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Toledo Half Mile National: liill\'lliltii"ill(tfllifrliltltl'!.llill~\lilt"{lllltl'lIIII By Gary Van Voorhis TOLEDO, 011. , SEPT. 18 Jay Springsteen, foll owing Harl eyDavid son fac tory tuner Bill Werner's instruction to " get ou t fro n t and st ay there," did just that, tak ing the lead on the ope ning lap o f the Toledo half mile and never looking back. It was Springer' s seco nd straight A MA G ran d N a t io n a I Championship/Camel Pro Series victory and his third in th e past four events (fifth of t he year) allowing him to take a 12 point margin over . Gary Scott (2 6 1.24 9) to San Jose as the circuit gets down to the final three events and the awarding of Number One . Kenny Roberts' ninth placing drops him 29 points (232) off the pace. Gary Scott took second after being waved into that position by brother Hank just as the p air were about to take the white flag. The generous move by Hank allowed Gary' to keep Springer's gain on him to just four points. "This is just the warm-up ," said Gary later, "things will really start burni n g at San Jose. 1 am n ot giving u p the title." A costly slip off the groove on lap 17 for T.C. Racing's Terry Poovey cost the diminutive 1 15 pound terror second place, dropping him t o fourt h. Harley factory rid er Rex Beaucha mp almost nip ped Poovey at the flag. On the gloo mier side o f things, thieves stole Mike Kidd's van from the parking lot o f the Holiday Inn. The van contained all o f Kidd's bik es, leathers and support e quipment. Preliminaries 6 Toledo's sometime groove, sometime cushion surface was defmitely in groove status when time trials began and the times began to show it. Jay Springsteen's old track reco rd of 29 .703 was lowered by Jay to 29 .548 and it appeared there it would stay. Hank Scott had his Shell Thuet Yamaha engine go sour while clocking, but the run was red flagged because of a crash by another rider. Hank quickly jumped on brother Gary's spare and ahnost knocked off Springer with a run of 29 .565. Greg Sassaman then put them ·bo th in the weeds with a 29.448 clocking. Jim Osborne was fourth with Mike Kidd (on Rex Beauchamp's spare bike wearing Greg Sassaman's extra leathers, a helmet from Garth Brow, gloves fro m Ken ny Roberts, a left boot and ski d shoe fro m Greg Sassa man and Steve Freeman's righ t bo ot ) bumping Beauchamp for fift h. Steve Eklund, riding Ted Boody's spare bike after his ha d dropped a valve in practice, emerged uninjured fro m a spectacu lar crash in time trials, He and m echanic Frank: Nye le ft soo n after for California to get a head start on p rep arin g for San Jose. Steve Droste put his Tex Peel Harley into the lead 0 f the fi st heat with r Poovey, Sassaman, Morehead and Ted a (AboveI Ted Boody (84) wins Semi ticket to the National under pressure from Morehead (opp. PD.). Wot , Jay , no champagne? Boody close behind. Droste's lead evap orated ("It looked like someone had exploded a hand gren ad e in the engine," said tuner Peel) , after two laps with Poovey taking the lead until Sassa man swep t p ast on th back chute in the final lap. Earlier Kidd had displaced Steve Morehead for third and h eld on when Ted Boody came up to challenge in the final tour. Drama began to unfold on the fourth lap of the second heat as a billowing cloud of smoke erupted from leader Jay Springsteen's bike when he backed it into turn one. Exiting turn two, Springer was allover the track fishtailing his way down the chute. Oil from a loose rocker box cover was covering jay's leg, his p ip es and the seat, making it hard for him to stay on the bike in the late laps . It was also spraying behind, keeping Rex Beauchamp and Billy Schaeffer at bay. Despite the problems. Jay managed to run the heat in record time. Billy Eves fo und t hat his new front tire wo uldn't scuff in q uickly enough in the third heat and, after leading for two laps, he slipped off the groove and gave up his lead t o Dave Sehl. Eves slipped to fifth b ehind Han k Scott, Kenny Roberts an d Do ug Sehl, but came fighting back. Roberts also ha d gro ove problems an d fou nd himself fift h on one occasion after being third. Do ug Sehl then took third wit h Eves movin g by three laps from .th e end. Roberts then moved to fourth, but there was no chance of closing on Eves for a transfer. A red flag after a three rider crash on the second lap of the fourth hea t proved to be ju st the break that Gary Scott had b een look in g for. Scott, mired in fifth on th e initial start, blasted int o third o n the r estart behind Rickey Campbell and Jay Ridgeway. Ridgeway crashed three laps into the restart while being pressured by Scott , but was uninjured. Scott moved on Campbell and went under into the lead as the pair charged into tum one. John Johnson took advantage o f Gene Romero's slip off the groove to take third, the final direct transfer to the National. It was winner take all in the Semis as only one rider from each would advance to the National. Ted Boody made sure of his ticket by leading wire to wire despite constant harassment from Steve Morehead. Morehead probed Boody high and low waiting for a slip that never came. Kenny Roberts took the second Semi with ease, but only after electrical/ mag problems struck leader Do ug Seh l at the end o f the last lap. Ran dy Cleek and Ge ne , Romero swapped second with Cleek fmally securing it , an d Jim Osborne to ok third fro m Gene. The first ' Sem i broke the 10 lap track rec ord set by Sprin ger in h is heat; the sec ond Semi . was even faster. Trophy Race Ch uck Palmgren, aboard the Dan Gurney All American Racers Harley, notched his third ("Damn, o ne of these days it's gonna be the National") Trophy Race win of the year in a classic 'disp lay of how to ride the groove when everyone is trying to get past. Palmgren, leading from start to finish , had Steve , ' Mo reh ead , Gene Romero, Paul Bostrom and Randy Cleek hoveri ng like vu ltures on his rear wheel at o ne time or another with all of them there in the op ening lap s. They probed and Chu ck blocked. Cleek moved to third as Morehead ran side by side with Palmgren fo r two laps then tried an inside pass as they entered turn o ne on lap ten, which carried him out of the groove and back to third as Clee k slipped underneath. Chuck just kept rolling to the checkers. Nationa l There was one helluva traffic jam as the National field charged from the starting line for the fast turn and the narrow three-foot wide groove that meant all imp ortant traction . Very clo se to the front of the pack was Greg Sassaman;but when push came to shove Greg was one of those shoved and had his tranny ti cked int o netural in the p rocess. Springer, off the outside pole, was the fast out of turn two with a ' fly ing wedge behind that contained Ricky Cam pb ell, Teddy Poovey, Han k Scott , Rex Beauchamp, Ted Boody, Billy Eves, Gary Scott, Dave SeW, Kenny Roberts, Greg Sassaman, J ohn Johnson, Billy Schaeffer and Mike Kidd. Kidd laste d one more lap befo re th e motor went in the electrics; Sassama n slowed to sort o ut his turn one tangle. Springer immediately began to o pen breathing room, but that was quickly closed by Poovey after he bumped Campbell for second on the second lap. Springer poured on a little mo re gas an d