Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

! Riverside Natiot'1Cfl t _ C'l ~ ... Q) ...0 o .... u o By Lane Campbell RIVERSID E, CAL., ocr. 2-3 , Kenny Roberts pulled off the first half o .- the hat -trick he needs to f stay In the Camel Pro /Grand NationalChamp ionship hunt, winnin g Riverside's first Mulh olland Challen ge Cup by a comfortable . d J apa~ese pop / SIX secon s over rock racer Takazurni Katayam a, who had a similar cushion on Vesco-tuned Team Dahm~n private er 'Pat Evans. -T he expected Steve Baker threat evaporated when Steve crashed hard in a Ligh tw eigh t Expert qualifying heat on Saturday . Defending Gr and National Ch am p io n Gary Scott came from the ba ck of the pa ck after a co n t r ove r sy-shrouded heat ra ce pe rfo rmance, to finis h 11th for four crucial po in ts (wh ile pointsleader J ay Sp ringsteen sa t in the sta nds and stewed) , the n capped off the wee ken d by claiming Robert s ' engi ne! 6 Ro bert s had set the to n e Sa turday by win ning the 250 race an d rewri ting trac k reco rd in practice to 1:2 7. No one coul d get even close. Sco tt tu rn ed a te n ta tiVe 1: 3 1.8 . Ka tay ama was down to 1: 32 b Su nday m orning. as was Gen e Romc;:ro. Pat Evans had I?oste d a I :31.9, while . Steve B.ake ~ ad mit te d ~n Saturday to JUst ge ttmg m to th e 34 s. Likewise. Kawasaki racer s Yvon Duhamel and Gary Nixon gOI within a tenth of each other: 1:34.9 an d 1:34. 8, respectively . _ The tire war w as in full flower, as Roberts rode most of the we ekend on Dun lops, Katayama used Michelin s, and only a few holdouts were on Goodyears. Both Pat Evans and Coo k Neilson (entered in a Supe rb ike Produ ction with a new profile Goodyear rear) gave Stev e Baker cred it fo r mu ch. of the Du n lop de elopment work whi ch ~as gone .o n v while Goodyear ' has been lied u p WIth the ru b~ er wo rkers' strike. Dun lop has been WIth Evans, Baker and th e rest nea rly every wee kend in Europe wo rking co nstantly on tires, while Goodyear, wi th ju st three bi g races over here. must. according to Eva ns. " Re nt a track, get Roberts out any other time . . . I i ju st costs th em a lot m o re m oney to go developing." Wh.uever, all three com p anies had engineers here with orders to develop a "Riverside tire" for n ext year - as this track has differences in surface porosit y and co mpositi o n co mp ared 10 Laguna . or Da ytona which in turn wei ghs upon of tire co mp ou nd. One ch oice in teresting side ligh t, accordin g to a th at present Goodyear rep . was co mp ou n ds on all brands were breaking down, bu t the problem was a ffec t ing onl y those rid ers wh o turn ed better th an 1:32. Somehow, th at 's o nly a small surprise. At any rate. Roberts turned a 1:28 whil e running and hiding from th e sec on d qualifier heat after p assin g Katayama early on. Ron Pierce. wearing bright green K awasaki leath ers and riding a brigh t' blue privateer Yamah a (what a color co mbo - priv ateers are revo lting . . . ) shadowed Katayama, passing him late in th e heat. Ron Mass literally crashed and burned ou t of Turn Seven in this heat. sending up a black p all of signal-smo ke. Ran d y Cleek 's motor had suc ked some grease in to one carb and seized du ring p ractice; Pop rebui lt it in a ru sh and Ran d y b roke it in by qu alifyin g seve n th. ' All this may have , seeme d anticlim ac t ic to th e first qu alifier heat, th e dram a of whic h was to have repe rcuss io ns lat er. Gen e Rom ero led off the line with S kip Aksland tucked in behind, bu t all we re w ondering " Where th e heck is Scott? " He 'd n ever m ade it to th e grid, Just as th e race got off. his crew wheeled his b ike throu gh th e p itwall ga te, saying th e y 'd not he ard th e ca ll ove r the p addock FA sys tem. They rushe d h im throu gh th e fin al Tech area. and AMA Competition Director Bill Bo yce was later to ru le that he in deed p assed Te ch and was qu alified to enter the Na tiona l. He would st art at the ba ck of the grid. however. be cause he noticed -th e ma chine seem ing to bind o r seize and parked it n ear five after several lap s of the heat. turn Pat Evans. m eanwhile. had worked p ast Duhamel. Mik e Clark, Aksland and Romero to win the firs t he at. Clar k (back afte r being treat ed for co ntus ions from a Saturday cra sh) h ad led briefly. bu t faded to fifth. Second was Duhamel : Romero and Aksland were a scrappy third /fourth . . The grid for th e National wo uld have Roberts o n th e pole. flanked by Evans, then Katay am a and Duhamel. Nixon wo ul d start in the seco nd wave, for on the start. h is Kaw spit back and blew one car b loose fro m its rubber sp igot. A fu ll lap d own, he so me ho w m anaged to regain . marnen tum and circulate w ith the heat's lea de rs o n a decidedly ra t ty- soundin g m achine. T u ne r Irv Kanemo to expressed d ou bts o n the Nati on al grid th at the exercise h ad d on e the eng ine any good. 1t d idn 't so un d too hopefu l. . Steve McLau ghlin wa s ju st ifiab ly proud of his Harry Hindall-framed TZ7 50. beau tifull y crafte d an d plated, with the Hin da ll h allm ark o f sp idery trusswork to stiffen the monoshock swin garm. Steve had scr~ed ju st abou t eve ry th ing on bo th sides in earn ing a •

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