Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Lane Campbell Photos by Dan Mahon y, Walt Mahony, Bill Dell & Lane Campbell • GARDENA, CAL.. AUG. 7 G ary Scott, on a five year old T riumph , wo n his third Ascot TT National In as m any y ears, leading arch-rival Kenny Roberts (Yam) across the finish line by ab ou t five bike lengths. _ Rookie of the West Steve Eklund (Yam) finished third . b after holdmg the tw o top num ers in the nation at bay for 18 laps; Jay Springsteen rode the first facto~, Harler. m at fourth; and AI:x Jor~ Jorgensen brought an ancient BSA. m fifth afte~ an a st o u n d in g co me-from-behind charge. Culling the field It had been a race with all the m ak in gs of a classic, including p ro lo nged anticipation. There wa s Gary Scott, back with the same Sal Acosta-buil t Triu mph he'd used at Castle Rock, with a modified sw ing arm and relocated footpegs since that race, ready to joust at the factory windmill once more. Kenny Roberts was shouldering a personal and a factory hex - neither he nor Yamaha have ever won a TI here. The Northwesiern TI specialists, led by Chuck Joyner, were out in fo rce. Both of the nation's top Rookie Experts were on hand, and both would figure highly in the night's outcome. The prolonged anticipation was provided by the track crew; an hour's delay in getting into time trials after the water truck left standing pools here and there on the . track. More dragging was needed to create a well-worked, if slightly muddy surface. "I'd rather run on this place muddy than an y other track", said Ted Boody, moments before turning fifth fastest time. And it was Ted Boody who would holeshot polesitter Kenny Roberts (top time, 45.73) in the first heat, trailed by Gene Romero (H·D, with his sponsor Evel Knievel spectating) and Paul Bostrom (wh o just made the grid under two minutes grace as Harley factory tuner Babe DeMay qu ickly bu tto n ed up the primary side of Paul's b ike ). Billy Oliver, on a lou d and extre mely he althy Yamaha TISOO, began to p ressure Bostrom by the secon d lap, taking him on an outside p ass in the right-hand sweeper after the jump. He then set o u t to work on Romero. But the focus was on Boody-Roberts, the Vista-Sheen sponsored rookie giving the former Number One move for move, lap after lap. Roberts would try him on both sides dragging down into the infield, worked past him once in the right-left after the jump, then trailed again as Boody out-drove him leaving the north turn. Both riders thoroughly were themselves out, muscling the bikes, fighting the tendency of their relatively soft-sprung chassis to catch and lose traction on the tacky surface in a series of vicious wobbles. They were holding them straight by main force , as other riders often let 'em wobble; and it was a bit frightening at times. Oliver did a clean laydown in the right-hand sweeper ahead of Gene Romero (wh o m he'd just worked past) late in the race; jumped back on and finis he d eighth. Roberts trailed Boo dy . by two lengths across the finish , then came Romero, Mike Kidd, Bostrom, Corky Keener and Terry Dorsch . Steve Eklund blew away a restarted second heat, passing Rex Beauchamp early and disa ppearing. J o hn Hateley fi ished a bit hot because the race n wasn't stopped a sec on d time after he slid down in the first turn scri m mage. Dave Hansen trailed Beauchamp ho me second-third, Mert Lawwill hung in fourth, and Pat McCaul (Tri) out-powered Bruce Hanlon to the finish after Hanlon, astride a Roberts-framed TISOO, had been giving Pat hell in the infield. ' The third heat was all Scott - both of them, as the brother act led off with Han k up front. Gary reversed the order by mid·raceLas Rick Hockmg, swollen knee and all, moved up to. pressure Hank the rest of the-race on hIS TISOO. Joyner worked up through the pack, dueling with Skip Aksland (Yam ). Friends said they'd not seen Skip ride so aggressively in a long time, and he and Joyner bumped and undercut each other all around the course. Skip lost the exchange o n the white flag lap, sliding out and remounting to finis h Fourth heat had Jorgy Jorgensen on an outside . p ole , having turned fourth fas tes t time , on tha~ scruffy TI-s~bles . BSA . an? still ~ump.ed after his p revious mg ht s ~alf m ile wm. And although Jay Springsteen out dragged everyb?dy an~ Don Dod~e body-blocked h is way: m to second, It was Jorgy who p ro vided the ~a, ~orkmg past Dodge after almo~t I ~ymg It down in .turn one, t~en con~mumg a a:ow~-pleasmg due! with Springsteen, p'tc~mg the BSA s'd;ways. around the outs.'de of the Harley m the infield, then getl!"g blown away down the front straight, lap. after lap . Bump;shuffle through the infield on the white flag lap, Springer h~ld his line and led J orgy across the ~m,sh. followed by Dodg:, John Genn~ (Tn), R~,dy Scott .. (T ,:,) and Tom Wh,t~ (Yam ). And that . ' Said Bart . ~arfly" was worth the pnce of admission, in t he h oo k ; Ro berts ju st ' missed him and went into third. Meanwhile the order settled behind the fron t five to Hocking passed by Beauchamp (who later faded to 11th), then Romero, Gennai, Hansen, Joyner, Hank Scott, Dodge, and Jorgensen-Hanlon together at anchor or near it. After Boody dropped himself to about seventh,Jorgy began to c om e