Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

TAMING THE TIGERS Team Effort T eam races were close but L.A. 11gers, captained by Jack O' Brien ( above), lost to San Fernando Valley Red Devil s, By John A. Grout Photos by Dennis Greene PACOIMA, Cal., Sept. 7 - In what will have to go Into the books as one of the fines t raci ng classics of our time, the San Fe r nando Valley Red Devi ls again tamed the roar right out of the Los Angel es Tig e r s Saturday night at Whiteman . And they didn ' t even have to use a whip, although they had seven of them whips that Is - In the human tea m form of: Sli din' Jimmy Nicho lson, Elliott· · The Cue Stick" Schultz , Bruce " Where'd He Go?" Haserot, DeWayne " Skeete r " Keete r, Don " Mr . Motorcycle" Hawley , J ohn •• The Swifty" Hateley and Sonny " The Ner f" Nutter . Merely seven of the hott est hotshoes ever to persuade a track operator to allow them through the pi t gates . And they turned eight L.A. Tigers every way but loose, all the while they were really yanking the tallsl As a matter of f act, .they yanked hell out of them s ta rting from the first heat race, and progressively got more sadistic as the evening went al ong. For med on the line for that fir st team effort were Jack 0' Brien and Rick Woods for the Tigers , wh Ile representing the Red Devils, Jimmy Nicholson and Ell iott Schultz r olled under the startin g flag. And, with 0' Brien taking an im mediate lead off the first turn, Nicholson and Schultz - with a perfect team effor t anchored down the second and third s pots, thereby saving an equalizing three points for their crew. In the second team even t, it was the sensati onal r iding s tyle of Pa ul Conser r ier e as he went wire to wire, beatIng his own partner , Chuck Jones , In the ti me of 1:01. 75. The third r ace saw young Red Devil J ohn saying, " Hey, wait justa minute!" And he proceeded to really nall the Ti ger team of Jo hnny " Wheeli e" Carter and Stu " The Wrecki ng Cr ew" Mor ley. The fourth fir ecracker of the night brought to the li ne O'Br ien (L.A .) and the vastly improved Steve Bast for the Ti gers (his first night on the new, Johnny Hagey owned Es o) . And, watch out for this young Mr. Bast - he 's on his way to bigger and better things. The final rundown: Jack and Steve, first and second . DeWayne Keeter grabbed a third for the Vallev Team . Fast Hea t To Nicho lson But where did this classic bit start to happen? Right here ••.tn the fif th team event . Nicholson and Schultz for the Red Devils were being oppos ed by the L.A. Team of Cons er r ier e and Chuck " The Pr ofess or " Jones. And Nicholson, In his inimitable s tyle, juiced his machine Into a br oadsli de di rectly off the line and Inlo the fir s t cor ner . The n, as they went Into the east turn, Jimmy, who by this time loo ked as though he had the whole affair wrapped and delivered for the Valley boys, saw a chan ce to help his running ma te, Schultz. As a result, Nicholson slowed the ripping pace that he had alr ea dy established, dropped ba ck a bit to help solidify Schultz's position, and then ' gassed i t to the checker in the winning time of 58:94 - a tim e tha t was to stand as the fastest win for the rest of the Paul Conse rriere won 4-lap, 4oom a" Grand Finale for lllp point earners from both L..A. and Valley teams. night! It also enabled J immy to coll ec t a free "fast- ti me" case of s uds from Don's Red Carpet In Burbank. The sixth race was a big sweeper for L.A. Tiger rider John Carte r . In the seventh event, It was Hateley and Hawley unseating the Tiger Team of Bast and 0 ' Brien. And a t the halfway mark of the tea m racing, the . scor e was te rri bly clos e: L.A. 22, Va lley Red Devil s 20! Agai n, giving all of the r ider s a chance at the money, the fi r s t heatrace for nonteam members came to the starting line, and