Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Ventura, Aug. 10 By Dennis Grene Bobby Schwartz o f the Ventu ra Sharks celeb ra te d his 20th birthday Tuesd ay night b y turning in a clean sweep in th e first even t again st the second place L.A. Sprockets. The glo ry was sh ort-lived, th ou gh, as te am captain "like Bast and Gene Woods tied up the score in the third event with the first of five sweeps for th e Sprockets. The final ra ce did go the Sharks' way , but they still lost by six points. This win by the Sprockets put them just four race meets out of fir st place , behind the Bakersfield Bandits. First Division honors went ' to the President of the SRA:, Steve Schlanser, who put his start from the ten yard line to go od us e, holding off the promoter's son , Brad O xley for five laps to score hi s first bi g m o ne y win at Ventura. This is Speedway? As combined car/bike speedway made its debut on an eighth·mile track at Ascot, the cars (below) found it easier to get sideways than the bikes (above). No, they didn't try to run 'em at the same time. Ascot, Aug. 11 By Dennis Greene Fo r th e fir st t im e in several yea rs, Cla ss A Sp eedway returned to Asc o t , sharing the bill wit h the three-quarter midgets. Chris Agajanian produced the show. An all-new crash wall was pu t in to make a sm al le r track, abou t one-e ighth mile. T he Voi ce o f Speedway, Larry Huffman, announced both shows for _ those car people who had never been exposed to him, it was a three-ring :; circus. kidding and joking with them all night long. The Speedway sho w itself left a lot to be d esired. The cars had burned off all the loose dirt b y the time the fir st bikes cam e out and they were having a hard t im e getting it sideways. Dan Waller did the best j ob of figuring out what to do with the hard-as-asphalt track, winning the Hand ica p Main. San Bernardino, Aug. 11 By Rex Reese The San Bernardino Sizzlers rebounded from their previous week's defeat by L.A. to shoot down the low flying Orange County Eagles. Larry Shaw and Ron Preston headed off Alan Christian with a Sizzler sandwich after Billy Gray wound up infield in the fir st of many problems for "Bud". The Shaw/Preston win put Berdoo ahead 4-2, giving the team a foundation to build on in which they kept go in g. The high point came halfway as Larry and Ron swept Rick Woods and form er Siz zler Billy Meister, giving the Sizzlers 27 points. In th e final, Pre ston co llec ted his fo u r th heat victory, with Dennis Sigalos second to sweep the Eag les off the track 49·29. The evening e nd ed spectacularly as th e team rivalries carried on into the co nso lat ion and main events. Billy Cody and Jim Fishback raced a ro u nd everybody else in the co nso lat ion , with "The Animal" trying to get even for . two te am wins scored against him by Cody. Nevertheless, "Wild Bill" did it again to Jim with a win. In the Main, Ron Rose atoned for his dismal performance with the Eagles by sliding his way to the show positions in his heat and the Semi. Rose led the Main all the • way, followed by Ron Preston, whom everybody was expecting to pull off a last lap banzai like he had done the week previously. But it didn't happen . though, as Rose edged out Preston for the win . . . and the roses. Irwindale, Aug : 12 By Rex Reese The L.A. Sprockets hosted the Bakersfield Bandits in what was touted as sort of a "Grudge " match after Bakersfield's much protested win over L.A. a couple of weeks ago . The Sprockets had adjusted their roster with the addition of Wayne Lewis and the su bseq uen t deletion of Steve ' Fortune. Even though Lewis was less than effective, this didn't hold back L.A. as they routed the Bandits from the word "go ". Bruce Penhall , who was teamed with Wayne, racked up a perfect score , while th e p air of Mike Bast/Gene Woods pulled off three sweeps for the Sprock ets. 11,e only time that L. A. falte red was in the match of St eve Columbo /Rob Mo rri son again st Dub Fe rrell/ Da n Toom ey in wh ich Du b and Dan ro de aw ay wit h th e on ly sweep for th e Bandits. S till , Bakersfield wen t down ag ainst L.A. 51-2 7. 11,e evening c on tin ued normall y enough with th e exp ected and even th e u nexp ec ted as Tumbleweed Walton go t a fifth in a Second Division heat. But an o m e n of what was to come oc curred in the Handicap Consolation when Robin Hood c ras hed into tum four on lap three with his own bike hitting him in the back, which resulted in a trip to the hospital. Bill Meister won the event" Steve Nutter second, and Jeff Sexton was third. After a 15 minute delay for the ambulance to remove Robin from the track, the Handicap Main was lined up and smoked off the line. With Kevin MacDonald and Wayne Lewis out front on the inside, the race never made it past the second turn. Guy Waterson was abou t third on the outside riding the berm , when he apparently began to 'go low, grabbed too much traction, wheelied and crashed. Brian Short and Dan Toomey riding directly behind Waterson immediately impacted in to Guy and the wall, with Short's bike catap ult in g over the side and barely missing some spectators. Mike Bast , who was riding to the rear of the pack and the middle of the turn, barely missed the carnage himself. While Waterson was relatively unhurt, Short sustained a compound fractured leg and Toomey su ff ere d a concussion. Confusion reigned among the crowd, tr ac k officials said that "It was just one o f those things," an d many r iders were up set. As Sonny Nutter put it, "They don 't bother, to fix an y thing until somebody gets f--d u p ." Costa Mesa, Aug. 13 By Dennis Greene The Orange County Eagles dropped their fifth ' straight m at ch Friday night. Of cou rse it was Friday th e 13 th, or maybe like the Angels, too much good weather in Orange County leads to too much fun and not enough hard wo rk. Eagles' Captain Rick Woods turned in high sco re of the n ight with 12 points. He got some support from Bill Cody with ten and eight more points by Alan Christian, but in all, the team only earned 32 points. . The Ventura Sharks rode well as a team with Danny Becker getting back in shape after a long comeback from a broken foot. Danny, along with his teammate , Randy Marsh, turned 'in ' two clean sweeps, but - again it was 20·year-old · Bobby Schwartz leading them to victory with 11 points. His team totaled 46 points, beating the Eagles by 14. Ex-Eagle, Mark Cherf, pulled away from team co m p eti tio n early in the year and has just been riding the Handicap half of the show, with several victories to his credit. He added one more Friday night, winning the Handicap Main over Dave siins and Danny Becker. Bakersfield . Aug. 14 By Dennis Greene The Number One team in the National Speedway League lost one of its highest scoring riders Thursday night at Irwindale. Brian " Thu m per " Short got a compound fracture of the right leg and will be out for the rest of the year. He and his teammate, Jeff Sexton, o th e rwise known as the Dynamic Duo, have helped keep the Bandits out in fron t all season. The Irwindale cra sh sent a bike over t he crash waIl as fans dove for cover. No one was hit b y the flying bike, but ex-Speedway rider Chuck Berry and his wife, Judy, were hospitaliz ed with cuts and bruises they got after diving under the grandstands in great haste. By Saturday night the Bandits team pulled itself together enough to take on the San Bernardino Sizzlers. Tom Morely was drafted to fill in for Toomey and Jim Gresham moved from the reserve spot to teammate of his cap t ain , Jeff Se xton. , A see-saw battle raged all night with nine of the 13 events ending in a split score. The Sizzlers did get one sweep, but so did Jeff and Jim. The big difference came from the .Ban di ts' Dubb Ferrell. Dubb got a clean sweep, but, most, important, he won every event he was in all night, burning in a perfect score of 15 points, then going on to win the Handicap Main as well. Frank Buttke won his first ever Division Two Handicap Main at Bakersfield. Results in Results Se ction. 25

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