Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

there was one big tree on the fence line and another one, surrounded by hayba/es, about four feet out in the track. Instead of taking the safe wide line on the inside, the better riders were taking the faster line between the trees at 40 MPH. Just before the trees was a small bump, so they were sailing through the four foot wide gap between trees in midair, then hitting the berm for the uphill turn at full throttle. Needless to say, spectators were five and six deep. Ake won the moto. World Champ DeCoster, unable to reel in the European GP runnerup, took second. They were followed by Hammargren (Yam), Van Velthoven (Yam), Kring (Hus), Brad Lackey (Kaw), for first American, then Mikkola (Hus) and Karsmakers (Hus). By the second 500 moto, Ake more than knew his way around the long track so when they came around to complete the first Jap, our boy was foHowed by Hammargren, Lackey, Gary Jones (Yam), and Jim Weinert (Yam). On the third lap, Jim moved his 360 Yamaha around Gary's to take over fourth. Roger DeCoster had gotten a poor start, about midway back in the pack, and was finding that he was unable to work his way up through the fjeld. Heikki Mikkola wasn't having that problem and zapped his way to third by the fjfth lap. Meanwhile, Weinert had moved up on Lackey and the two resumed theirrunning battle for top American. The fender clashing wen t on for abou t six laps, then Lackey tired and Jim was able to pull away from him in fourth place. Towards the end of the moto, Hammargren had his foot slip off the peg while sailing over the big jump. The time he lost trying to recover gave Mikkola the opportunity he needed to take over second. The moto finished with Ake out front again, Mikkola, Hammargren, Weinert, Kring, Karsmakers and Van Velthoven. Roger DeCoster didn't show up on the line for the start of the final moto. Jim Weinert got a beautiful hole shot and was long gone on the first lap. J aak Van VeIth oven had European Team Yamaha in second. Ake had gotten a slow start, but by the third lap was up behind Van Velthoven. Jim was unable to hold his lead and began to fall back as he tried. Van Velthoven took over the lead and, for three laps, Ak6 hounded the Belgian. At one point, he pulled past Jaak, but couldn't hold it for more than half a circuit before J aakretook the lead. The next lap, Ake got by again and that was the last time he was headed. Kring was holding down third, followed by Van VeIth oven and by Hammargren, while Hammargren moved up into his teammate's second slot. Mikkola was in fifth, then Weinert. Brad Lackey was a good djstance back but quickened his pace and was consistently picking up two second a lap on Jim. Five laps from the finish he passed him. Brad Lackey was first American in sixth position when his silencer fell off three laps from the finish. The flagman at the finish line saw the silencer hanging from its safery wire and took out the black flag to wave at Brad. AMA MX Referee John Lancione told the starter not to black flag Brad. This was in light of the AMA's strict policy to c:; " li' Q. .... '" ~ ,; 0 2 en ~ w 2 w ...J U > U disqualify anyone who loses a silencer during a race and the subsequent turmoil at Road A tlan ta Trans-AMA when Hans Maisch was penalized by Lancione, being disqualfied from a second overall position when his silencer fell off five laps from the finish of the final moto. Ake took another first and first overall for the day. He was followed to the checkered by Mikkola, Kring, Hammargren, Van VeJthoven and Brad Lacke} . A big controversy was taking place in the pits over the failure of Brad to be black flagged when his silencer fell off. Later, Lancione admitted, "We screwed up." He decided to penalize Brad half the finishing field for that moto. Approximately twenty bikes finished the final moto and Brad was in sixth position. He was only dropped four places in the third moto standings. Lancione had stated on numerous occasions at riders' meetings that the minimum penally would be disqualification from laps run without a silencer, so Brad should have been listed as dropping out of the race three laps from the end. Americans want to see a "hometown" boy beat the Europeans, but the victory won't be an honest one if the AMA has two sets of rules in their book: one for Americ·ans and one for Europeans. The Support class blasts off. 250 SUPPORT CLASS Everyone was expecting Yamaha to do some winning when DeWayne Jones and Marty Tripes totally dominated their respective qualifying motos. Even Peter Lamppu (Kaw) had to settle for second place, half a lap behind Marty in the qualifer. Sonny DeFeo surprised everyone by stoking his CZ to the lead as the gate dropped on the first feature moto and he wasn't headed for the rest of the twenry-minute moto. Husqvama teammates Bob Grossi and Gary Semics took second and third, and Lamppu brough t the Kawasaki prototype in fourth. DeWayne Jones fen on the tricky course and ended up way back along with Tripes, who got a slow start and, was never able to improve on it. Peter Lamppu led the charge for the second and final moto, followed this time by DeFeo. Peter had a good lead at the start, but Sonny was really pushing the throttle and closing up on Lamppu when he did a lock-to-Iock number that laid him out. He spent a lap trying to get the flooded CZ restarted. This gave Grossi the opportuniry to cap another second place tmish and the overall win. -

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