Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Ascot Silver Medal kickoff: First blood to Aldana! By Bob F. Reed GARDENA, CAL., APRIL 5 The AMA professional racing season opened with a bang at Ascot on Friday night with a record number of riders banging into the crashwalls on both ends of the fast half mile track. For openers the riders were greeted with a dry sliding oval that found over a dozen riders getting off the groove and into the hay bales and the wall before the night was over. Dave Aldana clocked the second fastest time of the night behind Tom Rockwood. It was the only time he was to run behind any rider the rest of the night. For Rockwood it appears that the mechanical troubles that have plagued him the past two seasons are still around. Rockwood and Gary Scott opened the Expert action with some side by side racing in the first heat. Just ' when it looked like Tom had the win in the bag, a wire broke and forced him to the pits. Earlier, Gary had clocked the seventh fastest Expert time trial. Rookie Rex Barratt moved up to take second with John Hateley coming from the back row to take third and San Diego winner, Rick Hocking, fourth. It was to be a long night for Hocking. Aldana came on in the second heat and defeated the Oregon pair, Randy Scott and Mark Williams with Terry Dorsch . in fourth. In the early laps, former Indiana rider Abram Drain, one of the few Black riders in co mpeti tion and the only Black to hold an Expert card, tangled wi th Merlyn Plumlee from Colorado. Both riders locked together and took a trip through the hay bales and into the South Turn wall. They walked away not spe aking to each other. Rookie Danny Hockie was on the pole in the third heat with the third best time tri al and came from sixth place to take the win. With two laps to go. Hockie tested the far turn with a full bore run, passing four rider s to grab th e lead fr om Eddie Wir th. Ron Moore finished third with rookie Bob Sanders in fourth. The lar ge en try of Junior class riders, many taki ng their firs t ride on the big bikes on th e half m ile, wa s t opped off with the first girl rider in the his tory of AMA pro racing. It was Diane Co x from Salem, Oregon . Diane was third from last in the Junior time trials and then ran seventh and last pl ace in her heat race. All of her adv an ce men t points ca me in Novice IT racing last year. In th e fir st Junior heat two riders sm ac ked the wall in the south turn and destroyed a half dozen ba les. Jack Vaughn lost h is m achine in Turn One and w en t down. Along ca m e Scott Marshall, hit the machine and flew through the air nearly clearing the crash wa ll. He was later hospitalized with a possible fractured leg. Ron Tobey , Bakersfield, has established himself as the Junior to beat this year. Tobey duplicated his San Diego feat from two weeks ago by taking fast time Junior honors, winning his heat and then coming back to take the main event on the Custom Engineering Triumph. Undefeated in two times out on two different tracks, this is the rider that scored Novice points last year but failed to win any half mile events on the lightweights. Alex jorgensen and Denny Robin son also came up heat ra ce winners in the junior class. T he n the last junior he at rolled to the line and it was another cr ash story. Riders from Oregon. New Me xico and Arizona were in ~ the lineup t o challenge the Californians. Don Dodge, Portland grabbed the lead on his Triumph and was on his way to apparent victory when Ron Byrd and Mike Dannell did a near-repeat of the Vaughn/Marshall tipsy in the South Tum, bringing out the stop-the-race flag : Byrd was hospitalized and six more hay bales were destroyed. On the restart, Dodge was _caught jumping the line and put back on the penalty marker. This time it was second year Junior, Art Fredenburg, Phoenix, who got out in front and won over Earl Barker. Dodge again turned in a good ride and worked his way to third, ahead of Tom Berry. before the finish but the winning time was the slowest heat and Dodge was the first alternate to the final and did not race the rest of the night. The n ew crop of first time Novice riders look good, the same for the equipment. San Diego's Pat Guthrie came into the event undefeated in two heat races and a main event at Southbay Speedway in San Diego and ran his streak to four in a row by winning his Ascot heat. But it was Riverside's Dan McWhorter who was on the pole with the fastest heat win, a win that came in the final Novice heat. Ten Novice riders were in the final that included nine two strokers and a lone four stroke ridden by Mark Smith. Dublin, Cal ifornia. Smith. McWhorter and Guthrie raced it all the way the ent ire eight laps with Smith showing the coolest head and most con sist en t lap times, plus fewer mistakes. At the finish, Smith had the Honda four