Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ecutive Don Kudalski, Dan Turner, Bruce McDougal and Billy Grossi. Rahier had been slowed in some tight first turn action, come out of it in tenth, then moved up into ninth place. Hannah was charging. Before the first lap was complete, he slipped past Smith into the lead . Marty followed at a two-second in terval while Kudalski faded and Turner took over second place. Grossi ' held fo urth ahead of Suz u ki teammate Danny LaPorte. Rah ier held d own eighth. Un noticed, way back in 15th place was Yoshifumo Sugio. Smith ro de steadily until p as t the ten minut e m ar k , then closed to h arrass Hannah . Bob h eld firm; Marty h eld the pressure on waiting for a slip that didn ' t happen. Billy Grossi hu stled up, into th ird as Rahier, near the 15 m inut e point. claimed control of fourth. Turner clung to fifth p lace ahead of LaPorte an d an up-and-comin g J ir i Churavy, The Team CZ rider had starte d in 11t h, but was pu tting on 'a strong steady rush that wo uld, when it was all said an d d on e, carry hi m to an eighth p lacing in the moto. Seventh at the time,' he would gain one spot after Danny LaPorte snagged his foot be neath a footpcg and retire, then lose two places to the come-from-behind rides of Yoshifumo Sugio and J immy Ellis. Turner, LaPorte and Churavy had a close three-way thing going before LaPorte dropped out. Turner was able to hold Churavy for the remainder of the race ~ _ "The brake cable looped up and put on the brake when the forks works. I couldn't ride with that. It happened in fourth gear, I started swappin' and had to back off and let him pass." Hannah expalined between motos. Then he added, "I might not have been able to catch hi m anyway," When it ended, Smith held a safe advantage. Hannah was likewise secure in second with Billy Grossi hanging in for third. Sugio h ad caught and passed Rahier fo r fourth, an d Jimmy Ellis wr apped up his climb from 13th with a sixth fo r the m o t o. T urner held seventh over Churavy 's eighth. Steve Wise, last week's National wi nner, had recovered from a fo urth lap confrontation with a haybale to take n in th wi th Zdenek Velky ro unding out the top ten. Same story for Smith R o und two. saw Marty Smith once again outpower them all through the first , tum wi th Mickey Kessler leading Hannah, Grossi, LaPorte and Warren Reid. Rahier was a distan t 19th. On the opening lap, Hannah overtook Kessler and immediately . attacked Smith. Bob knew that he not only had to top Marty in the moto, but he also had to beat the previous moto's time to take an overall victory. Unlike the American system of letting the last moto finish act as a tie-breaker, the F1M rules give the nod to the best place in the shortest moto, On lap two, as Hannah kept sticking his fr ont wheel u nd er Smith's rear in an all-out effort to pass, Gaston Rahier ended his afternoon in a crash. The di minutive Belgian baled off and, shaken although not seriously hurt, cal led it q uits. Befo re the second lap was recorded on the sco rekeepers' sheets, Hannah had once again squeezed past Smith to lead the p ar ade. Billy Grossi had by this time establish ed him slef in th ird ahead of Dan ny . LaPorte, Jimmy Ellis, Mic key Ke ssler and Warren Reid. Steve Wise h eld a steady eigh t h th ro ugh th e first few laps. T he top th ree riders p u t on a second mo to show th at had t he Marty Srn i t h j H o n d a fan s; the Bob Han nah /Yam aha fans an d the Billy Grossi/Suzuki fans on their toes and yelling. Tight formation ri ding t hat resembled in doo r short track closen ess, ', yet lasted for a half h our, kept sp ectators running from on e s now fence to another to n ot lose sigh t of the pas s if and when it came. u.s. Grand Prix When Smith saw that Hannah wasn't going to have problems and make the job less difficult for him, he took the initiative and forced up beside Bob in a series of tight "S" turns. Through the series of