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·Pridm"ore:,-·s urv lves __ __. __• _. . ....1IIII!IIIIIP1lIIIIIIIII!I-~IIIIIII!II~ .....~-~~-~ the "Superbikes" ~ ~ By Lane Campbell MONTEREY. CAL., AUG. I ttrit io n loaded the dice and called most of the shots as Reg Pridmore brought the lone surviving Butler & Smith BMW home first. ahead of Griffith Park graduate Keith Code (Kaw) and Mike Parriott (Kaw). The threat from Loudon winner Mike Baldwin fizzled along with the Moto-Guzzi's ignition, which went sour on the starting line and forced Baldwin 's retirement on lap three. When Cook Neilson (Duc) annihilated the Superbikes in Saturday's heat race. it sent the BMW crews to burning the midnight oil in quest of horsepower at the possible sacrifice of longevity. Gary Fisher had power in plenty Sunday, enough to pass holeshot leader Keith Code by lap three. ' "Fisher's motor started popping after he passed me." Code said. "I knew then it wouldn't last." Whether the motor gave first. or whether it was the impact of a 100-mph two-wheel slide into tum two's outside curbing, followed by a drastic save, Fisher would retire with a split oil tank by lap 16. giving up the lead to Reg Pridmore after the . remaining BMW teamster. Steve Mcl.aughlin, su ff er ed "total body seizure" and crashed in the deceptively tight tum nine. He was u p immediately. bu t hurting with a tweaked hand and knee. Meanwhile. early leader Code had about written his chances off as the BMW team worked around him and Neilson on the Desrno Ducati continued to pressure. Cook got by briefly; " I had to admire him for the way he passed me t here (t um eight)." Code said later. rel a ting how Neilson had slipped under him when a slower rider forced him outside. But the D ucati had been popping out of fourth gear from lap one and was getting progressively worse. Keith was back around within another lap, and Neilson retired the ailing Duck by lap 14. - Mike Parriott continued to circulate his Yoshimura Kawasaki through the shrinking pack, almost without incident, to finish third, as behind him, Dick Fuller. on a Michelin-shod 350 Yamaha was reeling in bigger bikes hand-over-hand, finally passing Jim Haberlin on the Mr. Jags 750 Triumph in the closing laps to gamer his fourth place finish. It had been a small Superbike Production field to begin with; only eight were left running at the finish. You should have heard the "I ought to have entered myoid turkey" wails in the paddock. But it was too late for the second-guessers, Reg Pridmore had ended a long drought. and was feeling right fine . A Off icial Result s SUPERBIKE PRODUCTION RACE: 1. Reg Pridmore (BMW 900). 2. Keith Code (Kaw 1000). 3. Mike Parriott (Kaw 1000). 4. Dick Fuller (Yam 350)4 James Haverlin (Tri 750). 6. Will Hardin (Kaw 1000). 7. Tip McPartland (Kaw 750). 8. Dick Kilgroe iKaw 10001. WfNNER"S TIME: (20 laps-38 mnesj 25m 48.497s. - ~- ~ • • 11II ~ t ~ r--- en ~ ~ 0 ~ ..... '" ::l eo ::l < ~ The su rvivor . Reg Pridmore (163) early in the race. s. Got t o be t he opening lap. because afterwards no one saw Pearson. WINNER'S SPEED, 88.344 mph . Bikes; bods and Pearson fly By Lane Campbell MONTEREY . CAL. .JULY 31-AUG. I co tt Pearson, of San Jose, a two-year- Junior in dirt track, has wasted no time vaulting through the Novice class in road racing. having totally dominated a crash-strewn red-flagged Novice ' Final after having served notice in his Saturday heat race. The polesitter in the Final, Harry Klinzmann, finished third behind featherweight Randy Mamola as Harry fought shifting difficulties throughout the race. Pearson holeshot the two-wave start; Mamola out-dragged him up the hill (Randy must weigh 90 pounds wet); and Klinzmann hung tight through the first lap in a seven-rider lead pack that also included dirt track rookie Expert Steve Eklund. Eklund lay second by lap two. then started to drop back as both Klinzmann and Mamola worked by. By lap five. Pearson led by ten seconds; then came Harry. Randy. Steve. David Nees, then a gap, then Jim Woolsey, a bigger gap. then the rest. led by Dave Oarouttev jirn Vialovos, Joe Ronay, Quentin Hogan ; Dane Stewart, Greg McKee and a host of extras. The race was red-flagged next lap when a crash on tum four left the track doctor unable to reach the downed rider through the constant, strung-out racing traffic. Great news for the back-markers; like Wally Karpynec who had come from the second wave and Tom Berry who had passed half the field coming from dead last. With all lined up single-file along the right-hand wall. the restart turned into near-chaos as everybody who could find a hole immediately fanned out to the left. Going into tum two, no stable traffic pattern had yet emerged from the weaving. joggling mob. What did emerge were two more sliding bikes and a burst of hay bales outside tum two as miraculously Dane Stewart and Brad Stankey were the only victims of the melee. Eklund had taken one warmup lap before the restart and packed it in; that left Pearson again dearing away from Klinzmann, Marnola, Woolsey. Nees, McKee. Garoutte. Karpynec (surprise!) and the mob. A short time later. Woolsey threw his Yamaha into the tum eight haybales after pressing Klinzmann. Harry had his Yamaha shifter hang up in third gear and Mamola got by. Harry "kept kickin' it and kickin' it." got it to free up long enough to repass. then it stuck in third again, Randy took second for keeps, again Harry held on to third position in one gear. Dave Garoutte picked up a couple of positions after the halfway point to finish fourth just ahead of Dave Nees, while Karpynec tried to follow him through traffic. swapping places with Mike Terry (running with no bubble) and Greg McKee. Kent Rockwell and Colorado's Alton Sharp ro unded out the top ten. as Sharp survived a side-by-side multi-lap duel with Joe Ronay that ended with Ronay on the ground somewhere behind the hill . Ronay got up and running aga in; there were other crashes, but at presstime it was still u nclear as to who was invo lved or injured. . ' . Serene on top of it all was Scott Pearson, who had won his second straight Novice road race National by an uncatchable margin. He is now the po ints-leading Novice roadraeer of 1976, but since he had earned an automatic advancement to 1977 Expert with his Loudon win, this will be a distinction of short duration for a young man on a rising trajectory. S Results 1. Scott Pearson (Vam ). 2. RandY Mamola (Yam) . 3. Harry Ktinzmann (Yam). 4 . Dave Garoutte (Yam). 5. David Nees (Vam). 6. Wally Karpynec (Yam). 7. Mike Terry (Yam). 8. Greg McKee (Yam). 9. Kent Rockwell (Vam). 10. Alton Sharp (Vam) . 11. Steve Keeney (Yam). 12. Steve Lang (Yam). 9