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/126015
Mike Bast got another one of h is instant starts and leads Rick Woods, Dubb Ferrell and Alan Christian wh ile 12,750 cheer. u.s. NATIONAL SPEEDWAY CHAMPIONS By Lane Campbell LO S AN GELES, CAL. , NO V. I On a D-shaped track stuffed in to the Peristyle end of the Los Angeles Coliseum, Mike Bast made every start count to earn his third u.s. Spe edway Champi onship in a perfect I 5-poin t series of rides before th e largest cro wd to view an American speedway .even t in 12 modem times. In regaini ng th e ti tie wh ich he lost to older brother St eve las t year, Bast joins Rick Woods in the record books as a three-time titleholder. While Mike Bast was e merging as a clear lead e r by he at 16, the battl e fo r second went to the 20th and fin al fo ur -lap heat, to be settled in favor of Dubb Ferrell over Steve Nutter. Nutter's show position was all th e m o re not ew orthy sin ce , as firs t alternat e, he would not have go tte n to ride at all had Mike Cu roso not scrat ch ed due to illn ess . For Harry Oxley 's co -promoter Jack Milne , this event m arked somethin g of a homecoming. His brother Corde had won the natio nal titl e at th e Co lise um in 1933, before th e two left to m ake their m ark on world sp eedway. The track was unusual in many respects be sides its shape. Laid down on a pl y wo od base and shoe ho rned in to th e Peristyl e end of t he stadium , its co nfi gura tio n was largel y dic tated by the .requirement th at it no t interfere with a USC foo tball gam e to be played on the a fte rnoo n befor e th e ra ce:. To meet th is co ns t rain t the pro moter had to hold off b uilding the front straightaway VIP sta nd s until scant hours before ra ce time and tru ck in two banks of flo o dli gh ts mo u n t ed on gia n t forklift s to supplement the spo tty lightin g off the end of th e foo tball field. The unfamiliar shape o f t he tra c k a nd the equally unfamiliar de composed grani te surface would pu t all th e rid er s on an equal footin g; i.e., totall y unprepared for what t o expect in te rms Tension shows as Mike Bast, Bruce Penhall arid Bobby Schwartz line up on the pregrid . of traction, gea ring , tires or st yle. After a short afterno on's practice, Rick Wo ods n oted th at in the two sh arp points of the " D" there were slots less th an I 0 feet wide th at yo u had to enter spo t -o n in order to st ay o ut of trouble. Trackside observers als o noted th at in the: evening's d amp a t mosp he re, traction would be significantl y greater t han during the daytime practice. The len gth o f the tr ack (2 75 yards on the pole) was in itself deceptive. TI,e