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/126047
Together again By lane Campbell SAN JOSE, CAL., MA Y 16 "I think I got myself back together now." The speaker is Rex Beauchamp, on the victory stand at the start-finish, putting away all doubts abo ut his mended collarbon es a fter he had shad owed Jay Springsteen for 23 miles and \~on his second straigh t San J ose Mile Na tio nal by ab out o ne bike length. T he win vaulted Rex from th e pointless netherworld into a three way t ie for sixth in Camel Pro Series , alo ngs ide Randy Cleek. Dave Hansen an d Defending Gr and National Champion Gary Scott had scored h is first big bag of pain ts (h e is now th ird-stan ding) , after surviving a ra ce-long duel. (with Al J o rgensen and Corky Keener) for third ; and would, moments later , put a claim on Rex's winning bike in a move to some p arts from shake loo se Harley-Davidson. Jorgensen, in fourth , had given a smashin g d ebut to a new Ron Woods Norton , th e on ly Brit ish -engin ed bike to m ak e th e Nati on al. Otherwise, it had been a nearly all-Harley show (after Ken Roberts' Yamaha went on one cylin der and expired before th e sta rt) enlivened co nsidera bly by th e debut of a new Goodyear dirt track tire in limi te d (first co me , first served) q uan tities be cause of the rubber industry stri kes. Evidently based on the ex pe rimen tal hand-cut road racing slicks fro m las t year, the ne w tires took some ge tting used to by many ride rs, but m ay have been an important fac to r in a safe, almost cras h-fr ee race. In fact. during practice and time trials, it was the "get t ing used to" the new Go odyears th at tended to oversha do w every th ing else . Both J ay Springst een (H-D) an d teammate Corky Keener (H-D) wer e openly skep tical. saying the new fro nt tire felt great but the rear didn't wan t to ho ld . They practi ced an d tim ed with an old Goodye ar rear . new Goodyear front. Gary Scott revers ed th e co mbinat ion ; revea led later he wish ed he'd ha d ti me to fit a new Goodyear fran t for t he National. Gene Romero (H.D) and Dave ' Aldana (H-D) both messed around with other co mbin atio ns , even a Dunlop front, but ca me back to th e n ew tires mounted on cas t alloy wh eels. (T he reps re commended an Goodye ar esp ecially wide rim for the l1'CW tires; so me were abl e to find the right ri m to lace into a wire rear ~heel, o thers opted fo r the mags solel y to get the right wid th. ) As it was tu rning o ut, the new Go odyears were de veloping terrifi c later al ro adholding fro n t an d rear, but were weak , in transmi t ting straight-line drive. Adaptin g to them was beco ming a ma tter of st yle ; and was an ini tial an noyance to riders (like Keener and Springsteen) wh o love to pitch it sideways and hold it in wi th lots of th ro t tle . Uorgy. on the Norton, who ei th er couldn't or didn ' t get th e new tires, was doing just that - barely shutting off for tum o ne and getting full on it nearly all the way ' ro und.] The new tires fo rc ed riders to go easy on th e throttle and motor aro und to tak e ad van ta ge of their tremendous lateral adhesion. The traditional Harley fron t-end push seemed cured forever. and Mike Kidd, for one , was ecstatic about that. Heats Fast qualifier Greg Sassaman (H-D, 38 .87) got beaten at the start by Gary Scott, who led the first heat until Greg got his momentum ' up. The third through fifth laps were quick su cc essions of ov er-and-under pass-repass before Gre g co uld break Gary loose from his draft and pull aw ay. Gene Romero came up to ste al second late in th e heat, and Rick Ho cking got t he last d irect tran sfe r after circulatin\! in a tight gro up wi th Mike Co llins (H-D) and T erry Poovey (H-D). Rex Beau ch amp posted a new IO-Iap re cord (6 :32 .94) to win th e sec on d he at ear n the pol e , while a nd Springste en /K eener argue d sec o nd/ th ird and Hank Scott loo ke d to be secure in fourth. T ha t didn 't reck on with Roberts/palmgren , whose blanket-bingo duel brought them right up on Hank's tail lat e in the ra ce . At one point. tum four railbirds saw Palmgren reach out and tap Kenny on the shoulder. but Roberts didn't ยท rat tl e. Instead , he slingsho t both Palmgren and Scott for fou rth on th e last lap as the three came out of the last tum in a solid clump. So Cal regulars had a field day with the third he at as Tom Berry (H-D. one of th e last to sco re a set o f the estimated 25-30 new Goodyears available ) go t a clear holeshot over fast-closing Jorgy and roo kie Steve (H-D) . Jorgy and Tom Eklund exchanged high -low passes on laps three-four before the Norton pulled clear and Superman Dave Aldana emerged from the middle of nowhere to dog it ou t with Berry. That scrap lasted until Dave m ade a ba ckchute pass stick. then go bbled Jo rgy a co uple laps later. Last tum. ch ecker in sight, Dave sne aked a loo k under his lowside shoulder ; the bike stepped sideways and Jorgy almost ran up his backside, but he saved it . Eklun d pushed Berry bu t co uldn't pass. Mert Lawwill (H-D) finished one sp o t o u t of a direct transfer and could nev er get out of mid-pack in his Semi. Mike Kidd pretty much had a rest ar ted fourth he at to himself. though behind him. Randy Cleek put up a spirited race to gra b second from Eddie Wirth . Semis and Trophy Race , Hank Scott went wire-to-wire in the fir st semi, though his engine seemed to go off its feed th e last two laps and a Palmgren-Poovey-Collins drafting wedge came right up on him. All four exploded fr om th e last tum together and it was Mik e ColIins gettin g th at last tran sfer as Scott m ay have blocked the other two. The last en try to th e National had St eve Droste (H.D) , Skip Akslan d (Yam ). Paul Bostrom (H-D ) and Rob Morrison all go ing for it. Morrison got the tail le ad ing the fran t in a walkaway cras h (th e on ly re al n o te wo rthy ge t-off of the day ) ; Bostrom muscled by Aksland and went alm ost ne ck -and-neck with winner Droste. Chuck Palmgren, wi th some wrenching help by Irv Kan emoto , burnt wide gro ove s in his tr ick Goodyear, went out on the Gurney -Harley , and earned himself a firm liplock on Ms. Camel in the Trophy Final. He barel y pulled it ou t, however, when a three way scrap entering turns three-four (be tween Skip Aksland, Terry Poovey and Terry Dorsch) be came a four way, scrap co ming out. Wild way to se t the stage for th e National. 25-m ile National q Polesitter Beauchamp elected to reverse the start an d go from the ou tside, wi th Mike Kid d alongside hi m . Aldana, Sassaman, Kee ne r, Cleek (Team Happy?), Jorgy and Burritto made up the rest of the third row. Nearly all of the m had been reversing and-or razorcutting their radically worn rear Goodye ars as the effec ts of wheelspin were quite visibl e. (The front ones seemed to get better as they wore.) Gary Scott was going to have to co me from th e se cond row. and Roberts was