Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125863
...... ...... > Z o J: 0: s Z 0: o > '" l/l o f- '0 J: 0. John gets carried away. Trophy girls gets carried away . EVERYBODY gets carried away . Ascot: The show goes on! By Lane Campbell GARDENA, CAL., MAY 31 Tom Rockwood and John Hateley, with a host of extras, kept the old place warm even though many national "numbers" (and a lo t of Ascot regu lars) were off to Atlanta fo r the road races. T hey had the po t boi ling right to the final lap of t he Expert Main, which Came a fift h of a second short of cracking the Expert record for the distance. Things started out quietly enough, with the usual small knots of people milling about the pits. Rick Hocking took some gentle ribbing when he wheeled a Triumph to the grid for time trials. ("Where's the Yamaha, Rick? Oh, The reason why one slightly war-weary dirt oval is st ill the uncr owned Supe r Bowl of flat track racing. Thi s is how J ohn Hateley (981 and Tom Roc kwood (88) entered the final t um .. .And thi s is how they finished. 8 it's resti ng .") Some locked themselves in the quiet isolation of final prep arati on, like J o hn Hateley, sitting cross-legged , methodically cutting tires, never looking up. Underneath the calm, on this fina l night of the $21,000 Gold Medal points series, many were ' counting points and dollars. Gene Romero, leading the Experts with 292 pain ts, was off to Atlanta road racing, throwing the competition wide open. If either Eddie Wirth or Tom Rockwood won tonight, he could pocket the series and take home 1800 for a night's work. Juniors John Allison and Al Jorgensen had an open shot at their series with Skip Aksland away, while no less than four Novices, all present, were in contention for their points fund. Novice hi-pointer Dan McWhorter had to work his way up through the Semi after he went wide once late in his heat, letting Brent Knauer by. He _ hole-shot everybody in the Semi and left a mob scrambling for second. Doug Garrison broke free first and worked his way around McWhorter . That left Sandak ace Jeff Wright on the only water-cooled machine holding Brian Garcia at bay. (Wright's co mment about his unusua l TZ-250 based bike - "Fast, but h ard to ride. Top heavy , co mpared to an aircooled Yamaha.") Elbert T urner and Steve Ek lund transferred direct to the Novice Main. Eklund rode around everybody in about one lap after a restart in his heat. Racing had been halted after one rider slid across the South turn, taking one more down wi th him. The Novice Main was ear-splitting but a n t i-c l i m a c tic after all the sortingout. McWhorter's careful third was good enough to bag the points series. Turner rode around Eklund in the third lap to take the final checker. Randy Roderick and Walt Foster led the first Junior heat in tight formation through the first lap. Suddenly a new rider intruded on the leaders in the North tum . It was Tandy Adams, of Phoenix, coming around wide, outside, and too fast. Unable to hold it in, Adams slammed the front straight wall hard enough to break up the bike. This brought on the evening's only ambulance call. as the race was halted and Adams was taken for treatment of m ultiple fractures. On the restart, Roderick again led a tight group of riders off the lin e. He really rattled himself in the Sou th turn when, at about mid-race, he got wide and brushed the wall. Walt Foster an d Art Friedenberg ro de by under Roderick as he recovered. T he n he did it again next lap and le t Ear l Meyer by. AI Jorgensen unexpectedly d ro p ped o ut on the back straight af ter leading his hea t, and Jo hn Allison's bike packed it up on the grid for the J unior final. Thi s left Skip Aks land's points lead intact. A very stylish Art Carter led the Main o ff the line, only to be put away by Walt Foster. Then Friedenberg charged up from the inside in the South turn to take second, and Ryan Gifford worked around Carter after drag racing him down the front straight and sh utting the gate into the South turn. In the first Expert Heat, Rob Morrison got his Norton off ahead of Tom Ro ckwood and hung on. First time