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-' til :::0 -- ::: < Ga ry (64) Scott and Mik e (2p) Cav es finished 2 nd and 3rd while Ch uck (60) Joyner fell back after t his p oint to 16th in the National. National IT: How it played in Peoria By Gary Van Voorhis PEORIA , ILL., AUG . 18 With the flash of the checkered flag at the Peoria TT National, Yamaha factory rider Kenny Roberts made history. Rober t s, on the way to his best season ever, notched his fifth win and with it put his name into the record books as being only the third rider 6 in AMA histo ry to score a "grand slam." In the short space of just under three seasons Roberts has scored a victory in every fo rm of competition on the National ci rcuit. In fact his grand slam was accomplished in the span of 16 races beginning with a half-mile victory at Ascot in October last year. It took Dick Mann 20 seasons to accomplish the same feat . Robe rts dominated the National once he drew away from his co mpe tition in th e early laps . Gary Scott, moving up from a bad start, mo t ored into second n ear the ha lf-way and held it to th e c hecke rs. Rookie Expert Mike Caves, a Peoria fa vori te aboard a Roger Reiman Harley, finish ed third. Peoria was its usual sel f - hotter th an hell - a lt ho ugh that di d n 't keep th e cro wds a wa y. Neither did t he earl y morning rain that delayed th e star t of the program but ma y have helped the t rac k co ndi ti o ning. It was evident from the beginriing th at Roberts was in top form a nd th at, as he put it, "I can fmish in the top three if I don't have something stupid hap pen like last year when I dropped my bike." Practice at Peor ia deligh ts the spectators and they crowd the fences around the jump to stand in awe of the riders. Roberts, smoo th and business-like drew admiration from the fans, but it was Dave Aldana who really got their blood pumping. Aldana. plagued in past weeks by a circulation problem that creates extreme stiffness in his wrists, soared higher and farther than anybody over the jump. Roberts, fastest unofficially in practice. made i t official in t ime tr ials, knocking better than half-a-second off his record of las t year. Mark William s b lasted his Triumph to second-tas tes t tim e fo llo we d by Chuck Palmgren , Dave Ald ana an d Mik e Ca ves . Gary Scott was nin th. T he field nar rowed down to 40 riders for th e he ats with a lo t o f top ra cers abse nt fro m th e listing. Mert Lawwill an d Rex Beau ch amp we re mi ssing fr om the pr ogram as bo th are recovering fr om raci ng injuries. Don Cas t ro p racticed but found the track too ro ugh on h is slo wly-rec o vering injuries. Di ck Mann, supported by c r utc hes , would have ridden if it was a half-mile, but said he d o ubted his foo t co uld sta n d the beating of a T'I' , . T he first heat was a m ini -Nat ional wi t h th e fin ishing p ositi ons being the sam e as t hose t ha t would tra nsp ire a short wh ile late r. Roberts p ulled away fro m the pack with Scott a distance behind. whil e Mike Caves hel d off repea ted charges by Gene Ro mero. Mark William s too k Sonny Burres out of the lead on the fourth lap of the Chuck Palmgren led it for a while, concluded 4th . second heat an d went o n to th e win with Burres and Pa t McCaul fo llowing. In the t hird h ea t Chuck Pa lmg ren started off in th e lea d b u t fell prey to a ha rd rid ing Chuc k J o yn er on the third lap wi th roo kie Ex pert Jo hn Ge n nai finis hing third. Team K&N rider Randy Cleek p u t it to a lot of seasoned racers in the four th hea t with a Ilag-to-flag win over Ran d y SCOtt and Terry Dorsch. Clee k, a1tho ugh pressured repeated ly by Scott, never gave ground. Rick Hocking earned his spot in the National the hard way . Rick was the second alternate for the first semi. When Gene Romero couldn't start because of a bro ken timing chain and the first alternate didn't show Rick got a place on the line. John Hateley won the event with Rick second. Dave Aldana engaged in an early lap battle with Ed Wirth and Ike Reed b ut then pu lled away to win easily. The t wo crashed while jockeying fo r posit ion on the las t lap and Scoll Drake fou nc . himself in the National. Buddy Po well no t ch ed the win in th Trophy e vent a fte r taking th e lead fro Ric k Roberts near the halfway p o int Roberts' lead was ste adi ly whittle a way b y Po well , wh~ fin all y passed an , th en set o u t to open a margin o f h i o w n. Fran k Gillespie wo rke d up fro way back in th e pack to fin ish tf.. d. Kenny Roberts, o nc e h e pu lled int th e lead an d be gan to o pen up a margi o t b re athing ro om, h ad little to d o bu j ust ride aro u nd and make no mista kes Kenny ha s spen t a lo t of time lat el running a nd exercising to "keep i s ha p e . " He w as never ac t ua ll cha llen ged afte r the first six laps.