Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.,... , . ... .. .. , I By Dewitt Thuett B1ll France and his crew present a new play area for the professionals of the AMA next weekend. It's called Talladega International Speedway . Mr. France has invited all Experts, Amateurs and paying customers to play and watch for the first time. The playing will ' start Wednesday and fWsh on Sunday, when most of the playthings are either broken, bent, or just plain worn out. . TalledegaFastest in World The racers w1ll be racing on the f ast est course in the world. The oval portion of the track Is the same distance around as Daytona International. That Is where the comparison ends. The surface Is smoother, the banks are higher, the infield Is built for road racing with sweepers, switchbacks, and a jump- yes a jump. Talladega, a spot that does not appear on most maps, w1ll now become famous in cycle racing due to the f or ward look of Mr. France. It sets in the middle of nowhere surrounded by many c1t1es both large and small. Talladega boasts of a track that Is faster than Daytona and anything you can do with a motorcycle at Daytona, you can do better and faster at Talladega. The total course Is longer in Alabama than It Is in Florida, the infield makes the difference. The course Is so fast there Is no place on the program allotted for novice or sportsmen riders. In fact, many of the offlclal entries In the Expert and Amateur races are biting off more than they can chew and swallow. , Wednesday and Thursday Is pr actice. Friday finds the time trials on the oval. 157 mph Is the one lap record at Daytona. Nobody has ever raced at Talladega on two wheels before so who really knows until next Friday how fast a man and his machine can reallY go on banked turns that make one dizzy just looking? Saturday features both the Amateur race and the combined lightweight race. If an Amateur has two machines he can race all day and get two chance to become a man before sundown or find out that maybe he better stick to dirt track racing. For the Experts there Is the lightweight on Saturday and then the 200 mile National on Sunday. Close to 300 miles of racing faster than any Expert has ever gone before . Thi rd Road Race of Yea r , The Talladega National Is the third national r oad race of the year and the seventh event of the season. Daytona winner Dick Mann and Seattle winner, Ron Grant w1ll both be there. So will Cal Rayborn who has not scored a single national point this season. Mann continues his machine hopping ways and w1ll ride a BSA " 3" •Honda took the win at Daytona, pac ked up the win ning Honda, the only one running at the finish, and headed back to .Tapana. Mann got his walking papers and Honda team racing manager , Bob Hansen, has since left the company and the tea m that no longer exists. Ageless Dick now has scored National points on a Honda f our, a BSA twin and an Ossa single. He leads the National standings at present but failed to even make the f1nal at the most recent half mile. The season is just getting underway and the top ten at this time hosts many road racing "Spec1al1sts" . The dirt trackers do not appear to be too concerned. Californians Out F ront California riders have won all of the Nationals to date. They have been hogging the winner'S circle like never before. Now they head for Alabama with names such as Mann, Grant, Rayborn, Baumann, Pierce, Nicholas, Lawwill, Rockwood, Romero, Castro andAldana-yesAldana. This doesn't leave much r oom f or any body to possibly sneak in a br eak up the win string that coulb continue all the way through the entire season. If and when the string breaks the best chances are with a Canadian. Yvon DuHamel still appears to be the best bet with three road races ye to go this year . The only problem about Talladega concerning the California "Wild Bunch" Is how to first get there and then how to find the place. From Los Angeles, as near as we can gather, one takes the Santa Fe Trall wes t f rom Pom ona. A t Desert Wells take the l eft fork and head due south east to Tombstone. Th ere one checks with the local Sheriff f or correct compass settings and heads due east across the Mississippi river . George Wallace will greet you at the door of the Talladega inn (He has long been famous f or his doorway speeches) and if you have a Confederate flag sticker on your fairing you will be allowed a night's l odging at the Sword and Saber inn which Is just south of the plantation and north of the cotton gin. "D1x1e" will be played by the boys in the band ( ?) before, during and after each lap of every race. For this event only the rule that all must stop and stan d at attention has been waived. In spite of all the obstacles and unknows the riders head for Alabama this week. Cycle News has paid for three additional Pony Express riders to get the news back to the three outlets in what should be a new record time. If we don't run out of hay along the way the complete r esults and pictures will appear next week . Hooray for Alabamal Thursday Is Br~lsford Night By Dewitt Thuett Thursday night Is fas t becoming Mark Brelsford and Harley Sportster night. Mark r eturned fr om his eastern trip to agam dom i nate the E xper t class in the Heat, Dash and Final. The Dash and F'Ina l were his from the start but It took a slow start and a run from fifth place to win the Heat race away from Ascot point leader, Skip Van L eeuwen. Brelsford now has three Main Events wins to his credit and It was to be a Brelsford vs , Dusty Coppage duel that never came off. Dusty f ell early in the f1nal, taking Tom Rockwood down with him. Rockwood