Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

SoCaI boYsJim McNeal/Sky Kerly made it three in a row by winning the 1975 U.S. Sidecar Championships . Second place finishers (3) Rod Hudson/Bob Thompson. Steve Baker (3 2) went on to finish thi rd, while Romero crashed. e \ (Ka w) . 12 . Gr e g Sassam an (H-D ) . 13 . R ic k Hock in g ( Yam ). 14. Storme W in ter (Yam). 1 5 . Scott Erickson ( Y am). 16 . Gre gor Me Rae (Yam). 17 . Cory Ruppelt (Yam). 18. R ichard W il liamson (Yam) . 19 . Ron Mass (Yam) . 20. Robe r t N ic hols (Y am). 21. Dav id Burch ards (Hon). W INNER'S TIME, 25 m 39.865s. SPEED , 88.839. Baader wins a hairy Novice race 8 Mike Baeder, after a race-long duel with Vince Mead, won hi s firs t big-time Novice road race, but it was a hairy , trying day for th e crowded Novice class. Laguna Seca is unfo rgiving at best, as the fr on t straight sp its y o u in to a series of 85 to 11 0 mph bends, and th er e are o nly two sets o f slo w com ers on t he rel atively short 1.9 mil e course. Add to tha t th e surf ace ha zards: Car-induced susp ens io n ripples in the p avement, often in pl aces wh ere th e corn ering loads and natural camber of th e track have the susp ension bottomed ; striped angl ed cu rbing near th e ape x o n tw o c o r n e r s; a nd ro ws o f disastrous car-eon trol ridges o n the au tside of tum four. There were tw o qualify ing heats to m ak e up a 60 -rider final o u t of well ove r 100 Novices enter ed. In the seco nd five-lap heat sever al bikes tangled an d wen t do wn be twee n turns t wo an d three . Steve Souter, tryin g to ge t up an d run fr om th e tr ac k, wa s struck by a fo llowing ri de r and kille d in st an tly. Peter Newell suffe red a bro ken ar m in th e same mul ti-bike inciden t. As it was unclear at firs t what had happen ed, th e red flag was display ed bri efl y enough to co nfuse so me riders, ye t th e race wen t th e full five laps. Aft er thej unior he ats, it wa s decided to re-ru n this Novice heat from th e beginn ing. The Novice Final was in te rrup te d also , after several cr ashes. The red flag came o ut when officials decided there was too much spilled fuel be tw een turns two and three. As it turned out, sidecar prac tic e (hel d as the cleanup progressed) dumped oil the entire length of turn eigh t , and turn n ine became slippery with both oil and rubber as the heat of the da y really got onto the pavement. So, wh en the Novices were waved o ff from a single -file restart (th e file de gen er ated co n side rab ly as the ' one -m inute board went sideways) every body on th e sidelines crossed their fingers and prayed. They all m ade it through lap on e uprigh t, with Vin ce Mead leadin g Harry Klinzmann and Mike Baeder by a short margin. Klin zmann, who had made hay on the restart (ha ving been bottled up in traffic originally) m ad e repeated lunges at Me a d entering tum nine, fin ally powered by up the front straight. Th en at about the halfway mark, with Mead p ressuring him relentlessly, Klinzmann locked it up braking for turn nine and slid down in ' the apex, forcing Mead o u tside into the over-run area. Mead got back on the tr ack, still ahead of Mike Baeder, This was an action spot 'all race. Three riders, trying to occupy the sa me spot in the early lap s, tangled and fell in such a heap that it took several track workers to sort out the mingl ed bikes and bods as the rest of. the field either split around them or slid into the over-run are a with both wheels locked. Of the three, Larry Lcgarra managed to restart, Don Muir hopped away on a sprained ankle , and Steve Arnold packed it in for th e day. Almost unnoticed in the mel ee was dirt track roo kie Expert and Na tion al winner J ay Springsteen on a Vista-Sh een H-D 25 0, wh o by h alfway was lyi ng