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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125845
n • stro _____orne e 1 Gary Scott, Steve Droste and Mike Kidd. T he stage was set for the National. Introduction of Mike Gerald in the p ole pos ition, by virt ue o f his fast heat time, drove the pro-Gerald cr owd absolu tely bananas. Joining Gerald on the fron t row were Crump, Buckles, Hansen, Horton, McC aul and Lee, with the back ro w o ccupied b y Morrison , Hank Scott, Rober ts, Palmgren, Sall ey , an d Hateley. A t the drop of t he gree n fla g, Gerald an d Han sen took up th e on e-two positio n s and b y the en d of the sec o nd lap there w as no quest ion that Te am Honda would occ u py th e two highest ste ps o n the victory circle podium. Hansen wanted to return to the to p ste p h e had occupied the night b efore , keepin g the pressure o n Gerald for the entire tw enty laps. Gerald circled the ' Do me's tr ack, holdin g the inside lin e thus h oldi ng o ff Hans en's charge. The Louisisana contingen t was abs olutely hy ste rical as they wa tched their favorite son never more off that ins ide line ike Gerald had the confidence, the cool, and t he right combination of mach inery to win th e first ational of 1974. Behind him : Dave Hansen , Tom Horton and, yes, that's Bart Markel. The second heat saw John Hateley n th e pole; on the outside of the front ow sat John Gen nai and Dave Hansen, oth aboa r d th e hi gh touted ch we rma-de velo p ed Ho nda XL 350 ou r st rokes. The race was red-flagged he n Bill Sch aeffer an d Phil McDonald n loaded in tum two. On the single file estart, Rob Morrison held the lead osition. Han sen quickly took that positio n way from Morrison and the two inished o ne-two. Ha tely and Ed Salley at lied for t he last d irect transfer to the ational rig h t u p to the chec kered flag . alley, an o th er Ge orgia Hot Shoe, o n a rew Pate-sponso red Yamaha got the ansfer position at the lin e with ate1ey havin g to face a Semi. Fo rmer Grand National Cha mpion, er t Lawwill, hel d th e pole for the hird heat but t he crowd was obviously ulling fo r Mik e Gerald. Allan Becker, he Houston promo ter , stated that , 0 0 0 Louisianians had p urchased ickets for the weeken d's programs b ut, nder th e do me , they sounde d like 0,000. Gerald had spent "three hect ic ays" in Cal ifornia with Do ug chwerma putting th e finishing touche s n his Team Ho nda m achin e and had nly run one concrete indoor on the ike . The third heat req uired a restart f ter Darryl Hurst and Scott Drake loade d in turn one. T he r e s t a r ts s aw a n o t he r Pa te-sponsored Yamaha ridden by Roo kie Ex pert Hank Scott take t he lead follo w ed by Lawwill, Gerald, and Tom Ho rto n. Ger ald an d Ho rton ~ot by Lawwill w it h Mert dro pping out of th e race o n the fif th la p afte r his factory Harl ey -Davids o n suffered a broken rocker arm. Ge rald took off after Scott and after several laps o f wheel to wheel racing the "C aj u n Kid" delivered an uindoor-move-over-tap" to Scott in tum one on th e las t lap to ta ke the win . Horton got by Scott on the last tum and the trio advan ced to the Semis. T he pro-Geral d crowd was still buzzing as the fourth heat line d up on the starti ng lines with Bultaco mo un ted Ti m Buckl es on the p ole. Pat Marinacci and Jim adorn were ushered back to the pe n alty line for jumping Du ke Pennell' s start flag, th en ado rn an d Dan Graham w en t down in turn o ne . Buckles w as n ever headed during t he ten laps but the scene be hind h im had th e crowd b ac k on t heir feet as Chuck Palmgren , Rob er t E. Lee, Corky Keener, an d Gen e Romero fo ught for th e two-three. . positions. Native Texan, Rober t E. Lee, took the second sp ot over the Dan G u r n ey /Steed I n d us t r ie s -s p o n s o r e d Yamaha of Palmgren. Keener and Ro mero finished right on Palmgren 's tail just missin g the last d irect transfer p osition. Between the Expert he ats and Se mis, cam e a J u mior Invitational Short Track. Top J umio r riders had been hand-pi cked fo r t he invitational m ee t an d t he tw elve man field fo r the final was d etermined t hro ugh two hea t the night be fore. Texan Guy McClure p layed " Bump er Bikes" on the ope n ing lap but by th e fo u rth go-around, Bul taco -moun ted spot for several lap s with Rush winning the high-speed argument to make it a one -tw o -three sweep for Bultaco. Ridgeway was ab oard a third dre w Pate-sponsored Yamah. Ex pert Semis saw J .R. Rawls an d John Hateley' advance to the Main as t hey won the first and second Se mis. Raw Is was followed across the line by Ro me ro, Kee ne r, Gary Nixon, Charlie Ch ap ple, and Kid d , all of whom ad vanced to t he trophy race. Following Ha teley u nd er t he checkered wer e Steve Droste, wh o d u eled w ith Hateley fo r the entire race, J oh n Gennai, Bill Morgan, Fred Smith , and Gary Scott. Talent like Dave Aldana, Mark Brelsford an d Bart Markel failed to transfer to either th e Trophy or National ra ces . The T rophy Race , in which the to p six fin ish ers would re ceive National points under the AMA 's 19 74 p oin t breakdown, belonged to Team Honda member, J ohn Gennai. Fin ishing b ehind Gennai and picking up National points were Gene Romero , Corky Keener , Ken Roberts diced with Palmgren, finally got by but co uldn 't deal with his new Yamaha as well as the old one. desp ite so me wh eel -banging from his teammate. T om Horton, aboard a Shell Motors Yamaha. prepared by J ohn Reed held th ird place for th e length of t he race ov er Roger Crump. Beh ind the front-running fou r wa s last year's winner, K e n ny Roberts. Rob er ts w or ked his way up to fifth fro m the back row , passin g Hateley, McC aul an d Palmgren. T he latter three in rev erse orde r, took six-seven th-eigh th posi tion s. T he so u nd o f the b ike was co m pletely drowned o ut by the crowd for th e las t several laps . When Ger ald received th e checkered flag, and his third natio n al and first Astrodome win, all hell broke lo ose, After touring the track for on e m ore lap, accompa n ied by the chec kere d, Gerald stopped at the start/finish line, proceeded to rem ove his gloves an d hel met and threw them up in to his 70 00-man cheering sec tion . Gerald was in te rviewed by Bru ce Brown for Wide World of Sports an d then p ro u dly cl imbed to t he top ste p of the victory podium wher e he received his tr o phy and wreath. He .immediately an no unc ed t hat Honda won th e Yamah a Gold Cup and th an ked Honda's John Blum, Honda's Doug Schwerman , his wife Wanda, James Wright, Bob Mercer of So u thern Elec tr ic, h is lo ng ti me supporters : G oody ear, and "the greatest fans in the world." His fans should thank him. for " co on-ass " did them p roud. • .., Results 1. Mike G era ld (H o n) ; 2 . Da ve Hansen CHon) ; 3 . T o m H orton ; 4 . R 0ge r Crum p C Bul); S. Ken Rober t s (Yam); 6 . Joh n H at ele y ( Bul ); 7. Pa t McCau l; 8 . Chuck Pa lm gren (Ya m). Feet up , smokin', and a little breathin' roo m. ....