Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

-- - -- -,----- ;;; Carlsbad Road Race " .", '" by Art Friedman ~ CARLSBAD, CAL., Oct. 15, 1972 '" The managemen t of Carlsbad Raceway had just oiled and resurfaced the track and that combined with Carlsbad's u dangerous, demanding turns to cause o alot of broken control levers, fairings, windscreens, engi~c cases, elbows, collar ~ bones, etc. today.~ Surprisingly the one race thal didn't ~ involve any crashes was the heavyweigh t u Junior GP event that was won by David ~ Racine aboard his very fast Team American 350 Superhawk. Gerhard Klemm aboard a Norton Atlas was the leader when the starter's flag fell, but Racine put his Honda into the leader's slot by the end of the first lap and was able to just ride away. Eventually Klemm had some trouble which put him back several laps and Racine won by a tremendous distance ahead of the 500 Honda of Dick Lewis and the Honda 350 of Bud Keeley who barely nipped John Crossman (Yam) for the second 350 trophy. The Seniors didn't do so well. A t the flag George Kerker on his Yoshimura/U.S. Racers Honda 750 and Kevin Stafford on his Pacific Yamaha TR-3 lept in to the lead: Coming into the hairpin on the first lap, Dick Kilgroe (Kaw), who was running third, found a slippery spot in the asphalt and got into a nice flat track slide which turned into a nice crash. Three riders plowed into his bike. In the confusion Bob Endicott on his 250 Yamaha moved into third. A ways back, Jim Evans was working on catching Tom Carroll and Roger Glickman for the 250 honors. Rubberman Richard Kilgroe got up and going again for 500 honors a ways back. Kerker heard some unpleasant clicking noises and retired just before his valve adjuster would have gone away. This left Stafford holding the lead over all the Seniors and he kept it to the flag. Endicott, who had a gargantuan lead over the rest of the 250's, had his Yamaha do what it has always done for him: break. This gave Jim Evans on his Mel Dinesen Yamaha the 250 win. 1t is strange that Endicott always has so much trouble with the Yamaha that he half owns because the other share holder. Tom Milligan, never gets it to C>. 1 Butch Landguth (71) was the open Production winner after this brief dice. break. Today he used it to beat all the lightweight Juniors by a big hunk. Richard Lisk (Suz) was frrst 125 and David Hipp (Suz) who finished as last 100 Senior somehow also managed Jo be first 100 Junior. The 50 class fell to Eddie Lawson (I tal). As usual, the ligh tweigh t Senior race went to Whitney Blakeslee and his super.fast Kawasaki 175 from Anza Cycles in Riverside. Blakeslee lapped all but one other machine. That was the 100 Mel Dinesen Hodaka ridden by Jim Evans. For awhile Richard Siefried was able to keep his exotic Maico road racer in front of Evans but then the Maico began. to feel a trifle queasy and Evans gal past. Paul Wilde (Yam) and Dick Robb (I tal) won their 50 Divisions respeci tvely. A new name on the winner's list was Butch Landguth who took his Honda 750 to the overall Production win. He was joined for a while by another Honda that dropped out, and chased vaguely by Bob Bender, who finished second on his Norton production racer. Dick KiJgroe had an easy win in the 500 class, making it two for the day. Bud Keeley was the 350 class production winner because he never let Bob Crossman close on him. Crossman loaned his 250 Suzuki to Fred Walti who went out and won the 250 production class ahead of Tom SuJlwold (Kaw). Donald Unger (Bri) was the first and only 200 at the checker, and Mike Baeder (Yam) snarfed up the 125 's. Paul Wilde doubled with another 100 win in production on his Ace Brake Yamaha and Paul Long was 50 winner. Ke.vin Stafford was open Senior GP winner because he kept on his wheels ... While all those around him were losing theirs . Bud Keeley was 350 Production winn... and look a second in 350 Junior GP. Whitney Blakeslee lapped everyone but Jim Evans in lhe lightweight Senior race. ....

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