Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

The winner, and new National Poln' Leader Mert Lawwill. ' Photos by C. Clayton and Don Abrahamson. CASTLE ROCK TT NATIONAL Above: Local fa_lte 50"'1 Burres leads htt Lawwt II , Skip Van Le_, ~II (10) Ahola ud Edele Wirth In 'he preliminary heat. Below: "By thls Jauch, Mark?" Wlillanos eats tile sllllal. A nourlsh 01 TrUlllPeU wltn, left to rllll', Jim Odom, Gary llixon and Gene Ro_o 1Ietl1... ln unison By Dewitt Thuett CASTLE ROCK, WASH., July 19,1969CalUorll1& riders cOlltinued lbe1r dom1natSDo of nat10Dal Cbamp10nsbip TT events and for the tourtll stra1gbt time lb1s year 111'011 botb the expert and amateur f1Da1s. Men Lawwtll became tile tlrst rider in tile tlTe year history of castle Rock to win for tile second time, as well as the tlrst rider on the III.t1oaa1 circuit to win tbree cbamp1onsh1p races lb1s year. Mert and his self tuned Harley-IDaY1dson quickly estab118b8d tbat lbey were tb8 comb1Jat1on to beat as lbey set the fastest time trial on Friday n1gbt and tben record by far the futest ten lap beat race on saturday ntebt before another record crowd, e.stlma.led at 8,000. The bosttng Mt. St. Helens M.C. flelded the larpst TT entry of the ent1reyear witll about half being eltmtDlted In time trials. Local amateur Squire Tomasi was tile fastest yellow Plater, but was out of tile rllllll1ng after the tlrst two laps of his heat race. Top iUne ellP8l't qual111ers were less two are tlrst year rooJdes. Jim Riceand Tom Rockwood were the 0D1y two t1rst time white platers to time In tile top.RJce f1n1sbed e1ghtb In tile 11nal witll Rockwood mJB"'nc tile transfer trom tile semi to tile main by OIIe position. Ascot TT winner of tile week before, Mark Brelsford, crasbed In his heat race witll no Injury. Lawwtll, Dick Mann and Mark WWiams came UP as tile tbree heat race winners, all closely bought trom start to finish. WW1ams and Emil Ahola were tile big tavor1teB witll tile Nortllwest crowd. Ahola had finished tbird in '68. The semi main for tile exilerte provided much of tile lIlCC1tement. Only four riders were to transfer to the tlnal. Dan Haaby fought to hold fourtll all tile way-to the 11nal corner then Gary Nixon slammed to the lnslt~.e and the two crossed tile line w1tb I:8r laJI\ing 9D 1:8r. Haaby crossed tile tlrst line ahead, N1xDn's wbee1 was In front at tile second line, 18" trom the first! Fans cheered wilen it was annolBlced tbat off1.c1als had called it a dead even t1n1sb. Botb Nlxon and Haaby were transferred to tile tlnal. Dust;)' Coppage won the Semi. Eddie Mulder wU oft to anotller of his perfect starts In the 30 laP tlnal and maDlIged to hold the lead until tile fiftll laP wilen he gave way to the unstoppable Lawwtll, who had also won tile event In , 67. Mulder continued to· lose grolBld and fln1shed 12t11. Eddie Wirtb pulled oft a controlled crash, taIdng Jimmy Odom down with him on tile seventh laP. He was duel1ng for fifth at tile time. Wirtb was out but Odom remounted, only to crash again by himself trying to make UP grolBld. N1Jron apparently folBld tile rigbt combination in the Semi and came 011 to finish siXth in the tlnal earning thI.rteen national points, enoUCb to place him second behind LaWW1ll who had taken the lead for the tbird time. Mert now enjoys a margin of 30 pointe over Nlxon loing into tile SanJa Rosa, Calif. mile track national lb1s SlBlday afternoon. '!be race in the tlnal was for second between Portland's Sonny Burres and Dick Mann. Mann followed Burres most of tile way and then started b1dd1nlr for secODd witll 0D1y tbree laPs to go. Each time down tile stra1gbtaway Mann would try to pass 011 the outside against tile wall. Burres kept the door shut and took secODd by a matter of inches. His secODd place tln1sh was tile best recorded by a WasIIington or Oregon rider In the five year history of the event. Last year Emil Ahola tln1sbed tbird with Burres running fifth. Ahola never got going lb1s year and ran ninth. Mann's comment was, "I wish they'd give me a dec1.s1011 l1ke Nixon got," meaning tile semi transfer tie. Anotber rider who never got witll it was '68 winner Skip Van Leeuwen. He ran tb1rd In tile heat race beh1nd Lawwtll and Burres. In the flnal he was siXth In the early 1aps but dropped back to take lOtb and no lII.t1onal points, riding another hike tban the I:*nny Macias TrtllJJlJ)h. Rayborn came into the event 1tlad1nc the national point race but ran llt11 and the tlnal, scored no points and dropped all the way back to tbird In the natiODal standings. '!be Amateur affair was a Califorll1& sweep for the first tbree pOS1tions. Dave A1daIII. defeated Kettll Mashburn In the heat race but Mashburn returned to take tile lead early and go on for his secood win 011 tile circuit. Bob Haynes rode his best race of tile season and held Aldana for secoDd SPOt. Idaho's Thad Lawrence was d1sqIal1fied during the amateur tlnal. A two rider crash hrotCbt out the black flac and all but Lawrence returned to tile st:art:1ng line immedl.ately under the rule. Lawrence went to tile far end of the track by the pits for repairs and was disquall11ed by Referee Dave Welsb. Earl1er he had won his heat race, defeating Don Castro and Frank G1llespte. (Continued on page 6)

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