Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

N N Here Comes • 1 M .... (l) ~ ~ N > :; ... ~ z L~guna w W ..J 0 > 0 Seca Anvone of these guys could win. Paul Smart, who won tha Dallas National, leads Gary Nixon, hot off a big double at Loudon' Cal RaYborn (14) HarlllY's greatest hope and last veer's winner; and Kal Carruthers (731, who alwavs finished high up. . ' , YlIOn DuHamel will ba trying to gat K_ki that first Combined win with the 350cc single-cylindar Bighorn. Last Vlllr thllY were fast anough to do it, but had mechanical difficulties. Although the Kawasaki Superbike International has only been run once before, it has already established itself as one of the best events of the year. The reason is probably the excellent course and beautiful setting, the Monterey Penninstila. . The Laguna Seca track winds over, around, up and down a hilly piece of Fort Ord property for 1.9 miles. It's, very European which means it's very like the back roads that you and your sidekicks ride on weekends. The comers vary from the very fast tum One to the knot-like tum six, the "corkscrew". The nature of the course hand the $50,000 purse and contingency fund has attracted Peter Williams, captain of the John Player Norton team. The monocoque-framed John Player N ortons, developed by Williams, are probably the best handling road racers in the world today and took Williams to three wins in the Anglo-American series at Easter. Williams really commanded that series. Although the Nortons were a tad down on power, they more than made up for it at Easter. Since that time, a little more power has been found and other refinements have been made and Williams won the Formula 750 race at the Isle of Man TI. The John Player Norton, in addition to possesing a monocoque frame, has many other interesting features. Like the fairing. Instead of the usu'al open space found on other road racers, the JP Norton has a bit of the fairing blocking the wind flow. It works, somehow; in fact the bike is a very successful bit of radical engineering. Williams will be accompanied by Mick Grant on a similar machine. The Norton effort will be rounded out by David Aldana on Last year'sJP Norton, one with a tubular frame. Williams, if he fmds the circuit to his liking, could win the big bore shooting machine. The most impressive line-up of talent is still in Kawasaki's Team Hansen. Gary Nixon seems to be the hottest man on the tcam at the momenL Gary won both the 250 Combined and the National at Loudon last month. Last year Gary Fisher did the same thing at Loudon, won the Combined at Mon terey, and was le.ading the National very convincingly until a belly-up clutch dropped him to seventh. This year Nixon is lined up for a similar show. Bob Hansen's thrill show, starring Yvon DuHamel and Art Baumann, haven't been terribly lucky so far this season, but they are both very, very fasL With Cliff Carr, Mashahiro Wada, and Hurley Wi/vert rounding out the green team, they are very strong. Yamaha is probably second strongest in talent. But the water-powered Yamahas are probably the best bikes for the course. Gary Fisher, Kenny Roberts, and Don Castro are all very fast road racers. Kel Carruthers mayor may not join them Last year Fisher was !he fastest guy around Laguna Seca, bu.[ he is getting some intense competition from his teammates. Roberts has improved radically since last year at this time. He's overdue. He is looking for more than one win, however; he's after the N atiena! Championship, and that will be his overriding concern. Suzuki has won more National road races than anybody else this season which is nice because they were really going over the coals at this time las t year. The big 750's handle pretty well, and while not quite as fast as the Kawasakis, they are poten t. So are Paul Smart, Geoff Perry, and overdue Ron Grant. Horsepower is not all that one needs at Mon terey as Cal Rayborn proved last year aboard his Harley. If a Harley is going to win, Cal is going to be riding it. But Cal is hurting for horsepower even more this year than he was last year. If C711 wins again, a not totally distant possib~ty, you will see some ~y

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