it was J. Carte r taking the lead and fi nis hing In first place off the final turn. The s ec ond race in this s er ies sa w Chuck "Feets" Mlnert the eventual wtnner as he turned back Homer Knapp and Gordy Wil liams . It was all the way with Randy Ellis In the third heat while, In the fourth go- around , Mulde r , the "Steady One ," led fr om start to fini s h. In the two sem is of the night, Mlnert won the nrst, with the second goIng to Chuck Berry for his win over Mulde r . F inishing In the same positions In both Trophy Dash and Main Eve nt wer e Mulder and Mlner t . It Got Even Wilder Then the team racers were ba ck on the line . And the ac ti on kept righ t on getting wilder and wilder . In the eighth team event, Sonny Nutt er , In one of his best rides, turned ba ck the L. A. gr oup of Conser r ler e and Woods. Then, In the nin th race , the Red Devil Team of Nicholson an d Schultz soundl y whipped Tigers Carter and Mor lev. And, how about the lOth team event? This one had to be the race of all races I Wallin !,: for the start were L.A. members 0' Brien and Bast. The Valley was repr e sented by Nutter and Keete r . So, who got into the first turn, first? How about Nutter? But - and here it happened again _ Sonny s a w that his compadre Keete r , was haVing his s hare of problems In grabbing a hold of the circuit. So, Nutter dropped ba ck on purpose, trying to help Keete r . And, In the doing ,.he must have realized he was risking 0' Brien leading in the whole affair. And that's what happened . But, this Is team racing; the action on Nutte r ' s part allowed his running mate to move up one position . Then we got to the 11th race of the evening . On the starting grid were Conser riere and Jones for the Tigers. S.F. V.R.D. fle lded the twoso me of Hawley and Hateley. Coming off the first turn , as eager watchers jumped to their fe e t, it was Conserrlere, Hawley, Jones and Hateley, Afte r racing that way for three lap s, Don Hawley suddenly yanked all of the cords and went rocke ting into the lead at the exit fr om the west bank. Howeve r, this was deflnltely not the end of it bec a use, r ealizi ng tha t his teamma te, Hateley , was not moving up with him, Don looked around and started to slack his own pace. This gave Cons erriere the ope ning for which he had been looking, as he came off the final turn with more heat than a blast furnace! Still , with his unselfish thinking, Hawley was able to place his partner Into a ve ry strong third at the wire. And tha t' s what you call "Team Ra ctng." The 12th race went to Schuitz after an extrem ely .s trong r ide . In the 13th, it was Steve Bast. The 14th and final team event was captured by J immy Nicholson, who beat out his crew member, Hateley. Then ca me the Grand Fi nale of the night, br inging to the line the four top "point earners trom the two teams, 0' Brien and Cons er r ier e for L.A. and Nicholson and Hate ley for the Red Devils . Paul mad e the scene from the fi r st lap all the way til the end of this bash. Fi nal Res ult : Cons er r ier e, 0' Brien, NIcholson and Hate ley. After the races , many team mem ber s and race patrons were entertained at Snoopy' S Oper a House on La urel Canyon Blvd• .in North Hollywood, dona tor s of the impres sive team trophy. Yours tor better racing - and if it ge ts any be tter next week, it 'll be unbeli evable! (Res ults on page 20) 1J00N"TH'r"wiiUliNlfBO[O"woifio"OF '· '" -,sA··"' (,/ ' B 441cc SINGLE WINS SA Encinitas SO Mile Rough Scram bles September 8th 1st OVERALL CHUCK MINERT • ISA . - - -~-' I I BSA 650c( I I i L .•.•.•.•.•••_ I S September 7th • ateur aln E vent 1st JI See your BOLD WORLD dealer NOWI BSA Western - 2745 E. Hunt inq ton Dr. - Duarte, Cal i forn ia 91010 ICE ISA . ::: ~ '" 'l.. ~ ::; e.; Qj ~ c:; 0 ~ r.J ~ r.J d ~ U

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