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/125802
by Skip Newell LEICESTERSHlRE, ENGLAND, Sept. 17, 1972 - The new 250 world Champion, Jamo Saarinen, aboard a little water-cooled Yamaha 350 screamed to victory in the. Race of the Year at Mallory Park and in the process broke the lap record set by the great Mike Hailwood. The only rider who could stay with the Flying Finn was Cal Rayborn', who fell back when his Harley soured. The contest for second place was then passed to Paul Smart· aboald a 750 Kawasaki and three time winner of this race, John Cooper. On the last lap Smart got by in the hairpin for the second spot. In the 750cc Superbike race, Smart again pulled into the lead on the last lap after following teammate Yvon DuHamel until them. Saarinen was also the winner of the 250 and 350 classes aboa>d his Yamahas. Remembrances The crowd over 40,000 lined every inch of the perimeter of the track, the infield and the grandstands. Not your common spectators, but each one in leather boots, carrying a helmet or autograph book, vitally involved with the spo.t they came to see. On the grassy grounds of an old estate that makes up Mallory Park, one could see the most incredible assortment of touring bikes and cafe racers. Great hulking Nortons with grotty looking alloy polished tanks, c1ipons, and megaphones. The BMW's from Holland and the highways to the East. Gathering after the race in the club house just as darkness came, chilly after_ the race, many pints of ale exchanged hands _among the packed rooms. Pictures of the greats were on the walls .. John Cooper, Percy Tait, Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, John Surtees, the old and the new. The new being Barry Sheene, ligh tweigh t rider extraordinaire.Jazz bandplays on. Glimpses Fully enclosed sidecars on English country lanes. Siegfred Schazau and Chris Vincent, at it in the sidecars drifting the esses, almost touching. Ken Maely, th~ slroe man, in sleeveless jacket asking for chewing tobacco at the very staid Rothman's cigarette stand, which blew the well dressed lady attendant's mind. The two fanatics who were traveling in Iran and hitchicked to Mallory Park when they. heard a race to end all races was to happen September 17. Comer stone of my hotel read built 1639. * * * The most powerful momen t of the entire race meeting was as follows; the course starts on a straight-away in front of the grandstands, down ways around Gerard's comer which keeps hending and bending like our own Laguna Seca. Another almost straigh t section, a tum and in to the esses. To watch the legendary Percy Tait nick his great Triumph 3 from side to side here sends chills up 'your back. Up a hill around a M ~ " o ~ w , Z W ...J (.) >(.) Jarno Saarinen leads a slower rider. "He could beat me in a wheel barrow," said one competitor. ., almost off the bike. Cooper, also knee out, goes way to the outside rail and comes off the comer with incredible speed. Paul pulls a tight tum and stays close to the inside rail. It is a drag race - llO hp of Kawasaki wheels tanding out of the hairpin. Cooper on the wick of the outside rail and the Triumph's three megaphones bellow in torture a~ people crowd the fence to the left Devi!'s Elbow. Cooper switches and takes the inside near the rail as incredible speeds trying to pass Smart. Paul is almost completely' off the machine., his head near the side of the tank in his now famous style. The tires of both machines slide as the tum gets tighter. Smart pulls in front and closes the gate as they ease by the Armco barriers and the victory flag. "It was the most powerful dramatic moment in racing for me, two of the world's greats each not giving an inch at incredible speeds left me completely drained and. the 40,000 fans going beserk. ,; Coming out of the hairpin, Paul Smart saves the tread on his front tire. hairpin, which. one must slow to pra~tically nothing, then down and around Devil's Elbow, a left hand high speed sweeper, to the line. From my vantage point between the hairpin and the middle of a Devil's Elbow, I sat transfixed. It seemed useless to shoot 'more pictures as each rider or combination was as exciting as the next. * * * The first big race of the day was Rothman's 1000 guineas race of the year. The Finn, Jama Saarni"en, on the 350 Yamaha going so quick he is 1/2 a lap ahead. He has lowered his bars until they are straight up and down, not angled down, and found he has better control and could go much faster. Next Paul Smart was dicing with the incredible John Cooper. Cooper, you will remember, is always seen aboard a large British machine, BSA or Triumph, knee out, 'poridge pot hat with two Moon eyes on it. He is absolutely mind boggling. In person, as are many of the British go-fasts, a bespectacled quiet person. On the track he, as I also see in Cal Rayborn, put on the race face. * * * Paul and Cooper were fighting through the esses, up the hill to the hairpin tum. Paul takes it - knee-out- I I * 7241 Orangethorpe Buena Park, CA 714/521·2420 * 600 ACRES OF CYCLE TRAILS * REST ROOMS and HOT SHOWERS * 152 CAMPER HOOK-UPS * Championship which Smart was to win and DuHamel second, there was an insane crash at the very spot on Devil's Elbow I earlier described. Three Triumph 3's, Cooper, Tait, arid Ray Pickrell were racing in a herd, no one giving an .inch at very fast speeds. Pickrell's gear box seized, and' he went down into the trail in Devil's Elbow' taking the others with him in a tangle of bodies, blue farings and broken machines. 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