Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

' fo u r m onths last year. The bi g m an-has won a Handicap Main and this past we ek at Ventura he worked his way into both m ain events, t aking seco nd in the Handi cap Main and th ird in t he Scratch Mai n. A stead y list o f ride rs a re ad d ing thei r nam es to the winner list in Division T wo. Riek Fa rron did th e tri ck t his week in a fine ra ce wi th St eve llein pushing him t o new hei ghts. The six man , five lap Handicap Main saw Ke ith T e nni s lead in g from start to fini sh for th e win. Highli ght o f the nigh t was th e tw o man , two lap Mat ch Race be twee n Rick Wo o ds an d St eve Bast. Wo ods t o o k t he win a ft er a very tigh t t wo la ps. Irwindale, Californ ia May 15, 1975 Mike Bast doub.les adouble By Dennis Greene and John Bet hea Ventura, California May 13, 1975 The top four riders of the night, Bill Cody, Mike Konle, ' Jeff Sexton and Rick Woods came to the starting line for the Scratch Main Event. As th e gate went up, Jeff Sexton jumped out in front, but Wood s imm ediately took over. For the next four laps Woods and Sexton steadily pulled awa y. At the checkered it was Wo ods b y 2 0 feet. Big Mike Konle, riding h is own design swin garm fram e, has been in mor e main eve n t s in th e past four weeks than in Ughtn ing Larry's wide-ilyed as he holds back Bast and Schwartz to win Irwindale Handicap . Hot Purple Helmet race at Bakersfield. Bill Cody refuses to be stuffed to th e outside, beats Sexton. Sh ort yardage m a r kers got revenge this we ek as the track was slightly under p ar and re sembled a gro ov ed hal f-mile inst ead of the cushioned speedway oval that it has been. But it st ill resulted in some dazzling races in both the Handicaps and the bigger-bucks Scratch events. Larry Shaw, looking his best of t he ye ar , went home with th e Handicap honors using his 20-yard st a rt to advan tage throughout the eve ning. He cam e from third to win the second Handi heat over Bobby Schwartz and Bru ce Penhall, then won th e Semi, this time ove rtaking Jim Fishback a nd holding off Billy Meister and Schwartz. When it came time for the Main, Shaw was determined that this was going to be his night. Ph il Mo on and Mike Muntean ea ch straddled t he 10-yard marker and Shaw was cramped o n the 20 with Meister and Scott Sivadge, On ce the gat e went up, however, it didn 't take Shaw long to grab the lead . In fact it was less th an t wo to urs of th e 220 -yard co urse before he was up front and running away to a 2 0 yard win. In Scra tc h actio n , Sh aw c on tin ue d to look strong, defeating Rick Woods, in t he first heat. This sa me ra ce inv olved Billy Gray a nd Sonny Nutte r in a sp ill. Gray was o n th e o utside of tum one wh en Nu tter tried t o m an e uver hi s way o n th e ins ide . Ther e was not enough ro om for tw o o n the groove and Nu tte r banged in to Gray. Jeff Sext o n claimed the th ird hea t wit h a narro w win over Wild Bill Co d y . Dubb Ferrell a nd Steve Nutte r d id no t advance. The fin al he at went t o Bob Schwartz with Mik e Konle taking second. Curoso, fro m th e o u ts ide , snatched the lead right away in th e Scratch Mai n and rode flawlessly to victory ove r Bast and Woods. Konle, wh o enjoys taking the outside, co uld not m aintain th e ti ght action on th e inside and finished fourth. Cody earlier had narrowly bested Sch war t z by less than a bike-length fo r t he Sc ratch Consolation win . The Feature Match Race wa s a questionable event which brought o ut a chorus of boos at its completion. Mike Bast jumped im media tely to t he lead of th e two lapper and 100 ked to be an easy winner. Suddenly, with two turns remai n in g, he pulled u p to a near halt, seem ing ly havi ng fire problems. Dubb Ferrell, p ulled alongside and go t no more th an five feet ahead wh en he , too , Mike Bast rewrites the records again. 10 -, ap pea re d to ha ve m ech a 3.J p roblems. Neither engine lost fire . however, a nd they dog-paddled several times side by side and then drag-raced to the fini sh with Bast taking the win by two feet. Ferrell , by the way, was mounted on a J .A .P . for this one race. TI,e c ro wd, smelling a pos sibl e "put on" began to boo. Costa Mesa, California May 16, 1975 For the firs t tim e this season at Co st a Mesa , we have o u r firs t double winner. Mike Bast broke the two' two m ain event ti e between himsel f and Mik e Curoso in t he Scrat ch Main. Bast had he at en Mike Curoso earli er in the night in a special Mat ch Race, then won th e Handicap Main in th e last lap getti ng around Danny Becker ' an d Mik e Muntean. The Scratch Main went to Bast with Curoso trailin g, Woo ds for third and Sexton in for fourth . Two main even ts in a row is an all out effo rt th at o n ly o ccurs about four o r five times a y ear. Dan Becker returned to Costa Mesa afte r taking several wee ks to ge t hi mself in go o d mental shape for the long ra ce season. He worked his way into the Handicap Main with skill and style and very little clowning aro und. He was smooth and looked good. Bakersfield , California May 17, 1975 In cred ib ly , the record book will be rewritten or at least a new page will be added with a headi ng that should read : "The names of riders t hat have won th e Scratch Main Event and the Handicap Main Event on the same night two nights in a row," and only one name wi ll be t he re, that of Mike Bast . Bast wa s the first rider to take both m ain even t s at Costa Mesa , then 24 hours later do it again at Bak ersfield. This had never happened, at least sin ce the sport was reborn in 196 8. Mik e had a clean win in the Handicap Main, p assi n g Steve Nu tt e r in the last la p when front runner J im Gresham went wid e, taking Nutte r with him , leavin g th e doo r wide ope n . The Scr at ch Main wa s a neater st ory as Sonny Nutter , La rr y Sh aw, Mike Curoso and Mike Bast m oved to th e starting lin e. Bas t st re tc hed them ti gh t , Shaw and Curoso m oved up to the tapes as t he gate wen t up, the tap es b ro ke but wh o was to bla me , b y th e rule book Bast could be sent to the pits, in fact that is what the refe ree motioned to the an no u ncer and he said th at would be it fo r Bast fo r the rest o f the ni ght. But as Mike ca m e ar ound to leave the track th e referee stopped him a nd p ut him ba ck in th e line up saying that he co uld not put the bl ame on one rider, that three riders were on the tapes when it went up . The ra ce was restarted with all four m en, this time it was a clean start but Nutter flipped it ove r on t he st art a nd was out. Bast went t o the lead for t he win and became the only rider ever to win both doubles. If there was no t enoug h racing go ing on to delight the fans , an impromptu three man race in the buff! That's right, n ot one, not two, b ut three racers came out o n the track wea rin g nothing but a smile. • Resu lt s in Results Section. Becker's back . But why are all the specators hiding?

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