, " I didn't know he was there . I was being over ly cautious because I'd slipped the last three laps from going in too fast. I backed off on the las t lap tblnklng I had enough lead not to worry - and I didn't have. " I.V~ ':' ~ "~' , . , " ' C; ;\•• , S Undefealed In yellow-plale Main Events at San Jose thls year, Amaleur #80y J 1m Rice (BSA) kepi his win streak going, look Ihe final by half·a-Iap . more than halt over and it would be almos t impos s ible for second place man ~ Torsten Hallman (Hus qvarna) to catch ;: up. While we are on moto-cross I might ~. mention that fo ur-time wor ld moto-cross UJ champion Torsten Hallman, two-time 'J world moto-cross champion Bill Nilsson, then went on to take the 10-lap feat ure by a fantastic margin• . He held a full straightaway and halt-a- turn lead over second place man Rick Ellsarraras. EIIsarraras, also BSA, in turn had won his hea t and doggediy held number two position for the full IO-lap dis tance , finishing well ahead of J im Ashmore and Don Harms, both on Harleys. ;; Mashburn Mows ~ Em Down The r ider who has more Novice vic tories to his credit than any other green-plate r ider in the U.S., Keith Mashburn, added more stature and substance to his s tanding by winning everytblng In sight at San Jose. WhIZZing to yet another clean sweep on his sizzling Dennis Mahan tuned Yamaha, Keith turned back the heat race, Trophy Dish and Main Event troops in confident, hea ds- up fas hion. Joe Henry ( Duca tl) threaded his way through trafflc to finish second in the final' BSA-mounted cave Aldana held dow~ third in fr ont of Terry Donaher (Kawasaki ) and Frank Gillespie(Suzukl) , thus making it five differ ent brands of bikes in the first five spots. New Officials A new District 36 Referee and a new starter made their first appearances at San Jose, and impressive first-tim e efforts they were. AMA Referee Ray Vowell ran the show with authority and starter Les Morgan didn' t take any gulf , immediately sending r iders to the third row who tried to take advan tage . Both added Immeasurably to the overall professionalism of the swif tly-moving program. (Results on page 20)· .. . ... ,, ' . Belgium'S Sporting Champion Jack Van Vel thove n, and top li ne ri der Jock Boonen ~ will all be over to compete in the Fire cracker Grand Pr ix at the new Saddlebac k loca tion on Jul y 4th, 1968. If you saw the Europeans r ide last year you'll Walch for John Haleley 10 become one of the be there , It you didn't you have no exspeedway super-stars, cus e thi s tl me •••they're gr eat. It would als o be nice to see some of our boys Speedway racing in Southern Califor tak ing the lead once in a while and qulte nIa? Yes, speedway r a cing is now runa few of our r iders have impr oved imning on Saturday nights In the San mens ely since our last annlhIlation in Fe rnando Valley at WhIteman Stadiwn . late '67. Last Saturday's openi ng showed some With $350.00 for prize money In the lack of spectator attendance due to two 0- 125cc clas s alone this seems to be a previous cance llations of the opening much fairer system for the boys on the race. Such noted hotshoes as Eddie smaller r igs . A total of $400.00 for the Mulder, Sam Tanne r , Steve Scott, and 250cc class is also offer ed with the Chuck J ones to name a few, wer e having sam e amount for the Open Class . themselves a ball on the full lock sliding surface that makes sp eedway racing Ascot Action what it is . Eddie " Squirr el" Mulder As cot racing last F riday night saw so me pr ovided the winning form as he pulled great dici ng in the Amateur main with off a great victory aboard an Eso. J im Rice coming all the way from second Speedway racing has to be one of the to last at the start to a fantastic first by finest specta tor satisfying spor ts in the the end of the 10-lap featur e . Rice took~ .. world today. We look to a much larger over the lead from Tom Rockwoodon lap crowd next week. Why not come out ror a eight and hel d it to the finis h. Rockwood gr eat night of racing? . fi nis hed a great second with another surNew Suzuki For ISDT pr ise coming fr om Rick Elisarraras y,oho s ta r ted dead last to come all the way Suzuki of Japan have announced that through to third. Geez er Emick als o they are enter ing three new 98cc dis c pulled off a saver when he went from the valve rigs in the !SDT in Italy. They will pole pos iti on down to last on lap one only be piloted by M1ck Wilso n, John Hemingto come bac k strong for a neat fourth. way and Paul Englan d as a works team Mel Lacher copped another victory in the under the Suzuki (GB) banner in Italy's Expert Main to put him within so me 50International Six cays Trial. Suzuki has ayne odd points of point leader DeW a 98cc road racer equipped with fai ring Keeter. DeWayne flew to a great second that Is reported to have cl ocked 100 behind Lacher last Friday night. Ralp h mph.. .not bad . WhIte will nowbe wearing the K&N colors European Invasion and rtding their BSA. Ralp h snatched a With the Polish Gr and Prix win in his good 5th in the Expert Main. This gives hand fro m last week, it looks as if Joel the K&N shops a National Number as Robert (C Z) ' has the 25'0' moto-cross " WhIte i's National Nlunber '15;.... ~ ' !C G g

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