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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125796
he wasn't going to ride for $15. Spectato rs put up Bast. Ho.wver , Woods said that since it wasn't on the prOQTam There was to be a match race between Rick Woods (left) and Mike an additiona l $116 which was enough to convince Woods. Costa Mesa to block for a temmate . Don LEFT. Sonny Nutter in the Costa Mesa team race looks back and Sonny Nutter get down Cullum pursues. BELOW; Don Cullum, Bruce Haserot, Rick Woods, it coming off the line at Orange CountY Speedwa y. to Meanwhile, back in Costa Mesa, the Lions win on their own track.. , IrwindaleSpeedway--------IRWIND ALE, CAL., Aug. 3, 1972 When team speedw ay motorcy cle racing was introdu ced several weeks ago many people were moanin g about how weak the Ventur a Charger s team was. They certainl y looked anythin g but weak Thursda y at Irwinda le Racewa y as Sonny Nutter and Compa ny handed the Irwinda le Eagles a home track defeat: 38·34. tinged wi til was even t The controv ersy from the start. With Chargers, rider Ed Williams out with injuries , Don Cullum was slotted to take' his place. Howeve r, in a last minute swap, top·seed ed SRA rider Larry Shaw substitu ted for Cullum and the protests from the Irwinda le side, led by promot er Ed Meister .. were long and loud. "A, lrwind'lic;, -~h,a",o is'", 3Pi'1;a,r~ , --------------------------------- handica p rider. Cullum rides off the 20.Shaw is ranked fifth in SRA points current ly, Cullum lies back a bit in ninth spot. Shaw is among the top five riders at two of the four SoCal SRA tracks, Cullum is not. But the substitu tion stood and Shaw, normall y a Bakersf ield Bandit rider, went on to lead the Charger s team to victory , scoring a near·ma ximum 11 points. Charger s team capbrin Sonny Nutter con tributed eigh t points in the winning effort. Bill Cody, the Eagles team cap brin , swept his four heats and scored. a maximu m 12 points with Sumner McKnig ht having a good night and adding nine poin ts as runneru p. For the better part of the match, the teams were dead even, the score , f!,uFtI\ati,!g'pply a matter o~ P?ints. ~'Y', heat 6, the score was tied 16·16 and it was apparen t that Shaw and Cody were going to figure heavily in the scori'ng departm ent. The teams split heats 7 and 8 but heat 9 proved to be the turning point when Charger s Scott Autrey and Danny Becker ran 1·2 for five points. Jim Gresham scored a lone point for Irwinda le and Mike KonIe, who had been challeng ing for the lead, got into a tum too hot, clipped the crashwa ll and finished last. The score jumped to 29·25 for Ventura and Irwinda le never caught up. Ron Taylor, the freshma n Eagle, rode strongly , much better than his point total would indicate . In heat 8, he rode side by side with Sonny Nutter, keeping the pressure on bu t lost by a close margin at the flag. Steve Gresham did ~ sp~~~~uJp en99 II] ,h.ea~ f'?o/ b'.'t ~ I' I' I •• I' I" v I t' - ---- surprisi ngly was not injured. In the second half of the program , Handica p racing held the spotligh t and young Danny Becker proved to be on form. The Orange County rider pulled out the Handica p Main win over Guy Waters" r. and Scott Autrey. Waterso n, who's had an up.and- down season so far, was hot Thursda y evening . He dove under Sonny Nutter in his heat race to take the win and top transfer spot and then ran a close second behind Becker in the Main. Ron Taylor, Steve Bast and Mike Bast trailed, Mike out with mechan ical troubles . Don Cullum took the Handica p ConSola tion and Jim Shaw picked up the Second Division Main over Dan Fishbur n and Ralph Castor. _ .! 1. i