stroke in front with McWhorter holding off another bid by Guthrie for second. Guthrie h ad his win streak stopped and Ascot has come up with another new name as a winner Mark Sm ith. T he Expert Trophy Dash also supplied ex t ra action , before and during the three lapper that takes the fo ur fastest Exp erts fo r points and money . The ride rs were given two test laps b y referee Chub Kellam. Rockwood. who had his m achine running again, Aldana and Barratt, all took the two test runs. Then rookie Hockie tried to take the North Tum full bore. He bailed off before the machine hit the hay and wall. Then the machine took off, clearing the crashwall by ten feet, hit the dirt embankment on the outside of the wall and flew through the air back on the track. Only the handlebars were broken! Hockie then chose to pass the dash and this moved in Randy Scott, Oregon 's most famous crasher. Aldana took the lead and Rockwood again cam e up with his bad racing luck. finding the throttle sticking wide open. Tom wisely pulled to the pits and called it a night. Aldana went on to score his second win of the night with Barratt fighting. him all the way but ending up second. Scott appeared to be having engine troubles and took third, on the wheels all the way. . . Aldana jumped into the lead on the first lap of the final, passing three riders coming out of Tum Two on the tast lap. Scott was second but dropped ou t . on the second lap with engine troubles. Rookie Barratt then held second until Lap Four when he was caught and passed by Gary Scott. Barratt dropped another spot on Lap Seven when that boy Danny Hockie got over his practice lap flip and moved to third spot. Rick Hocking, who barely qualified for the final, got go ing midway in the race and moved up to fourth but had to hold off the late lap and fast tum bid by John Ha teley, He made it . Ron Moore moved up late to overhaul Eddie Wirth who stayed ahead of the fading Barratt. Terry Dorsch and Bob Sanders brough t up the rear of the pack. The AMA pro's now go at it every Friday night with a guaranteed purse of $2.000 plus $500 in point fund money weekl y for the month of April. The money is for all three classes, Expert, junior and Novice. • Results . EX FINAL : 1. Dave Aldana (Nor) . 2. Gary Scott (H-D) . 3. Danny Hockle (Tr l) . 4 . Rick Hocking (Yam) . 5. _John HateJey (Yam) . 6 . Ron Moore (Trl) . 7 . Eddie Wirth (Tr l) . 8. Rex Barratt (Nor) . 9 . Mark Williams (Trl) . 10 . T er r y Dorsch (Yam). 11. Bob Sander s ('tam). 12. Randy Scott (Vam) . JR FINAL: 1 . Ron TObey (Tr l). 2 . M ike Myers (Nor). 3. Art Carte r (irl) . 4 . A le x Jorgensen rr-u , 5. Ryan Gifford (Tr l) . 6 . J o h n Al lison (Yam) . 7 . Art F r eden b ur g ( Y a m ). 8 . Earl Barker (Tr l) . 9. Denny ~obln50n 'Yam). 10. Jeff Coleman (Vam) . NOV f'INAL : I. Mark Smith ( H o n) . 2 . Dan M cWhorter (Vam) . 3 . Pat Guthrie (yam 4 . Dave Ra c ine ( V am ). 5 . J im Crowl ey (Kaw • 6. Br ian Garc ia (Yam) . 7 . Do ug Garr iso n (Yam ). 8 . Jeff Ce sna t (Yam ). 9 . Er ic G i fford ( Y a m ). 10 . M i tch Perr i (Yam) . I' .s-. 0. ~ "- Finally, a really SUPERIOR ALTERNATIVE in Handlebars. Most handlebars are made from # 1018 mild steel tubing that hasn 't changed since motorcycles were invented. Well, it's changed now. Meet the all new, super-light, superstrong "SUPER ·BAR" from Inter ·Am. Made from # 2024 solid'stock anodized alumi· num, these bars have almost twice thereo sistance to bending as chrome-moly units, and almost four times that of mild steel bars. (' See chart for comparative figures compiled byan inde pendent metallurgical lab.) The lab also states that although stronger (i.e., they areharder to bend permanently out of shape) they will deflect more with a given shock. This ability to flex has a shock absorbing affect, eliminating much of the impact transmitted to the rider! The conclusion that is substantiated by many riders who have switched to the Inter·Am Aluminum Handlebar, is that the result is lESS RIDER FATIGUE! The above statements apply only to 2024 aluminum. as is used by lnter -am Bike Supplies, Inc. lab reports available on request. Available in beautiful anodized SILVER, GOLD and BLACK colors, Force Required Alloy Form to Bend lnter-Am's Sol id-stock Aluminum Ye - dia 2650 in Ibs. Standard Chromemoly %- dia 1639 in Ibs. Standard Carbon steel V dia s 721 in Ibs. INTER·AM Dept.16W BIKE SUPPUES, INC. IT~ .,... ... 751 Monroe Way PI.ac eonlia . Ca . 92670 Ar ea Cod e (714) 993·2603 ,- Dave Aldana with flaps fully 'extended, He opened the Silver Medal series with a grand slam Expert class ride. ~=:;;,&;~ stroke carbs. Also conversions for alcohol & nitro fuels. (714) 894 -2623 Penton. Monark & Tyran Sales Service Parts Accessories D&R Cycles 7181 Westminster Ave. Westminster, CA 92683 15

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