Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

INTER-AM AS 12,000 C.H£ERi '" oti ~ o ~ w Z W ...J U ~ U Top American, Bob Grossi. Tim Hart leads Gary Bailey, Jacques Vernier, Jim West and Dave Nicholl in the Inter. CRAAASH! IRVINE, CALIF., Dec. 6, 1970 - Saddleback Park was a wall of noise today and it wasn't the sound of motorcycles. An estimated 12,000 spectators packed or squeezed themselves in and witnessed one of the greatest spectacles this country has seen in motorcycle racing. In the first lap, while only a few When the flag dropped in the fLTst International MOIO, the initial blast of yards behind, Aberg did an endo at the the riders' engines cleared and distinctly top of one of the bumpy climbs when hear above the roar of the two-strokes his front wheel hit a ditch awkwardly. (and four-strokes with the BSA team on While the other riders picked their way hand) was the buzzing of "Ohs" and by him, he quickly recovered, losing "Ahs" from the crowd on the hill. valuable time and places. This fall cost Dave Bickers broke out cleanly and him his chance for a second moto win. As soon as Aberg appeared to be out was holding down first place as the huge pack of approximately 40 riders toured of It, SylVaIn Geboers took over the the first lap. Right behind him on the chase. Ake was well out in front near fast course was Bengt Aberg and Sylvain the end of the first half and Geboers Geboers and then a large pack of riders was trying hard to close in. Several laps within which was the series leader, Ake later, the cruising Jonsson suddenly Jonsson. found himself only five yards ahead of By lap two, Geboers had taken lip the Geboers. Surprised, Jonsson simply slack from the leader and passed Bickers poured on the gas and built another only to be passed by Aberg. All the strong lead. But, here was Aberg, flying while, however, Jonsson was smoothly moving up on the front runllers and fantastically over the course in an effort took over the point. to catch up and he caught and passed Now that he had the lead, Jonsson Geboers like he was a stationary obstical wasn't about to lose it, so he continued to be avoided, while eyeing Ake, who to open his throttle wider than anybody was again cruising along with-out competition. else on the course and built up a commanding lead of 15 seconds which When the two-lap flag came out, he held to the finish some 30 minutes Aberg had really closed the gap and was later. Bengt Aberg held on for second gaining inches on every turn and place and lIliroslav Halm slipped in for st...right. One lap to go and Aberg had third ahead of Ottakar Toman. c1osod to within 30 yards. With the J onsson's ~laico was again crowd on its feet. the battle was joined "super-tuned" in the second moto and and the pair sped over the course he snatched the lead from the start and passing other riders like they were led the pack through the 30-minute standing still and still Aberg crawled moto. The battle to catch him, however, closer. made this race much more interesting Across the finish line came Jonsson than it may seem. with Aberg a mere 15 yards behind. Mike Stephenson draws a bead on Frank Rowe in a 250 Jr. go. Another lap, many feel, would have been enough to change the outcome, bu t it never came and Aberg settled for second again. Top American in the fLTst moto, John DeSoto, was forced out of competition in this wild second leg while again running as top Yank. His gas line came unattached and while attempting to connect it. he caught his foot between the peg and a rock. Valiantly attempting to continue, he rode one more lap before getting off with a numb foot _ (which he thought had been cut off) and a leg of pain. After he passed out, he was taken to the hospital for examination. (Contacted Monday morning, DeSoto reports that his foot was not broken, only "a torn ligament in the Achilles tendon, although I came very close to breaking it." The doctors have told him to "take it easy" for awhile, the hard-to-kill Hawaiian said "I'll be racing... in about a week." ...ed.) Billy Clements was another casualty, but one who managed to stay on the course. His spill occurred at almost the same place where Aberg went down. At the time, Clements was runnjng strong and appeared to be on his way to the third moto's top American. After be went down hard and recovered, Clements' machine appeared a little sick and he settled to just finish the race. _ Jonsson had again taken the lead in this third moto and was again being pressured in the early stages by Aberg -and Geboers. Geboers had held the lead in the fITst lap but dropped to third on the straight toward the finish line where Aberg and t!len Jonsson took the lead. As it was in the first two races, it was just 'about all over when Ake got in front and J OllSson, leaving no chance for his two foes to catch up as they did in the second, built a comfortable lead and held it. Bob Grossi took over the honors as top American after DeSoto was forced ou t and performed very well on the wide open Saddleback course. He finished third American in the first moto behind DeSoto and Clements, first in the second (tenth overall) and first in the final (eigh th overall). His performance was good enough for Top American and eighth overall in the final standings. . The BSA team sh owed up after the completion of the Trans-A~lA series but couldn't get going until John Banks was able to garner fourth in the final moto before mechanical trouble pushed him off the course. Teammate Jeff Smith was the only one of the English team to finish all three motos md he wound up six th overall. Ake was obviously first overall with Aberg second and Geboers third. A consistent effort by IliUm and Christer Hammargren gave that pair fourth and fifth, respectively. Maico was again a winner in the 500cc Sr. class and Bob Messer was the pilot, holding off another hard-charging Maico ridden by Mike Cram. (Please turn to pg. 24)

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