Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. co if CL ii LL ~ W Z W ..J ~ (,) In the Expert Main, Gene Romero (1) and Jim Odom (18) were near the front when they collided out of turn two and both went down. ROCKWOOD WINS ASCOT OPENER GARDENA, CAL., Feb. 7,1971 - Nearly one fourth of the nation's top Experts from last year's national standings were on hand for the openining professional half mile race of the year at Ascot on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 7th. The total entry, largest ever for an opening event in So. Calif., topped the 160 rider mark. The groove was wide, the track hard, the racing fast and the purse totaled just under $2,000 for the winners. 1970 Ascot champion Tom Rockwood and his Triumph was the man to beat from time tirals on. Tom 'was nearly a half a second faster than second fast man, Gene Romero, in the one lap trials against the clock. In the five Expert heat races, that included more than fifty Experts, Rockwood and his team Triumph again took the fastest win, ahead of Mert Lawwill, Paul Bostrom and John Hateley. O~er Expert heat race winners were; Jimmy Odom, Dave Aldana, Keith Mashburn and Terry Dorsch, who upset Gene Romero and Lloyd Houchins. Three of the four members of the 1970 Triumph team qualified for the three lap Trophy Dash with Don Castro getting to the first tum first and holding Rockwood off to the finish line for Tom's only setback of the afternoon. Romero ran third with Cliff Aksland in fourth. Some of the best racing came in the 15 lap Expert feature. Bostrom jumped to an early lead. Rockwood was fourth at the end of the f"ust lap with Mashburn second and Odom in third. Rockwood nailed Odom on the second lap and Mashburn on the third round to pull in behind Bostrom. Then on lap five it was the nation's ninth ranked racer taking the lead and leaving the remaining eleven riders to do battle for second on back. Mashburn and his Yamaha 650 moved into second on lap six with Tom and Keith puJling away from the field. On lap nine, Aldana dove under Odom and Romero, as Jimmy and Gene crashed together on tum two. Odom was up and running but Romero was failed to f"mish for a transfer to the main event. Mike Haney, Bill Manley and new Expert Wayne Hosaka were involved in a three rider crash in one of the heat race on the first tum. Hosaka cartwheeled over the crash wall and was hospitalized. On the re·start, Haney crashed again in the same spot and Tom Rockwood worked from the middle of the pack to win. assisted to the pits with a twisted ankle. Aldana and BSA kept charging _to eventually finish in third place ahead of Bostrom. Jim Rice, the December daytime half mile winner, could climb to no better than seventh this time. Only two first time rookie Experts made the half-mile. Terry Dorsch f"mished six th with Portland's Chuck Joyner in fifth. Joyner supplied much action in his heat race when he forgot to turn the gas on and nearly stopped a half a lap back of t!>e leaders before realizing what was wrong. Then the fine Northwest rider got going and going fast enough to come from far back to take fourth and a transfer to the Semi. Starting lastm the Semi, Joyner zapped many veterans to go on for the win and a spot in the f"maI. LawwiJl was in the same event and called it a day. Kenny Roberts, fresh from his Houston and Cow Palace victories, nearly lost the Junior f"mal to Stan Rogers, riding a borrowed Triumph. Rogers beat Roberts to the first turn in the final with a perfect start and had the race won until the eighth lap when he _ went too high on the first tum. Roberts dove underneath to take the win and keep_his Yamaha win streak intact. San Diego's Carl Byers did a great job of pitching into the groove and came from the back to fmish third on his BSA. Rogers was Triumpp mounted. Roberts, although not the fastest timing Junior, did have the fastest heat race win in the yellow plate class. Fast time honors went to Ron Moore on a Triumph but Ron came up with mechanical troubles in the heat and failed to finish. The Novices, with their new white and red number plates, again were a Itrst time mixture of brand new riders and some of the more seasoned from late year who did not score enough points to transfer to the Junior class. First timers won four of the five heat races but it was second year Novice Sal Paluso and his Yamaha that won the main event. New bomers Tom White and Jim Whitwood pushed and led most of the way bu t Peluso was wiser on the corners and could find the groove faster on each lap. AT least a dozen Novices feU off during the heat races and the Semi but there were no serious injuries. Scramblers Scott Autrey and Steve Nichols were both plagued with engine troubles and never reaUy got going. Autrey did ,come back after the show to win the Speedway bike exhibition over Bill Cody and Rick Woods. The AMA half mile slated for Saturday night, Feb. 13th at the new Corona track has been temporarily cancelled and the exact opening date will be announced later. The annual Ascot 100 lap IT Grand Prix will run soon after the Daytona 200 in late March with the Sunday afternoon date to be announced in the next couple of weeks. The regular Ascot night half mile season will again start the first Friday in April. (Results on page 20) I HARLEY-DAVIDSON I 4th OVERALL Follow the leader. Whoever heard of a l00cc trailbike racing with 400cc and larger machines. That is until Terry Clark and the Harley-Davidson Baja 100 teamed to take on the desert. Last weekend Terry took on 900 riders in the Four Aces Hare & Hound to emerge 4th overall and First Trailbike. That makes four in a row for Terry and the Baja. See the Baja 100 and the entire Harley-Davidson Motorcycle line. HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLE DEALERS' ASSOCIATION of Southern California, Inc. BELLFLOWER Paul's Harley-Davidson, Inc_ 16211 Lakewood Blvd. LANCASTER John Dolan's Har-Dav. Sales 44533 S'ierra Hwy. ELCAJON Har-Dav. Co_ of EI Cajon 621 EI Cajon Blvd. LOMITA Har-Dav. of Lomita, Inc. 2212 Pacific Coast Hwy. FULLERTON Har-Dav. of Fullerton. Inc. 2635 W. Orangethorpe Ave. LONG BEACH Har-Dav, of Long Beach 3654 Long Beach Blvd. GLENDALE ,Harley-Davidson of Glendale Inc. 3643 San Fernando Rd. OCEANSIDE INGLEWOOD Har-Dav. of Inglewood. Inc. 901 N. La Brea Ave. PASADENA Ch ubbuck's Har-Dav-Pasadena 1361 E. Walnut St, Har-Dav. of Oceanside 216 Via Del Monte POMONA Har·Dav. in Pomona 1241 W. Holt Ave. RIVERSIDE Skip Fordyce Har-Dav Sal.. 3698 14th St. SAN BERNARDINO Dale's Modern Cycle H-D SAN DIEGO San Diego Har-Dav. Co., Inc. 929 1ndia St. SANTA ANA Harley-Davidson Motors 501 E. Fourth St, SANTAMARIA Cycle West Harley-Davidson 2160 S. Broadway SO. SAN GABRIEL Laidlaw's Har-Dav, Sales 8351 E. Garvey Blvd. TAFT Taft Harley-Davidson Sales 318 Harrison St. VAN NUYS Russell's Har-Dav. Sales 16113 Sherman Way VENTURA Har-Dav. of Ventura County 77 W. Main St. WHiniER Whittier Har-Dav. Sales 7930 S. Greenleaf

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