hit the deck but bounced the right way to keep running to come from last and finish sixth back of his TT partner, Van Leeuwen. Dusty also got back on later In the r ac e but was way out of contention and fWshed last. Thus the Yamaha-Coppage main event streak was stopped at twoin a row. Gene Romero and Eddie Mulder f1nJshed the duel for the weekly Thursday night TT's and raced to the wire for . second. Neither rider was in danger of catching and passing Brelsford who appears to be the new" King of the Ascot TT's" . Mark won the Ascot TT National last .Tuly' and has ridden like he owns the track since that time . Only when Van Leeuwen appears to be In high gear is the young man from the north in trouble. .Tohn Hateley extended his undefeated Amateur TT streak to top the BSA effort of Ted Longwith and Don Emde. The weekly outings in the Amateur class Is a real Triumph vs , BSA affair with Triumph holding the upper hand. The race of the night came in the Nov ice final where a rider that finished tenth decided who was to be the winner. Kenny Roberts chased Gary Scott all the way to the last turn on the last Iap, Ancient Novice B1ll Bartels, running in tenth, refused to move over as the two riders caught him going into the last turn. Roberts did a great job of slamming to the inside while Scott went outside. Bo th nearly tore the handlebars off of Bartels' bike. Roberts came out of the turn barely ahead of Scott and won the race. The shortest distance between two points Is on the inside. It Is not officially known what Mr. Scott had to say to Mr. Bartels after the race. San Diego's Carl Byers an.I Ran Vanderpool worked their way up from the back of the pack to finish third and fourth. Matt Falconer from the North finished in fifth. (Results on page 26) Mark Brelsf wd, winner of both the Thursday night TT and the Friday night Half .mll e, Is shown here before leader Tom Rockwood's Triumph blew, gl ylng Bre lsf w d his flat track Ylct ory. Brelsf w d, Rockwood and National #1, Mort Lawwlll always 'proYlde plenty of action at the weekly get toeeth.. In Gardena• Rockwood Scallers Going Away By Dewitt Thuett California's two top half roilers both had their problems at Ascot Friday night. It didn't start out that way and it wasn't meant to happen . Mert Lawwill returned and promptly set fast time once again to run his unbeaten streak to nine straight. Then It changed direction. In the heat race, com ing off the starting line, Mert had a sparkplug foul out and he pulled in after one lap, In A scot racing you have to be legally beaten to halt a win streak so Mert st1ll had his going as he headed for the Tropby Dash. ' Lawwill's teammate, Mark Brelsford, won his heat race as did Ascot's high point rider, Tom Rockwood. Brelsford, was a whisper faster of the two. Mark did not qualify for the dash in time trials so once again Rockwood and Mert squared off. A t the drop of the flag Mert w,<.S f1y1n g with Tom off in fourth and last place looking for his second straight win in the fast three lapper, On the north turn in the first lap with one swoop Tommy passed both Eddie Hammond and Lawwill to drop in behind Don Emde. The next turn found him In front to stay . It was the second straight Dash win In a -r ow for the Triumph Tiger and the first time this year Lawwillhad suffered defeat at his home trackl It was also the first time In over three years that a rider has won the Trophy Dash after getting off the line last. Lawwill then sent Brelsford to the line for the f1nal to get the job done for the Harley factory team. Rockwood was off the line and in the lead with Brelsford r i ght behind. They were both after a chunk of the new Ascot purse of more than $2,000 and both wanted it bad. Brelsford stayed with Rockwood the first eleven laps. Laptwelve found the Triumph steadily pull1ng away by Inches and a second straight Friday night win assured . Then as Tommy took the yellow flag to start the final lap It happened . A rod went out through the side of the engine. Brelsford caught and passed Tom down the back stretch with Rockwood coasting • and holding one hand high in the air. He was so far ahead that he managed .to coast across the line for second, less than a foot ahead of Gene Romero and .Timmy Odorn, Odom and Romero had been waging their own battle for third the entire race with first .Tim and then Gene In he show position. Their duel was over shadowed by the r ac e ' up front but it was a duel to the fWsh. It looks like little.TohnHateleyhasnow become the rankfngAmateur in the west. He again scored on the half mile in both the heat race and the Final. It was up to Emde to put on the show. Don found himself buried back in sixth early in the f1nal and it took some wide open, high sliding racing to finally end up In second place with three oth er Amateurs r i ght behind. Sliding Gary Scott again tried to match styles with Kenny Rober ts on his Suzuki topping Scott on a Bultaco. Roberts appears to have an edge in overall ab1llty but Scott Is a crowd pleaser, running his 250 wide open all the way around. Former Ascot champ, A l GUnter , returned to A scot action for the first time in about t wo years. He was riding the Enfield that was r idden last year by Sammy Tanner . Sammy was again on the Len Earl Harley and both Sammy and Al lined up side by side in the back rowof their heat race. Neither rider made It to the Semi. Al found the track much different than the old days and Tanner ran out of gas. His tuner had forgot to check the tankl Such Is life at Ascot each and every Friday night. (Results on

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