6/SDT
JOIN THE AMERICAN TEAM
Handlebar
scnmmage on a
slightly soggy Ascot
By Lane Campbell
GARDE:'oIA, CAL., JUNE 14
for 14 Days in Sunny Italy
49th International Six Days Trial Tour
for Members of The AMA
Forcibly aggressive Rob Morrison
won both the Trophy Dash and
the Expert Main, but a pack of
fast Juniors almost stole the show
with an all-night display of old
fashioned wheel-to-wheel racing,
Moisture from the air made the
track surface a bit srrange tonight
( A sco t clay is compounded with
moisture-absorbing chemicals to combat
dust). I t started out soft, loose and
cushiony, having been very deep ly
worked by the track crew .
Time trials opened with the trac k in a
slow condition, becoming faster as a
groove gut laid down. Many Experts,
and not a few .I uniors, had troub le
getting tires and suspension to work
together with the lo o se surface, and
only a few really adapted to it as it
packed down. No less tha n five Juniors
(who timed in after the Experts) got
under Terry Dorsch's top Expert time
of 23.19 seconds.
went up the straight abreas t with Rayn
Gifford barely nudging h is way into the
first tum lead. Dennis Briggs came
around the outside, got a wheel by on
the back chute, then faded as Walt
Foster charged into the fray. Walt took
over briefly in the north tum, th en
Ryan charged back next go-round,
bobbled frigh teningly in the north tum,
recovered and pulled up even. The two
then went around about two laps
virtually side by side, with Gifford
barely winning the exchange after
apparently bluffing Foster off the fast
line out of the last tum with a fierce
inside charge.
After all this derring-do to work up
\0 it, the Junior Main was a rela t ively
calm affair. The key word is "relative"
because after Tom Berry led off the line
with Gifford right behind, it became
anybody's race as Al Jorgensen, Gifford.
Rich Kraft (who had almost stuffed it
into the wall after a horrendous bobble
in the south tum during the Semi) , and
Walt Foster all passed Berry in turn on
thei r way to wrestle each other. Kraft
' wen t way wi d e in the south t ur n, le t ting
Foster by, then re-took thi rd and wen t
on to unsuccessfully pressure Clifford
for second. A ll this we nt on p retty well
unknown to lead e r] orgensen.
Pole-sitter Terry Dorsch stood the
Yamaha up all the way from the start of
the Trophy Dash to the first turn , but
this cost him time and left hi m in last
p lace as Horton and Morrison tangled
for first. They went at it back and forth
For AMA membe rs and families on ly.
September 4-17If 1974
>
$549 from Chicago
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