Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

>By Lane Campbell '€AST LE ROCK , WA,JULY 17 "Chuckie did it!" it was Mom J oyn er and the crowd of closeknit hometown well-wishers ' epeating it over and over again as uck J oyner (Tri ) had actua lly , or the third time sinc e 1973, on the Castle Rock TT National, d done it in masterful style. In an amazing display o f tenacity, Ted Boody (H-D) had come from the outside of the second row to finish second ahead of Ra ndy Skiver and Sonny Burres, both orthwestern TT specialists of long standing. Gary Scott picked up a few m ore points for his Camel Pro Series lead by finishing seventh while Jay prin gsteen was eleventh and Ken Roberts crashed Rick Hocking had stuffed his water/puffy swollen right knee in to a leg brace and ,boo ted a Yam ah a TT500 into fifth. T his is Triumph co un try aro und Castle Rock, and there were abunch of th em - including one for Gary Scott which Sal Acosta and Car l Patr ic k had p ie c e d togeth er f ro m scra tch (Trackmaster frame, Ceriani front /Mulholland rear suspension, ARD mag, Barnes wheels) the week before. It had hardly been turned over before the race and froze a rocker arm during practice. Acos ta frantically freed it up while Gary borrowed a spare fro m Charlie Brown for more practice. John Hateley was back on a Triumph ("That Harley had lots of horsepower, but it sure didn' t steer") ; Gennai had th e old Jack Hately machine; and of course all the lo cal shoes - Joyner, Burres, Brown, Don Dodge, Randy cott, Brad Hurst, Ed Hermann, ' to name a few - had their trusty TT outfits with the pizza-pie re ar sprockets set up to start in second (or third, i f the motor was really str ong) and get into top as quickly as possible. Kenn y Roberts, a week ea rlier , had said of the Northwesterners, "They run these Triumphs tha t get ma ybe 60 horsepower; they get nothing but traction on this slippery little TT track; .t hey get o~! th e line good, and you can ' t pass them. , He was rig ht about the five -eighths mile (barely) kidney-shaped flat TT track beingslippery, especially du ri ng the prolonged twilight of t he Northern lat itudes that lit practice and qualifying. This is a place where t he top-ranked .National numbers co me to just try and avoid being bumped off the program in the West Co ast's last o ld- fa sh ion ed , down-home club-promoted Nat ional. On the quieter, safer side of the crash wall, the riders were getting a stern le c t ure from Chubb Kell am an d Boun cing Bob Malley a b o u t professionalism in practice and on the starting line. The message only partly got through. Practice and time trials Bill Werner had set up one of Jay Springsteen's Harleys with a pair of s to ck Sportster mufflers which registered abo ut t he quietest in the sound test - 10 2 db at 20 inches. But Jay took the other one with t he two-into-one glass packed m egga (107 .d b ] to quali fy and race. He wound up tie d for th ir teen th ti me wi th Roberts at 25.10. The locals who knew the trac k timed ea rly w hile it was sti ll eushiony and fast (the first do zen ri ders would quickly wear in a hard, dry, slick narrow groove with the sun still up). One of the smart ones was Diane Cox who brought ch eer s with tenth fastest at 24.97 to wind up third o n the fron t row of the second heat. Randy Skiver (BSA) took top time a t 24.44 over Don Dodge, Ike Reed, . Randy Scott and Ed Herrmann, all Triumph-mounted Rick Ho cking, in turning a 25.61, had go tten the Thumper in to a savage tank-slapper exi ting th e turn two hook, gassed it and yanked it straight into a wheelie before laying it hard into the dog-leg right. That had to have hurt. Gary Scott had come out late on his hastily. repaired Triumph to time 25 .32 on the same lap with John Gennai, who got bumped well off the 48-rider program. Randy Scism from Renton, \Va. and Terry Dorsch were alternates who m ade it into he ats ; Corky Keener was an alternate who did not. Heats & Sem is Skiver, o n his Trackrnaster-framed BSA, came off a n inside pole to lead th e first hea t as Roberts h ung back in the first turn, Ic t t ing Billy Oliver, Ed Herrmann, Rex Beau champ an d Brad Hurst by into second through fift h. Second lap , Hurst had been shunted behind Roberts and Mark Smith as every bo dy frei ght. trained on a narrow groove. Then Roberts worked around Beauchamp on a long three-tum pass as Herrmann threatened to blo ck them both. Two laps later, Herrman n got a • little wide in the dog-leg right-hander, and Kenn y slip pe d