eighth, ste adil y working up in traffic. Mike Baeder slipped in side Mead in tum nine and shu t the gate down the strai gh t. Th ey con tin ue d to run nose-tail through th e lap ees traile d by Gill Martin and Jay Springsteen , who now was fourth. Another hot dirt-tracker, Dan McWhorter, was holding Dwi gh t Lyon at bay behind. White flag out, Mead m ade one last bid a t turn nine and almost lost it, an d people began to sigh with relie f. Then No rman Fra ijo dropped his bi ke in th e middle of tum nine and th e resul ting surpr i se r oad block forced several last-minute pla ce-changes - th e most frustrating of wh ich must h ave been th e two places it cost Dave Garroute to pass the downed bi ke ou tside, after wo r kin g h is heart out in mid-pack to win position afte r pos ition on a four-stroke Van gua rd Honda. Springsteen p assed Martin in traffi c in the closing laps to take third and Martin, lulled into thinking Springste en was a lap down, let him go a fter bobbling badly up on the cor kscrew. Gill said later, " Oh well, I didn 't want to hav e my machine tom down anyway." Results 1. M i ke Baeder (Yam). 2. Vince Mead IVam). 3 . Jay Sp ringsteen ( H-D ). 4 . G ill Mart in (Yam). 5. Da n McWh orter (Yam). 6. DW ight Lyon (Vam). 1. Ted D av id so n (Bien) 8 . Ricardo COlindres (V am ). 9 . Dave Racine (Yarn} , 10. Waldemar Karpy nec (Yam). 11. Dana Dandeneau (Yam). 12. Larry Legarra (Vam), 13 . M ark Legarra (Yam). 14. M itchell La ndry (Yam). 15 . Robert Bar t on (Yam). 16. Frank James Kukula (Vam) . 17 . Kent Rockwell (Yam). 18. Steven Lang (Yam). 19. James vta rcvcs (Yam). 20 . Dav id Emde (Vam ). WINNER 'S T I M E, 24 ,30;007. DuHamel, Singleton, McCreary lead the quiet ones The name on the letterhead had changed, but the actors were the same a s Yv on DuHamel rode a Dale Alexander-prepared Kawasaki to win his second Heavyweight Production ra ce at Laguna Seca for Dale-Starr Engineering (formerly Yoshimura Racing). Yvon had muscled to the front after trailing the BMW contingent up the hill. Bob Endicott (Kaw) h ad the holeshot on everybody and led Reg Pridmore (BMW) while DuHamel labored to uncork himself from tr affic. Behind them , Cook Neilson (Duc) enjoyed a brief lead on the 750cc contingent at eighth overall when his personal hoodoo struck for the th ird time this wee kend. He 'd already broken a bone in his left hand from a crash in practice, and after stuffing his " good" engine in a spare ch assis, had the rings in the re ar cy lin der tum to co n fe tti. More midnight oil resurrected the engine, but th e Duck went on one cylinder again on about the th ird lap. Dale Single ton (Tri), Ed Unini (Ha n) , and Tony Murphy (Han) staye d clo se, with th e Hondas wallowing m adly through th e fast sections and Dale 's "borrowed " Triumph running on rail s. Could be the free do m fr om star k terror helped Dale grab the clas s lead and hold it, even though poorly geared for th e track. Back in the Op en melee , Yvon 's charge had th e whole six-bike lead gro up bunched tight fo r awh ile, until th ey finall y sorted things out in a series of wild scr ambles through turn nine. Th e final exch ang e left Yvon leading Ron Pierce and Gary Fish er (BMW west an d eas t, respecti vely) as the se three cleared away from Endicott-Pridmore. Pierce and Fisher stayed hard at it in th eir own private duel, as did En dico tt an d Pridmore in th eirs . They finished in th at order. Lightweight Produ ction In th e lightwei/{ht race, Saturday , Tip McPartland (Ka w) kept it fro m being an all-Yamaha sh o w , though he nev er got ne ar Loren McCreary on a Fairway Yamaha. McCreary took it aw ay from early leaders John Wiseman and Bill Henry in the second lap and was never, touched thereafter. McPartland came up from seventh or worse as Henry, Randy