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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125986
AMA Regionals round two: Gillespie, Eklund and Dietz sock'em at San Jose By Lane Campbell SAN JOSE, CALIF., APRIL 20 -.. .. The season's first daytime half mile at San Jose lightly shuffled the AMA Pacific Regional standings and sent the hot shoes 0.. < hom e with an overage-fatt ene d purse o f $ 145 0 total. Novice Steve Dietz (Bul) and Expert Frank Gill espie (H-D) pull ed out up set St eve Dietz looks momentarily distracted, but no t so much he didn't shut the gate on Ted Davidso n one last t ime . . . Frank Gillespie at trophy time, cooling off and telli ng the reporter how it happened. "Kawasaki lets th e good times roll . .. " 8 wins whil e Steve Eklu nd (Ya m) easily blew th e Junior class away. Rescheduled fro m an April 6 ra inou t, the event o pe ne d wit h a few soft spots sti ll co ming up in th e tr ack du e to und erl ying water. But t hese were quic kly worked down by Harold Murrell's expert tr ac k crew. Af te r ti me trials (during whi ch J o hn Ha teley set fast Expert time at 26 .8 I sec and Steve Eklund topp ed th e J unio r clocks at 27.50 sec) a brief wat ering an d rolling helped th e tr ack settle into its typical b lue-groo ve p avement, ge tt ing fast er as th e races progressed. Dan Young's Dad had to roust o u t so me help fr om the shop to rebuild Dan 's fast No guchi a fte r it snagged a rin g in practice , but the bike st uc k again during Dan 's heat as he was lying second. Five Juniors broke for the le ad in th eir first heat with Murray Hoffman in second and Steve Eklund bottled up in traffic. Hoffman m oved into th e lead o ut of turn tw o th e second lap, while Eklund ree led people in one by one to co me within a wh eel of Hoffman at the finish. Don Carlyle holesh ot his heat, but lost it to Dan McWhorte r down the front straight. Then Bud Miller muscled by in turn fo ur as Aksland protege, Rex Hailey, crashe d in turn three on the sam e lap . Turn three, notorious for its pass or bump narro w en try groove , claimed a co up le more Juniors and ab ou t a half dozen Novices from time to time, all without serio us injury. Doug Garrison too k ove r from Carl Tresser after their heat was red-flagged and restarted, while Nick Naz zisi blew his heat into the weeds after things settled do wn fro m people trying to psych-out starter Pete Zimmerman. J ohn Hateley took his Expert he at fro m a bunched-up start; Walt Foster led his wire-to-wire also . Frank Gillespie and Pau l Bostrum dueled ba ck and fort h in their he at with Bostrum fin ally pul lin g it out, as John Gennai go t shunted into a semi. Things got nitty-gritty for the Novices, as four Semis were gridd ed to determine th e final qualifiers. Fred Faltersack beat out th e early leaders com ing around the outside in tu rns one and two to w in his semi. Steve Carillo led his wire-to-wire, as Phil Howard st ole second from underneath Larry Silva. Danny Mills go t bobbled o n th e st art _ o f h is semi, and Ted Davidson be at o u t Steve Dietz to the che cker. Rick Graham held AI Wood at bay while John Tavis, a fter losing an earl y dice with the leaders, go t coo kin g on th e bac k straight to take the last transfer . With Ted Davidson o n the pole and Steve Dietz in the middle of th e front row for th e Novice Main, Dietz dropped the hammer on everybody, diving into turn on e with Carillo, Howard, Davidson, Graham and Silva wedged beh ind hi m . Davidson , against the rail , bobbled, nudged Graham, and in the chain reaction th at followed, Howard and Silva went down . Phil retired with a tweaked knee, Die tz st ayed cool on the res tar lead ing Alan Wo od and Fred Falt ersack into the first turn. As Silva drove to ward th ird place , Faltersac k go t under Wood fo r sec ond, th en took Dietz dow the b ack str aight on stored-up mom entum. Wood faded, and St eve Carillo mo ved in to third, onl y to lose it, a lap o r so later as Davids on eased by on th e front straigh t. Dietz took the lead bac k in turn s o ne- two with an inside sweep , then Davidson !>Iew by t he bac k straight. Faltersac k on Faltersack and Carillo bobble d eac other in turn one under the white flag an d Rick Grah am tu cked under them both as th ey puckered up and went wide. Up front , Davidson 's charge ran o ut of tim e and Diet z wheelied across ju st scant feet in th e lead. Th e Junior Semi was interrupted when so mebody dropped a d rain plug, spreading oil from the sta rt /fini sh to turn on e , wh ich is abou t how far Don Carlyle slid afte r hitting said oil, with Carl Tresser fo r unwill ing co mpa ny. Steve Eklund and Murray Hoffman won the drag race in the Junior Main, but Doug Garrison split them u p on the back straight, slamming the door on Hoffman in turn three . Eklu nd used the in terim to open a humongous lead that never shrank. Behind him Nick Naazisi moved in to third and Dan McWho rter briefly slipped around Pat Gu th rie , before Pat cut under him out o f turn one to take ba ck fif th place. Nazzisi went around Garrison before the white flag, and Hoffman took him seconds la ter , ch arging up to finish wit hin a wheel of Na zzisi. The Experts took several interesting starts or ne ar-starts to get going, and pushed Pete Zim merman into snapping the flag with the field in motion. John Gennai and Hank Scott were dead last in to turn one because they waited for th e flag . Meanwhile up front, cool hand Eddie Wirth had the lead with Pau l Bostrum, Pat McCaul, John Hateley and Frank Gillespie trailing. Hateley tried to get Bostrum /McCaul in one swoop, but he got a big wobble out of turn two and dropped back. Lap fo ur had Wirth, McCaul, Walt Foster, Gillespie and Bostrum, who tri ed a pass up the back str ai ght but co uld n't m ak e it stick. Foster faltered, and Gillespie moved into third. Then McCaul go t wide, lettin g Gillespie and Bostrum by . Frank shad o wed Wirth un t il well past mid-race. Then, as Gillespie re lated it in the winners circle , " I kept trying him o~ t he ins ide of Three, but he was hep to my act. Well , I've been racin" with Eddi long enough - I just knew what he wa goin g to do, pulling down early, so I jus let it run off of Two, go t next to the fen ce, and when he went like that and shut off the gas, I went arou nd. " J o hn Gen nai , all this tim e, had bee reeling in the pack o ne by on e, finally passing John Hateley about the tim ': Gillespie took t he lead. Hank Scott and Rick Hocking had also moved up together to press Mark William! unsuccessfully for Mark 's sixth spou Th en Gennai got under Bostrum foi third (McCaul had lo n g sin ce faded) an e th at was all she wrote. Ch uck Palmgre r was a b it hot abo u t the start, but a free beer cooled him off, and everybody go out with plenty of daylight. Daytime half mi le at San Jose -t- it 's a gas. •