by inside, holding a good lin e. Smith got by Beauchamp and finally wrested fourth from Herrmann. Rex Beauch amp stopped everybody ' s heart by crashing o n the front straight, ninth l ap while running fifth. Fortunately, Rex was up and OK, that mu ch -broken collarbone apparently still intact. Roberts had calmly collected a third-place transfer behind Skiver and Oliver. . Second heat, lots of rollers keeping a clean start from happening. Paul Bostrom 's Harley acted like it was load ing up from the waiting. Finally -t hey ' re off and Diane Cox is second behind Don Dodge, p ressed and passed in the dogleg by Sonny Burres. Her direct shot at the National slipped aw ay as Springer and Boody tried her on both sides, fi nally getting by, eac h in tu rn, A tracksider remar ked, "She tu rns t hat ' ha ndle, but it just don 't go as fast as the othe rs." Fi nis hi ng o rde r, Dodge-Burres-Sp ringer to the National; Boody -Cox- Bos tro m-Bernie Larson-Gene Ro rnero-Al Jorgensen to a Semi. Jorgy had a BSA this trip, as the Ron \\' oo ds .N or t on was no set-up for Castle Rock ; an d Burritto was laboring with the Knievel- Harley fitted with a do uble front disc brake. Third heat was even harder to get started cleanly an d took a casualty in the p r o c e s s. First attempt wa s redflagged an d Dick Wascher (Tri, Seattle) sent back t o the third row. Second try, Gary Scott got an excellent s tart, passing polesitter Ike Reed enterin g the dogleg wi th a scrambling mob behind. Somehow Wascher, miraculously running third. slid down and Was nailed by John Hartman, who endoed o ver Dick's bike and/or bod (maybe both ). Wascher was tr ansported with fears o f a broken upper leg which ultimately turned ou t to be just 'deep ly cut and bruised from somebody 's Io otpeg, bo ot, whatever in the melee. T hird try, and t he rollers caugh t Scott flat-footed; but the officials let 'em race. Charlie Brown led with Greg Sassaman and Alan Mundt ';n tow; the Champ was badly bottled up in traffi c. Gary passed three people in on e swoop when they got into the marbles, came out into the straight gassin' with sights set on Sassaman. Mundt ducked under Greg, then cam e Scott , a s brother Hank was doing a masterful job of keeping Charlie Brown in sight. Gary got by Mundt and went to work on Ike Reed with time growing short. Last lap, ent ering the final tur n that in creasing-radius left, Gary got a wheel under Reed and forced his way by in a hard-wo r king p ower d rive low in the groove, Mike Kid d and Skip' Aksland had been going at it, behind Mundt but ahead of alternates Scism and Dorsch . Fourth heat started out wild, as Randy Scott dropped the hammer, Brad' Hurst came by outside, Randy forced his way bac k ins ide the turn two hook, and Chuck Joyner came up to play in the back section. By second lap , Scott·Joyner were having at it. Chuck got by o utside on th e dogleg, ca ugh t th e edge o f the next left-hander, and Sc ott led again. Hurst was never far away, even th ough he lost his front number pl ate in some turn o ne scrimmage . Then came Steve Eklund, as Rick Hocking and John Hately went b y Dusty Coppage on either side to fall into fifth an d sixth. Then real confusion as Randy Scott suddenly dropped o u t coming onto the front straight, Eklund zipped into second followed by Ho cking as Hurst was blocked, and Jo yner cleared away from the . confusion. Hateley fin ish ed fifth ahead of AI Brackenbury and Du st y Coppage. Fir st Semi, Mark Smith holeshot Boody-Herrmann as Diane Cox ra n as high as fourth in the early traffic but then slipped back to hold Paul Bostrom - again, Herrmann took Smith on th e o utside, but couldn't hold Boody, w ho wasn't about to be b umped this week. Herrm an n kept rushing Boody in turn on e, even slingshot by on the ' o utside o ne time, bu t Ted just held the inside and ca me right back where th e turn tightens into a really vicious little hook. . Th e final transfer went to Ike Re ed by a com fo rt able margin ahead o f Mundt, whose Triumph insiste d on blowing great clouds of oil on shutoff, and Sk ip Aksland wh o styled beautifully, but was still third Jun ior Invitational and Expert Trophy Race Scott Pearson, a fa m o us roller in his own right, got ca ugh t and sent ba ck , b u t he had plenty of fellow Juniors for company. When they did get settled down, T ed Davidson (Yam) holeshot, but Ricky Wat ers (Tri) and Rick y Graham (Yam) both rode by in the early traffic, as Davidson briefly slipped to about fifth. Teddy high-lined around