Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Nix Does It lit Jscot Tool GARDENA, Cal., Sept. 20 - AMA half-mile racing returned to Asco t Park with the biggest bang in years. The li neup looked like "National Night : and the only rider missing was Bart Markel. The return to weekly Friday night racing also made history as Fred Nix 'became the third rider since 1957 from out of state to win the 15-lap Main Event. .., Hot and HeavY Main The feature was a National In anybody ' s book with Lacher being pressured,out of the lead at the end of the first five laps. Nix took over with Haaby In hot pursuit. End for end and lap after lap the two Harley team riders banged It out. Then with only five laps to go Gene Romero and his Triumph came from r ight out of nowhere and made Ita three - rider duel to the finish. Haaby pulled even with Nix with a half a lap to go but lost out by two feet at the fln1sh. Romero was one length behind !! Oa haad III oller _,.lul.llo.. III H.ler-Davld_ alollllDd AICOl Parll polnllea_lIel LK~ ., III III. 'IlcllKJ In lIIe IIotI1-eont..lM 3-1. Yro", Dull __ a II'OUP of San Gabrie l Valley n_alloy.. LKIIer ad III lie COIII_t w.1I • f1ft11 In til. 1I.ln E._I.1tnr 100Ini an ••Iy lead. Nix now joins Markel and Nixon as the llIIly riders from outside Cal1fornia to win an Ascot flnal. He also joins the growing 'Ibe new Nix was a far cry from the rider 1Ibo bas tried for three yeus OIl occasloo just to ,get Into the MaIn"E98Dt. The Qldphoma r1der won his ~ just m1ssed wlnnlng the Trophy Dull and thea held off DIUI HPaby to win the featurel Both the Expert and Amateur flnala pronded the clo8est raclng tbls )'8Pl' for any .tJpe 'of" ~wbilel cdmpetitloa; The program was bWed as a WU1D1Il for the coming ll-M1le Natiooal on the 12th at October - it just mlght hR.ft tcwed what wlll take pJpce 011 ItIat nlgbt. HPaby opened his return by IPk1ng the fastest beat race at the n1gtIt. Point leader Mel Lacber also woo his heat. Nix scored his first uPset by coming from the back row to defeat Paul Conserriere, DeWayne Keeter, Ralph White, Cal Rayborn and Gary NIxon . NIxon and White did not run fast enough to transfer to the semi and were out of the running. 'Ibe llIIly non-Harley heat race win was taken ' 0 Emick Comes Through Emick f1nally won it right at the flnish Une and only led the race the final five yardsl Harms took second and also the point lead by 40 markers going Into next Friday iught's action. The only c1neb of the night again came In the Novice class with Keith Mashburn and his Yamaha back in action for another heat race and Maln Event win. The by Triumph-mounted Bruce Holland. The 1JII.sb, a Mel Lacher spec1alty, had Laeber leading all the _y with Nix nipping the rear tire all three laps. REAL ranks t1 pre-race favorites to win the Natlooal on the 12th. It was the same story In the Amateur flnal only In reverse. Point leader Tom Rockwood apln blew his eng1De and was out "Of tbll 11nal.' Don "HBrms bad 'a Clear ~ " shot a t the point lead for the first time this year and was off in the lead from the start. Harms, Steve Pederson and Geezer Emick rode it out all the way with Em ick runnlng tblrd most of the time. Late laps found Emick taldng over second but unable to grab the lead. 2-STROKE PERFORMANCE WITH REED SYSTEMS ~ Heavy-d Uly heal race ac llon finds Fred Nix (95) la klnl o.er from Pa ul Consern e.. (9y) Gary Nixon (1) and Nell Keen (10). Nix (H· D) wenl on to win his flrs !