Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125990
Sassaman shows By Jack Mangus SAN J OSE, CAL., MAY II Rookie Expert Greg Sassaman led a 1-2-3-4 Harley-Davidson sweep of the fifth round of the Camel Pro Series, the San Jose Mile. The 20-year-old M acon, Georgia resident riding in o n ly h is second . ' . " . " . mile race aboard a b ig bike , t ook the le a d a w a y from teammate Gary Scott on the eighth lap of the 25 lap high speed thriller. The pair then carried on a lead swapping battle until the 18th lap when Sassaman opened up what proved to be a winning margin. Time tri als pro ved that Harley-Davidson, as expected, had done their homework over the winter as Rex Beau champ posted the fastest lap when he covered th e Harold Murrell prepared tacky oval in 39.19 seconds. The obvious crowd favorite , .Mert Lawwill, posted second fastest time just a tick of the clock behind Beauchamp with a 39 .23. Sassaman logged a 39 .24, third fastest time. Heats Racing got underway 45 minutes after the scheduled 2:00 p.m. starting time following a van track packing session and a brief del ay br.ought. about when Randy Scot,t blew hIS engme .o n one of three " test' laps allowed the first heat riders. Terry Sage filled in for Scott, but the first of the four heats bel onged to fast qualifier Rex Beau champ (H-D). Hank Scott, aboard a Shell Yamaha, gave Rex a race on the first two laps, but Rex pulled away on the third lap and went on to win . Scott was swallowed up by a Harley freight train made up of Frank. Gillespie, Dave Aldana and Tom White on the fourth lap, and slowed to a stop o n the b~ckst~aight on the following lap. Gillespie. p ulled .away fro m Mr. Bones ' ~d WhIte , leaving those two to race WIth each oth~r. Th.e checkered flag ~w Beauchamp , Gillespie, Aldana and White tak~ the f?';lr direct transfer-to-theNational positi ons. Heat n umber two was all Mert Lawwill after first lap leader John Sperry over extended himself in the first tum on the second go-around and unloaded. Lawwill led all the wa y after that, but all eyes and ears were tuned in on Scott Brelsford. Brelsford was piloting an Erv Kanernoto Kawasaki two-stroke 750, an d whi le there was plenty of doubt as to how the screamer passed the required 92 dbA sound test, there was no questioning the machine 's potential - it was a jet. Brelsford readily took the runner-up spot behind Lawwill, and he was followed across the line by Terry Dorsch and Jimmy adorn. In typical San Jose fashion, the heat provided more than Mert's runaway performance and Scott's mind-blowing two stroke show as Ms. Diane Cox m ade her mile deb ut. She m ore t han he ld her own against the ultra-fast t urns and earned a transfer spot to a Semi. Two time Grand National Champion Kenny Roberts led the first two laps of the third heat, but the young " veteran " was shot down by the y o ung rookie, Greg Sassam an, going into tum on e at the start of t he third lap . Comin g o ut of tum two the San Jose dyno, the back straight showed that Sassam an 's factory Harley had gobs of h orses over Roberts ' factory Yamaha. (Greg's XR registered 88 horsepower on Harley 's dyno.) Behin d th ose two all hell was breaking loo se in a figh t for t he third an d fourth transfer betwee n Gen e Romero, Jim Rawls, Mike Caves, Darryl Hurst and John Gennai. The gang war settled down into a one-against-one duel between Raw ls and Gennai. Gennai won as he nipped Rawls at the finish line on the 10th and last lap. Walt Foster had put his Triumph on the pole for the fourth and final heat by qualifying fourth fastest, but all eyes J.R. Ra wls, Ed d ie Wirth, Ken Springsteen, and Bruce Hanlon lea d the Co nsolation he rd aro und the bend. Fastest qualifier Rex Beau champ. 6 Sassaman, Scott & Beauchamp 1, 2, 3. were on t he man sittin g o n the line ne x t to him , Gary Scott. Sco t t, as expec te d , did his thing by leading all th e way , but Foster proved hi s qualifying time was no flu ke as he hel d down second the entire distance. Behind those pair were two o f the most tal ented rookie Experts in the field, J ay Springsteen an d J ay The J ays eliminated Ridgeway. themselves as Springsteen unlo ade d in tum four, escapi ng injury, on th e second lap, and Ridgeway's en gine apparently blew on t he fifth lap. Norton teammates, Mark Willia ms and John Hateley, to ok the last two direct trans fer spots, b ut Hateley ha d to work his butt off fo r his fo urth pl ace fin ish. He ha d dropped Corky Keen er fro m that spot on th e eighth lap, but Corky came roaring back only to see Little John n ip hi m at the line: Semis With onl y two tra n sfer spots, first and second, up for grabs in t he Sem i, good racing was expected by the sell-out crowd. They weren't dis ap poin ted. Incredible position swa pping m ile racing was served up in the first Semi by eventual win ner Ric k Hocking, runnerup Pat McCaul, Eddie .Wirth an d Bruce Hanlon. Left limp by the p revio us race, the spectators were brought bac k to their feet by the second Semi as, o nce again, so me absolutely incredible racing too k place. Texan J im Ra wls provided the highlight o f t he 10 lap show as he rode an o utside lin e t hat scared the living hell out o f those watching and p ut fr owns on the face s of those riding beside, behind and, in Skip Aksland's case, in Diane Cox alte red many male egos. Roberts (1), led the third heat until Sassaman (SOC) took it away on )ap three,