Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

ESO'S, JAP'S INVADE WHITEMAN . - - - - - . . , tI) ~ SlIDlN' EDDIE MULDER TAKES :z: WIN AT ARST SOUTHLAND CLASS A :5 (.) Story by Mike Ca palite Pb o to s by Den n is Gree ne ~ o Class A. Short Track re turned to the Sou thern Ca li fornia a rea Sa turday night .June 22 at Pacoima' s Whi teman Stadium, an d if the s how put on by some of the top names in motorcy cl e raci ng is a ny indica tion of thin gs to co me, it looks like mare promoters will be install ing c ushion trac ks to run thes e fue l- burne rs on. The gene ral comment from the s pecta tor s was that he re is real racin g where the rider' s a bili~ made a diHer ence and not where money put into the engine makes a winner . ObV iously enjoy ing himself, JAP-mounled Rick Woods won heat race, look close 2nd to Sammy Tanner In lhe C Main. Super slidy Steve Scolt shows hi s stuff on a JAP. Scoll and Eddie Mulder waged war for A Main victory that had crowds cheering. ....l ng along on Class A cushion surf ace Sw of decomposed granite, clay, and rock-du sl are Jack O'Brien, ChuckJones and Stu Morley. Yow! Eddie Mulder's got that look In his eye! Sweepi ng away ali opposition on his Eso, Mulder ran away with his heat and gave a show of shows i n t akin g A Main Event. Talk about spark ling performances - John Hateley (J AP) looked li ke a speedway veteran In beating Sammy Tanner for heat race honors. Then he gave Paul Conserrlere a rough go In the B Main until slid ing out. The track is 1/1 0 mlle and has a base of decomposed granite and clay with a three-inch c ushio n of r ock dust on top whic h al lows some spectacular sliding when you put a machine on it that deli ve rs 50 ponies a t the rear wheel . As this type of racing is new to most of the riders, it was dec ided by the officials to run a regular progressive short tra ck program ins tead of a regular speedway-type of pr ogram until the r iders get a li ttle more experie nce in this type of racing. The pr ogram was ma de up of six heat races, four semi-mains ) Uld_th;,ee ~n evepts - A, Band C. ~. . •• • _. • • • • • • .. 10 • • • The fi rst hea t found Rick Woods , a long -time short tracker aboard one of J erry Falrchild' s JAP' s , taking the win over Bruce Haserot, with Mike Konle third and Dave Stroman in fourth. The se cond heat was a run-away for Eddi e Mulder ( Eso) as Home r Knapp could not make it to the li ne and Dick Aurandt threw his chain in the first la p leaving Ron Bonner with a second place . ias The third heat V a battle between young John Hate ley (JAP) and sammy Tanner ( JAP) with Hateley comlngouton top and Bob Bender tlnishing third. JAP- mounte? St!lve Scott " :v~o i~. :veil known for his sliding ab1llty, put on the s how in the fourth hea t an d ran away from second place man Bob Bakker and third place Gordon Willia ms . The fif th hea t pi tte d Jack 0 ' Br ien and Chuck J ones (both on JAP 's) in the fight for the lead with Jo nes takin g i t an d Stu Morley coming in third. Fourth pla ce man Dude Cris well ( Es o) s hook the pits up a li ttle when he slid off the wes t cor ner , mot ored thr ough the pits and back on the track again. The last hea t went to Paul Conserriere (JAP) with J im Ash walt second an d Al Holley in third. The fastest heat of the night was the second which was won by Eddie Mulder a t 63 seconds. As they lined up for the fi rst semi, Woods ha d the pole with Mulder right next to him and when the flag dropped, Steady Eddie took the lead while Haserot grabbe d s e cond. Woods a tte mpted to take Br uce on the ha ckstral ght , they bumped togethe r an d Wood's footpeg found i ts way tnto Has e r ot' s front wheel an d they both went down in a tangle of me n an d mac hi nes , Nei ther one of them was hurt, but Br uce ' s machine was done for the evening as the spokes in the fr ont wheel had been des troyed. Thi s left second pla ce to Bonner and a position in the C maln to Woods . The Seco nd semi was equally exciting although it was without inc ide nt as Scott an d Hate ley were taking the corners side by side in full - lock slides , but when the checkered flag dr opped, it was Scott in the le ad, Hateley s econd and Tanner third. The thir d semi was another side by s tde battle be tween Jones and Conserrier e as Jones seemed to ge t a little be tter drive coming out .or the corner with Dave Stroman third an d Mike Konle fourth . The fourth se mi was a breeze for 0' Br ien as Ashwalt had to scratch an d Bob Bender was put in as an alternate. Ja ck got in front an d stayed there leaving the battling behind him between Criswell, Holley and Bender. The crowd was on its feet from beginni ng to end in the C main as Tanner took the lead with Woods r unni ng side by side the whole race with the finish leaving Tanne r the winner by only slx inches. This was some of the best controlled sliding that we saw the whole evening as Paul Conserrlere had a bali winni ng the B Mai n. Here he shows flrst· pl ace form, Esomounted. - each of the m had confideoc e in the other's ability so there was no ba cking off in the entire r ace. As the B main lined up, it was Hateley who was figu red to win over Conserriere, but Pa ul got off the li ne fi r st and put on such a winning drive that Hateley slid out trying to catch him leaving se cond place to Criswell and it looked like third place would go to Bonner because even . thongh Hateley had remounted, he was still a lap behind. But as fate would have it, as Ron came across the line with one .lap to go, he ran out of fue l and was not able to finish so Hateley wound up in the third place slot. The A main definitely ha d the top r ider s of the evening in it. The line- up was comp r ise d of some of the top r iders in the country with Mulder on the pole , Scott, Jones and 0' Brien. Eddie had been out duri ng the wee k doing a li ttle pr a cti ce , and he was able to get the jump off the line . Though Scott was us ing eve ry li ne through the corner s to over take him, he couldn' t quite do it, but in the meantime he an d Eddie put on the wilde s t s lid ing s how that the specta tor s cheer ing them on had ever seen. The fini shing or der was Mulder, Scott, 0' Br ien and Jones . The maln comments in the pits see me d to be tha t this was the mos t fun any of the riders had ever had r acing and just walt ti ll nex t week, as a lot was learned by both riders and tuners . I a dvise you to get ther e early next saturday night as there will be pr actice in the morning an d afternoon till 4 p .rn , and then the track will clos e down till 6 p .m , when it will open both for r iders an d spectator s with practice beginning a t 6: 30. Sign- up will close at 7:3 0 p .m , with the races starting a t 8:30. If any difficulty is encountered in finding the track, Whiteman Airpor t is a djacent to it a nd is shown on all L.A. maps cove ring the city of Pacoima. (Results on page 20)

• Cover