corners, the pair swapped a wheel length advantage no less than a half dozen times before Hannah slipped under the pressure and missed a shift. He made up for the loss almost im mmediately, attaching the Yamaha" solidly to the Honda's flank, then made the final mistake. As Smith rounded a tight U-tum at the crest of a small h ump on the back section of the Mid-Ohio course , Hannah bum ped into him. The im pact didn't do Marty any harm, but it sto p ped Bob j ust before the crest of the rise . Sli p ping the clut ch an d spinning t he rear wheel, Hannah lost several seconds ge tting over t he hump an d through th e tigh t corner - jus t enough ti me for Sm ith to pull safe ly away. Billy Grossi closed o n' the Yamaha rider and p ursue d him for a few minutes, but Hannah eventually pulled away. With th ree laps re maining, Marty held a seven second m argin over Bob who, in turn, stayed three seconds in front of Billy. Hannah's only hope at this point in the game was for Marty to either break or crash. Neither happened. Following the top three on the last lap, Danny LaPorte made an error that cost him fourth place in the moto, Danny mistook the white flag for the end of the moto checkers and cruised slowly through what he thought was an extra lap. The error dropped him to tenth in the moto. Steve Wise scored fourth in round two which, with his first moto ninth, placed the Texan in fifth overall behind Yoshifumo Sugio's 4-i fourth for the afternoon. Jiri Churavy and teammate Zdenek Velky put the CZ marque in sixth and seventh overall places with 8-6 and 10-5 scores, respectively. Danny Turner, Masaru Ikeda an d Jimmy Ellis completed the top ten ove rall listing. "No , it was some kind of m iracl e !" Ho nda mechanic Dave ArnoW'laughed when as ked if there had been any prob lems with the machinery. The immaculately prepared wor ks Honda, t op line riding ability and a kiss o n die cheek from La dy Luck p ut Marty on top of h is fo urth consecutive m o t o victory m aking h im the o n ly rider to wi n a m o t o in the two-year history of the Mid-Ohio 125cc U.S. Grand Prix. Danny LaPorte (above ) and Bob Hannah (below) a long way from CMC , AMC. CRC . 250cc SUpport A Burgett/Yamaha benef it Team Yamaha's Dick Burgett held off advances fro m Penton's Frank Stacy to win both moto in the Support event. Burgett's dominant I-I victory overshadowed Stacy's strong 2-2 second placing while Carl Zortman took a 4-3 third. • Rick took the first round lead from Brian Merrit on the opening lap and held it for the remainder as Stacy charged hard to overcome a slow start in ninth. Sta cy moved up, taking second p lace away from Maico ri der Scott Walle nberg near the halfway p o in t. Moto two saw Burgett take an immediate lea d, this time wi th Stacy righ t o n his heels and ready to ' race. Frank push ed but Rick pushed harder, re peating their first m o t o 1· 2 finishing order. • Results 12 5ec USGP, 1. Marty Sm ith 1·1 (Hon). 2. Bob H an nah 2~2 (Ya m ). 3 . B illy G ro ssi 3- 3 (Suz) . 4. Yoshlf um o Sug io 4~ 7 (Yam). 5 . Stev e W ise 904 (Han) . 6. Jir l cn uravy 5 ~ (C Z). 7. Z denek v e' ky 105 (CZ). 8. Dan Turner 7- 1 2 ( Yam) . 9 . M asaru Ik ed a 11~ 9 (Su z) . 1 0. Ji m m y Ell i s 6- 16 (C·A). 11 . N ils Nilss on 13- 1 1 (HU s). 1 2. Ga ry D uncan 15~13 (H an). 1 3. G asto n Rah ler 5- 14 (Suz). 1 4 . Joh n Sav ltsk l 16-14 ( Han). 1 5. W arren R eid 2 4- 8 ( Han ). 16~ casey Shore 18-15 (Yam) . 17. D ann y LaPorte 24· 10 (Suz). 1 8. J im M art in 1 7- 17 (Yam). 1 9. M ic ke y Kes sler 12-24 (Kaw). 20 . Br uce McDougal 14-24 (H o n ). 2 5 0cc S UPPa RT: 1. R ick Burge tt I-I (Yam}.. 2. Frank s ta cy 2-2 (Pen). 3. Carl Zo rt man 4- 3 (Yam). 4 . John Bro mberger 5-5 (Mai). 5.SCotl Wallen be r g 3'9 ( Ma l). 6 . De n ny Sw artz 9-4 (Suz ) ~ 7. Cur tis H am mon s 6-7 (Husl. 8. Jam es Jer les 8-6 (Suz). 9. K ell y B o w en 10·8 (Pe n). 10. Bob Og lesb y 11·12 # 7

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