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By Don Woods
Dixie Cycle News
ORLANDO, FLA., July 18, 1971 Two teachers held school at the fourth
of the Inter AMA-events here Sunday
and emerged victorious over some of the
best riders from the United States and
Europe. Valastiml Valek, who teaches
motocross for the CZ factory in
Czechoslovakia,
won
the
250
International
class
and America's
traveling motocross professor Gary
Bailey took the gold in the National
Open class. Valek did not come by his
victory the easy way, winning only the
first of the three motos. Bailey captured
his win with a textbook ride in
consistency.
Orlando Sports Stadium's largest
crowd ever (4,000 plus) suffered
through unusually high humidity and
heat to hopefully see America's best
motocrossers defeat the Europeans. It
didn't quite come off but they did get
to see some of the most exciting
motocross racing ever seen in this
country.
Vlastimil Valek continued to dominate the Inter-AMA series as he again won the 250cc
International class overall.
Orlando has a fast and bumpy
CQUl'1e.
water hole and drowned his engine. He
lost almost a full lap getting his bike
restarted and came from 16th to finish
sixth in this final moto.
The Open National class is supposed
to be a supporting event but the
closeness and speed of the competition
'made it some of the most exciting
racing ever seen in Florida.
Bailey's third, second and first put
together enough points to edge Higgins
out by a narrow margin. Bowden's two
seconds and a third gave him enough to
be within 10 points of Higgins. The
three riders repeated their duel of the
winter AMA series and the rest of the
field just couldn't hang with them
throughout the afternoon.
The 250 event started much closer
than the flfSt Open moto, with six or
seven riders bunched together during
the first few laps. Valek got an early
lead, but he was closely followed by
Keith Fransn (Hus), Gary Jones, (Yam)
who is top American so far in the series,
Jim Weinert (Mai), Jan-Erik Saellqvist
(Hus) and Chris Horsfield, (CZ).
Jones fell back early in the going and
Jim Weinert, who has been riding every
kind of race he can if it involves two
wheelers, kept America's hopes up with
a challenging third position. As the field
sorted itself out, Valek edged ahead of
Fransn and Weinert fell behind far
enough to let Gunnar Lindstrom get by
him.
Valek crossed the line about ten feet
ahead of the pursuing Fransn for a
one-two European finish. Lindstrom
r------------------------....:.--------------1
Thirty-four riders sat on the line for
the start of the day's racing in the Open
National class. Barry Higgins pulled a
hole shot on the field to open a
tremendous lead on the first lap.
Higgins, not having the problems with
traffic of the others, increased his lead
easily throughout the heat to take a
relatively easy win. Gordon Bowden,
the transplanted Irishman who now lives
in Jacksonville, Fla., worked his way
into second early in the heat and
remained there until the end. Bowden
made a valiant attempt to catch the
fleeing Higgins but never got within 20
yards of him. Gary Bailey got off to a
poor start and spent most of the heat
working his way through traffic. He
closed on Bowden once, but Bowden
kept his Sprite gassed and Bailey had to
settle for third.
James O'Neil of Reseda, Calif., and
Tom Laurion of Madison, Wisc. (Hus)
had a tremendous duel for fourth with
O'Neil edging Laurion out at the
checkers.
The second moto was a repeat of the
first with Higgins opening a tremendous
lead off the starting line. Zane Kent, of
Barry Higgens (73ul powers out of the mud while chasing his Open foes.
Marietta, Ga., came off behind Higgins
and on the second lap blasted through
the deep sand to go 10 bike lengths
ahead. Kent was really gassing it and
Higgins had to go all out to keep him in
sigh t.
Bailey had a better start this time and
was running third. On the fourth lap,
Kent came over a jump, dug his front
wheel into the ground and landed on
the gas tank. The pain caused Kent to
fall down and Higgins retook the lead.
Bailey held second behind Higgins until
the end of the heat and Bowden was
right behind in third. O'Neil again was
fourth. In fifth was Lars Larsson who
had finished a disappointing lOth in the
first moto. Larson has won all the Open
class Inter-AMA's to date, but he was
finding the competition a little more
fierce today. Last week's third place
finisher, .Tim Shotton, of Athens, Ga.,
was right behind Larssonat the checkers_
Bailey was the one with the hole shot
in the final moto and he proceded to
dust everyone as he rode to an easy
Bowden,
the model
of
VIctOry.
consistency, was right in there for
second. Larsson had managed to shake
his earlier bad luck and finished a strong
third. Higgins who had a terrible. start,
went through the deepest 'part 'Of a
front~
stayed in
Weinert for third. The
only other Americans in the top ten in
the fust moto were Jones in seventh and
Jim West (Hus) in ninth.
The start of the second moto was a
fiasco with many of the anxious riders
jumping the start. This created the only
discussion of the day as some of the
energetic riders were penalized one
position for their false start. Fransn and
Valek dueled for the entire heat only to
finish behind Jan-ErikSaeIlqvist whowas
not peanlized. Valek was second and
Fransn fourth after the penalties. Jim
Winert had his best ride of the
afternoon coming in to finish third right
behind the Leaders. He was the only
American in the first nine riders across
the line. Dick Burleson took ninth and
had to work hard for it with all the
traffic created by the Europeans around
him. It was a much better finish than
indicated by the results.
Gunnar Lindstrom took the lead and
dusted the field to win the last moto.
Lindstrom, who resides in Plainfield,
New Jersey, had been caught off guard
at the start of the second moto and
didn't get to the starting Line until the
field has been flagged off. He spent the
entire moto p~ing riders and went all
-tiN wlfy "'lim 'l'ast to 'finish
at
'seventh'
