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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125871
o efts - w s t em o Next year, everybody will 'want raggedy knees. By John Ulrich & -Lane Campbe ll .J .J W MONTEREY, CAL. ,JULY 27 -28 Yamah a 's Ken Roberts was first out of t h e start and first across the finish of today's Kawasaki Superbike AMA National road race. Between the start and finish of the 75 mile Expert race run on Laguna Seca's twisty tarmac, all Ken did was lengthen his lea d over second place Yvon DuHamel (Kaw). Roberts never slowed, never erred , and. never looked better as he knifed through the curves of the infamous corkscrew and scorched down the straights before thousands of fans lin ing the oak-dotted hillsides surrounding the rustic track. Kenny had won his Heat race, too , except in that one Yvon started with the lead and came close to getting it ba ck in a strong charge on the last lap. But in the National . . . no way. . Steve Baker was second off the line, only to be moved back two p ositions by Gene Romero (Ya m) and DuHamel before the end of the second lap . Baker would gradually keep getting passed until he stabilized around eighth place. When 3/4 of the race was through, Baker coasted up the hill leading to the corkscrew with a dead engine for a DNF . DuHamel p ressured Romero as they raced five seconds behind Roberts. On lap eigh t of the 40 lap race Yvon pressed e n o ugh to quickly pass Romero's faster Yamaha and futilely seek to catch Roberts . DuHamel's right han d , injured in an early practice session get off, didn't seem to affect his performance. As Romero moved back one slo t , Paul Smart (Su z) moved up tw o. Smart hung hot on Romero's tail for the rest of the race. Gene was successful in holding back Smart's frequent charges, although he almost blew it exiting the last turn of the last lap - a showy wheelie in sight of the checkered flag came close to being the break Smart was waiting for. Romero caught on an d gassed it before Paul could exploit ~e error. Scott slammed the 750 Har ley 's fairing to t he pavement o n both sides in hi s effort t o catch the two strokes. 6 '" C. As the first four places maintained, (Romero and Smart running 11 -14 seconds behind DuHamel, who was 13 seconds down on Roberts after the half way point), Pat Evans (Yam) held his own in fifth throughout the race. Steve McLaughlin (Yam) pulled off on lap 17 with sheared sprocket bolts. He was running eighth at the time. Dave Aldana (Yam) who had surprised everyone by leading Romero much of the way in their Heat race, had moved up to sixth about lap 30 and was leading Cliff Carr (Suz) until Carr's water cooler started to go away (engine problems). Both had passed riders like crazy on the way u p . Carr finished . Australia's Greg Hansford (Kaw) finished seventh behind Ald ana, with Gary Scott and his Harley-Davidson, rear tire worn t o a frazzle and not holdi ng as it sho uld. Scott had done wo nde rs with the big, slow H-D (slow compared to the Yamahas), passing faster bikes by shear bravery and skill. Phil McDonald (Yam) had held off Scott for a long time, then got passed in tum nine on one lap . McDonald gassed it up and smoked away from Scott along the straight. But in turn two, Gary stuffed the blaring four stroke inside McDonald and must have made an impression. McDonald never passed Scott on a straight again. Every time Scott wailed through the cr okscrew, spectators could hear his fairing grounding. He sur e wasn't eighth for lack of trying. Roberts was so good, so smooth, so predictable it didn't seem like much of a big deal when he won. It gets that way sometimes, but- it doesn't change one thing: Roberts is good. :; C( o w -", l.- --'-~ z « ...).J ---'__'_ ~- - - ' c Scott a nd Roberts burst over the a-est at Turn Six together at the start of the J u n io r/ Ex p ert. Steve Ba ker (Yam) leads Cliff Carr (Suz] through t u rn n ine in their qualifier as a photographer sticks his lens out. Not exactly splendor in the grass. Gene Rome ro gets green sta ins on h is TZ·250. ending a dassic race-within-a-race. / -.J .J Expert /J unior Lightwe ight Combined In a race tha t had been built up as a classic Gary Scott (H-D)/Ken Roberts (Yam ) confrontation, the defending champion lapped everybody but Scott, . teammate Don Castro, and first-year Expert Pat Evans to take the Filial by 12 seconds over his old rival. Often appearing to ride on the ragged edge, but never quite out of control, Ken gained a half-second or less pe r lap over Scott to slowly and consistantly p ull away after a brief, fierce firs t-lap dice. The Yamaha crew came loaded fo r bear , with a TZ250 on Goodyear slicks for Roberts, sim ilar machines carrying Dunlops for Castro and Romero, plus a spare TZ250 shod with D unlops (On the off chance it m igh t rain ?). Scott was expected to be quite competitive in this class on Harley's new Aermacchi-developed RR-250 w a t e rp ump er , also shod with . Go ody ear s. Rob erts and Scott set the tone in their qualifier by running a close one -two far out ahead o f Dave Smith and Pat Evans. Burrito (probably wi thout realizing it) nailed a two foot jackrabbit t hat tried to outrace h im across the t rack during practice. While hungry bodysnatchers with a taste for rabbit ' stew hunted for the carcass (Sorry fellas , the corner crew got . it W '" C. :; « u w Z C( ""-'---'----'__'__ first), Romero took his qualifier wi th teammate Castro (on the mend at last) . fOf- a shadow. Everyone who finished the qualifiers made the grid for the Final, with Robert s, Sco tt , Cas tro, Romero o n th e front row. T he whole mob un wo un d like a coiled spring off the line; with Scott first away, Roberts tucked right behind , an d Cas tro / Romero figh ting t raffic. Roberts nipped by b riefly in th e fast swee p ers before t he h ill , b u t Scott got a wheel past h im up the hill and was just t ucked a head coming down ' the Corkscrew. .Next lap, Roberts again eased by a fte r th e sta rt/finish . Cas tro and Romero had by th is time worked free , and began to draft each other back and forth for the next twelve laps. Behind them, at an appreciable d istance , Pat Evans, Da ve Smith, Mike Devlin, and Mike Clar ke hung toge th er in a tig ht group. Almost at mid-race, Ro mero threw it away right at the top of the hill, hooking th rough Turn Six just to the _ ---' .J o utside of Castro. He was up immediately, grabbed the bike, and re-started, nursing it down the hill to the pits (where he was advised to pack it in and save the ad renilin for t h e mor ro w .) After Romero fell, Castro continued to ci rculate by his lonesome, picking off back-markers at will, as Roberts, turning consistant I: 15s co n tin ued to pull evenly away from Sco tt. Bo th Ken and Do n we re hanging off thei r TZ's q ui te dramatically through th e corkscrew, while Gary Scott rode the RR-250 tucked in tight. (Different styles de manded by different m ach in es?) The ne w Harley see med to hand le very precisely, but was not pullin g the Yamahas th rough the ho rsep ower' sections of the course. Far, fa r behind the lea ders. Pat Evans put Dave Smith behind h im after Mike Cla rke faded, an d hung o n fo r th e d ubious honor of being the last m an on the same lap with Roberts at the finish, Pat Hennen worked h is way p as t Sm ith j~t before Lap 20 to finish fifth (first