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BAUMANN BOMBS AT VACA VALLEY AfM ROAD RACES Story and Photos by George Martin VACAVI LL E, Cal. , Aug. 18 - The last place in the world you' d expect to find a pair of Yamaha' s preci ous 350cc Dayton a road racers on an August Sunday woul d be Northern Cal iforni a' s bumpy old Vaca Valley Raceway, but there they were, screami ng around the course faster than double- geared l ightning. With the last of th e AMA road race Nationals out of the way, Yamahaapparently decided to giv e the sleek orange and white 3505 one mor e outing, and tapped A rt Baumann and Mike 0J!f to r i de them in the A F M -sanctioned event. .. Leo Lake ( the man in charge of Yamaha' s Ameri can racing machines) called me a fe w days before the race and asked me If I wante d to r i de a 350," Baumann said. " He said they couldn't pay me any money, but I said forget I t, Just bring the machine ." Yamaha's decision was like a $200 gift from the gods to Baumann, who c ut his racing teeth at Vaca Valley and who knows the track surface as well as anybody. Unless som ething drastic was to happen (and It didn' t) the red-haired San F ranci scan was a cinch fo r fir st overall in the 350-0pen class. Duff was a little less I mpressed. When as ked how he found Vaca Valley he r eplied with one word: "Bumpy !" But Exper t tha t he I s, he began exploring the potho les and slick spo ts, and was soon getting around nearly as fast as Baum ann and his fellow Vaca Valley " king" Ron Grant . f1nally got by the 350 Honda only to be passed I n the turn by Wilbert' s Br ldgestone on the eighth lap, One lap later Wilbert nailed Greene and the disc-valve duo finished in one- two order. Andy Baumann took the Open Class on his Triumph, and the 250 class was domInated by a gaggl e of Bultaco Metrallas, Charl es Over land being firs t, followed by John Gallagher, Ted Jewell and a rider named McPartland. The 175cc f1nal was a start to f1n1sh Victory for speedy Dav e Burcharqs who was r i ding a very qui ck 160 Honk for the occasion. Dave Scott putAl F ergoda's rapi d little Yamaha 100 twin racer Into second place and held It there until the last lap when a slower rider crossed his line and Scotty unloaded. The little Yamaha now has a six-speed gearset and a stronger cr ank, and goes like the wind. Second at the fi ni sh was Ralph Le Cl ercq, followed by Pete Gtordan en go Bob Kno t t and Eldon Parker . ' Bridgestone Ba ttle The production race, which was held I mmediately after the Grand Prix heats, turned out to be a battle of the Brldgestones . Jam es Chen p ut his Honda 350 into turn one first, but on lap two he was passed by Jerry Greene's 350 Brl dgestone and was being pressed by the 500 Suzuki of Oliver Bennett. • Anoth er Brl dges to ne GTR , ridden by Hurl ey Wilbert, had made a bad start, but was carving through the pack and took fo ur th behind B ennett's Suzuki on th e th1rd time around . Benne tt, meanwhil e, was keeping the pressure on Chen, and The 250Cc class gave young Mike Lane of Bakersf ield a chance to show his stuff. Riding a TDl-C , Lane was third I n the opening laps, then got I nto second by passing Ron Grant's Suzuki and began stalking leader rave Scott on another Yamaha. Lane' s chance came on lap six, as the two riders rocketed off the bank1ng and into tu rn two. Lane took a tighter line braked just a split second later and wedged his machine just a hair in 'front of Scott' s in th e turn. Acc el erating hard he gained another few feet coming out of the turn, and then he began to slowly but surely draw out a si gnifi cant lead and was far ahead at the f1n1sh.Scott~ sec ond, Grant th1r d, and Ron Pi erce four th , all on Yam ahas . SUZUKI CITY 16 HUSTLE• • $599 With th e 350-0 pen flag, Ron Grant's Suzuki 500 lit off first, closely fo llOWed by Phil Makanna on a thundering Nor ton A tlas. Baumann was third, and 0J!f was sixth. But by lap two , Baumann had zapped both M akanna and Grant, and Duff had pas sed Jerry Gr eene' s Brldgestone and one other r i der to put himself in fourth. On the next go-round, Duff went by ~ c. 1125 so. LA BREA, INGLEWOOD (213) 674-1431 ~ t.3 - - - - - - - - - - - - =-= ENSENADA ROADRIDECOMINGUP! Banmann Blasts To W in : :5 ,......