Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

August 28,1973 Page 18 s -......-....~way: The week that just slid out Mike Koole got along well with the new cushion at Irwindale. Story 8t Photos by Dennis Greene YENTURA, CAL., AUG. 14 As the fog rolled in the racing got underway on' a completely changed track. The promoter, in the hopes Of giving some of the other riders a better chance of winning, shaped the track something like a lemon. with a point at either end. It didn't give the advantage to any other riden, the Bast Boy~ mowed that no matter what, they will win out. Last week, I told you about Steve Bast becoming the only rider this year to dean sweep the show. Wha"t this means is that-he won every event he was ente~d into, something like a n<>-hitter in baseball. Mike Bast could not let his brother get away with an"l(thing like that, so last Tuesday night at Ventura he matehed Steve by doing the same thing. U that was not enough, he did the same thing the next night at Bakersfield. He was high poin t man in the qualifying . round, winning every event and the run off between himself and Bill Cody. He was the main event winner in the regular hall of the mow, winning eVery event he was in. Back at Ventura we see the same old problems with the starting gates, and for the third straight week they were forced to use the old waving of the flag. This outmoded way of starting the race was the biggest disappointment of the night for several reasons. Fifty percent of the riders could read the starter. They knew when he was going to start and they beat him to it, so there was a lot of cheating. I pointed Ibis out to the starter, and he said he didn't care, that he didn't get paid to start the races with a flag. Things got muchworx. In the Scratcb Main. event, with all four riders on the line waiting to go, Mike Bast jumped off the line and was even with the starter who stands ahou t six feet in.front of the riders off to one side. As Mike went by, the starter waved the rest of the field off, and the race was· underway. As Mike went through tum two, be looked behind him to see if the bluk flag was going to come ou t for him, putting him out of the race or restarting it as had been done several times before that evening. Because most of the riders are unfamiliar with the flag start, every advantage is sbown them. As it turned "'Out, the starter picked up the red flag, the one used to stop the race, and we all thought the race would be stopped as it mould have been and restarted without Mike Bast. This was not tbe case, as the red flag that was in the hand of the starter, wh~ is also the referee at this track, is used to keep track, by marking on the ground with the stick, bow many times the leader has come by. While talking With Mike after the race he said he was more disappoin ted with what happened than the' fans. The feat he had just completed, winning every event he was entered in had a bad blemish on it. Thi's may be why Mike went out the next night and WOn every event, without a hitch, at Bakersfield. . The only other winner of the night at Ventura was again Keith Mamburn, who won the Second Division Main. It was his frrst Second Division ride of the year. He won his debut two weeks ago in Third Division racing. BAKERSFIELD, CAL., AUG. 15 The fIrst round of qualifying for the California State Championship got underway Wednesday night at Bakersfield with 16 of the top 32 riders in the country tying to earn a seat for the State Championship just two weeks away. Mike Bast assured himself of a seat by being the top rider of the night with a perfect score of 9. Bill Cody matched that score and was in a head-to-head four lap run-off with Mike. Mike won the match, or tie breaker but Bill is still guaranteed a seat fmishing second. Mike Curoso and Paul Orlandi were tied at 7, and the run off went to Curoso. Both earned seats for the Championship. The race track was about 50 percent better than it was last week when it broke up so early in the night. There were two complete shows that night with the frrst half being the qualifying round, fonowed by a very interesting intermission, then the regular scratch part of the. program with Mike coming ou t on top again. The half-time show was a demonstraiU>n of karate fonowed by . what was advertised as a grudge race between the promoter, Bob Francisco and the track photographer, myself, Dennis Greene. Bob and I have no grudge other then a difference in the preference of dune cycle. Bob rode the other brand, An Sport, and myself, thanks to the people at Tower Industries, rode the original Dune Cycle. . Being a modest and humble person I will just say that the other brand fmished a poor second, and I won!!! IRWINDALE, CAL., AUG. 16 Thursday ni~ht at Irwindale there was something of a surprise for the riders. The track, which had been so wet for the past four or five weeks, was extremely thick and Rick Woods and SOnny NuttBr at Costa Mesa. wet, something like