Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cll I ~ W Z w oJ (.J t Cal Rayborn (14) had a leaky gas tank while Kel Carruthe.. (731 had more severe problems. They finished 11th and 12th respectively. By Don Woods Dixie Cycle News EASTABOGA, ALA., Sept. 5, 1971 In the most brilliant ride· of his career, Yvon DuHamel devastated his competition by riding his three-cylj.nder Kawasaki to victory at the Second Annual Talladega 200-Mile National Championship Road Race here today. Yvon led all 50 laps over the four-mile combination banked oval and road course. Current national championship points leader Dick Mann increased his lead in the battle for the title by taking second. Kel Carru thers had set the pace in qualifying by getting his "little" 350 Yamaha around the circuit at an average speed of 109.190 mph. Young Don Emde -was the only rider who. qualified anywhere near the flying Australian as he pushed his BSA three around at 108.270 for second spot on the starting grid. DuHamel had qualified fifth fastest and was over two mph off the qualifying pace. As the 42 Expert riders left the starting grid, Ginger Malloy, one of the top riders in the world of international road racing, smoked everyone into the fll'St high-banked comer and opened a tremendous lead over the field. Sorting his way through traffic, DuHamel got by Malloy before they entered the infield portion of the course on the second lap. As riders busily tried to get position in the infield DuHamel opened a 50-yard lead. ' As Yvon began pulling away, only Carruthers could ha!'g within striking distance. Behind, Cliff Carr, Cal Rayborn, and Dick Mann were in a tremendous duel for third and were going for all they were worth to keep the two leaders in sight. Malloy, having slowed after that fast first lap, pulled into the pits on the third lap, finished for the day. Th.e pace was frightening as the riders came through the infield, taking corners at speeds that made qualifying look like a slow practice session. At fjve laps, DuHamel's speed was 112_522, over three mph faster than Carruthers' qualifying time. Carruthers was pulling "eyde" Magazine's J... Thomas, forever on the lookout of a big road race finish, took 17th while last year's win tries to find a way arou~d ----,-- him. A Kawasaki crewman gives Yvon the word; "You've got a swell lead, pall" Yvon did the improbable in the National, winning despite three pit stops, and the impossible by gearing his lightweight non-Yamaha, shown above, into the top ten in the Junior/Expert 76-miler. Actually. Dick Hammer is the only other person to put a dent in Yamaha's domination of the lightweight class when he finished third at Kent last July, While all bikes were going to have to make one pit stop, the Kawasakis would have to make two, as they have a rather deep thirst. ''WaH'l1 he makes those two pit stops," veterans were knowingly saying, already counting DuHamel out of the winner's picture. DuHamel and his pit crew have had this problem all year, and they have found an answer. On the 17th lap, with a 28-second lead, Yvon roared into the pits for his first stop. Almost before the tires had stopped rolling, he was gone. Time: four seconds. Out on the track, Rayborn and Mann still didn't have the little Canadian in s.ight_ Yvon quickly went back to work lapping the slower riders. The rest of the bikes usually pit around the alway point and 'Harley's pits were shocked into inactivHy as Rayborn pulled in on the 20th lap. It took several costly seconds for everyone to round up the gas can and get fuel into Rayborn's tank. Seems his tank had sprung a lead and he was already almost empty. Back out on the track, Rayborn found himself in fourth. away from the crowd -of riders that were having the fight for third in his effort to stay with DuHame-l. On the seventh lap, DuHamel and Carruthers were already lapping slower riders and in the last comer, coming out of the infield onto the oval, Kel started around a slower rider but just as he moved out to go around, the other rider moved in front of 'him. With some twenty miles an hour speed over the slower machine, KeI's front wheels smacked the rear, tossing him over the handlebars and off the track_ The other rider looked back as he felt the bump but never saw Kel. Tumbling end over end through the dirt, Carruthers regajned his balance, ran to his broken bike, beat a few bent pieces stra;ght, and bumped off. He lost about ten positions during the whole fracas and probably would have made that right back, but he had to spend two laps in the pits to get the bent machine in working order before he was back up to competitive speeds. Meanwhile, Mann and Rayborn were really at it. Never more than a few feet apart, they were giving the 14,500 race fans one of the best duels ever seen on a big speedway-type track. Lap after lap, the two veterans of the championshjp circuit stayed side by side trying to catch the fast-disappearing DuHamel. The next eight positions behind Rayborn and Mann were not stable either; riders back to tenth place were turning laps that were as fast as the fastest qualifying speeds. As the other racers started pitting, the order was agajn shuffled. Mann came out of the pits and found hwself behind teammate Don Emde who had been charging the whole distance and got faster refueling. Dick proceeded to go to work and passed Emde to take a commanding hold on second. Rayborn also worked his way back past Emde and into third but another trip to the pits by Rayborn put Emde into third for the afternoon. You migh t think that with this big lead DuHamel had, that the race was ll"tting boring. But Yvon was not racing with the field, he was racing the clock. He had -one more pit stop before the race was over. He was concentrating so hard that he built a 76-second lead and now could walk into the pits and get

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