Evans, Bruce Sass, Dain Ginerelli, and Tom Hayner swapped about under the overworked blanket. Hayner lost his front wheel at the apex of tum six (top of the cor kscrew ) but stayed on in a wild scramble for control th at carried hi m in to the dirt off of six , across the track and into the dirt off six-A, and down the verge, in and au t of 'a ditch and finally ba ck on, and 'o u t of trouble. He go t a standing ovation from the corkscrew gallery. As Hayner worked his way back up to speed well out of contention, McPartland worked through the traffic in to second, Henry cased off the pace, Ken Gill went in to third and Alan Barbie who had been reeling people in steadily moved into fourth. In the closing lap s Barbie passed Gill and Ginerelli hung in fo r fifth, ahead of Bob TIgert, who had also made it up out of the pack. Results OPEN C LASS (Over 75 0cc) , 1. Vvon Du Ha mel (Kaw) . 2 . Ron Pier ce (BMW). 3. Gary F isher (BMW). 4. Bob Endicott 5 . Reg Pridmore (BMW). 6 . Fred Waltl Kaw . 7 . B ruce Lind (Kaw). 8 . Dennis Pegel o w (Kaw). 9. Wes Cooley ( K aw ). 10. Martv Lunde (Kaw). 11. Da ve Al dana (Kaw) . 12. D ave Burchards (Lavl . WINNER ' S TIME (15 Laps, 2 8.5 Miles), 19m 53.745s. SPEED : 8 5. 9 4 8 mph. 750cc PRODUCTI ON CLASS , 1. Dale Si n gle ton (Trll. 2. Ed Unln! (Hon) . 3. T ony MurPh Y (Hon. 4. Jeff Steele (Han). 5. Ed Meagor (Han) . 6 . A r t Frie dman (Kaw). 7. Cook Nielsen (Due). N O TIME (Classes run concurrent). LIGHTWEIGHT (U p to 405cc) P RODU CT I O N : 1. Loren McCreary (Vam) . 2. T ip McPartlan d (Kaw). 3 . Alan Barbie (Vam ). 4 . Ken G ill (Vam) . 5. Oain Glnerelll (Yam). 6. Robert T iger t (Yam). 7. Quentin Hogan (Kaw). 8 . B ill Henry (Yam). 9. Mark Koop (Ya m ). 10. Alan G lngerell i (Yam). 11 . Scott Clough (varm. 12. Tom Hayner ( V am ). 13. Paul Unmacht (Yam). 14. Ed Meagor (Yam). 15. Brad Stankey (Vam). 16. COry R u p ~ e r t (Yam). 17. Charles Strohmenger (Yam). 18. Gary Moore (Yam). 19. Robert Re lf (Yam). 20 . Johanthan Wlsemln (Kaw). WINNER'S T I M E, (15 l ap s) 21m 39.537s. SPEE D ' 78.95 mph . lKaW!- Kerley/McNeal ta ke third sidecar championsh ip In a sport that demands y o u get it together o r cr ash , Sky e Kerley and Jim McN eal ha ve it more to gether than an ybody . Having raced as a team for almost four ye ar s, they p erformed a flawle ss due t to win ye t a third U.S S id e car Championship at Laguna. Getting away second off the grid, Kerley /McNeal sq ue ez ed th eir 1000cc Honda past C anadi ans Hudson/Thompson in turn nine during th e first lap and were never challenged. Th e Coleman/Andrews Suzuki outfit moved into second and closed briefly on the' leaders. Chasing them was wildly powersliding Jarman/Jeffries, dicing al tern ately with either the Can adian s, Masell a/Bryant (Tri) or Garnett/Steward, whichever was in the hunt at the time. Passenger Bob Bender to ok a header off the Bender /Koop 1000cc Kawasaki and said this was probably his last race. They pulled off to check each other for damage, then went back o ut to finish, Wayne Lougee/Gary Gipe hung in with some hard sliding and chair lifting, carryin g a movie camera mounted on the third wh eel . They retired late in the race pumping oil. J arm an /J eff ries ' outfit tossed a rod, and heartbreak city, second-place Coleman/Andrews coasted through tum nine on their last lap with a dead engine. They lost four, maybe five finish positions pushing it up the front straight, but when they got to the finish , Bouncing Bob Malley gave them the full treatment with the checker. • ResuIts (tentat ive) 1. Jim McNeal/Sky Kerley (Hon), 2. Rod HUdSOn(BOb Th ompson (Suz). 3. T ony Massel a/ B il l . B r y a n t ( Tr l). 4 . Walt Garnet/John Ste w ard {Kawi. 5. Larry Co lem an /Wen dell A n d rews (Suz •

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