Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Lacher Leaps In ~ "=l ~ "=l tl :>.. U By Carol SIms Photos by Dennis Greene seemed as pleased as DIck with the outGARDENA, Cal., May 2_ Mak1ng his first come, and keeps a close record of all le season appeara nce of the 1969 half-mi times, results and pertine nt Informa tion at Ascot, mighty Mel Lacher and his selfeach week. tuned Harley- Davidso n cleaned house At the payoff window, Lacher and TanFrIday night. ner indulged In a little good-na tured s, Clad In "good guy" white leather needling . "You just couldn' t stand It, last year's high-po int rider set fastest could you?" said Sam. "See if 1 tell you qualifyi ng time by well over a quarter of the track Is bltchin' anymor e." Lacher the quickes t Expert heat a second, won smiled and retorted , "I didn't think It then followe d race, took the Trophy Dash, was too neat." Replied Sam wi th mock up with victory In the l5-lap MaIn Event dismay , "Oh, drat!" Then Mel asked, by almost half-a-s tralghta way. "Did you see my tall end hanging out p to Lacher In the fInal was Runneru there like that?" and the Flying Flea Royal Enfield) , Sammy Tanner (500cc respond ed, , You should have been bewinner of the last two Ascot feature s. hind me - you'd have seen mine doing Sam had several hard fIghts on his hands the same thing." the evening - especia lly with through out We asked why Lacher hadn't been on In the finest Len Earl (H-D), who turned hand for any of the previou s Ascot races perform ance of his profess ional career, this year and he said he'd been busy with and Lloyd Houchins (50OCc BSA), who college exams. (A chemis try major, Mel continu es to impres s with consiste ntly graduat es from San Diego State next good showing s. January .) Then he discuss ed the age-old Earl ed~ Tanner for second behind question of which is safer - tracking Lacher In theIr heat, while Houchin s around on the pole or sliding the corwin n e r Paul Conser rlere challeng ed ners up high. He feels it's safer - and (H-D) all the way In the other Expert more spectac ular - up high. ' The track prelimi nary event. WAS bitchin' in the Dash," he concede d, Lacher pulled a sneaky in the Dash. "but in the MaIn - no cushion . People HIs opponen ts - Tim Harris (65OCc come to the races because they want to BSA), Geezer Emick (500cc BSA) and see somethi ng differen t - they want to as Houchins - were lined up evenly see you flip that old back end around, Lacher circled around, a la Eddie Muldthen get back on the throttle and slide er, trying to get a running start. He did, the corner - THAT'S somethi ng differtoo, gaining nearly a length on the fIeld ent! Trackin g around •..a woman can do s, with his trackwi se tactics. Houchin that." Harris and EmIck wound up in that order. Ironical ly enough, after qualifYing second fastest, Harris didn't make the MaIn Event lineup due to a heart-st opping wing-di ng In his heat race that relegate d him to the rear. Although several top riders have gone East to compete on the Nationa l circuit, includin g Mert Lawwil l, Dan Haaby, Eddie Wirth and Gene Romero , the competition was still keen and close. And, by virtue of his second place Main Event fInish, Tanner now assume s the Ascot point lead from Haaby - 361 to 290. Followi ng Sam to the checker In the final were Earl, Houchin s, Emick, Ron Krusem an (750cc Norton) , Shorty Seabourne (50OCc BSA) and Carl PatrIck (65OCc Triump h). The Harleys of Conserrier e and ChrIs Hansen succum bed to mechan ical problem s. Best battles of the night were between Earl (who led briefly on lap two) and Tanner, then between Houchins and Earl, and finally between Earl and EmIck. Seabour ne, returnin g to action after several weeks layoff due to a pre-rac e spill, fought It out with Krusem an for a while, too. 3 On The Line for Kelm Tuner Dick Kelm had the satisfac tion of fieldIng three BSA 500Cc singles In the MaIn Event, rIdden by Houchin s, Emick and Seabour ne - a fine tribute to his wrench- wieldin g skills. Although KeIrn'S wife Lois commen ted that "three bIkes around the house are driving me out of my cotton-p lckin' mind," she The Novices sorllhem sel.. s out al the start of lbe main. catch him. I tried on the inside a whole bunch. Then I tried the outside once and passed him. And then I couldn' t walt for the checker ed flag." Neither point leader Dave Aldana, second to Donahe r last week, nor Don Castro were on hand for Friday night's races, so Donahe r, formerl y third, is now tied for first place in Amateu r point standin gs. He and Aldana have both racked up 380 marker s; Castro has 290. Emde, , ,Again And Again Undefeated in every Novice race he's entered this year, San Diego's Don Erode notched three more Impress Ive 250cc wins astride his Suzuki. First be took his qualifying event over Guy SmIth (Suzuki); tben be turned back Bultaco mounted Randy Ellis in their heat race; finally he won the 8-lap Main Event by six lengths after passIng Freddie Edwards (Yamah a) on lap one. A spill in the first turn necessi tated a restart of the feature . Kirk Brelsfo rd, Suzuki- riding younger brother of Mark Brelsfo rd. tangled with Jon Lindber