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/126028
Steve Ekl und (74) appears to be crossing against the traffic in this heat race opener. The Hateley -Roberts duel heads over the ju mp, outcome st ill in dc;>ubt. It took several laps to settle it. Whoosh ! Steve Eklund's practice bike bums as Steve scrambles clear. Morehead's bike went up in the Trophy Race also . Hot night. And fo r Lady Diane , on the firs t anniversary of her Expert debut, another year of trying for those f irst Nat ional points. a dic e to the end. Boody , aboar d a Bart Markel pr epared/V ista-Sheen sponsored Harle y , pulled out all the stops on the final lap , but came up short after being partially blocked by a lapped Willard Kelley. So, Joyner to the National, Boody, Caves, Sonny Burres, Terry Poovey and Gene Romero to the Trophy Race. Boody led the ten man "consolation" fiel d into the infield followed by Caves, Burres, Randy Scott and Skiver . The race was redfJagged at the en d of the second lap when Mike Caves and his Roger Reiman Harley parted company coming over the j ump. Resu lt : a fire damaged X R and an amb ulance ride fo r the ban ged up Caves. X-ra ys showed no broken bo nes and n o co n cussion . On the restar t Boody once again got the holeshot but Randy Scott (Tri) took the lead in the in field and held it u ntil the nin th lap . Boody go t back aro und and took off with a twenty yard lead at the end of the ten lap affair. Att en tion was diverted from Boody and Scott by Gen e Romero and his Evel Knievel Special Har ley go ing down on the second lap. Romero was pinned down b y the bike and after track side workers pulled it off him, he crawled off the track with a very sore leg. More fireworks, in the form of fire, were provided by Steve Morehead, whose Yamaha lit up on the eighth lap. Steve was un injured. start. National With the crowd still buzzing in re action to the ex citement of the furious T rop hy Race, a tense lo oking gro up of riders lin ed u p for the big mo ney and National points. As tho ugh to say " y ou ain't seen no th in ' yet " the Na tio nal picked up where th e T ro phy Race left off. John Hateley (Tri) led Roberts an d the rest of th e field o ff th e line from the pole only _ to be greeted by a red flag at the end of the first go-aro u nd , due to a bi zzare incident involving Paul Bostrom and an unidentified pho tographer. Bostrom had stopped off in tum one an d remou n te d qui ckly to begin chasi ng th e field. 'The len sman ran out onto the track just pas t th e jump to t ry for a p hoto o f t he pack go ing away. Enter Bostr om off th e j u mp exi t o ne st u pi d p h oto grap her. race's end. Ken bega n a charg e in hopes of catchin g Ho cking, but a lapped Bob Conway slowe d Roberts for a fraction o f a second before mo ving over, And t hat was th at for th e 1-2-3 positions. Behind the fron t runner action , tremendous performances were turned in by Gary Scott and Randy Cleek, Scott, abo ar d " Carl Patrick prepared a Harley, moved from way back in the pack in to fourth at the finish just inches ahead of Cleek, who along with Scott had come through the field after a slow The rest ar t saw Little John pu ll off a ho leshot again b ut this tim e it was Rick Hocking immediat e ly behind h imgoing in to t he in field with Dave Hansen and Roberts directly behind, Roberts got around Hansen on th e third lap and on t he next go-aro und Hocking worked his TI500 past Hateley to begin an un ch allenged run for the checkered flag, With Hock thumping along in front , Rob erts an d Hatelely began a multi-lap ba t tle fo r ru nnerup honors. Th e p air ha d t h e crowd o n its feet scream ing, as Ro berts fina lly go t by Hateley n ear Retirements were chalked up by St eve Eklund, who unloaded and didn't bother to get b ac k in t he fray (a move which prob ab ly cost hi m twelfth rather than fourteenth) ; Dave Hansen , with an apparen t blown engine; and John Allison, with a similar problem. As t he Dome emptied, so me one casually re marked, " That's eight fo r eight by Californians in Do me TIs." Results NATIONAL TT-25 laps, 1. R ic k Hockin g ( Y am ). 2. K enn y Roberts ( Y am) . 3. John Hatel ey (Tr l ), 4. G ar y Scott ( H -D ) . 5. Randy Cleek ( Y a m ) . 6. Bru ce Han l o n ( Ma l ). 7. Pau l B o st ro m ( H -O). 8. Rob Morr ison (SUi) . 9 . Chu c k Joy ner (TriJ . 10. B tll O liver (T r l ) . 11. Robert Con wa y ( Y am) . 12 . Dave H an sen (Y am). 13. J o hn A llison ( Yam ). 14 . Steve l::klu n d ( Y a m) . Time - 11 , 1 2.85 TROPHV RAC E , 1. Ted Boody ( H -D ). 2 . Ran d y Scott (Tri) . 3 . Sonny B urr es (Trl ) . 4 . Rex Bea u c h amp (H· O). S. RandY Skive r {BSA} . 6. D a n K irkland (Suz). 7. Terry Po ovey {Tr l}. 8. Mark Sm ith (Yam ). 9 . Steve Morehead ( Y am ). 10. Gene Romero (H·O) . 9