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by Brent Bailey
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FREMONT, CAL., Sept. 10, 1972
Upon arrival at Fremon t Raceway most
of the participants from the Southam
California area encountered many
problems they hadn't expected. The
reason for these inconveniences was
primarily the differences between
AHRA and NHRA rules.
All the drag strips in the LA-Orange
County area are NHRA sanctioned so
finding AHRA rule books is no ~asy
task. As a resull the majority of the
racers had set their bikes up according
to NH RA rules hoping they coulc! get
through an AHRA tech inspection. No
such luck.
As it turned au t aJ.! the gas class bikes
A, B, C, etc ...were lumped into one top
gas category. The twin engine bikes of
Long Beach Honda and Action 4's
were.n't allowed to set official records as
AHRA has yet to establish a category
for this type of bike. Russ Collins and
his revolutionary blown single engine
Honda was also exernpt from record
setting. ,.
Once the technical debacle had
ended the spectators were in for some
hot and heavy racing.
Shortly before eliminations the word
came down from the tower that all top
gas bikes would be merged in to the top
fuel ranks. It's rather hard to imagine a
10.60 "C" gasser running heads up
against a potential 8.90 top fueler. But
thanks to quick action on the part of
the R.C. Engineering team, who
protested long and loud, this lopsided
merger was avoided.
So, first round top fuel finally
appeared.
Boris Murray, fresh from his big win
at Indy, turned a 9.37, 167.28 m.ph.h:
to beat au t Dave Campos who ran a
squirreJly 9.80. 165.44 m.p.h.
Jerry Cox then came along and calmly
blew the doors off Gary Burns (small
pun there). Jerry's 9.61, 149.50 was just
too much for Cary's slow 12.73, 101.80.
The bike rounds were interspersed by a
smaJl group of cars that most likely felt
a bit out of place being surrounded by
hundreds of bikes and their riders.
First top gas race pitted Russ Collins
and his blown Honda against Roger·
Davis and his unique vari drive-torque
converter Yamaha. Russ blistered the
track, turning a 10.02, 139.53 with
Roger trailing behind with a 10.37,
129.49.
The next race had Ron Teson and
Bill Hahn piloting their twin engine
Hondas. Bill Hahn ran a strong 10.13,
146.81 but just couldn't keep up with
Ron's fantastic 9.87,148.96.
[n the third race Ron Knapp turned a
quicker 10.74 but still lost to Ron
Fringer's 10.96 due to his slow reactions
at the ligh ts.
...,...;..,..-...,........,.,..,;.,.,
Ron Knapp on a neat little Yamaha.
Final race had Terry Vance from
R.C. Engineering against Pat Leahy of
Mother's Choppers. Pat just couldn't get
his act together turning an 11.9 I loss to
Terry's 10.42.
Fremont Drag Strip is located right
next to a ligh t plane and glider airport.
Occasionally emergency landings are
made on the drag strip. This though t
must have crossed the minds of most
racers there; "What happens if one of
those· planes has to land while I'm on
the strip?" It's rather funny watching
bikers make a pass keeping one eye on
the strip and one on the sky ..
Back to Top Fuel final round action.
Boris Murray reeled off a 9.52, 163.04
shutting down Jerry Cox who left the
line too hard resulting in severe
breakage.
Semi Final top gas pitted Russ
Collins and Terry Vance against each
other. This was Terry's first chance to
get at the old man in legal competition.
Both being from R.C. Engineering the
battle has been raging for quite some
time. Well, the underdog triumphs
again. Russ [eft hard but broke a blower
belt about 100 feet out giving Terry's
slower bike an easy win at 10.19.
Ron Teson ran a 9.92, 145.63 to
defeat Ron Springer's 10.72, 129.91.
In the Street Eliminator class Tom
Gorman won final round over Bob
Craig. Bob got there first with a 14.22,
90.63 but broke out of his dial-in giving
Tom the win with a 13.34,98.25.
Tom's been a top competitor for
many years but late[y he's run into
some tough competition in his own
ranks. His wife Millie is one of the
strongest and most consisten t running
bikers in the field.
Top Gas E[iminator (not to be
confused to top gas) was won by George
Hurteau with an 11.00. "Lil" Willie
Kingston of R.C. Engineering took
runner-up when his bike. wouldn't start.
The highlight of the meet was the
cross-over jump made by Gary Davis
and Rex Blackwell. Cary was
celebrating his 21st birthday and almost
stopped celebrating when he over-shot
his side of the jump by about three feet,
but he managed to control his wobble
and everything came out fine.
[n the final top gas round Ron Teson
came up against "Hairy" Te.rry Vance.
Te.rry put up a gallant effort but his
10.33 couldn't quite keep up with
Ron's blistering 9.63, 145.86.
Two records were set at the meet.
Dave Campos drove from A[buquerque
to set a new AHRA Top Fue[ record of
9.B, 168.22. Terry Vance set a new B
gas record of 10.25 with his NHRA legal
uC" gasser.
Having such a fine turnoU't of
spectators and bikes, perhaps Fremontcan become an annual event.
Ron Tenso" takes his double-Honda to a win in top gas over Terry Vane.
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