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/125795
M PROFESSIONALS RETURN TO SOUTH BAY "o g Q. N ,... m g. « ~ w Z W ..J U > U By Tom Blattler SOUTH BAY SPEEDWAY, CAL., Aug 6, 1972 - Mike Haney captured his second straigh t victory in two nights as he rode his Triumph to the checkered in South Bay Speedway's first AMA Class C program of the season on the very fast steeplechase course. . Haney grabbed the lead at the start and ran away from the rest of the field to take the top prize. Placing second in the 1 5 -I a p f eat u r e was Triumph-mounted Tom White, who gave Haney a run for the money at the end of the race. White, who is only a Junior, was forced to ride against the Experts in a combined Junior-Expert Final. Third place finisher Eddie Mulder challenged Haney early in the race, but faltered. slightly later in the feature. White took over second from Mulder in the first turn of lap six with a slide-for-Iife, flying by Eddie out of the Tom Roekwood (88l. a bike length aheap of John Hateley at the San Diego TT. turn. Alex Armstrong took his Triumph to a fourth position fwish with Eddie Wirth, Ward Ring, Bob Bailey, and Tom Rockwood following in that order. Wirth, riding a Yamaha, took th,e top spot in the Junior-Expert Semi with John Hateley taking second place and Pat Henry led the Novice Main for several laps until John Gennai Rick Newby 123Z1 hit Eddie Wirth and then highsided during the Semi of the San Diego TT. (9Oy) got past him for the win. Ward Ring, third. Hateley was running sixth in the feature,' but on the eighth lap his Triumph broke and he was through for the night. John Gennai rode his Bultaco to an easy win in the eight-lap Novice Main as he took over the number one position on the third lap and never looked back. Bultaco-mounted Dave Lewis held on to capture the second spot as Pat Hennen (ass) took third. Dennis Briggs and Bob Sanders rounded out the top five, followed by Dan White, Tom Heard, and Bob Anson. Danny Hockie, the Novice winner at Ascot Saturday night, took a very hard spill on the second lap of the Semi, and (Cont'd. from page 2) Trophy Dash over Moore and posted fast time, just missing the one lap track - record held by Mert Lawwill. The Junior Final was the best of the year with longtime Junior Denny Kanegae holding off Larry Gino and Tom Horton in a ten-lap thriller that was up for grabs from start to finish. Kanegae nearly crashed four times was out for the rest of the program. Danny was uninjured. Brad Tibitts was not as lucky as he suffered a broken wrist in the Semi. Heard, Ossa-mounted, grabbed the victory in the four.lap Semi, as Dan White collected the second spot with Nick Voge taking third place. Jack Vaughn rode his Ossa to a fourth place finish with Jim Lynch placing fifth. Gennai made a sweep of the evening as he won the two-lap Trophy Dash over Sanders and Briggs. Sou th Bay Speedway and the California Motor Racing Enterprise will be presenting a IT and Half-mile program on Sunday evening, August 27, . beginning at 6 pm. trying for the lead, or trying to hold the lead, over the top two Juniors in the west. The three riders were inches apart from the start and Kanegae was more off the bike than on on two occasions. The Japanese rider smoothed out the fmal two laps and won for the second time this year. Steve Nichols came up late in the race to finish a closing fourth bu t found no room in the traffic jam for the win. . Novice John Gennai put together the biggest Novice nigh t at Ascot since 1967. The Yamaha rider was pushed to a new track record in the'heat race by Walt Foster, the most improved Novice in the-west this year. Foster was also under the old mark, set in 1967 by Rick Durkee on a Suzuki. In the fmal., it was Gennai liP front with Rick Hocking returning to challenge. Hocking was knocked from a close second to a distan t fourth early in the race but came back to just pniss a win at the finish line. Mike Rensl~ and Foster both crashed trying to keep pace with Gennai and Hocking, but neither rider was injured. At the finish it was another new record for Gennai. The record books appear to again be ready to take a beating. I f " :. I ~ 1