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/125996
32ND J COLUMBUSC~ NAT The Harley f reight-train effect. Get in the blue groove and hold it . Roberts was magic until a condenser wire parted. Suddenly The Fast Kid's an underdog. Hank Scott zeroes in on the Expert Trophy race. By Jack Mangus sid e wi t h Sehl until he slipped off the groove on the sixth lap and lo st nearly 20 yar d s, droppin g him back to a figh t with Fran k Gill espie over fourth . That battle be came a battle for third wh en Doug Sehl 's Harl e y gave up the fight on t he ninth g o -aro u n d . The Romero-Gillespi e duel wasn 't settled until the chec ke red flag fell and Burritto nipped Fra n k b y in ches. Heat two provided the most furious actio n of the d ay as Kenny Roberts, afte r having been sw allowed up in turns one and two at the start by Corky Keener, Keith Ulicki and Mike Daves, took to the o u tsid e go ing into turn three and then totally blew them in the weeds. The Champ had the crowd screaming for the next four laps as he performed " m agic tri cks" in the turns pitch it in deep, screw it back on and work the living hell out of it. Shades of Bart Markel. Shades of Ronnie RaIl. The crowd loved it . But it all came t o an end on the fifth lap when the co ndenser wire broke . Corky " Mr. Dirt" Keener went on to win, with Chuck Palmgren, riding bro ther Denny's spare Larry Schaeffer prepared Harley (His Gurney Yamahas were in disrepair) , and Rick Hocking and his Rocky Cycle Yamaha taking th e t wo -t h ree transfer positions behind Keener's fac tory Harley . Overlooked b y many was the performan ce turned in by Mike Cave s. Caves , who has starte d using an ice ra cing fashion through th e turns - knee and lower leg draggin g, suffered a heavy high side during practice, but pulled himself together and was running a st ro ng seco nd to Keener following Roberts' retirement until hi s Harl ey 's throttle all but fell o ff. Mike hung in COLUMBUS, OHIO, J UNE 22 Led by Gary Scott , who was never headed in the 20 lap follow-theleader " freight train " even t, Harley-Davidson swep t the first seven position s in Sunday's MIA Grand National Champi onship/Camel Pro Series half mile race at the Oh io Stat e Fairgro unds. around the Columbus half mil e. Ro berts was th e only other ride r to clock in under 26 seconds ; his was 25.9 53 . Cut-off time honors went to Jim Osborne with a 27.35 5. Scott , who is oftimes re ferred to as Mr. Avis as a result of having finished second in the point standings in each of his three Expert years, not to men tion having Novice and Junior runnerup positions, saw his Grand National point lead jump from a slim five point margin over h is arch rival Kenny Roberts going in to the event to a whopping 170 points. Roberts failed to advance o u t of his heat after a cond enser wire separated at a solder point. The po int margin Scott now holds over Roberts is the largest advantage he has had sin ce the two be gan th eir annual fight fo r racing's most co ve te d Number On e pl ate. The standard Na t io nal half mile practice of div iding the 4 8 qualifi ers in to four heats from wh ich th e firs t three would advance to the National Main and the fourth through ninth finishers in to one of two Semis, which would advance only th e winner to th e Main, sa w the heat races provide the most excit ing racing of the day . Fast qualifier J ay Springsteen wa st ed no time in earning a place in the National as he led the first he a t from green to chec kered. Can ada 's Dave Sehl d id likewise with second place throughout th e 10 lap eve nt, but the third and last transfe r position was a di fferent st ory . Dave's bro th er, Doug, held that position until th e four th lap whe n Gene Romero began to a pp ly some pressure. Rome ro, who had been forewarned by th e powers-that -be at Yamaha that eit he r he st art t ak in g care of b usines s o r hi s su pp ly of d irt b ike parts would be cu t o ff, raced side b y Time trial s 28 Rookie Ex pert sen sat ion J ay Sp ringsteen and his potent Vista She en sponsored/J immy Clarke prepared Harley-Davidson clocked the fastest time: a blistering 25.85 2 sec o nd trip Heats GaryS Harleyrol and finished th e he at - a d isappointing last. Also disap poin ted were Keith Ulick i and Mark Williams (No r) . (H-D) Ho cking broke up thei r race -long battle for t he th ird tr ansfer spot on the final lap as he headed the tightly bunched trio across th e fin ish lin e. Re x Beauchamp o ccupied th e pole position fo r th e third he at and was the odds-an-favo rite to make it three in a row for the orange and bl ack Milwaukee marque. A Harley did lead the first five laps, but it was th e Furgy tuned V-twin ridden by Jimmy Zei gler, not Beauchamp's. That all ended on th e six t h lap when young Steve Morehead powered his Bill Kennedy Triumph around Ziggy going in to and out of turns one and two. Mo rehead never looked back and eventually led Beauchamp and Zeigler across the finish line. Behind that trio some heavy racing was go in g on between Hank Scott, Rickey Campbell, Paul Bostrom and Randy Cle e k. The finish order was Campbell, Scott, Bostrom and Cleek, with Campbell taking fourth from Scott on th e final lap . The fourth and final heat belonged (other than a second lap leading performance by Mert Lawwill) to Gary Scott. Scott sh ook Lawwill loose on the th ird lap and proceeded to turn in the fastes t heat winning time - 10 laps in four m inutes and 3 2.382 seconds. Mert hung in for second, resisting some late lap pressure by the season's o ther roo kie Expert sens a tio n, Greg Sassaman . Billy Ewes and h is Larry Mohan prepared T ri u mp h followed the Harley-Davidson factory trio across the line in fourth pla ce, and rookie Expert J ay Ridgeway topped ro okie Ste ve Freeman in their fight over fif th . Ridgeway and Charlie