Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126068
. " pp . pg.l Over-shoulder look at Roberts' gauges. Good powerfrom six to 12 grand . 'tis said. (Above ) Katayama: steely-eyed in Tum Six, knowing glances inVietory Circle. es heat rac e fou rt h. Also with good position' was Mexican teener Jimmy Morales, hot from a successful European season and riding one of those French-inspired monoshocks that use a single Koni c ar shock on one side of a • truss-strengthened swingarm. Suddenly it's 2:00 p .m . and 38 bikes are running. Of these, 37 actually get off the grid cleanly as Roberts gets the expected holeshot. Nixon leads the second wave a way , Bruce Hammer is left on the grid . his Yam aha blubberin g away slowly. Pat Evans had tucked right behind Roberts goin g in to the Esses with Katayama third and Duhamel b idd,ing for fourth in to turn six. Through turn nine after one lap, it was already Roberts pulling away, then Katayama, Evans, Duhamel, Mike Clark, Ron Pierce, McLaughlin, Romero and th e mo b - Aksland, Floridian John Long, former Riverside reco rd holder Wes Cooley, Jr., Randy Cleek 'an d Gary Nixon sandwiched in there somewhere. Next lap, Mc La ughlin began 'co m in g on with Pierce righ I behind. Clark, Aksland and Romero are in a tight group. Steve Malonee is off at T urn T wo , being checked over fo r possible I hip injury. By lap three, Gary Scott is 24th and moving. By lap four Roberts- Katayama-Evans ' are in formati on , which w ill remain unchanged the rest uf th e r ace. Then a gap , then Me L au gh lin -D u h a m el-Pierc e-Mo ralesA k s l and - R a m e r o - Cl a r k - Cleek-Longo' Re ctenwald. Thai's Bob Rectenwald on a TZ out of Pennsylvania, circulatin g ahead of Kevin St a fford and Gary Nixon. •• toers: Lap five, Roberts has 5.5 seconds un Katayama, Scott is 20th. Ncx I lap, Scott is 18th, and Gene Romero is coas t ing in with a b roken left clip-on to re t ire. Oddly enough, Roberts .had noted in practice that his left clip-on had worked loose from the force required to drag a speeding TZ750 into the left-hand turn one. He and several of the other real fast guys were treating th e short start-finish straight as one gian t S-curve, flirtin g with the turn nine wall, then barely getting over to the righ t side in- time to set up for Turn One. Kat ayama was a bit more leery of that wall, bu t was scratching at an am az ing ang le to still keep Roberts in sight just. McLaughlin. really pushing the Hindall chassis to its limit, was beginnin g to close on Evans when a cran k bearing let go on lap nine. That le t Pierce in to fourth, and he seemed co mfortable. Meanwhile, Scott passed Mike Devlin, and began to d rag Mike along with him as he d isp atch ed Cliff Ca rr, Cauley and Rectenwald in order. Skip A ksland moved in to fifth chased by Mo rales, Cleek, Duhamel, Nixon and Lo ng. Stafford is at a d istance ahead of Dave A lda na (sporting new, almost co nven lio nal lea thers), and Clark. By lap 15. Cleek has p assed Mo rales and Aks land, moving through a haze of lap pees, Scott is 12th. , Whitney Blakeslee has retired his air co oled Kaw afte r scratching mightily. Cleek is st ill mov ing. as is Scott. Sometime between lap s 2 lJ an d 25 , Roberts has his max imum lead, abou t 10 seconds, and begins to b aby his tires. KataYan,'a has every th ing but his lau ndry hanging ou t and com es to wi thin six seconds, wh ich Roberts, with a little help from his friends, main tains, Abou t lap 25, Clee k is finally pushing Pierce in traffic and moves around. Pierce seems unable to do anything about it, Clar k has picked off Long. and Nixon has m oved up within sniffing distance of Duhamel. Scott is coming, and Long closed back up with Clark under Numero Uno's pressure. Two laps from the end, Nixon slingshot Duhamel for eigh th , and unde r the white flag, Long gets a brief wheel under Clark. Clark ,figh ts back, Scott passes Long between turns six and seven, and Clark barely holds the Champ to an 11th place finish. Dave Aldana turned out m issin g. He had run right off turn seven (that tricky left with .t he downhill entrance), scattered ph oto gs and track worker s, went almost to th e concrete wa ll, paralleled it for abou t 150 yards, gasse d it, got sideways, recovered and boogied back onto th e course. He retired the following lap , his engine apparen tly having in haled a ' fat al q uanti ty of trac kside d irt . But Roberts h ~d w on i t h an ds d o wn ; he and Ka tayama-excha nged about the sam e smile and kno wing glance o n the victory stand that they had o n t he grid a seeming instant earlier. They had gone quickly, and both knew it. The claim You'd think it would all be ov er by now. Not so : for as the side ha cks ro lled a u I for their Nati onal, Gary Scott, waiting until the la st moment to avo id a co un terclaim, p lunked down fo ur gra nd and claimed Roberts ', engine. But although Kel Carru th ers unbolted the unit and boxed it up in surprisingly gu od humor, Scott didn't ge t to take it away. Skip Aksland h ad protested the st ar t of Scott 's hea t, claiming Scott had never officially started, therefore had not qualified for the National. (Which means he 'd have no right to put in a claim , under the AMA rules.) -The referee , Chubb Kellam, disallowed the protest, and Skip promptly appealed. It will go to an appeal board for settle men L Meanwhile, the prized power u nit and Scott's ceritifed check must be impounded, o r as AMA Pr o Co mp e tit ion Manager Mel Par khurst pu t it, "I am now the prou d owner of $4 ,000 an d one T Z75 0 engine/transmission." (Anybody need a sponsor for next year? . . Ed.) . Of cou rse, Scott's four points are in lim bo , as well. Nothing like t hrowing t he Ascot odds- makers a cu rve, huh? Wh at a season! • Result s ,E X PE RT F 750 EVENT , O F F ICIAL: C I. ~:~~~. ~~b~~;:azL~lmka~a;la3~va~Jh52 frJ : wi t h con t. $ 2 2 60. 3 . Pat Evans (Yam) $1 430, wi th cont. $1 7 5 5 . 4 . R and Y Clee k (Ya m) $1260 . 5 . Ron Pie rc e (Ka w) $1 09 5 . 6 . S k ip Aksland (Yam ) $ 89 0 . 7. Jimmy Mor ales ( Ya m ) $8 0 0 . 8. Gary Nixon (K aw) $ 7 15.9. Yvon D u ha m el ( Kaw) $665. 10 . Mike Clark e (Yam ) $615. 11. Gary S co tt (Yam) $5 2 5 . 12. John Long (Yam) $51 0. 13. Bob Rect en wald (Yam) $495. 14. B o b Wakefie ld (Yarnl $480. 15. Bruce Hammer (Yam) $425 . 16 . CI 1f Carr (Yam) $410 . 17 . Richard Cham ber ( Y am ) $395. 18 . Doug Libby (Yam ) $375. 19. Jim D unn (Yam) $360 . 20 . Avru m Gudelsky (Ya m) S340.