Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

rI2 !: Ascot Half-Mile Jill = • g ~ rCl ..... ..-.. 0.. > z o -< J: <[ ::; z <[ o > 'J: " > .. <[ a: o o I=~=-~~o....:_,-- __ o ~ '--""'""" J: Hocking and Ho c kie were this d o se all night. Skip Aksland triu m ph ed (Nortoned? ) o ver the Juniors. By Bob F. Read GARDENA, CAL ., APR. 12 New first-year Expert rookies ganged up on the older pros in the second round of the weekly half-mile Friday night dirt track races. Gary were shoes 8. Onl y two of the veterans, Scott and Tom Rockwo od, able to run with the new this time. In Time Trials, Rex Bar ratt, J ohn ' Gennai and Rick Hocking clock ed 1-2-3, with John Hateley in fourth, the o n ly veteran to make the trophy d ash lin eu p . Rookies then won two of the t hree Heat races. First it was Barrat t topping Hateley , Ro n Moore, Randy Scoll an d Eddie Wirth - all National Number s from the '73 season. Moore " crash ed " not once but twice in the fir st -lap op ener, but st ay ed on the wheels b o th times in an am azing display of balance. Again , Ro okies pulled off the old one- tw o in th e second Ex pe rt Hea t. runn in g first were John Gen n ai and second Dann y Ho ckie, They o ut -g- ssed a Pat McC aul, Tom Horto n and T err y Do rsch. It was Gennai 's first Ascot rid e as an Ex pe r t. He mis sed o pe n ing n il(ht two weeks ago. Gary Sco tt got off to a go od star t in t he final Hea t an d Tom Ro ckwo od ;:ot o ff to a bad one. Both were pitted agai ns t Rick Ho ck ing. Scott wen t on to win w ith Hocking second, Mark Williams in thi rd , Tom White fo u rth and Rockwood t aking th e last Semi tran sfer, in fifth. Rock wood really put it all together in th e Expert Semi , passing four riders in one turn to co me from fifth to first a nd go on for an easy wi n an d a tune-up for things to co m e in th e Final. But first came the Trophy Dash, wh ere t he rookies never gave Hateley a chanc e. It was a one, two, three finish with Ge nnai up fro nt, Hocking second and Barratt, ov er running the turns, in third. "Old John " was last. The new wh it e pl at e Experts were all p rime d for the Fin al. Usua lly rookies d o not win until mid-season or lat er . Barrat j um pe d to th e front but was gassing it far t oo m uch into the tu rns. Somethi ng ha d to give an d it was Barratt, cras hin g on the south turn on the thi rd lap in fro nt of most of the fiel d. They all cleared _t he falle n R o o kie, Dan McWhorter slipped past Brent Knauer in the Ascot Novice Fin al. then Gennai shot to the fron t and Rockwood went high to miss Barratt and found himself in ninth an d last place as the riders co m ple t ed lap three. The crash moved Gary Scott to third but still behind Ho cking. Then Gary barreled into second on lap five . Gennai held a com for tab le lead at this point with ten laps to go. I Now there were two ra ces, one up front between Gennai and Scott, the other from th e ba ck in volvin g Rockwood. Tom picked off Tom White o n lap four and then Mark Williams and John Hateley on lap six to move up to a far back seventh. Gary SCOll closed by inches during th ese laps, but Gennai was in co n tr ol. Rockwood zapped Randy SCOll for six th on lap eigh t and then moved by Ho cking for fourth on lap ten. Tom was the fastest man on the cl ocks at th is poin t. Gary made a late-lap effort to o ve r t ak e Gennai with Rockwood moving up to battle Hockie for third. On lap fourteen Tom moved by to take over third and was fast closing o n Scott when the flag came out and Gen nai came up the winner wi th a clean one n ight 's sweep h is first time ba ck on the track whe re he broke all the records as a Junior las t season. Top gun J unior Ron Tobey of _ Bakersfield, again had a bad nigh t ; Co ming out of the las t turn on the final lap in h is heat ra ce and lea di ng, Tobey we nt loop the loo p , crash ing hard. He lat er walked away but his Ascot strea k was st opped. This carne after he ha d clocked by far th e fastest Junior Time Trial. San Jose winner, Nick Nazzissi, came up with problems in practice and failed to ap pe ar at the lin e. So it was left to last year's Top Novice, Skip Aksland , to John Gennai won everyth ing but the Trophy Girl ' s ski rt and he may be working on that! get th e job done on the AI Harmon Norton. Skip bagged the fastest Heat race win and th en ch ased Gary Bevans, Yamaha, more than four lap s in the final before taking over and moving out for his his first big bike win. Arizona's Art Fredenburg crashed on the third lap while ru nning second, so it was Arizona 's Rick Kraft going on for third place with a smooth, impressive ride. The second night of Novice racing as usual fo u nd a gang of cras hes an d spills. San Diego's Pat Guthrie go t too eager fighting for a transfer position in the Heat ra ce an d ran in t o the fro n t straight crash wall. Ano th er Novice w o n h is He at rac e and then tr ied to pop a wheelie righ t after he c ro ssed th e fini sh line. He cras hed hard and too k another rider down with him. A penalty of one week off wi tnout pay soon followed. The oth er ~jovice was fortunately uninjured. The Junior class had additional problems wh en Tom Berry qualified for an alternate spot in th e Se mi after Mike Clark arrived too late for the start. Be rry then shot o ut of the last turn too ho t , stuffing another rider up agai nst the wal l as Berry took the las t transfer to the final . Berry was cancelled out of the final for his deed. The Novice final was a th ree-man race all the wa y with Dan McWho rt er coming up as wi nner . Brent Knaue r was also a leader during the race an d ended a close second. Dave Racine was right there all th e way to take third. Brian Garcia and Doug Garrison ro unded out the front running fiv e. This c o m i n g wee kend it's a double-header for the AMA pros with the Friday night $2,OOO·plus Half-mi le at As cot and a return to South Bay Speedway at Chula Vista/San Diego on Saturday night. A record number of riders are expected for both events. • Results Expert F inal : 1. John Gennal (H-O) . 2 . Gary Scott (H-O); 3. Tom Rockwo Od (TriJ . Junior Fi n al : 1. Sk iP Aksland (Nor) . 2 . Gary Bevan s (Vam), 3 . R ick Kraft (NOr) . Novice F i n a l: 1. Dan McWhorter (Yam). 2 . Brent Knauer (Yam) ; 3. Dave Ra c ine ( Vam) . Cycle World Show this weekend T he Annual Cycle World Show opens for a four-day run at the Los Angeles Sports Are na Thurs'day, April 18 at seven p. m. As in yea rs past, the event is a twin bill wit h the Tridents Cu stom Car Show, the bikes on the up per level and the ca rs below . The Bert elli 750 Sci returns as a headliner, alo ng with so me of th e t op fac t or y Da yton a bikes. Resurging int er est in side cars a nd ca fe race rs will be re fle c ted in the e xhi b its. Hours a rc Thursd ay an d Fri day 7 p.m. t o midnigh t , Sat u rday I p .m, to midnigh t , a nd Su nday I to 10 p.rn, .•

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