Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Gary Scott checks to see if Springsteen is gaining. He is. Beauchamp (31) set fast t ime, won his heat. Indianapolis Mile National With a piercing howl 120 horses bit the track • • • By Gary Van Voorhis Sem is INDIANAPOLIS, 11\D., AUG. 23 Roberts. running fourth and fifth gear instead of the straight fifth he did in his heat, got his ticket to the National wi th a win in the first semi. Harley-mounted Billy Schaeffer led the fray before Roberts bounced him. The battle then shifted to second with the H. J. ProductsfTex Harley of Steve Droste doing a draft and slingshot n umber on the Pete's Harley of Jay Ridgeway . Ro o kie Rid geway was really coo king on the last lap in second place, bu t could no t p u ll out enough ro om to brea k th e draft and was le ft in a h ear tbreak in g posi tion. "I heard that' screaming s.o.b. and I knew it was allover. " The screamer Corky Keener heard was the Yamaha liquid-cooled TZ 750 miler scan t out draft of Kenny Roberts wh ich, fee t -frorn the finish , drew of the Keener-Sp ringsteen and roc keted to a less than one bikelength victory ove r the Harley pair in the .AMA Gran d National Championship/Came l Pro Series Indianapolis dirt m ile. "I didn't know I co uld pass them un til we were already on the front straight. It was just perfect timing." Kenny Roberts, who had voiced opinions about "hanging on to the scary thing for 25 laps," before the National was one jubilant man. Keener and Springsteen were, to put it mildly, shocked. Auto racing calls the Indy 500 "the greatest spectacle in racing;" we 've got t!>e Indy mile. _ Five Yamaha TZ 750s and a trio of Kawasaki 750 triples unloaded as part of the SO-plus entries. Roberts. , Steve Baker, Skip Aksland, Rick Hocking and Randy Cleek made up the Yamaha contingent w ith Sco tt Bre lsford, Don Castro and Danny Hockie on the Kaws . Harley-Davidson showed up with a week's worth of 12-hour days behind them and a lot of hopes for a decisive victory . Jay Springstee n rode G reg Sassaman's San Jose winner following Greg 's injury in last week's Te rre Haute. Qualifying 8 Fire d -u p Rex Beau ch am p blis tered th e In d ian ap oli s State Fairgrou nds track wi th a new record , ousting Mert Lawwill's 19 73 record trip 3 7.253 to 37 .52. Lawwill turned in the second quic kest time of the eve nt with the Gurney Yamaha of Ch u ck Palmgren in third followed by more Harleys belonging to Gary Scott and David Aldana. Roberts, in sixth, timed the fastest two-stroke. Heats Rex Beauchamp too k his factory II·D from po le to pole in the first and fastest heat of the nig ht. Second wi th a lot of steam was the Erv Kanemoto Kawasaki of Scott Brelsford followed by David Aldana's Boneyard Special H·D and the Harley of Tom Berry. Those four advanced to the National. Kenny Roberts loo ked over at Mert Lawwill on the starting line fo r the second heat, smiled,' and blipped tbe throttle a couple of times. Mert just smiled back and left everyone to figh t over second, while Roberts manhandled his way to fifth behind a terrific battle that finally ended with Paul Bostrom (H.D), taking second over Hank Scott's Shell Racing Special ties Yamaha and the Poole 's Harley of Doug Sehl, Factory Harley rider Corky Keener had a hard time winning the third heat, although he led all the way . Ricky Campbell's TC-FC Harley was the first to challenge with Gene Romero , on the C.R. Axtel Yamaha, taking over the challenge on the fifth lap and closing rapidly. Romero held his own in the comers, but co uldn't make up very much on the straights. In thi rd, after a swapping melee o n every lap , came Campbell with Glend ale Harley of Ed Wirt h n ip pi n g Don Castro's Kanemoto Kawasaki. - If there. was one pass by the fro n t-running du o of Gary Sco tt an d J ay Sp rings teen in the fo urth heat, th ere we re 30. The last one coun te d, tho ugh, as J ay edged Gary at the lin e and kep t the fans shou ting. Mike Kidd, on the Kruger Racing Harley , did his best to keep up with the factory moun ts in front of h im wh ile holdi ng off the D.A . R.T. ,Yamah a multi of Skip Aksland. The only inj ury of the night came in th e secon d se mi whe n Frank Gillespie bashed the wal l co ming o ut of turn fo u r in a th ree-way battle fo r the lead o n the last lap . Gillespie trashed his bike, but ended up leavin g the hospital u nder his own power with one large bruise covering his entire body . The Kennedy Trium ph of Steve Morehead took the win over Bob Deiss' Roger Rei man Harley. Don Castro finished third o n a Kanemoto Kawasaki. Trophy Race National With the National only m inu tes away, so me riders, like Rex Bea uc ham p, sat and meditated, ce ntering fo r 25 long, long laps in their heads. Others, Gary Scott was one, kept busy cutting an edge o n the i r rear t ir e o r double-checking the same things they had double-checked only minu tes before. Carrol Resweber was giving Jay One of the Kanemoto Kawasakis. This one's Castro's. III 1: 0: o o > Z > ' 0:

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