Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; .._._._.•. =Western hotline _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . ~ . _ . _ . _ .. . ~ Bast wins t .Long Track sc § Championship, Autrey King By Dennis Greene Gardena, California October 29, 1976 Speedway fans had to wait two years for the Class A bikes to return -to the long half-mile track at Ascot, but the wait was well worth it. Mike Bast, who won .his fourth U.S. title two weeks ago, was unable to hold off American expatriate Scott Autrey. Scott has been riding in Europe for the past two years, allan European long tracks. Needless to say , Scott had no trouble at all winning every race he was in on a two-valve bike against the hotter fo ur-valves. ' He lost the. Scratch Main Event when his rear chain let go, but that was his only loss all night. Mike Bast went on to win that event and yet one more title, the Long Track Champion. • Steve Bast to ~ be TV star By Denn is Greene . Irwindale, Califo rnia Octobe r 3 1 ~ 1976 In 1968 there was only one speedway promoter around.> He .was Dude Criswell. Dude put in a small track at Whiteman Air Park in the San Fernando Valley and what we call speedway today was reborn. Mr. Criswell promoted a race this past weekend at Irwindale, a special team event just for T .V., hopefully to become a weekly T.V. show. . There were problems a plenty with 100 tons of rock dust that w as laid down on the track to provide a new raci ng surface . The riders could not plow th rou gh it and were falling all over the place. This problem was taken care of in the first ten m in u tes, when the promoter had the rock dust bladed off the ra ce track. The small but enthusiastic crowd got to see two Bast dives his four-valver under Bill Cody. 8 Wes Cooley, Rudy Galindo , Mike·Baeder. and Harry Klinzmann punue alreac!yllone David Emde in 250 GP. (Inset ) Mclaughlin and Emde dive into Tu m Nine. . complete -race meets in just one afternoon. They had come to see the first Speedway T .V . Spectacular. The thought of speedway becoming a regular weekly T.V. show brought Steve Bast out of retirement and he led his East team to victory . Steve not on ly beat the West team that w as, incidentally, captained by his very own brother, Mike, but went on to win th e ' Special' Match Race over Dubb Ferrell. The score was East .41 an d West 39 . • McLaughlin barely beats ~nide at $2600 AFM . By John Ulrich ... RIVERSIDE, CAL., OCT.31 David Emde won a rest arted 250 GP face and $235 at Riverside Raceway on Halloween, then came back to fight ' Steve McLaughlin for the lead on every lap of the restarted Open GP race. The . even t was the Am eri can Federat ion of Motorcyclist's Los Angeles Chapter ann ual money' race, and the co ld cash turned normally calm classes in to screaming herds of bezerkers, Crashes, crashes , and more crashes dominated the day, causing extensive delays. The crashing even spread to the non-paying Production classes, spreading broken bikes, bodies, and windscreens over just about every section of the Riverside road course. The crashing started with Wally Karpynec and Jim Vialovos colliding in the fast Riverside esses during 250 GP practice, destroying their machines. It was an omen of what was to co me. In the 250 GP raceitself, AFM 1975 Champion Rudy Galindo shot into the le ad and held it until Turn Seven , where Harry Klinzmann and David Ernde flew past on the outside of the d ownhill le ft -han d turn . A few tu rns later Mike Baeder came up from fo ur th to p ressure Emde, who had take n the lead fr om Klinzmann. Emde, Baeder, Klinzmann and Galindo started pulling away from fifth -place Wes Cooley Jr., in a tight group while yellow flags started popping out all over the course. Dirt tracker Steve Eklund's Yamaha had seized at the .ent ra nce of the banked Turn Nine, highsiding him directly into the '4-inch thick steel boilerplate wall at the top of the banking, which broke his arm. Eklund's machine bounced ba ck into the middle of the track. Carter Fisher then hit th e wall trying to avoid the machine, and Sal Peluso (Husqvarna everybody else on Yamahas) crashed trying to avoid the flying debris. On the re start, Emde grabbed the lead and took off, ch ased by Ga lind o, Baeder, Klinzmann, and Cooley. Baeder took second, then faded be cause of tire problems, eventu ally pitting. KIinzmann passed Galindo for second, and Coole y came up to dice with Galindo. In traffic, Klin zmann snuc k up a bit on Ernd e, who almost crashed wh en his bike 's front wheel washed o u t an d slid down the tr ack full lo ck in Tum Nine, But Emde forced the bike up before completely lo sing it, and won. Galindo would pass Cooley every lap a t the entrance to seven, and ended up third. All of the first four riders used Mack Kambayashi Yarnahas. Klinzmann won 5 I 75; Galindo 5125; Cooley 565. In Open GP, an unidentified rider hit Paul Ritter in the second turn off the start. Ritter in turn hit Dale Reed (who fell and broke a leg) and crashed. Alan Barbie was squeezed by two other riders trying to avoid the mess, and Barbie crashed. Meanwhile , McLaughlin led Emde by a few feet, and the red flags were pulled out again. Emde, on Gene Romero's Don Vesco Yamaha TZ750. led the restart, with , Cool ey (Mack Yamaha) and McLaughlin (Yo ungfHindallf S&L Yamaha) close be hin d. Both Mike Bae der an d Harry Klinzmann quit with clutch' problems. McLaughlin passed Co o ley and Ernde for the lead, but Emde passed right back, on ly to be passed again . Back and fort h the whole race, it came Clown to the Turn 7-7a series, a left-right ess leading on to the straight. Emde just wen t by McLaughlin braking for the left-bander like McLaughlin was cruising. But McLaughlin gassed it up

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