g (Kawas aki) and they both went down. ", "Fortuna tely neither rider was injured, \, but their machin es were too badly dam..... aged to make the restart. Second to Emde all the way was Edwards, while lots of passing took place for the other spots. Rick Talbot (H-D) moved up to third after a beautifu l battle with Phil Hinkle (Suzuki) andRand y Ellis (Bultaco ). Then Yamaha -mounte d Dave Bellina charged past both Hinkle and Ellls, taking over fourth. Fifth was Ned Blockln ger (H-D), who also did a nice job of betterin g his early-la p position s. Hinkle, Ellis and Guy Smith followed in that sequenc e. Emde now holds an even more substan tial point lead over Edward s and appears confiden t of staying there. But there's always somebo dy ready to challen ge. For exampl e, Honda-m ounted Ric Holly, a MaIn Event regular who had earlier won his l,lualifylng event, only to crasb in his elimina tion heat, didn't seem detuned In the slightes t by his acciden t. "Next week," said Ric, "Honda 'S gonna win the MaIn Event•• .hOPefully." San Dle&O Slate Cheml stry Major Mel Lacher took lime out from exams to cop the main event. Tanner, having collecte d and counted his money, couldn' t resIst a parting shot at Lacher. "You're not coming back are you?", he asked. Mel replied, "not if I've got any tests." After Sam left, however, Lacber thougbt for a momen t and smiled. "I'll probabl y be back anyway ." We wouldn' t be a bit surprIs ed. Donaher Does in Amateurs PullIng a repeat of last week's lQ-lap yellow- plate feature win, Terry Donahe r once more scored the big one for the Amateu rs, but this time he had to come from behind to do it. Mounted on Ernie Pico's 500cc Velocet te, Terry took the fastest Amateu r beat wire-to -wlre, followed by Dave Hansen aboard PbIl Cancilla'S 40-inch Triump b. The other preliminar y event went to Frank Gillesp ie (650cc TrIump h) over Bob Heinz (H-D). But in the MaIn, Danahe r dogged Hansen's trail for six closely -contes ted laps before finally getting ahead of his determined rival. Third and fourth for the entire distanc e were Gillespi e and Keith Mashbu rn (Yamah a), with GillespI e moving up to make It a good three- way go In the final laps. HeinZ, Stan HIll (BSA), Rory Randall (R.E.) and Jerry Peters (Triump h) rounded out the field. Donahe r was justifiab ly pleased with his win, but modest about it all. "The whole race I didn't think I was gonoa lIaber IUds IIIIldentlfled (66z) and Keith Mashburn. Above: TT wkIners Van Leeuwen and Tod rleht Amateur Sloan try a smile; Below winner Keith Mashburn leads the pack. Ascot TT Up North Novices, Beat So. Cal's Van Leeuwen Talces Thriller * By Mauree n Lee GARDENA, CALIF. May 3, 1969. Skip Van Leeuwen did it gain at the monthly Ascot TT, but it wasn't easy and Lady Luck turned ber back on Dusty Coppage, making the Expert Main a real cliff hanger. Tod Sloan (Bultaco ) was the big Novice winner, laking his heat, plus the Novice Trophy Dash and the MaIn. This was the first time that all the riders In the Dash were from Norther n Californ ia. None of the local talent could get a sbot at the Cycle News trophy. Sloan grabbed the lead in the MaIn right from the beginning and· just pulled a way from the others, leaving them to sort It out behind him. Randy Ellis worked his way up through the group to take fourth but be couldn' t catcb fellow Bultaco riders Allen Kenyon and Bob Emde who were holding down second and third. Behind Ellls came John Hately (Kawas aki) for the fifth place spot. Fred Edward s (Yamah a) develop ed problem s early on and didn't finish. Keith Mashbu rn (Triump h) was beaten by Dave Hanson In their heat, but they reverse d position s In the Main. Hanson, howeve r, was the only Amateu r to make the Expert Trophy Dash, where be finished fourth. Bob Haynes trIed bard to take over the second place spot, but just couldn' t make it In the MaIn, with Frank G1l1espie and Wayne Hosaka fighting it out behind him. It was a clean sweep for Triump h In the first five places. Triump h again was the machine in the Expert go. Skip Van Leeuwe n, apparen tly sufferin g no III effects from his baltmile crasb two weeks before, shot into the lead, followed by Tom Rockwood and Dusty Coppag e. It looked like the usual script for a TT, with the "Flying Dutchman" pulling away from the other riders. The Skipper spun out, losing too mucb valuabl e ground, leaving Rockwood the front runner. A couple of laps later, Rockwood dumped it all by himself on the lake turn and it was Coppag e's turn to lead, and lead he did. Van Leeuwe n was making it back up again but with time running out, it looked extreme ly doubtful he could get within real shooting distanc e of Coppag e. Meanwblle RalPh White, Butch Landgut h, Jim Berry and Mike Haney had been working out the follow-u p places and were no doubt hoping that someon e else up front would fall off. White had third place and as the yellow flag waved, the fire abruptly went out on Dusty's machine and he coasted in, moving White up into second and leaving Van Leeuwe n to take the win. It was one beck of a finish! (Result s on page 20)

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