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
way at San Jose fron t o f him. Houst o n short track winner Darryl Hurst led the first two laps, but a group led by Rawls dropped Hurst to fourth and then fifth and then sixth. Involved in the mind-blowing demonstration of dirt racin g at its finest were, in addition to Rawls, Aksland and Hurst, Cor ky Keener, Ken Springsteen and Don Castro. Akslan d 's Yamaha had the horses, but Rawls owned the com ers with his outside lines. Horsepower won, both for Aksland and Corky Keener, who nailed Rawls on the las t lap. Trophy race The Consolation event started off as a bummer for the "two strokes forever" fans present, as t he Kanemo to Kawasaki of Don Castro faile d to st art within th e time allowed by referee Chub Kellam . The bike had b een difficult to fir e up all day and app eare d to be not quite as fast as the one Scott Brelsford was riding. Bob Sanders took Castro's p lace in t he line up. . Jim Rawls led the initial lap , but was dropped back to fourth on the second by Bruce Hanlon , Ken Springsteen, Eddie Wirth and Randy Clee k. In another display of San Jose action, those fo ur were knocked back a position each when Darryl Hurst blew by them on the third lap. The position swapping continued with Hurst and Hanlon trading o ff first place and t he rest exchanging p ositi ons a co untless num ber of times. Redwood City, California 's Bruce Hanlon and his Don Cycles' Harley-Davidson led t he lap that coun ted - the last one - an d the Trophy race was h is. And by the way Ms. Cox finished ni nth to liberate women on mile trac ks, National The 20 man field was lin ed up in three rows fo r t he 25 lap National wi th fast heat winner Sassaman o n th e pole. Beauchamp , La wwill , Scott, Ro berts, Gillespie and Brelsfo rd filled ou t th e front row; Fo ster, Romero , Ald ana, Dors ch, Williams, Genn ai and White oc cu p ie d the secon d ; and Od orn , Hateley , Ak sland, Hoc king, Keener and McCaul the third. Jimmy Odom was immediately scored in last p lace as he was unable to fire up his Yamaha and the race started w ith J. O. on the sidel in es. Gary Scott turned in a hole sh ot at the wave of the green and led Lawwill, Rob erts, Sassaman , Be auchamp, Brelsford and Williams d own t he front straight at the end o f lap one. Lap two saw positions chan ge down the ba ck straight as Sassaman moved in behind Sco tt and Lawwill, dropping Beauchamp to fourth an d Roberts to sixth as Brelsford screamed in be tween the rookie and th e ch am p . Walt Foster unloaded spectacularly co m in g out of tum four on the third lap. Foster su ffere d reported hand and arm injuries and his bike appeared to be a write-off a fter it struck a tree. Scott continued to lead , but Sassaman and Brelsford had moved in to se cond and thi rd and were closing. Lawwill and Beauchamp had loc ked in to wh at would become a race long battle. Rex p ut Brelsford be t ween he an d Lawwill o n t he six th tour o f tile mi le , but Mert pull ed ba ck in be hin d Beau champ o n tile seventh lap as Brelsford dropped o ut of the race . The eigh th lap saw Sassam an tak e th e lead from SCOtl, with the duo building up a co m fo rt ab le mar gin over the Beaucham p-Lawwill battle as they swapped th e lead ba ck and forth ove r the next several lap s. Behin d th e four front runners another bat tle - n o, mak e that a war was ta king place between Gene Romero, Dave Aldan a, Co r ky Keener, Mark Williams, Kenny Roberts, Fran k Gillespie an d Skip Aksland. Stock car racin g fan s lik e to too t their horns over things lik e "5 2 lead changes in a 500 mil e race ," Hell , th ere must h ave be en 52 posit ion ch an ges between th os e seve n riders every five lap s or so . And not bumper to bumper, but wh eel to wheel. Roberts worked his way through t he pack t o tak e t he poin t posit ion on tile 70 t h lap . He held on to take fifth at the ch eckered flag, a coun t ry m ile behi n d the third and fourth place finishers, Beauchamp and Lawwill. Another country mile ahead were Sassaman and Scott. Scott settled in behind Sassaman - for good - on tile 18th lap. Despite rear tires that after the race looked like they h ad be en attacked by grin ders on the le ft side , the d uo continued to run as quickly and smoothly as they had during the early part of the race. With the cro wd chee ring the youngster on, Sassaman rose slightly from his tank hugging position, waved his left hand in th e air an d took the checkered flag to sco re not only his first Nati on al win, bu t the first Nat ional win for the Pea ch St ate. Virtu ally unknown - to t he multi-thousands o f spe ctators despite having won th e 19 73 AMA Atlantic Scott Brelsford and the Green Mean Miler. Lawwill leads Beauchamp in the early lap s. Kenny Roberts fin ished in fi fth place. Regional No vice titl e an d th e 197 4 Junior titl e , Atlan tic Region al accomplish m ents wh ich led to his securing a Harley-Davidson factory team po si tio n in his roo kie Expe rt ye ar, a loud cry was heard over the che er ing "Rebel , Nu mber On e ! Rebel, Number One !" Hailin g from the Dixie to wn of, Maco n, Ge or gia , bes t known for it s musically ta lented residen ts such as th e Allman brothers an d the late Otis Reddin g, Gre g ac kno wledged the help he has received over the years fro m his fa ther, Gro ver, wh o jus t happens to be Mac on 's Harley dealer, an d fro m the man known in Atlanta as Mr. Harley, Powell H assell , owner of Harl ey-Davidson of Atlanta. Legendary Carrol Resweber wa s ac kn o wledged for his chassis co nstructio n on the winning machine, and praise was heaped on Nick Deliganis (Sorry if I mispelled th at , Nick .) for building tile engine that obviously had horsepower on th e field. Rebel, Nu mber One ? Y'all better bel ieve it. • Results T ROPHY RAC E : 1. Bruce Hanlond ( HoC) . 2. D arry l Hurst (vam/" 3 . Ken Spr tngsteen (H- O) . 4 . Edd ie W irth H -D). 5. Randy Cleek (Yam ). 6. Jim Rawl s (H-D ). 7 . M ike Myers H - O ). 8. Rob Morrison (Nor) . 9 . D iane Co x T ri). 10. Dick Wasc her (Tr l) . 11. Charlie Brown (Vam) . 12. Bo b San de rs rr-n, N A T ION AL MI L E : 1. Greg Sassam an (H· D ). 2 . Gary SCott (H· D). 3. Re x Beau ch am p (H- D). 4 . Mert Lawwlll (H -D) . 5 . Ken Roberts (Yam ). 6. Fran k G il lespie (H·D). 7. Gene Ro me ro (Yam). 8. Mark W il liams ( N o r ). 9 . Sk ip A ksland ( Ya m) . 10. Cor ky Keener (H-D). 11 . Dav e A ldana (H·D). 12. R ick Hocking (Yam). 13. Pat McCaul (Tri) . 14 . Tom Wh it e (H· D) . 15. Terry D o rsc h (Yam) . 16 . John H atele y (Nor ). 17 . Jo hn Gennal (H-D). 18. SCott Brelsford ( K aw ). 19 . Walt Fo ster (T ri) . 20. Ji m O d om ( Y am) . W I N N I N G T IME , 16 ' 3 3. 3 7. I Th is is tile wa r that we nt on behind t he fight for first and second. Sassaman and Scott kept th is up for m iles. • • 7