Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.. • • • GG • .... g t .q. r--.. 0) ~ 0) ..c u ~ .~ ... ~ Th e quickest three Yamaha 250 riders were Ken Roberts 111. Don Castr o (11) and No. 9, Gary Nixon. They all played switchy-swappy_ 250 Jr Ex Combined Don Castro wins his first road race .-. By Gary Van Voorhis DA YTONA BEACH, FLA., MAR . 9 The finish of the 25 Dec Junior/Expert Combined event on ' Saturday went right down to the last few feet to decide a winner. In fact, the only p lace in the top six not hotly co n tested was Steve Baker in fourth. Don Castro survived 'fou rt een lead changes to take over when it really counted and won h is first road race. Kenny Roberts barely held off old pro, Gary Nix on, for second as Gary Fisher and Dave Smith fi ished in a dead heat with fif t h going n to Fisher. Yamaha's introduct ion o f th e TZ 25 0 , a water-cooled versio n o f last year 's ligh tw eigh t model, added one more reason for t he to ta l Yamaha dominatio n o f th e Combined . The reduct ion of th e 2 00 uni t homologation ru le d own to 25 fail ed to stir any c o m p et i ti o n fr om oth er b rands, alth ough it is hoped th at Harley's w ater pumper w ill appear at Road Atlanta. The o nly ques tion in the Combined was whose Yamaha would win. Te d Henter held th e pole for th e start - a pla ce he achieved by sw o op ing Ken Roberts for a win with a last lap cha rge in their qualification he at. Don Castro sat in the number tw o position by virtue of an eked-out victory over Gary Nixon in their heat, Roberts and Nixo n fille d th e next two spots w ith Steve Ba ker, rid ing for Yamaha Motors Can ad a, filliog o u t th e last posit ion on th e front row. T he he at action was just a prelude to the final ou teo me . S teve Baker led Don Castro, Gary Nix o n , and Gary Fish er, charging from his seco nd row start, into the infield wi th Castro taking charg e as the bikes left th e infield. Nixon glued himself to Castro as the pai r sw ep t on to th e banking o f the fo urth t um clo sely followed by Baker, Henter, Fisher, Roberts, Dave Smith, and Billy Labrie. Ro berts drafted into third on the ne x t lap, ahead of Baker, onl y to have the same thing done to him on e lap lat er. Heater, meanwhile, was backing off slightly as ignition pro blem s, that would ultimately cause him to drop out 10 laps later, b egan to • give him trouble. Gary Nixon, riding Gary Fisher's spare b ike, b egan to feel the pressure of 6 QUALIFYING RACE SEE 11lEWIIOLE RACE FRO~I ATOP ADR'S 11I1.1.5 ','''~''''"u. ...~ m .. ' r ~ . RIDt RS LIKE TH ESE .~~ S'" O N THESE MACHIN ES ~ ~V ft'" ~- '~~~' KAWASAKI PENTON ~~. STATEN YAMAHA ,~ WEINERT MAICO .~ ...? . EIRSTEDT ~ tV ~;, CZ .4-~~~Y·BAft~RT ~'\~~.:. ~.."s' HUSQVARNA ~~ ,.¢'c,~ . . ~. LACKEY ~ ~~~ '' ~Q""' COOPER . ~~~~'v .x.... . CLEMENTS ; ~ ~:"':qJ-" HONDA ~i~,~') $~ . ~ THORWALDSON ~ i

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