Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Beauchamp gets hair cut, rules Toledo By Gary Van Voorhis TOLEDO, OHIO, SEPT. 21 Rex Beauchamp led a five rider Harley-Davidson sweep of the inaugural Toledo ·h al f mile National. Beauchamp was followed by Cork y Keener with Gary Sco tt , in a bi d to keep his chances o f a mathe matical sh o t at th e Grand Na tio nal Ch ampi on ship alive, fin- 8 ishing thi rd . Steve Dr'oste and Dave Seh!. made it five in a ro w for the orange and bl ack Milwau kee bran d . Beauchamp, after s tat ing earlie r th at he didn 't r eall y like a groo ve track, ada pted very quic kly to hold off earl y cha llenges by Dros te an d Kee ner before taking th e win by a safe margin . .The eve ning mar ked the re turn of a couple of stars who had been ou t with injuries. Dave Al da na, riding wh a t appeared to be I\H k ~ Kidd 's Triumph, ret urn ed as did H·D rider Scott Brel sford . Rex Bea ucha m p appea red with a new look. First it was h is whiskers that went before the Sy rac use m ile an d, at Toledo , it .was a good deal of hi s hair. No w Rex doesn 't b elieve in luck or an y th ing but some t hing was definitely working for hi m. " I cut th e beard off before Syracus e and wen t pretty goo d , so 1 figured if I cut my hair maybe I'll go even faster. If 1 win tonigh t I'll probably shav e my head. " It was too co ld to even think about the last sta tem en t. Gary Scott led th e time trials with a . qui c k clocking and new track record of 29:74. Corky Keener, T om Cummings and Hank Scott made. it a Harley quartet. Gary Scott led wire-t o-w ire in the first heat a nd estab lishe d a new 10-lap tr ack record in the process. Rookie Exp er t Steve Morehead, riding his "s low " b ike , fini shed sec o nd with third fina lly falli ng to J oh n Genna i aft er Teddy Newton coasted to a stop o n th e seven th lap . Chuck Palmgren closed o n Rapid Rex with his haircut and trophy as third plac e Gary Scott grins away. Gennai but J oh n he ld h im off for th e tr ansfer spo t. Corky Keener appeared to have the second h eat locked up as he breezed th e ope n ing lap s followed by Jim Zeigler, Rex Beau ch amp and Rick Hock ing . Beau champ had winning thoughts and, on ce his new tire got fu zzed in , he was on his way , picking up ground and closing on the seventh lap, then slipping under Corky o n e lap later as the pair dove into turn one. Rex o pened a quick five-bike lead an d left the racing to th ird spot where Hocking was holding o ff Jim Zeigle r for th e last direct transfer. The th ird heat moved to a restart as Do ug Sehl and ano ther rid er tangled in the second turn bringing o ut the red flag. Sehl m ade th e restart . Kenny Roberts, with clutch problems,moved to the front row as a resul t of th e restart although brake problems .slo wed his charge in the race . Terry Dorsch made his holesh ot o ff th e lin e work fo r th e lead , but onc e Doug Sehl and Steve Droste got going it was T erry in third. Rob erts, lack ing th e braking n eed ed to dive in to the co rners, closed to fourth but co uld get no closer. Dave Sehl led th e st ar t and restart of the fourth h eat with Denny Palmgren and Ed Wirth pi cking up the transfer spots. Hank Sco tt fin ished fourth . A determ in ed Chuck Palmgren held off Fran k Gillespie for the win in Semi On e. Semi Two was a do or die sit ua ti o n for Team Yam aha with Roberts, Castro and Romero o n the line as well as Han k Scott and eigh t o th er rid ers looking for that one last spot in the Nation al. Rob erts took th e immediate lead -with Castro tuck ed in behind and Hank Scott third. Scott mov ed in on Rob erts, slipped off th e groove aft er closing o n Kenny 's rear tire , then ha d to settle for a close second . . Frank Gill espie alm os t rode th e wh eels off his Bik e J azz spo nso re d Yamaha winn ing th e Trophy final . Gille sp ie' s le ad a t th e fini sh was a half-bi ke ' Iength over Hank Scott in a

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