-e. er Ascol ha lf-mile featu ... ~ nation's number one Novice appe ared to be In top form af ter a month 's layoff fr om half- millng at Ascot. Most of the National crew Is again expected back for the fi nal two Friday n1gbts of r acing bef ore the Saturday night National. Nix and Nixon are looked In a lz:l National point ba ttle that should be declded at the Ascot National on the 12th :>.. and every added lap wlll help decide who U will ,be number one for ' 68. (Results on page 16) i3 Bart Mar kel and Fred Nix used the month of Septe mber to play catch-Up In the National Cham pionship poin t standIngs. They both headed for Cal1for nla at the end of Augus t, playing second fiddle to Gary Nixon and Cal Raybo rn. Markel was his usual unbeatable self at San Jose but was not first at Sallnas which came as a surprise. Nix came through as expected to win the sacramento mlle and Markel should have taken at least a third and more likely a second had not the eng1De blown halfway through the race. WIth luc k, Nix can now take NIxon. Markel may have blown the wbole atfa1r right there on theSacramento mlle.Rayborn wlll have to be coatent to just try and bang oeto 'liI1rd place In the final staildlngs. Bart did not race at the Oklahoma City National last year, a Nat'l event -..here Nix and Nlzon ran first and secoad. Markel will there this year and on the basis of past records sbould be the favorite to win. Rayborn f1n1sbed slxtb In '67 and_Should do about the same • this time. . . • Ascot 8-Mile TeUs The Tale This places the Ascot Eight M1le National as the decld1JlC race of the season for the Grand Nati ooal tille. Firs t, because it Is the last race of the year on the national circuit . 8econdly, It 15 a race where none of the front four In the point race are favor'ed to win. A most unusual ba,ppenIng for a national haU-mlle. The record speaks for Itself: In 1967at Ascot, Markel was not entered and Nix, NIxon andRayborn all ta1led to run fast enough to make the finall All four should make It this year, which means that the point race wlll be dec ided by who fln1shes the highest and yet does not wIn••.a double type national all wrapped up Into a single 20 lap feature I Perhaps the most impor tan t highlight of the lOth annual Ascot national is that for the fi r st tim e In all these years a BSA Is NOT favor ed to win. Al Gunter , sam my Tan ner , Nen KeenandDanHaaby ran through a win string of eight years for BSA and Ta nner gave Triumph a s ingle victory. Gunter and Keen are out at the r unning this year. Tanner has not won a main event In well over a year and failed even to ma ke the sho w at Sacramento. Haaby, the def ending Ascot champ, has s witched from BSA to H-D and Is one of the favorites along with Mel Lacher and longsbot, Bart Markel . MORE POWER CORRECTION DEPARTMENT , MORETORQUE BETTERCOOLING LESS LOAOING-UP BROADER POWER RANGE MORECARBURATION POSSIBLE HODAKA·SULTACO MONTESA • YAMAHA DT-l 29 eo,,"'"',,_............ $ :O:P FOBSANOIEGO $10 0 0 PISTON PORTED BARREL POR TEO$ 25 0 0 IBARREL. PISTON S301 F&M RACING SPEcs. F&M ENTERPRISES 6332 LAKE LEVEN DRIVE SAN DIEGO,CALIF. 92119 SEE YOUR DEALER OR ORDER DIRECT Cycle News his torians please note tha t In the deser t r epor t last week, Rich Thorwaldson was Identified as riding the wrong brand of motorcycle In the stor y, results and pic ture capti on. Thorwaldson recently returned fr om Viet Nam, was astride a 360cc Bulla co Bandido. He rides out of Charlie Hackle's motorcycle s tore where his father, Bill Thor waldson, Is employed. Welcome back, Riebl ~ ........•••.....•• Shell Thuet ~ . Guy Louis SHELL MOTORS HODAKA ~ MIC's RISE TO 3.1% Of CALIf. VEHICLES The " motor cycle boom"ls st1ll boomIng If atfic1al figures from the Cal1for nla State Department of Motor Vehicl es are any Indication. As of the end of July, 1968 ther e wer e 313,573 cycles r egistered In the state , making the two-wh eeler s exac tly 3.10 per cen t of the state' s vehicl e population. Last year at the sa me time motorcycles were only 2.3 %of all vehi cles r egistered. Agaln Los Angele s County led the dis tricts In motorcycles registered with 108,246. In addition ther e are an estimated 150,000 unregis tered motor cycles In the state, Including sportblkes , farm scooters, racers and minibikes.

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