Ascot
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's s rea IS
By Lane Ca mpbe ll
GARDENA, CAL., JU L~20
Gary Scott (H-D) dominated the
eight-turn Ascot TT circuit wireto-wire as he smoothly bit another
30 points out of Ken Roberts'
cha mpionship lead. Rob ert s' came
from fifth o ff the line to second,
in a rid e so forceful it had th e
Yam ah a' s w hee ls c hatt ering
coming down into th e infiel d, b ut he
co uld do no th ing to erase the lead that
Scott had built up ear ly in t he 25 la p
Final.
Fo r Ascot r egu lars, th e T'I' see ms t o
turn th eir world upsid e dow n, ecl ipsing
man y o f t he lo cal ha lf-m ile specialists.
Tom Ho rto n , rid ing his half-railer
because his IT machine is st ill in
SCOTT: C'mon, Ken, pass t h' bottl e!
ROBERTS : Funny , t hat stuff tastes flat when you 'r e second.
6
preparation , wasn't to o co mfo rtable.
The half-mile engin e 's throttle resp ons e
was
1i ke
an
0 n -0 ff
Iigh t
switch, whe n a rh eost at was called for .
Rick Ho cking and Rob Mo rriso n (who
h ad traded th e lea d in Friday's
Half-Mile) were both having to wo rk
extra hard at going fast.
Whil e t he h al f -mil e r e gulars
hand-rassled their way aro und th e
infield IT trac k, Dave Aldana we nt very
fast in his fam ilia rly fl ashy style , turning
best tim e o f 46 seconds flat. (No t a
record, but o n a tr ack t ha t had been
dr agged and worked to suc h a depth it
rese mb led an Iowa co rn field just before
plan ting, fast en ou gh to raise eyebro ws
in th e paddock.)
Gary Scott almost unobtrusively
ti me d in second fas tes t at 4 6 , 78 ,
foll o wed by Ken Rob erts at 47 .02,
Gene Romer o (Yam) at 47.1 1, an d Ro n
reel
Pow ell (T ri) at 47 .37, Naturally t he
ti me trial res ul ts had the o d ds-makers
goi ng: Aldana? He'll do it if he doesn 't
crash . Sco tt? popular favori te , Roberts ?
if he gets the b it in his tee t h and t he
bi ke han gs together, Romero ? he 'll hang
in t he re, especially if Rob erts brea ks.
And Ro n Pow ell? He was just q uietl y
ple ased with hi s fifth qualifyi ng time ,
saying "You kn ow , I co uld never re ally
get a half-miter working, bu t I love t o
ride the IT."
Then they wer e pre-gridding t he first
Hea t and th e cha tter stopped, Aldan a
with the p o le cho se t he o uts ide in his
Heat and holeshot everybody into the
Sout h T urn, Ed di e Wirth tucked in
b ehind , then sud denly slowed a nd
dropped o ut of th e traffi c stream(o ne
neut ra l too many ?) , Rob Morrison and
Paul Bostro m rode aro u nd, only to be
picked o ff m ethodically by a rekindled
