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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125881
ec , c gge ita 00 ... CJ ..0 o ...... u o 641are about to pass in the fourth he at, but it will all be different in the National. Danny Hockie (Yam 45el and Ron Powell (Tri 31 el watch fr om the insi de. National for the first time in AMA history with his semi placing. Dave Aldana rode a Norton o nce in practice, the n cam e in and went out again on the Triumph of Mike Kidd, who's out fo r the ye ar with a broken leg from the Santa Fe National Sh ort T rac k in Hinsdale, Illin oi s. Aldana raced th e Triumph. Rex Beauchamp (H-D) j us t ran away and hid from everyone in the first h ea t, . trailed at first by a h urting-from-injuries Mer t Lawwill (H-D ) and Rob Morrison (Nor). LawwiII just got slower as he fel t the pain more and Morrison 's bike went intermittently on o ne cy linder for a circu it or so. Doug Sehl (H-D) and Frank Gille spie (Yam) b lew by Lawwill o n either side in the south turns. Lawwill got ba ck o ne pl ace on the ba ck straight, but lost it again in the no rth turns . Seh l and Gille spie wer e in seco nd and th ird for th e finish with Laww iII get ti ng th e last direc t tran sfer to the main. Morriso n ende d up seve nth . Law will ne ver started the National ...: th e pain was too great for h im to co n tinue . The next he at featured the entire Yamah a f a c t or y t ea m (Roberts, Romero , and Castro), Dick Mann in his first National since h is crash at San Jose, Chuc k Palm gren , Dave Ald ana. and others , Four National Cham p io nsh ip s in three pers onages (Roberts, Romero, and Mann ) were represented in this h eat, much to th e deligh t of the crowd. Rob ert s, looking o ver at Mann , Romero, and Aldana sitting. waiting near the st arting line, yelled to some billy-club-eq uipped ren t-a-cops wal king past, "Hit 'em ! Hit 'em ! Two . three, and 13!" Then after a p aus e as the unhearing or ignoring co ps walked away, " David 's probably wanted fo r rape someplace." Alda na just shook his head as Ke nny grinned. Th e star t of the hea t was the start of a three-way d uel for first into the first tum between Roberts on the outside, Palmgren (Yam ) and Aldana on the insi de. First it was Ro ber ts first, Palmgren se cond, a nd Alda na third, o ne lap later Roberts first. Palmgren second , and Aldana third, one lap la ter Roberts fi r- • Aldan a second, Palmgren third, with Aldana entering turns faster than Pal mgren but Palmgren getting better drives o ut of the · turns onto the st raig hts. Aldana slowed a bit and was passed by Terry Sage (Tri) on lap four, gassed it up ba ck into third one half lap later, while all th e time Palmgren was chasing and catching Roberts. Chuck closed o n Ken entering turn one on th at lap. Sage had problems and faded to last. Palmgren just rolled past Ken on the back straight with a tremendous drive , his Yamaha 's engine spinning a good 1,000 RPM higher than Ken 's factory bike at like speed, and kept in fron t until the first tum of lap six . There, Roberts do ve in de eper en tering on the outsid e but again Palmgren, o n the ins ide. drove ou t hard to take b ac k first. Palmgren 's fantastic drive t ha t lap ended when one o f his exhaust pipes broke in tw o and his bike slowed. Roberts won. HIt was just o ne of th ose th ings." Palmgren explained. "!t's near the end of th e season an d everyone 's tryi ng to make things last just a little longer. After it (the pipe ) br o ke the bi ke go t slo wer and I tri ed to stay out o f his (R ob er ts') spray, keep di rt o u t of the engine and finish." I i was still pretty close at the end, just a rooster-tail apart, with Randy Scott (Yam - no relation to lI an k and Gary ) third after moving up from sixth and - Ro me ro getting the last transfer in this heat , Aldana mi ssing it by one spot, Castro in eighth. Mann called it quits for th e da y after Triumph tro ubles. Th e cro wd ch eered Kenny. J oh n Hateley (Yam) won the third ' hea t after a race-long battle with Hank Scott. Scott led a few laps d ispersed th rough the race, b ut Hateley got it back an d had it when it co un ted . Ed Wirt h (H-D) was third until the last lap . when Jim Rice (H-D) got by. Brelsford broug ht t he Green Menn ie from seve nt h to fifth in a o ne-lap cha rge a few laps from the fini sh . Heat Four 's b ig deal was a Harley-boys versus Hocking (Yam) versus eac h othe r battle. Corky Kee ner (H-D) jum pe d in to t he lead o n lap one until lap three, when' Gary Scott (H,D) sto le it in the south turns. It was Scott , then ~= er agai n. Some lap s Keener would enter the south turns (o ne and two ) low and inside with a big lead, but Scott entered high and outside, closed it all up, and they 'd blast down the straigh t side by side or nose to tail. On ce they cam e through the north turns within six inches o f each other. Suddenly , it was Scott all alone, then Hoc king, then Keener runn ing on on e cylinder. Danny Hockie (Yam) also got by before Keener dis covered his rear cylinder's plug cap off and replaced it to fini sh fourth. Later, Keener's sponsor and wrench (an d three t ime former National Champion) Bart Markel said he though t th e powerful spray fro m Scott's bike literally san d -blas ted th e ca p off. Tho se fant asti c rooste r-tails shining in . th e sun didn't just co ve r up. othe r rid ers. they decided who won as we ll. Dave Aldana bl ast ed his way to th e head o f th e first semi off the line, but Rob Morrison , as determined as Aldana was to make the Main by getting one of .two transfer spots in this race, h ung it out a little farther to get in front. Aldana fought back into tITSt after a brief dice on the front straight to the rousing ru ckus of- the grandstands crowd. DeWayne Keeter (Yam) edged up on Morrison and tried to pass outside , in the north turns, was co mpletely covered from boots to helmet with stic ky brown rooster-tail grunge , and just kind of slo wed down to finish fifth. Romero was right - it did just kind of stop you wh en you ran into the spra y. Nas ty stuff. Alda na buil t a five-to-seven second pad o ver Morrison, and Tom Cummings lost a slot in the Main by one place, Don Castro didn't get off the lin e for th e first semi be cause, as he sat revving Con tinued on page 3 7 . Scott Bre lsford became the first rider in AMA history to q ualify for a National Mile aboard a two stroke. .,' 25