Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

San Jose: Beauchamp's classic mile By Lane Campbell SAN JOSE, CAL., SEPT. 21 Rex Beau ch am p didn't know he had this one until he saw the checker comIng out of turn four, glanced to either side and thought, Rex Beauchamp didn't know he . '1 h h had this on~ untt e saw t e checker con:m g o.ut of turn four, glanced t o either SIde and t hought, " Hey, I've g o t it!" Th is Camel Pro Series AMA National Mi le had bl: k been that muc?.o f a an ct race from start to finish, And t he fifth man under the blanket, Gary Scott, got the Number One plate joyfully laid o n him by H arl ey teammate Corky Keener, as this ra ce sewed up the Grand National Championship. Kenny Roberts had packed it in about m id-race after a calcu lated-risk last-minute tire change backfired badly . Th e entire Harl ey -David son wre cking crew had come into this on e feeling pretty loose , determined to ride the track as it developed and go where they co uld in th e face of the tw o stroke invasion. If an y thing the Roberts /Yamaha equipage was a direct opposite. The TZ Monster was set up with 18-inch wheels in an effort to get the fron t down and the weight distributed forward . Fitted to those wheels was ~ pai~ of Goodyear rain-pattern road racmg tires; the same pattern Kenny had used to good effect at the rain-soaked Player Match Races in England, Dur ing practice, Scott Brelsford banked one of the Kanemoto Kawasaki triples off the berm coming out of turn two as it drifted wide on him. Robe rts smacked the same area har d enough to bend parts of the TZ, touching off a c,;,t, ~eld, .heat ~d bend marathon. in hIS pit (WIth a httle help from Ken Maely, who had a bigger to rch) to straighten things out in time for qualifying. Mark Williams .crashed ~ard out of turn three. dU':lng pracuce, Corner observers Said hIS Norton apparently popped out of gear, sending Mark wide into the haybales, down, and under the rail. lIe was transported immediately for hospital treatment. ' As time trials got underway, the tr ack (which had started out quite tacky d ue to a late-breaking damp overcast) firmed up into a table-like su rfac e with ska te y little cobbles in it; a sur face Rex Be au champ des cribed as " kin d of ca tch-le t go-ca tc h-le t go again " after he had qualified at 3 8.2 1, setting a new tr ac k record in spite of it all. The Flint Flyers ca m e out one-two-three in qualifying, as Corky Keener (3 8.56 ) and Jay Springsteen (38.64 ) trailed Rex in the table. Mert Lawwill (3 8.68 ) and Scott Brelsford (38.86 ) rounded out the top five. Heats The first heat lined up with Beau champ on the pole, Brelsford beside him, Mike Kidd and Pat Marinacci (Tri) behind him. Hank Scott o u t s c o o t e d everybody and the aforementioned crew tucked in behind to give the crowd a foretaste of what the re st of the day would be like. Marinacci or Kidd (maybe both) eased by Scott down the back ch ute and the lead trio played slingshot-shuffle u n til Marinacci's Triumph barfed a cloud of The monste r that almost worked. And the ti re (inset) that didn't work at all. oil and Brelsford came up to Jom the fun. Scott put the Kanemoto triple aro und the ou tside of turn two to take Kidd, zeroed in on Scott down the ba ck ch u te and led him coming out of turn four. Beauchamp sneaked up on Kidd in Brelsfo rd 's wake and slip -stream -slingshot past Scott wh o was trying to get under Brelsford out of turn two and suddenly ther e w as a double-pass reshuffle up the ba ck chu te. White flag lap and the tw o' four-strokers bracketed Brelsford out of turn two; he rolled it on and squirted away. Beauchamp tu cked in ahead of Scott as Rick Hocking on his TZ cleared awa y from a similar drafting trio to take the last direct transfer. Heat two turned into a classical gas, matching Roberts against Keener in a duel of wits. Steve Morehead (H.D) Rot away first bu t Roberts tucked in second out of turn two and blew by. Keener tucked in under Ken as the two.wailed into turn one at the end of the first lap. What followed was a seesaw battle as the two seemed to use Morehead atternately as draft or strategic block. Each time through turns one and two Roberts would hang the outside edge, le tti ng Keener, sometimes Morehead as well, get a wheel under him before he'd roll back on that almighty throttle getting braver and stuffing it in harder each time un til he finally had Corky h el d a t bay all the way ar ound. Morehead gave it one great charge out Scott (19) Brelsford laid the Kanemoto Kaw right on the cases to hold Rex Beauchamp at bay in their heat. For Rex, it was just practice for 25 miles of the damndest traffic jam you ever saw. of t he last turn to sneak second away fro m Keen er . Randy Clee k stuffed anothe r TZ into the last direct transfer. Third heat, rookie Tom Berry read Bouncing Bob Malley just right and got a brief look at clear track before Jay Springsteen and Paul Bostrom bracketed him going into the first turn. Jay cleared away and b lew everybody into the weeds to win the fastest heat and set a new heat record (6:34.65,91.220 mph). Berry outlasted a switchy-swappy with Don Cas tro on another Kanemoto shrieker for th ird and fourth. Final heat, and Men Lawwill got another of his famous starts with Gary Scott right on him. Th ey went the distance nose-tail as Mert hung the outside and Gary stayed tight. Gene Romero kept just ahead of persistent John Gennai for third, while fifth through seventh was another bl anket -shuffle trio, Dave Aldana working through trafic to lead the group after zapping inside Jim Odom in turns one-two and flat out-racing Steve Droste for four laps to the end. Coming on ' surprisingly fast behind them and gaining was Diane Cox , getting into he r crouch well back into tu rn fo ur and going feet-up right to the wall , getting faster with each su cceedin g lap. But her Semi bid would go away in a puff of smoke when h er Triumph smo ked a ring. Semis A pair of 72s , Mike Kid d (72) an d Skip Aksla nd (72Y) dominated th e firs t Semi, leaving Hateley , J o yn er , Dorsch and Rush to dice for Trophy Race p osition. Kidd appeared to have the argu me nt settled for the lead until the last lap, when Skip drove under him in a great surprise rush out of turn fo ur - a beautiful sweeping late-ap ex passing lin e. The second Semi was Aldana's fro m the start, with a 100 mph bump-and-run foursome behind him going for the last transfer. Steve Droste had just slingshot himself into second as they went into turns one -two starting the fifth lap. Then came the chain-reaction, as third place Chuck Palmgren got sideways; Rob Morrison, righ t there and closing, pi tched it sideways, tapped Palmgren and went down. Frank Gillespie, with no place to go, banked off Morrison's bike hard into the fence. The crash cost Frank a broken leg and arm at the min imu m ; Morrison was able to walk away shakily. . Stopped by the crash, the race we nt in to a single-file -restart as sco red with . fo ur lap s co mplete. Droste slingshot Aldana off the start, but Dave took it back fo r good co ming o u t of t urn two. Jim Odo m an d Chuck Palmgren came up on Droste in the last lap . The th ree we nt into the last turn in a ragged row, bu t Steve sq uirted free on th e fro nt st rai gh t to take the last National slot. Trophy Race Would you believe 14 guys under a large quilt? Jim Odom came from outside, Hateley tucked inside off the pole, and the whole thing packed up into a gaggle of elbows and handJebars behind them . And stayed that way for most of twel~e laps. First,tw.o laps. th ~~ • I

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