Ascot. The new surface must have been to the liking of Big Mike Konle as he ran away with the Handicap Heat race. His experience at years of big clay track like Ascot showed, and that is where Mike gotbisstart. The thick clay was difficult for many of the riders, so much so that a second division heat had to be restarted three times because of multiple crasbes. The track was draged several times to try and remove the dirt to the outside of the trac k, but even the jeep was havin g its troubles moving the heavy surface. The infield people went to work to do fly hand with rakes and shovels what had to be done to make a safe racing surface. Greg Comstock, a comparative newcomer to frrst division, had the Handicap Main sewn up for the frrst four laps. Unfortuntely;it was a five lap race, and in that final lap Rick Woods got by for the win. Greg did hang in there for second place right in front of . Steve Bast. When the Scratch Main lined up, it was anyone's guess who would come out on top. Both Bast Boys were there along with Larry Moon and Mike Konle who had beaten everyone in the earlier events. At the start it looked like it might be a repeat of the Tuesday night mess where Mike Bast got the jump on the starter. As he pushed the tapes to the breaking. poin t, the starter said no, and made Mike back off. As he was backing off, the starter stepped back, pumed the button, and everyone got off at the same time. Big Mike Konle got the lead before the first turn and lost it to Mike Bast. Larry and Steve were working each other over at the back of the field. Steve passed Konle and Moon at the same time, and was hot on bis brother's trail. Steve overtook Mike in the third lap, rode through the tum with him on to the back straight and l'uUed away for the win. One of those near misses earlier in the night was still being talked about long after everyone had gone home. The story went something like this: Woods was puming Mike Konle, trying to get past. Mike went just a little wide out of tum two, Woods puned by and Mike grabbed a big handful of throttle, going into a wheelstand, mooting past Woods. Rick slid wide, right into the path of the wheelstanding Konk He slid righ t under the front wheel of Mike as he started to let it down, and it looked as if the wheel had come to rest on the moulders of Woods. Then the big man pu1Ied back on the bars lifting the front end up even higher, he let Woods through to safety, averting what would have assuredly been a serious crash. COSTA MESA, CAL., AUG. 17 The last night of racing for the week put yet a new surprise for the riders at Costa Mesa. The fever that seems to get all the promoters tile this week called '1et's change track and try to make for some new winners" finally reached Costa Mesa. A t the Orange County Fairgrounds, the track has had four distinct comers or turns. Most oval tracks do, but.not this time - the track had three turns. Nothing was changed in turns one and two, but if you looked down the back straightaway there was nothing to see where tum three used to be. The inside pole, or line marker, was pulled to a point with about a six foot cover to it. If a rider could set up his slide righ t, he could negotiate the turn, making it through in one move rather than in two. This would cause some excitement when the fast guys would enter the tum on the outside, and the slower guys would come in hugging the pole. On tile way ou t of the tum, they all got a chance to meet. This idea was not all that successful, either. For all the effort that all the promoters pu tout this week trying to change the show around, one would have to say that their energies would, have been better spent in just trying to put down a race surface that would have lasted the whole night. The new sbape did not make any difference to Mike Bast as he went on to win his 25th Seratch Main even t of the . year. Bill Cody, Rick Woods, and Sonny Nutter were the driving forces in the event. There was a noticeable change in the line up for the Handicap Main event, so you could say there may be something to what the promoters were trying to do after all. The Handicap Main brought Dave Galvin, Dan Becker, Don Cullum, Sonny Nutter, Mike Konle and John Fishburn to the line. Dave Galvin had the advantage' starting from the ten yard line. With a little belp from Sonny Nu tter he held off the pack. Dave went on to win the race. Dave also had another advantage. The entire field went down in the third tum of the last lap, and the only guy to escape th.e camage was Galvin. He breezed over the fmim line, Sonny was the 'firs guy up and managed to make it to second place. The Second Division events were just plain hard work with riders trying hard to get to the winner's circle. The winner of the Division Two event was the guy who could hold it when everybody else went doWn. The cool award went to Wayne Lewis, the survivor of the Second .Division Main evenL •

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