two people in turn one to go after Bob Core (Ya m) of Longview, Wa. In quick suc cession, he passed Go re outside in the dogleg and Graham inside in the sweeper. Mickey Fay (Yam) and Larry Legarra (Tri) passed Gore, and then Graham came off the track outside of turn two and spent much time getting b a c k on. Davidson, lo o kin g very contro lled, took over from Waters, an d there wasn't m uc h that Ric ky co uld to about i t. They f inis hed Dav i d so n -Wa t e r s- Fay-Legarra, the n Frank Wo rd· Gar y Davis-Mike Su lliva n all in a body, as Dean Sykes, Scott Pearson, and at ternate Lars Trulson trucked in beh ind In the Trophy Race, all th e Ex per ts stayed in a t igh t bunch during the first half, with Do n Smith barely holding Ed Herrmann ahead of Alan Mundt, who almost ate the wall once, Terry Do rsc h and Mar k Smith. Jorgy was in there, as Diane Cox got ca ught Oat fo o te d at the start and had to content herself with holding off Mike Kidd in the late laps. Herrmann made an outside pass stick as 'Don Smith tried ' an d tried to make a co meback. Mark Sm ith held a line to finish ahead of Jorgy, Brackenbury and Skip Aksland as Mundt's bike finally gave up and Terry Dorsch somehow wound up guarding th e rear. 25·lap National TT Polesitter Randy Skiver and Don Dodge beside h im were eyes-downcast and though tfuI on the line. Alongside, inside to outside, were Charlie Brown (wired) , Chuck Joyner (calm ), Billy Oliver, Sonny Burres (looking for his helmet), and Hank Scott. Second row was Steve Eklund, Kenny Roberts (trying to limber up), Springer, Gary Scott, Ike Reed and Ted Boody on the war-weary Vista Sheen Harley. Would yo u believe a clean start first try? Randy Skiver took the point with Brown- Burres righ t up to him. Seemed the whole front row wa s ahead of Joyner, but he quickly settled into fourth ahead of Don Dodge and Ted Boody. Charlie Brown went early into the lead fo llowed by Burres-Skiver, .T'h r o u gh the backfield it was B r 0 wn- Burre s - S kiver·J oyner - Dod ge- Boo d y' 0 l iv er-Hocking (thump!). Joyner got around Randy Skiver, then went side- by- side into turn o n e with Sonny Burres. Chuck made the passing st ick, ducked under Charlie Brown in turn two,~almost caught the tr ack-edge, then just cleared away from everybody. Ken Roberts went down in the turn four entry-chute, ad m itting later that he just plain lost the front end. Skiv er soon forced past Brown, while Boody and Burres went bump-shuffle through the s w e e p er a n d ont o the straigh t where Harley horsepower m ade it stick. Brown slowed down; Boody went ar ound h im ou tside turn one, and Burres wen t inside h im sp li t seconds later. And h er e came Hocking l By abou t lap seven , it was Joyn er well clear, Skiv er looking goo d, Bo ody picking up abo u t a fo ot a lap, Burres, Hocking, Billy Oliv er, Gary Sc o t t, Brown, Dodge, Eklund, Hank Sco t t, Springsteen and Ike Reed j us t limping. Th ings were set tl ing' down. Ev e ry bo dy had se t t'le d into follo w-th e-Ieader knots - everybody but Ted Boody . St ayi ng Iow an th e hardpa cked groove, working both ends of his Harley with savage te nacity, h e watched Skiver push t he groove-edge a little farther o u t each time through the sweeper. Then, with most of the ra ce gone, he slipped a wheel under , "kinda two-wheeled it a bit" an d got by in a long, slow hard-working pass. Gary Scott, cir culating car efully, ca me righ t up on Billy Oliver in a last-lap bid, but found no room. Sonny Burres tried a last minute rush on Randy Skiver at the checkers, bu t also ra n ou t of room and race, as the res t had circulated with little change. It was a happy mob that trooped to th e rickety victory pl atform. Randy Skiver lifted Chuck sh oulder hi gh and alm os t managed to dr op him through the sagging plywood floor. They make righteously fizzy champagne in Castle Rock, or else Chuck Joyner, a very happy Chuck Joyner, has had lots of practice opening up National victor's ch ampagne, for the cro wd of hometown well-wishers and scr ambling press has seld om been hosed as thoroughly, as effectively, or as long as they were this ni ght. And there was even some left to drink, as the no rmally teetotalling older folks nudged and winked. • Results EXPE RT TROPHV R A CE , 1. E d H e rrman n (Tr l) ; 2 . Do n S m ith {Tr ll ' 3M ar k Sml tn (Tri ); 4. A lex Jorgen sen ( B SA i s. A l B rackenbu r y 6. Ski p A k stand ( Vam ) : 7. D iane Co x (Trl , 8. MII

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