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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125889
Lone rs: For Rich Thorwald so n (abo ve)
it was a d ay 's work and a top 10 fini sh.
For Ben gt Aberg (below ) it wa s a
certain win shattered along with the
Pur sang's mainsh aft.
he went out again, hav ing lost about a
lap to eventually finish the mo to 17th.
Aberg settled in at th ird as DeCo ster
chas ed Weil in hai r-rais ing fash ion with
the Su zu ki 's rear end trying to go every
way but straight. Weil, apparently
getting much better power-to-gro und,
wo uld pull away on the up hills, forcing
Roger to ch arge desperately coming
down. The drama continued at the
point, though if Aberg co ul d hang on
and finis h he 'd have it, regardless of
what Weil and DeCoster did. Stackable
circulated in fourth until the air cleaner
choked agai n and he faded, the Maico
bogging weakly on the slo w uphills.
Staten pitted for good: Maisch moved
into fourth, followed in good order by
Runyard, Everts and Lackey.
Then just af ter mid-race, DeCoster
came around leading Weil by two
seconds, Ad o lf had gotten ba dly
cross-threaded again in the ruts and
stroked it to a distant second. The two
lap board came out , and with it, Aber g
turned up missing. His mainshaft had
snapped an d the da y was Roger's. Willi
Bauer, with a fourth and an eighth, had
put together the next best po in ts total,
followed in the overall by Weil an d first
American Mike -Runyard,
Support class
Wheels were in the air everywhere
an d tr af fic jammed at the top of the h ill
as Gaylon Mosier led the skittish 250s
out in their first moto. Gay lon was to
lead th is one wire-to -wire as th e dust
and th e tigh t u phill /do wnhill hairpi n
wo uld get to most of the competit ion in
one way or another. Kent Howerton
(Hus ) shu nted a back-marker hard in th e
hairpin, bu t held on for second ahead of
Ro n Pomer oy , whose Pursang was often
off the pipe and barely runni ng up this
same stretch. Ken Zahrt worked past
Bill Gro ssi in to fourth but would la ter
fade down into the pac k as his Bul
began to bog.
Marty Smith, after a sluggish start,
worked up into the lea d gro up that also
containe d Pat Richter (CZ) , Gary
Semics (Hon) , Bob Plumb (Mai), Rick
Burge tt (CZ) and Frank Stacy (CZ) .
Then after a five-second gap came Bruc e
McDo ugal, leadi ng th e second gro uping
on t he four-stroke. John DcSo to , after a
bal ked start, was slowly reeling in
back -markers as Smith, no w in sixth ,
mad e repeated charges at Ken Zahrt.
Bill Pay ne go t stopped by the uph ill
near mid-race . Smith finally got by
Zahrt (who was fading) an d Grossi (who
finis hed strongly behind Smith). Ron
Pomeroy made one final effort to close
it with Howerton, but Kent would have
none of that as the lead trio finished in
the order it had circulated most of the
race.
Howerton would have to work for it
in the next moto , as Pomeroy and
Smith gated in fron t together and Kent
got bottled up in traffic. Mosier ran in
thi rd for just over a lap , then
disappeared, leaving Danny and Jim
Turner to wrangle over third and fourth.
That got settled as Jim's Bul went sour
(dust again?) . McDougal on the thumper
had a good early position as did John
DeSoto, both circulating behind the
Turners in fifth and sixth .
Ron Po mero y , having gotten th e best
shot into the second turn after the star t,
continued to hold Smith at about a
bike's len gth un til lap six, when Mar ty
mus cle d around and cleared himse lf
away to co mm and the res t of th e mo to ,
Howerton was the co mer, mea nw hile, as
he b egan p ic king off the opposition in
on es and twos, passi ng DeSoto and a
fading McDougal into fif t h by mid-race.
When J im Turner faded away, Kent was
fourth, and in succeeding laps he would
gel by Dan Turner and Ron Po meroy.
Rick Burgett converted a mi d-pac k
start to a sixth place finish behind
DeSoto, and Bill Grossi worked around
Due ls: St ac kable/DeCoste r outcome made certain by
St ack 's aircJeaner; Vic Allan (7 2) kept h is Bu l alive for an eighth .
Jim, t oo,a vict im of aircleaner asthma? Long faces at the Equipo Bultaco van afterward .
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