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COLUMBUS, OHIO NATI.ONAL HALF-MILE' M > :; .., Ul ~ z W ...J U >- U Rice led the Harley team to victory. Only Roberts interfered with the H-D domination. by Jack Mangus Photos by Bob Lenk & Gary Van Voorhis COLUMBUS, OHIO., June 24 Harley-Davidson mounted Jim Rice won a hard fought Columbus National to become the nin th winner in the nin th grand national championship race of the year. Mert LawwiJI, the eventual runnerup and Dave Sehl, who was . eliminated in a getoff on the sixteenth lap, led the race at different stages, but Rice was able to adapt to the changing track and came home the winner. The 21st Annual Columbus Charity Newsies race drew a field of close to seven ty Experts. Time trials narrowed them down to fortyeigh t. Leading all 'l.,ualifiers and breaking George Roeder's former Columbus lap record was Harley factory rider Mert Lawwil!. Former Grand National Champion LawwiIl turned in a 25.943, just one one-thousandth of a second faster than Dave Soh!. The twelve lap Trophy Race was a wire to wire Doug Sehl show. Ted Newton, Larry Darr, Dave Lawson and Jimmy Maness started the twelve lap race from the penalty line after. a display of overeagerness while awaiting starter Duke Pennell's wave of the green £lag. Chuck Palmgren held second spot on his Dan Gurney-Steed Industries sponsored Yamaha for the first five laps but slowed on lap six and turned the runnerup spot over to Scott Brelsford. 1t was too late for the younger brother of our current national champiOn Mark Brelsford to try to win as Canadian Sehl was long gone. Dave Aldana chose the ou tside pole position for the National and was joined on the fron t row by Ken Roberts, Mert LawwilJ, Dick Mann, Dave Sehl and Corky Keener. The second row read Jim Rice,""' Ronnie Rail, Rex Beauchamp, Frank Gillespie, Gene Romero and Don Castro. Lawwill, looking to repeat his 1972 Columbus win, led the first lap but was passed by Rice, Roberts and Seh! on Lap number two. Rice began to pull out a lead over Roberts who wasn't getting a marnen t's rest from a determined Dave. Seh!. Lawwill was dropped back another notch on the fifth lap by Rex' Beauchamp but managed to get back around Beauchamp on the next lap. Sehl passed Roberts in turns one and two on the eighth lap and began to close on Rice. Rice had been riding the outside of the groove while Seh!, an acknowledged groove master, had been hugging the rail. Sehl went under Rick going into tum one on the tenth lap and came out of tum two with the lead. The following lap saw Rice drop down and begin to follow Sehl's lines through the turns and two laps later, on lap thirteen, he took the lead back from Sehl in tum one. Roberts, who had also been riding fairly high, dropped down and joined the Rice-Sehl battle. The trio went into tum th ree side by side on the fourteenth lap and stayed together down the fron t straigh t and in to tum one. The trio became a duo in that turn as Sohl and Roberts made contact, and Sehl went down. A mom entarily forgotten Mert LawwiJI, pressured by Beauchamp, moved up to dice with Roberts on the sixteen th lap and quickly got around him to make the fight for the National victory a three man duel again. Then Rice, Lawwill and R,oberts crossed the start/finished line on the eighteenth lap as close as had been the Rice, Sehl and Roberts trio. Rice managed to get a bike length lead over LawwiJI and Roberts, and LawwiIJ was able to hold off the hard riding Roberts through the turns wi th out, a repeat of the earlier Sehl-Roberts dice. The checkered £lag was waved and Jim Rice, of Portola Valley, California led fellow Californians Lawwill and Roberts across the line. It was the eighteenth win fot Harley-Davidson out of twenty-one Columbus N alionals. For Rice it was his frrst National win of the year in what was only his second appearance in an Eastern National in the past two years. He had taken a second at Louisville two weeks before and his Columbus win has moved him mto third place behind Roberts and Gary Scott in the national points. Rice was a gracious winner, as he thanked Harley-Davidson, the Columbus promoters, the fans, and then added a special thank you to mechanic Babe De May, who had the foresight to install a new magneto in the winning bike prior to the National. Rice, aided by Atlanta's Powell Hassell, had discovered that his plugs didn't look right after his Heat, and De May properly and quickly analyzed the problem. One of those small things that lead to big things - a National win for Jim Rice and Harley-Davidson. RESULTS: TROPHV RACE (Six miles. 12 laps): 1. Doug 5ehl (H-D); 2. Scott Brelsford (H-D): 3. Keith Ulick (H-Q)j 4. Larry Darr (H-D); 5. Ted Newton (H-D); 6. Jim Zeigler (BSA); 7. Chuck Palmgren (Vam); 8. Mike Johnson (H-D); 9. Merlyn Plumlee (Trl); 10. .Jimmy Maness (H-D); 11. Dave Lawson (Vam); 12. Ed Wirth (Vam). NATIONAL (20 laps, 10 miles): 1. Jim Rice (H-D); 2. Mert Lawwlll (H-D); 3. Ken Roberts (Yam); 4. Rex Beauchamp (H-D); 5. Cliff Keener (H-D); 6. Don Castro (vam); 7. Dick Mann P',i); 8. Dave Aldana (NO.'); 9. Frank Gillespie (Vam); 10. Gene Romero (Tri); 11. Ronnie Rail (H-D); 12. Dave Sehl (H·D).