•
lAbove) The most consistent AMA road racer in recent history. Gene
Romero (3) took fourth at Charlotte. Here. he leads Harry Cone 120 . Jim
1
Allen. Randy Cleek . Mike Bladwin (186). and Gregg Hansford (302). (Below)
Hansford charged hard in t o third place. and Romero. here seen behind A llen
(81. reclaimed fourth .
"King Kenny"
Roberts is long··
gone at
Charlotte
National Road
Race
By Jack Mangus
HARRISBURG .NC.MAR.20
" Do you think Aksland will be able to keep up
with Roberts?" That was the only question
anyone had about the eventual outcome of
Charlotte Motor Speedway's feature race of
10
th eir weekend long Cha rlotte C lassics.
Skip Aksland co uld n't and Kenn y
Roberts took ad va nt age of th e fact
that the o nly rider who apparent ly
possesses the proper. amount of ta lent
a nd trick ma chiner y. Stev e Baker. was
co ntest ing a GP in Ven ezuela as he
romped home an eas y win ner.
Aksland , who was ab le to run right
wit h Roberts in pra cti ce a nd whose
heat ra ce win was ju st a tick of the
clock slo wer th an Roberts' . to ok
hi s D .A .R.T.
se cond a b o a r d
(Devlin/ Aksland Ra cing Team) Terry
Sage:tuned Yamaha nearly a halfm inute down on Roberts and his KcI
Carruthers/ Bud Aksland p repared
Yamaha.
Aksland, who has an open back
door su p p ly rout e to more than
Roberts' tutoring. was abl e to stay with
Kenn y in practice as t he pair
co nsistent ly turned 1 min .. 17 sec . laps
ove r C harlotte's 2.2 5 mi le ova l/i nfield
co u rse . Those times were two to three
seconds a la p faster th an the otli er
competitors . But when the green nag
dropped on the feature and money was
o n the line . it was all King Kenny.
Behind th e front running pair was a
wing-ding of a race go ing on for third .
Gene Romero . Ra nd y Cleek. Gregg
