Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

K-dd's day at Co umbus By J ack Mangus COLUMBUS, OHlO,JUNE 23 What started out as a dark day at the Columbus Al\IA Grand National Championship Half-Mile _ rn ed out to be the brightest day tu in Mike Kidd's life. Kidd, aboard a factory Triumph, took the lead away from Kenny Roberts on the next-to-last .lap of the 20 -1ap National and held off the Grand National Champion to chalk up his first National victory . Roberts, who had held the lead from the green Ilag, took the runnerup spo t, a co mfortable distance ahead of third place finisher Mert Lawwill. Rai ny weather that had caused the cancellation of the Friday night Sa nta Fe IT Regional and the ' tradi ti onal night-befo re-Col u mbus Troy hal f-mi le li n ger e d o ver the Ohio State Fairgrounds, the site of the 31st annual Charity Newsies event, as the SO-plus entries un loaded for the start of t he day 's raci ng. Track preparation delayed the start of practice, but promising weather was headed for Columbus and once underway the program ran off like clockwork. Heat races Mert Lawwill held the pole position for the first heat by virtue of his fast qualifying time of 25 .685, and sitting next to him was Mike Kidd. The pair ran the entire IO-Iap heat in the positions they started from, with Lawwill's factory flarley-Davidson holding a two-second lead over Kidd's factory Triumph. Michigan's Charlie Chapple turned in the first hard luck story of the day as he held down the third and final direct transfer-to-the-National position up to the white Oag. , Chapple's Yamaha suffered a broken point cam so Gene Romero 's factory Yamaha inherited the third spot on the final lap . Heat number two saw Scott Brelsford's Harley on the outside pole, bu t the race belonged to Corky Keener (H-D) . Teddy Newton led the initial five laps wi th Keener taking the lead on the sixth lap and going on to the win . New ton and Brelsford p icked up the number two and three transfer positions with Mark Brelsford finishing fourth to gain transfer to a 'se m i. Kenny Roberts and John Hateley gave the packed house a Yamaha battle in the third heat. They ran side by side for several laps , exchanging the lead in the turns, but at the checkered flag the race was all Roberts'. Gary Scott picked up the third pla ce National transfer position with Rex Beauchamp transferring to a semi with a fourth place finish. With the eyes of sponsor Dan Gurney upon him, Chuck Palmgren made the fourth and final heat an all-Gurney Yamaha affair. With Palmgren long gone from the green flag on, the crowd's attention was focused on several po s i t io n -sw ap p i n g battles that co ntinued on throughout the ten-lap heat. Early action saw Dave Sehl pass Edd ie Wirth and Rick Hocking while that pair were carrying on a high-speed argume nt over second place. Sehl went on to take t he runneru p spot followed by No r to n factory rider Dave Aldana. Wir t h finis he d fou rth and for Hoc king, it was hard luc k story number tw o. Acco rd ing to Doug Schwerma, the sponsor of Hocking's b ike via Champ ion Frames, "his motor began to slo w and then went o n one cy lin de r. An oily plug. Just o ne of those things." .Wit h t he hea ts over, the clocks sho wed tha t Mert Lawwill had backe d up his fas t qualifying time ty burning in thc fastest heat time - fo ur m inu tes, 27. 19 seconds, Jliving the former Grand National Champion the pole position for the National. Semis-bad break for Brelsford With only a win transferring a rider Tw o-one-three is how t hey fi nished with Mike Kidd (72) taking his first National win on the COlumbus Half-mile . Mike Kidd looks f unny in a ho rse collar but it's all for charit y. so he probably doesn 't mi nd. Kidd raises the flag in the fist he denched in victory, zapping AMA Champ Roberts on the last lap. and, in ma ny cases, factory sponsored racer. past three seasons. He was taken to the hospital with a broken leg. Mann and Atherton were not injured but their racing was over for the day. Scott was never headed after a restart with Larry Darr and Randy Cleek taking positions two and three. Privateer Charlie Seale wasted no time in establishing the fact that he planned to win semi number one. T he trio of Seale, Jim Rice and Rex Beauc ha mp were dead eve n going into tu rn t hree on lap one, b ut "They cal l me Charlie" be rserked his John Ap ple sponsore d Harley t hro ugh th ree and fo ur to star t a runawayperformance. T he Harleys of Rice an d Beauchamp finbhed the ten laps in positions 2-3 followed by Frank Gillespie. Semi number two provided Hank Scott with a position in the National but turned out to be the bummer of the day. Dave Atherton, Dick Mann and Mark Brelsford went down in a chain-accident in turn two o n the second lap and for former Grand . ,- Trophy race The first purse race of the day saw a two-way early lap d uel berween factory Harley riders Jim Rice and Rex Beauchamp · t~n in to a Beauchamp benefit after lap six. Rice hdd onto the runnerup spot, but Larry Darr lost a third place finishing position when first Frank Gillespie and then Steve Morehead worked by him on the final three laps . Gillespie picked up a handful of National pointg for himself and his Gene Romero's Bike Jazz sponsored Yamaha and Morehead did likewise with his Bill Kennedy Triumph. Darr picked : • _ ~ . . J . , • went to Oregon's Randy Scott and his Fred's Distributing Yamaha. National Initial gridding of the National saw a fro nt row comprised of LawwiU, Keener, Roberts, Palmgren, Kid d, Newton and Hateley with a second ro w being occupied by Dave Sehl, Romer o, Scott Brelsford, Gary Scott, Aldana, Sea le an d Hank Scott. Case s of anticipate-the-starter (D uke Pennell] provided Seale, Brelsford and Hank Sc o t t with "third row" starting positions and another attempt at a start caught Brelsford rolling again and he was placed on the " fourth row" with Aldana joining Seale and Scott on the first penalty line. With no other brand than a Harley winning the Charity Newsies half-mile since Gary Nixon Triumph-ed in 1968, the odds-on favorites were Lawwill and

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