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/125797
By Art Friedman . Photos by Bruce CareY,Jobn Voss, Art Friedman and Chris CARLSBAD, CAL., Aug. 20, 1972 Wes Cooley, organizer of the ACA, had a great day today. First of all, he had an excellent turnout for today's road race. There were so many people that there was 'no place to park in the piu. There was a fair turnout of spectators, too. Another event that must have pleased Wes was the ovefall Open victory of George Kerker who was riding a Honda 750 owned by Cooley. Kerker had an all day battle with Steve McLaughlin who was riding a Honda 500 modified by Action FOUTS. Normally, it would have been a runaway for the larger bike, but Action FOUTS has really done a number on McLaughlin's 500, and it is a bit easier to get the smaller four around the bumpy, narrow Carlsbad circuit. Kerker was also handicapped by a lack of fifth gear. The pace set by McLaughlin was so fast that Kerker didn't evep have a chance to play his usual games. He did win, however. Kerker was also the official winner of the Open Production event although he was beaten by McLaughlin on the same Action Fours 500. For this event Kerker was riding a showroom stock Honda 750. The Action Fours bike had horsepower on the stock 750 and won, but was not a legal production bike because of its megaphone exhaust. The icing on the cake for Cooley came when his son, Wes Jr., won the 250-350 Junior GP event on a Yamaha 250. Wes got a bad start, but worked his way through the pack to win by a sizable margin at the flag. The first 350 in was the Kawasaki of Mike Clark who also won the 350 class of the production event on the same bike, beating all the 500's in the process. The best race of the day was the 500-Open Junior GP event. It was a wire-to-wire battle between Frank Coker (Nor) and Tom Casey on a Honda 500. They stayed nose to tail the en tire way and the lead shifted several times. At the flag, though, Coker nosed out the Honda for his first overall victory after a great deal of trying and several near misses in the past. Casey, of course, FJ ~ « ~ w z w ~ o > u om Casey leads Frank Coker. Coker eventually got around for the overall win. and Casey was 500 winner. won the 500 class. The ligh tweigh t Senior GP even t was dominated absolutely by Whitney Blakslee on the same Anza Kawasaki 175 that he has been winning on all season long. The 250 Seniors ran with the Open bike and Neal Coben won the class and what's more impressive, was third overall behind Kerker and McLaughlin. Chuck Strohmenger was second in his first Senior ride. He had a dice for most of the distance with Dick Kilgroe, who was having trouble with his Kawasaki 750. Strohmenger just nipped him at the line. " Among the spectators were Pat Evans and Bob Endicott. Pat hopes to be back in business at Ontario and Bob has his eye on the ACA Riverside even t on Sep,tember 17. Swedish team of Aurosell/Nylund (20) leads Sehauzu/Kalaueh BMW. near the middle of the race and stretched it to a winning margin of some 27 seconds at an average speed of 82 mph. It seems appropriate here to mention that often In the pits the talk is of seeing Agostinl and Rayborn race. It is nearly unanimous that they are the two best road racers riding In the world tod&y, and it is only fitting that they should be allowed to race each.other, somehow. It would certainly draw a crowd, particularlY In England, where the people who saw Mr. Rayborn during the Anglo-American series call him the best In the world, bar llone. Or in Italy. Or In America, where the howling MV would be exposed to the Innocent eyes and ears of the cycling publlc for the first time. It is time that H-D and MV and various o!11c1als and a promoter or two got down to business and arranged it. The final raee of the Swedish GP was not a world point-paying event, and so some of the better Germans stayed away, as it is a trip to Sweden, and It was a 750Cc llmlt Instead of the champ- ionshlp size of 500. Only two German outfits attended, that of Schauzu/Kalauch and Wegener/Helnrichs. Hinz Luthrlnghauser/ Jurgan Cusnik crashed last week at the Czechoslovakian GP and Cusnik was killed when thrown Into a telephone pole. And the other top people stayed home to ready th"eir outfits for the next World Points race. The majority of sidecar outfits were manned by Swedes, and proved to be quic k enough to take a first place and a third. Eric von Post and Hampus von Post took a very clean 750 Honda outfit to the front on the first lap! and stayed there for the race. SchaUZU/Ka!auch started poorlY, but worked up to second place by the end of the 20 lap race, followed by two more Swedes, Stefan Dahlberg!Hans Bjorkman on a BMW. 4th went to the Wegener/ Heinrichs BMW. Some of these Swedes really knew the Anderstorp course well, and were hanging the sidecar wheel In the air all the way around the corners, making some fantastic sights·, to say the least.