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/126256
Bob Sanders (5R) and Ted Davidson go for it in early stages of the Expen main. Davidson was fifth. Sanders eighth. Allison wins again at Ascot By Maureen Lee GARDENA , CA, APR. 8 For the second week in a row John Allison (Shell Motors Yamaha) won the Expert main at Ascot. Actually, it looked like an 30 instant re-play of last week's opening night, Allison first , then Steve Eklund and Dan McWhorter. both Yamahamounted. Bob Sanders took the first Expert heat lead with Ted Davidson and Steve Eklund in hot pursuit. Da vidson nearly crashed in tum two , losing two spo ts in the process to Sanders and .Ra nd y Gibbs . Ekl und got by Sa nders in the high groove an d took off for the win . while Davidson got second' after Sanders left the door open for him on the north turn . . Da n McWhorter and John Allison dragged each other down the back chute in the other Expert heat with Allison holding the high groove and taking the front position as they came out of the north tum, with Walt Foster in third. Allison went hard out and came within less than a second of breaking the 1975 track record with a 1:55.18. In the semi no one wanted to be left out of a transfer spot an d so got at it right from t he b eginn in g . Art Fredenburgh led off followed by Steve Fortune, Marty H alkola a nd Rich Warren. In the shuffle. Warren was soon up behind Fredenbu rgh . then Halkola , while Fortune, (who was riding with a good case of the flu ), coul dn't keep the pace and kept dropping back. Ran d y Gib bs finished fourth and took the last transfer spot as Warren took first away from Fredenburgh . Right from the first lap the order was est abl ished in the m ain: All ison, Eklu nd an d McW ho rter. For a lap or so Walt Foster kept McWhort er busy , getting the one lone T riu m ph in a field of Yamahas and H a rleys into third spot a cou pl e of times . Eventually Foster went in a bit too hard and McWhorter got by again , this time for good. Meanwhile , Ted Davidson was moving on up but had to settle in behind Foster. Up front there was no catching Allison although Eklund was flat hauling, really concentrating . on taking the shortest way around which included staying out of the loose stuff in the upper groove. With three laps to go Eklund was within shooting distance and the people in the stands were up on their feet shouting encouragement for their particular favor ite of the two . As the flag came down Eklund was less than two full bike lengths behind Allison . Albuquerque rider Joe Wilson had a long drive for nothing when his bike refused to start in the first Junior heat which Rod Spencer won over Travis Petton with a very nic e lead. Earlier laps Petton had a see-saw battle going with Shawn Leipold. The second heat had another disappointed rider. Joe Tardiff had second spot 'in hand when his goodlooking Triumph decided not to run anymore, and it was into the pits for Tardiff, Eddie Lawson won, followed in by Brian Brown and Rick Graham. Last heat , Gordy Kidd shot off into the lead onl y to come around to face a red flag and have to do it all over again as Steve Carrillo and his Harley had gone down in tum two . On the restart it was last week's main winner, Rod Sexton, with the lead , but Kidd got by him and the two of them pulled away from the rest of the group. Again . it was hard-luck-for -juniors night when Tony Alves had to wave off the grid when he found his shift lever was just flapping around like it wasn't a ttached to anything inside the case . With only two transfers they had the usual flat out Junior semi . Tim McWhorter took the lead , then Rick Gra ham and Shawn Leipold. Two laps later it was Graham, McWhorter and Lei pold. Quickly, Don Bailey beca me part of th e action, an d once Graham got firmly settled in the first spo t, McWhorter and Bailey swapped th a t second spot a round, coming a rou nd for the flag glu ed together in the final turn wit h Bailey gerting the edge. Eddie Lawson got held u p in tr affic in the beginning of the main while Brian Brown, Rod Sexton and Gordy Kidd settled out who was going to be in front , with Sext on finally taking the spot away from Brown . But in those few laps , it was Lawson coming up through the gang of riders and just picking them off without appearing to wait for whoever was in what groove, Fast Eddie Lawson cleared away from the rest of the Juniors at Ascot. finishing all alone and out in front. or if thi s was th e rig ht spo t or no t . This very talented youngster was j ust passi ng 'em, high groove or low, straight away or tum until he was up behind the fleeing Sexton. Sexton, who won the main last week, m ust have kn own Lawson was lurking back there somewhere because he did one of the "no nos" of racing - glanced back. It threw Sexton into an overslide through the south tum and he lost two spots to Lawson and Brian Brown. Sexton was soon back again in second but there was no catching Mr. Lawson. Brown and Sexton battled away , swapping places back and forth, while Rod Spe ncer took over fourth, and nearly took third away from Brown on the last lap. Oh, those Juniors! San Diego's Dorothy Rowe made Ascot history as he became the first female racer to tr ansfer directly to a main event from her heat. She got second behind Wayne Rainey wit h Danny Perkins in third , and once again had Ascot regulars admiring her riding. Unless the announcer made note of it , you wouldn't know 128e was different than the other Novces except much faster than a gang of them. She sets up a tum and drives hard through it with the best . In the Novice semi they were several laps dow n when Eric Armitage paned company from his machine and left the Yamaha slap in the middle of the groove. The red flag came out and first alternate, Scott Link was more than happy to replace Armitage. Again, Danny Perkins hurried off into the lead, and held it wit h Kim Jorgensen (C-A) in second all the way to the end. Jay Lewis and Keith Da y had some side by side action for third with Day the victor. Rainey elected to go to the inside starting spot which put Rowe on the pole for the main - the firs t time a fema le rider has ever had the pol e starting position in an Ascot m ain event fro m a direct transfer. It was another 'instant replay from last week. Wayne Rainey won it wit h Da n ny Per kins second . (Perkinds having to figure out a way around Mike K unsman for a few laps before he got that spot .) Behind were Dave Faria and , in a good solid fifth, Doroth y Rowe . It was only in the last couple of laps that Mike Minnig and Kim J orgensen started to pull up to her, but they 'd left it too late and Mike dropped it in tum one in the attempt. Next week th ere'll be no Ascot half m ile, but on April 22 everyone will be back. • Results in Results Section. lorgensen to race Ascot April 22 GARDENA, CA , APR . 8 Alex J orgensen of Stockton, 1976 Ga rdena Gold Cup winner and runnerup in last year's AM A half-mile national, will return to competition at]' C. Agaj anian's Ascot in the Am er ica n Mot orcyclist Association half-mile r aces , Frid ay, April 22 at 8:00 p.m . Jorgensen and his Ro n Wood· p repared Norton have actua lly bee n ' t he dominant combination on t he tricky Ascot half m ile since 'J orgy's" rookie season in 1975. His ra ce with AMA Grand National cham pi on Jay Springsteen in th e 20- ' la p Cam el Pro Series finale last year was a memorable one . W ith Springsteen tryi ng to clinch th e title and riding hard before a sta ndingroo m-only crowd of 10,700, J orgensen actually caught Springer on la p 16. The champ finally won, b ut he knew he had been in a fight. lOp Experts expected to view with Jorgensen in this third race of Agajanian's spring series are 1976 AMA rookie-of-the-year Steve Eklund; and John Allison of Poway, winner of the last two Ascot half miles , over Eklund. Allison and Jorgensen had some great battles of their own last year. The April 22 event is third and final on e on the Ascot qualifying series for Junior riders. Top point gett ers from the Ap ril 1, AprilS, and Ap ril 22 races will be in vited to t he Junio r invitati on al portion of the San Jose Mile, Ma y 15. • Tall tales and Maicos: Olson wins Old Timers MX By Betty'Bird VALENCIA, CA , APR. 3 In the style of a Master, that rnovin' Maico with Marvin Olson