Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• NORTHERN DATELINE • put a lot of new parts into it , then rea lized th e pr oblem was the drag ca rb it had. Hood insta lled his Del Orto pumper. After that it ran very well but he arrived at the Salt Palace, not liking tight tracks anyway, with a machine he'd scarcely ridden . (Jerry Fa irchild's original Speedway engines, which he lost track of when he changed businesses, were converted from Harleys.) (Above) Dubb Ferrell on Fairchild vs . Sonny Nutter on Eso/Jawa in spirited match. race. (Below) Donny Faulkner rode his best to date in the Salt Palace. Indoor Speedway returns to the Salt Palace By Dorde Woodruff SALT LAKE CITY. UT.• NOV . 12.13 T erry Nish again presented a fine Speedway meeting in the Salt Palace, Eight of the riders had run or been reserves in the I I· M Na tional a month ago , incl ud ing Mike Ba st , Bruce Penhall , Bobb y Schwartz and Alan Christian. It was also a gathering of Speedway peopl e other than riders. Costa Mesa impresario Harry Oxley came with his son Brad. Jerry Fairchild , who built Speedway engines before either JAP or J a wa did , ca me with Dubb Ferrell , wh o ri des Fa irchild bikes. Alan Lockheed , who kn ew J er ry from his fa the r's ai rcraft company and who br ought Sp eedway bik es to Utah , came from Denver . Lockheed was pla nning to be the tuner for the local Speedwa y cooperative team , before he was offered a j ob in Denver too good to refuse. Ross Eskelson, who says he rod e Spee dwa y yea rs ag o in California and Eng la nd , came from Logan , Uta h. Four you ng riders ha d bee n train ing all fall on the salt flats west of the city, on Lockheed 's and local rider Tommy Dickerson's bikes. T hree , Tommy's broth er Scott, Danny Maxw ell and Wes Brunner are ra cers of other persuasions. Mike Nish, son of promoter Terry Nish , is already at 16 a race car driver like his father . In that seem ingl y inevitable tie -up be tween horses and Speedway, the me et ing followed a horse show so dirt hauling costs could be sha red. Mike Bast held school for th e you ng novices' on Friday afternoon . Spunky jo ckey-sized W es Brunner who weighs onl y 105 hurt his kne e a t the school, which was to bother him throughout th e meet. Ther e were a number of machines with four valve conversions, or th e DOHC models from Australia. Robin Hood brought th e handsome Pork Chop or Halfahog bike m ade from half a Harley Sportster engine. Hood onl y had th e bike three days for pract ice . It was running poorly so they The tra ck d eveloped a hole on each end providing some wild action as th e bik es bounced through them . Brad Oxlev hit t he wall so ha rd on tum fou r in a Division II Scratch Heat tha t th e nea rb y crowd got ready to run for thei r lives. The Salt Pa lace track is about as long as Costa Mesa but th e turns , as it is set up following the hors e events , are tigh ter. Two riders got invalid ed o u t o n Friday , Dennis Sigalos had trouble with his eye again , We won't m ention the source of Bruce Penhall 's discomfort , but rumor was it didn 't slow him down with the ladies. Randy Marsh , who was riding well , lost ou t in th e second Handicap Semi when the pit crew unbeknownst to him turned offhis fuel after a crash with .Jim Fishback. Randy fell behind while trying to tum on the fuel and never caught up. Mat ch races were crowd pleasers. Marsh was well matched with Bobby Schwartz, they traded places , as Randy hung on the pole in the last tum to win. Ma rk Cherry was winning over Steve Nutter but fell. Dubb Ferr ell streaked on the straight to beat Bast . Bast got even in the Scratch Semi, beating Ferrell and Cherry goi ng away. Sprockets teammates Rob Morrison and Ste ve Columbo battled for the other Scratch Semi , the one in which Penhall fell and was inj ured . Barclay Trehal , in his last meeting before ret iring, ran a close third , Morrison tak ing it in the final tum. _ Robin Hood was sitting in the stands enjoying the show so much he almost missed the Division II Scratch Cons ul, which would have been a pity because he won . threatened only by Steve Schlanser who slid in to the wall just before the flag. That fourth tum wall continued to tak e a beating. Ron Rose caroomed spectacula rly off it in the following Division II Scratch Main, staying on his wheels to finish , behind Chris Haines and Rob Morrison. The Handicap Main found Bast winning over Ferrell at the end as Ferrell hit the east end hole in the track. Bast hit th e same bad news wall , finish ing with a hu n leg , He was carried off but was on his feet again for the Scratch Main. The Scratch Cons was close , won by the crowdpleasing whee lie freak Gene Woods over Cherry and TrehaI. Bast was disqualified in the Scratch Main for breaking the tape. Ferrell went down on tum three. Columbo ' never seriously threatened fellow Sprocket Morrison , who won the last of the evening's several Sprocket vs. Sprocket dices . Saturday night , with the track drier, . brought some really top Speedway action according to Oxley , who should know , espec ially in the second ha lf after the pole was moved in a bit for a fresh surface, Ferrell won over N utter in a close d ue l to start the match races. Fis h bac k was 'e x t r a va g e n t with wheelies , winning by a len gt h over Trehal. Bast , after his DSQ the night before, bent the tape at the start but was careful not to break it finishing just a foot ahead of energetic Ra ndy Marsh , • ~ t 33

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