Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

CMC scrambles Story & Photo: by Rex Backman CHICO, CAL. , FE B. 17 Fr iday's night hard rain left -th e tr ack in superb co nd ition for racing and Del Beck er fro m Palerm o pu t it to goo d use. Becker, a J un io r rider for Conway Cycle 0 r Oro ville, took first place in the 125 and Open class Jun ior even ts to day. Riding co mbine d Winning sidecar team McNiel/Kerlag on Action Fours Honda outfit. Sitting down on the job at Riverside By Lane Campbell RIV ERSIDE, CAL., FE B. 24 Gas pin ch or no gas pinch , a fair-dinkum field turned out for th e AFM Los Angeles chapter's high speed road ride at-Riverside. TIleY 'w ere rewarded by a sky washed pure by an east wind, and . three great mountams stan di109 if vi ed h h I bl ou t as 1 VIew t roug c ear ue The 250 Production race sta rte d o u t wit h a re al donnybrook for the first three places. Richard Baron, Wally Karpynek, and Ken Gill drafted each o th er back and fo rth in a scramble for th e lead . While lapping b ack-markers, Baron took advantage o f traf fic and pulled away. John Lassak (Yam) pulled off a second in 125 GP, switched bikes for the 250 GP , an d cras he d whil e lyi n g four or fifth , breaking his an kle. Pridmore walked away from the 5 00/0 p en GP fie ld, causing much head-shaking and second-guessing in the p addo ck. "If we 'd br o ught th e (Fill in th e bl ank) today, we could have blown that antiquated BMW away." Ride on , Reg. - ice. Among the turnout was a brace of n ew Yamaha TZ750's, fro ught with teething problems. Like a water-pump impeller drive that leaks water in to th e gearbox. Jim Berry st u ck his and crashed between Turns One and Tw o without serious injury, while chasing Pridmore in the Open GP event. The "chairs" are beginning to sprout wings , a la CanAm cars , b ut gimmickry withou t reliability doesn 't win races. Jim McNiel/Skye Kerlag _ " a bit ru sty af ter a two month layoff" _ ran aw ay and hid from the pa ck , whi ch quickly de cimated itself down to th e surviving Royse/Nault BSA unit. The trouble with SoCaI sidecar racin g is that : a) there aren't more peopl e in th e act, and b ) those in the ac t are plagued by me chanical unreliab ility. While they last, the sid ecar tea ms are spectacular to watch , especially in the change-up turns Seven an d Seven -A , wh er e K erl a g 's di ve f o r the right-mounted ch air h as to be witnessed to believe. Talking abou t it in th e p addock, Sky e said, " Yes, it's difficul t. Jim still has to ba ck off a bit t hro ugh th ere, but wh en w e get our tea mwo rk back together, he won' t h ave to sh ut off at all. I wouldn ' t ride with anybody else. Jim had some dirt track habits to unl earn last year; now he 's really go t it together." "W e'r e still no t satisfied wit h th e tire s (at the re ar). We like th e co m p o un d o n th e o nes we have , but th ey 're m ade fo r racin g Min i-Coopers and hav e a directional tread. On left-handers, th is p ar t o f t he tread gets squeezed shut and it wants to slip . Go ing th e o the r w ay , we're rollin g th e tr ead under . S till, it 's all we can get:' T hese are ju st a few of th e prob lems a successfu l " chair" crew must solve . Figu ring t hat there 's sti ll no d omest ic p arts so ur ces for sidecar raci ng equi pme nt and eac h un it must be virtuall y scra tch -bu ilt , it's no wo nde r there are so few teams ru nning. It got this dose in the 250 Productio n race. Baron (2) eventually pulled awa y . The 250 GP class swe eps into Turn Seven o n t he first lap. Lassak (349) briefly tangled fo r lead, later crashed. Results S idecar : 1. James McNeil /Skye Ker lag (Hon) : 2. Alan Royse/Da ig Nau lt (B SA) . 500 GP : 1. Ed Lawson (It); 2 . Doug Stanton {ttl: 3 . Steve Zimm erman (Ita) . 1 25 GP; 1. Jeff Shettler (Yam ); 2 . John Lassak (Yam); 3 . Pedro Galliru cc i (Yam). 2 0 0 G P ; 1. Tom Herrman (Yam); 2. Rudy Reynosa (Vam); 3. Jim Cobb (Su z) . 2 5 0 GP: 1. Bob End icott (Y a m ); 2. B . Hammer ( Y am ); 3 . W . Karpyne k ( Y am ). 350 GP; 1. B ob Endi c ott (Yam) ; 2. Je ff Cer k i (Yam). Open GP : 1. Reg Pr idmore (BMW) ; 2. W ade K ill en ( Yam) ; 3 . C h r is Lapot o s1

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