-----------.. ~ 8R'DGESTONE Co) Sales-SerYice Barney Tillman' s SPORT CENT ER 6 027 Wh1 Uler 81 vd, ; E. Los Angeles (2 13) 723-3:123 Scotsman Dave Scott and his economical FerlOda Yamaha . Makanna and Grant to get secon d but catching first meant ca tching Baun:ann and A r t had no I n tention of letting happen. "/ kind of tho ught about drO ng back Ppi and hav ing a dice," Art said later " but 1 thought something might haPpe'n and maybe / couldn't ge t awa y again SO i thought, ' sor ry Mike..... ' , ' Behind the two Yamahas, Grant and Makanna were I nvol v ed In a hot scrap which ended late In th e race when Makan na' s N o r ton began making f unny noises and he cooled It. Wor king his way f r om deep in the pack to finish fifth was Byron Black, on a Kawasaki . Black 'S mount was a rather odd one a vi r t ually stoc k 350cc A venger engine 'in an A1-R racing f ram e. A little undertuned, but per haps appr opr iate for th e all eged president of th e God's Bats Gentlemen ' s Motor Bi cy cl e Racing Cl ub. Regretfully, the r ace was apparently the last Nor thern Cal1fornia A F M-sanc_ tl oned race for promoter John Renesch, Renesch had tried hard to bring professional road r acing along In Nor th er n Cal1fornia, but he Is stymi ed by lack of a really suitable track. " Vaca Valley, " he said, " Jus t doesn't draw people. " And spectators are where the pr omoting prof it comes from . The new raceway to be built at Sears Point on the nor th shore of San Francisc o bay could change all this that Above: Make way l or Phil Makanna! Make way lor the Nort on wind mach ine! Hurley (16) WI lbert brlnls his Brldpslllne throurh the pack III win. ............... 7th ANNUAL OREGON-~' . ~STATE CHAMPIONSHIP~ By Jerry Ac1den GRANTS PASS, ore., Sat., Aug. 24 HeavY rains that canceled races to th e Nor th and eventually caused a cancellation of the Sunday championship races at Sunny Valley, held off for Saturday night's Oregon State Championship Motorcycle races at the Josephine County Fairgrounds. The seventh annual season ender fo r the Fairgrounds races sponsored by the Rogu e Valley Rider s I nc . and sanc tioned by A MA, were stag ed under a can opy of clouds that withheld r eleas e of any moisture until several hours after th e races were completed and the f1nal trophies awarded. Nearly 200 entries pr ovided some of the season's best races fo r the largest cr owd of racing fans of the y ear that f 1lled th e two grandstand s and a portion of the extra bleachers brought in for the events . Plenty of spUls on the crowded turns and one sensational flip tha t came in the 500 A Main in front of the grands tands Jus t after the start of th e rac e r esulted In th e race being black flagged and re- SUIUrlAT O started. A Grants Pas s rider, F ritz Espy, was unable to avoi d a fallen bike and bo th his cycle and he did a flip in the air which caused him to l ose some front teeth and break his right hand. Cancellation of races in the northe rn part of the state sent several late entri es to the Grants Pass races including a professional r ider , Mark Williams of Springfiel d, ore., who rode exhibition, winning the 20-lap Open A Main, butforf elting the trophy although he collected the kiss f r om the trophy girl. The race developed in to one of the closest battles of the night during the early laps as Dick Chambers, riding a Triumph, took the lead. A l though Williams, also r i ding a Triumph , tried valIan tly through the fir st f ew laps, lt was n' t unW the sixth one that he managed to get by Cham ber s . It became a three- man r ace by the l Oth lap as Ron Bolling of Stockton, Cal1f., began crowding the two f ront- runners. He managed to pull ahead of Chambers for part of the 13th lap but Chambers got back Into second place for all but the last yard of the event when Bolling took sec- end by a matter of I nches ahead of thir d placer, Dick Cham bers. W1ll1ams had taken firs t hy 10 yards. As It turned ou t, Bolling' s thrUllng finish got him the firs t-place trophy when W1ll1ams for fei ted because of his pr ofessional status. The Springfield r i der was a National leader in points in his last y ear of Amateur racing. The win gave Bo J.Ung his sec ond trophy of the evening to go wi th a second place trophy in the 250 A Main. Chambers collected three trophies also , but only one first for the night fo r w1nn1ng the Open Class T rophy Dash. He got a second place trophy for his A Main race and was awarded th e season's high-point trophy for Open Class at the end of the trophy pr esen tations. Double winners for the night were Gary Kapus of Vancouver, wasn., riding a Kawasaki in the 100cc Trophy Dash and the A Main and Jack Mott of Oregon City ore., riding a Triumph In the 500cc Tro~ phy Dash and the A Main . John Renfro of Prospect, a re . r ode a Moto-Beta to win the beginner s Trophy Dash and the A Main in that division. 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