hand-over-hand through the pack on the hardest-working BSA Ascot has seen in years. The lead trio had strung out slightly and Gennai ducked under Beauchamp to try to follow J orgy who had just blown by both. But J orgy had sights on Boody ana passed him wheel-high with super traction out of the right-hander before the jump. Shortly thereafter, Boody's chain parted. In the tight stuff, Gary Scott, who had settled into a kind of rhythm behind Eklund, began to wake up and go to work on the rookie, while Roberts moved up to join the party , still manhandling a semi-cooperative Yamaha. Whatever a first-year Expert must feel with that big Number One looming ove r his sh ou lder, it began to get to Eklund. Barely holding Scott off, he finally smacked a tire in the infield an d bent the brake lever. Lap eighteen, bu mp-shuffled in the big le ft-hand hoo k, Scott goes into the lea d and never looks back. Roberts foll o ws as Eklund adj usts to life with a be nt brake pedal and carries on. As all this unfolded, Jorgy was arguing -fi th-six th with f Hocking, finally winning out after several hard-fought laps. Jay Springsteen was circulating comfortably in fourth with . little hassle from anybody. Bru ce Hanlon had comp leted his own come-from -behind race, not quite as quickly as Jorgy's, to finish ninth on the thumper behind Gennai-Romero. Gary Scott had one word "Fantastic" - for his feelings on the victory stand, as he doused himself with champagne before anybody else could do it. Roberts said, toward the end, he was too tired to hold it wide open, though the former Champ retains a powerful pitching arm, reaching the back row under the press box with packs of Camels. Kenny also retains a mob of fanatical waist-high fans who clustered around long afterward in the p its as Gary Scott, the privateer Champion, shunned the mob and headed for his van to change. It was well after midnigh t a long and eventful evening for everybody; and even the venerable Gardena racetrack seem ed tired. • Results 2S L A P NAT IONAL TT : 1. Gary SCott (Trl ); 2 . K en ny R o b erts ( Y am) ; 3. St ev e Eklund (Ya m); 4. Ja y Sp r in gst een (H - C): 5. A le x Jorgensen C BSAI; 6 . Rick HOCking v am ) ; 7 . Je nn Ge nna l T r l); 8. Gene Ro me ro H·O)i 9 . B ru c e H anl o n (Yam) : 1 0. Ch uck J oyner (Trl) ; 1 1. Rex Beau cham p (H ·C) : 12. D av e Hansen (T rl); 1 3. D on D Od ge (Trl); 14. H an k Sc ott ( Yam), 1 5 . Mike K ldd (H.D ). TI M E : 18 : 2 9.28 E XPE RT TROPH Y RAC E : _ 1. Paul Bost rom (H-O) ; 2 . Bill Olive r (Yam) ; 3. R andy Clee k (Yam) ; 4. Dan McW h orter Y am ) ; 5 . Pat M c Cau l (T r l ) ; 6. Br ad Hurst Trl), 7. T om Wh it e ( Y am ) ; 8. Mort Law wlll ( H-D), 9 , J i m Wri gh t (Yam) , 10 . M ik e M y ers (Nor). ST AN DI NGS : CA M E L P RO PO INT (In cl Ud i n g A sco t TT l 1. Gary SCott ( 16 1) , 2. Kenny Roberts (149); 3. Jay Springsteen 1 3 1 ); 4. Randy Cleek (88) : 5. Ted BoodY Rick Hocking (77); 7. Corky K en ne r (73 • 7 . Steve Eklund (73); 9. Hank SCott (70; 10. Gene Romero (59). l l 821,6. 1 Sem is & trophy race Mike Kidd elected an inside pole for the first Semi, ch an ged his mind moments later and inverted the start. Mark Smith red-lighted the first start as Mert Lawwil trailed the field. Second start and 01' Mert got an unbelievable holeshot ahead of Kidd and Paul Bostrom. But Mike would soon work Mert 's other Harley around into a transfer spot, followed by Bruce Hanlon and Billy Oliver as the two nimble 500 sing les made hash of everybody in the infield. Second semi, Walt Foster (Tri) dropped the h ammer fro m th e outside, le d through the fis hook le ft int o the infield and fell. Shaken and bruised, he walked away from it, saying " I felt like all 13 of them ra n ove r m e . .. each one that hit me moved me a little further to the outside." Mike Myers on a Redline-framed Norton led briefly before being put back by John Gennai, John Allison{Yam) and Chuck Joyner, dicing in a group . Allison fell and remounted. Joyner slipped under Gennai in the right-hander before the jump after a seesaw battle for those last two transfers, Paul Bostrom copped the Sprocket Specialties award in the Expert Trophy Race a fter taking over from Randy Cleek (Yam) . Billy Oliver on that strong thumper took most of the race to work past Cleek in another classic horsepower-vs-handling seesaw, (Abo ve) Rookie Eklund tries a Iinle MX-ilY style on the ju mp . (Belo w ) Jorgy (44) and Hocking (13 ) in the right-hander; 25 Lap Nati onal TT What a front row ! Ted Boody had won the fast heat, and lined up alongside was rival rookie Steve Edklund. In the m idd le , Jay Springsteen, then Scott-Roberts side by side, flanked by Rex Beauchamp. J orgy had the BSA insid e the second row, with Hank Scott, Bur ritto, Dave Hansen, Don Dodge an d Rick Hocking. Semi transfers Joyner, Kidd, Gennai and Hanlon had the anchor. Wish fo r slow motion as th e front row hit tum o ne; Scott-Roberts still side by side , and Steve Eklund slipping unde r both fo r the le ad as Boody and Springer went bumpity-bump to split Nu mbers One and Two. Somehow Boody lost his front number plate. Eklu n d stretched a bit the next two laps. as Roberts went almost to the haybales diarnonding tum one to take Springer. Boody spun into a 360 down 7

• Cover