Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

SPEEDWAY WEEK By Dennis Greene Ventura, California September 17, 1974 With th e U.S. Speedway National just six weeks away. V en tura played host to th e seco n d ro und o f quali fyin g. There are four ro u nds in all. Th e first was held at Irwindale three weeks back . Ve ntura will be followed by Sacramento at Cal Expo. th en the fourth and fin al round at the site of the Nati onals, Cost a Mesa 's Orange County Fairgrounds. Dan Becker had a near perfect round scoring 14 o u t of a possible 15 points. This , along wi th his ' nin e po ints fro m Irwindale, puts h im in the finals with a total of 23 points. Scott Sivadge and Dub b Ferrell tied at 13 points each. Scott earned seven points at Irw indale. giving him a total of 20 and a seat in the fina ls. Dubb earned only four points at Irwindale, and that. added to his 13 Ventura points, puts him at 17 and at this point that might make the cut. Fourth for the night at Ventura was Steve Bast with 12 poin ts. Added to his Irwindale nine that puts h im at 21 points total. Irwindale, California September 19, 1974 A littl e over o ne month ago Brian Sho rt won his firs t Handicap Main event at Irwindale. li e ha d no t set fo ot in the winner's circle again unt il this past Th urs day night. agai n at Irw indale , whe re he held off a cha rging Billy Gray . for the Handicap win. Rounding out a .Fu ll night of racing, Bill Cody won the Scratch Main event just ahead of Jeff Sexton , Rick Woods and Bruce Penhall. There were several spectacular ·get ·offs' during the night due to a hole in turn fo ur that carried several riders ou t to the wa ll o n th e fro nt str aight . Sonny Nutter was o ne of th e victims wh o hi t t he wall and go t dumped . Sonn y 's bike , now on its o wn , did a wh eel sta n d an d knocked Scott Sivadge into ' th e wall . Luc kily, both riders m ad e it back to t he pits under thei r own stea m . Sonny Nutter's bike took a mind of its own after hitting the hole in turn four at Irwindale. Look out. Scott Sivadge! .Costa Mesa, California September 20, 1974 Brian Short, leading Les Chanky at Costa Me at Irwindale this week. S teve Nutter was the supers tar for the nigh t. Not only did he not yield to the kn ocking around by Rick Woods, but he put h im away in the Scratch Main in th e be st race in a month at th at track. Last wee k Rick and St eve almost came to blows when they tangled two or three times wi th eac h r ider ta kin g a fall in th e tw o mains. Th is past Friday nigh t Woods pu t Nutter agains t the wa ll three tim es but St eve never lost his cool and earn ed a transfer to the Main wh ere he did the big number for th e firs t ti me th is year. Bill Cody and Steve Bast missed getting into their main even ts due to bike fail ure . Steve has spent a small fortune in the past few weeks try ing to get his mo unt read y fo r the fin al. He has suffered one problem after the other. First, he couldn't kee p a tire on the rim , then magn e to failures, dro p ping valves and sucking pistons. Finally, in desperation h e bought a new bike. But even the new bike has gone sour, lo sing the p iston Thursday night. Cody lost his chanc e to transfer when his rear wh e el 28 loc ked up and put him . o ut. ' Cod y has had more t han his share of bad luc k fro m flat tires in the past few weeks. Ralph Castor took the Handicap Main as he was well out in fr ont of Bruce Penh all. It was a runaway for the two as a traffi c j am with T ro y ~lcKe e, Dave Sims, Randy Marsh, and Bill Meist er all trying to keep from finishing last slowe d the pack. • Results in Results Section. At Ventura. Bill Gray has the inside track on Steve Nutter and Butch Corder. Bill Gray again at Costa Mesa, this time lying down on the job with Phill Moon. How they look from outside at Irwindale : Larry Shaw leads Rick Woods and Mike Konle in handicap heat:

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