Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

!Roberts unchai ed,Sc t - C'l .en .... ::l b() ::l ~ Burres 1st, Aldana 2nd, Mert3rd at Peoria Nat'l. TT By Gary Van Voorhis PEORIA, ILL., AUG . 10 "I came here to win and I'm going to," were Sonny Burres' words after practice was over. And. true to his word, Sonn y did that. Burres and his Tri ump h led the entire 25 laps of the AMA Grand National Cham pionship Camel Pro Series Peoria TT and made it look easy , especially for a guy who says he doesn't Ii ke TT racing. "Everybody calls me a TT ace, but I' m not. In Oregon that's about the only type of racing we have. I'd rather run a half-mile any day." So quoth Sonny, although he'd have a hard time convincing the 15 riders he beat at Peoria. David Aldana ("It's about time my luck changed. ") finished second after spending most of the race holding off Kenny Roberts. In third after a long, hard ride throug!, tra!fic was Mert Lawwill. Mert 's third came at the expense of Chuck J oyner, who lost his winner's circle position in the last few yards before the flag. Mike Caves thrashed, bounced and skidded his way to fifth . Kenny Roberts' string of bad lu ck on dirt con tinued as the defending Grand National Champion shed h is cha in on the 19th lap while running se cond. Gary Scott h ad a tough day and fini she d seventh picking up 34 points on Roberts, who placed 12th. Roberts ' track record in qualifying didn't last very long as Rex Beau champ (28.79) and then Gary Scott (28.8 4) and Aldana (28.4 6) each chipped away at it, That left Kenny the chore of dropping it even lower. He did, and turned in a 28 .37 clocking to esta blish himself as the pre-race pick to win. Heats 6 Roberts too k the first heat with ease , opening a gap on the field from the start. Early in the action John Gennai held second spot, but slowly drifted backward as Mark Williams and Mert Lawwill sailed by, then Paul Bostrom eased past in the late stages. The race centered on the Williams-Lawwill duel with Mert inc hing up for a pass on the last lap th at n ipp ed Willia ms at the flag. The second h eat fell to Burres after a race long duel with Aldana that previewed of what was to ' co me in the National . Eddie Wirth ran a strong second for two o r three laps until he stripped his gears. Ran dy Skiver picked up th ird with Randy Clee k missing a transfer to the National by one spot. Co rky Keener got a hole shot on the Sonny Burres: " . . . but I'm not a TT specialist. " His last Nat ional win was Castle Rock. 1971 . field in the third heat, but a bobble in tum one cost him his advantage. Hank Scott seized the opportunity and led most of the race until Rex Beauchamp flew past on the jump to take the lead on lap seven. Jay Springsteen, in third since th e openi ng laps , too k a lot of p ressure from Chuc k Palmgren, but hel d --- onto his ticke t t o the National, sending Palmgren to the semi. slowly back to third. "I was lucky the swingarm held it on or I'd have been in real tro uble," said Gary. Caves took the lead on the fourth lap with Chuck J oyner moving through traffic in to third, followed by Phil McDonald. J oyner th en wo rked his way pas t Sco t t and set o u t to ca tch Caves , bu t tim e ran out. The final heat was a thriller with Mike Cave s bouncing back from a crash that caused the only re-start of the day, to win . Gary Scott loo ked like a sure winner in the ea rly laps un til his drive sprocket came loose, slippi ng hi m Gene Romero sped to a flag-to-flag vict o ry in th e first semi followed by Paul Bostrom . Rome ro's lead was never safe as Bostrom put o n rele ntless pressure and almost p ulled a last-lap p ass, bu t bobbled in loo se di rt on the Sem i last tum. Randy Cleek finis he d a close third. The last two posrnons in the . National went to Chuck Palmgren and Jim Jones. J on es held the lead un til Palmgren took it away with a pass over the jump. Fro m there Chuck kept a short lead and left Jones to put up with a lot of pressure fro m Little J o hn Hateley. Hateley had a good shot at J o nes o n the las t lap, b ut los t the opportunity whe n he got sideways gunning for the final t ransfer. Trophy Race " I wish I could have made the National," was Randy Clee k 's reply to

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