Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125747
i NICHOLAS PULLS OUT 11TH ASCOT WIN .... '" g Photos by Dan M'lhony & Tim Byars GARDENA, CAL., Oct. 1, 1971-Jody Nicholas and his Allison Norton, after being turned back in the two previous half miles, one regular season and the ~ other the National, put it all together !i\! once again to rack up his 11 th feature w win of the year. d Jody did not, however, have an easy >- time of it, even though is competition () from the National was absent, heading for Oklahoma City. The N orton ace barely topped BSA speedster Lloyd Houchins for top time trial honors, by two ticks of the clock to be exact. Then fellow Norton rider Mel Lacher pushed ana pushed hard in the heat race but was edged for the win in a close contest. The Dash was nearly a major upset as Oregon's Mark Williams and the Love Bros.' Triumph nearly turned the trick on the Californians. Williams, the fourth fastest qualifier who seldom invades the Ascot oval, led most of the way only to wiggle the rear wheel on the final half lap, trying a bit too hard to become one of the few out-of-staters to win at Ascot. Jody took the win with Williams an impressive second, Lacher third and Houchins, fourth. Then Williams decided to try for the really big one. He 1ed the 15-lap final the first four laps before again getting in trouble and allowing Nicholas to take over. But the race was far from finished and no shoe-in for Nicholas. Houchins, 0 ff to a slow start, worked his way to third and then passed Williams for second on lap seven only to have his primary chain break as he was bidding for the lead. The chain break stopped the machine in full flight, pitching Lloyd onto the track, coming off the No.4 corner. Fortunately, all the rest of the riders missed and he walked away. The last five laps found Williams again closing as was Lacher from third. Mark· tried for the lead, and the win, coming out of the final turn but Nicholas held on. Williams was again second with Lacher third and semi winner, DeWayne Keeter, in fourth. Denny "Kamikaze" Kanegae won his N· heat in the Junior class anct then came back to battle point leader Ron Moore all the way in the final. The lead changed several times bu t Denny and the Don Dobbins Triumph finally had their first Main Event win of the year. Kanegae earlier this year was the same rider that upset Gary Sco~, stopping a near record win streak for the rider that is still on the sidelines with an injury. Moore is still looking for his first big one of the year at Ascot but will have only one IIlDre chance under the lights to try for it. The Junior final was stopped at the end of two laps when Tim Wolf crashed and was hit by !tis own machine. Jim Mezzler also went down, trying to miss Wolf. Tim was hospitalized but Messler walked away. ovice Scott Brelsford and his A&A Yamaha broke a many year Novice win streak as the younger half of the Brelsford Brothers racing team chalked up his 17th and 18th wins on the Ascot half mile. This is a new record and the longest win streak by a Novice on a lightweight since the Novices switched to the 250's at the end of the 1961 season. Both wins came with ease and Kenny Kanegae (51 xl successfully held oif Ron Moore in the Junior Final. many out-of-state riders to come in for the final time and try the Californians. New Ascot National champ, Tom Rockwood, will be back and on hand for the Oct. 15 date and try and make it three straight Main Event wins. Corona Raceway returns to cycle action this Saturday night, giving the TT riders two straigh t nigh ts of racing. Corona will also host a TT the night of Oct. 16. This will be the final night cycle race of the year for Corona. This means that fans traveling to Ontario for the 250 mile National on the 17th can see a major half mile at Ascot on Friday night, a TT at Corona on Saturday night and the 5100,000 National Road Race on Sunday. A new record weekend for Southern California - or anywhere else in the USA. (Results on page 32) BABY PRO WINNER again it was Riverside's Steve Nichols in second. Earlier, Nichols had posted a heat win time faster than Brelsford but a poor start in the final kept him out of contention all the way in the final. Ascot will host two more night races before closing out the season. The last "IT race of the year is this coming Friday night. A week from Friday, Oct. 15, Ascot will run the final night half mile of the year. A $2,100 purse will be posted for the 15th event that will be run during the Ontario National Road Race week. Ascot is now contacting Congratulations and a check for $5 goes out to A. Kokinos of Bakersfield, Calif., for correctly identifying this week'5 "Baby Pro". Although Mark Brelsford, Keith Mashburn and Jim Rice got their fair share of the guesses, it was Dan Haaby and Eddie Wirth who got by far . the most. Haaby received about 55% of the guesses and Wirth about 35%. Because of this, we have decided to hereby suggest that even though the BABY PRO is Eddie, that Dan should clip it out and show it off as himself he'd get away with it! Anyway, about them clues: some were obvious, of course, like the blond hair and the Nationals at Ascot (both of which Eddie was at), but others were a bit sly. Saying he was 25 last year didn't mean his age, it meant that he was 25 th in the National Points standings and since they do not issue National No. 13, that gave him a No. 26 plate for '71. We take it by the tremendous response (the letters are still pouring in) that this should be a regular feature and so it will. Next time, however, some rule changes will be set up to give everyone a chance (not just those in the local area who get their paper first). Meanwhile, we'd like to ask all those sneaky wives and' parents who have access to snazzy baby snaps of their relative "hot shoe" to send us one for a short while until we can make a copy and send the original back. It may be fun, too, if you don't let them know about it and see if they can guess themself. The only requirement is that the "BABY PRO" must be a professional. Send them to Cycle News, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, Calif., '90801 - we'll do the rest. International Report ••• Phil Re.d clinched the 250 World Ch.mpionship September 26 at the Spanish Gr.nd Prix. It was a long, hard battle for the privateer and his Yamaha. Rod Gould, riding for Yamaha works, SUZUki has not one, not two, but THREE three-eylinder machines on the market now. (That's funny. does someone else.) Boy. they got snazzy names, too: LeMans t Sebring. and pictured above, the Indy! The GT-550J Indy is 544 cubic centimeters of road bike that will cart you a Quarter-mile In 13.5 seconds. 50 bhp at 6500 9'S will do a lot to geryou aroun.d the country. too. It weighs in at 412 pounds. Other good things: a flip-up gas cap and a red light that "warns" you when you are going over 59 miles per hour, which should be most of the time. Similar features are on the GT-380J Sebring and the mind-boggling water-cooled GT-750J Le Mans (inset). Major components are warrantied for 12 months{12,OOO miles, but Suzuki never said wnything about heart failure. stood on top of the point standings as they went into the last GP but a misfire and eventual broken clutch .rm .ssured Read of his fifth world ch.mpionship....B.rry Sheene looked destined to become the 2G-year-old World Ch.mpion thi5 ye.r in the 125 cl.ss but. series of l.te·se.50n misfortunes put Angel Nieto in hot contention. This face was the decider and Sheene's Suzook couldn't out-power Nieto's Oerbi. Next week: the complete World Ch.mpionship pl.cings. Long-reach plugs will 10 into all works Maicos from now on, since a loose plug that eventually blew out cost Ake Jonsson the 500cc world motocross ch.mpionship....