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/126268
(A bov e) Kenny Robe rts (2) could only manage 11th. behind Dave SehI(16). Bubba Rush (24), and Bill Schaeffer (96). (Below,left) Kidd embraces tuner and mentor La_iIIatter the win. (Below right) Springsteen leads the first-tum charge ahead of Ted Boody (12), Kidd (12). Steve Morehead (42). Corky Keener (62) Willi Crabbe (7A) and others. . Kidd'sqamble pays off at Columbus By Gary Van Voorhis COLUMB US, OH ,JUNE 26 " I was waiting. I kept-saying to m yself 'Sp ringer, slip off that groove j ust one more time' and he did. Whoooee, which way to , the winner's circle." Mike Kidd had more than a little reason to be happy after winning the AMA Grand National Championship /Camel ' Pro Series Charity Newsies half mile. Mike and tuner Mert Lawwill had proved th e skep tics wrong by using a so ft com pou nd rea r tire wh ich everyo ne said wouldn' t la st a nd winnin g with it. " Su r e it was a gam ble ," said Lawwill , "a nd Mike d id need quite a bit of convincing, bu t he followed my instru ctions ' to the let ter and it work ed . I will say that 'winning the semi and then the Nation al is the hard way to go ." Finishing second and third , and both victim s of brake fad e in the closing laps , wer e Jay Springsteen aboard his Bill Werner-tuned fact ory Harley-Davidson and Steve Morehead on the KK Insurance/KK Supply/F&S Special XR with Edgar Fuhr doing the tuning. National T rack condi t ion in g be for e the N ationa l fai le d to change t he na rrowness of t he groove although it did allow a few brave rid ers the choice of rid ing t he cushion in th e ea rly laps . Sp rin gst een , from the outside pole, do ve across traffic for the lead spo t on the groove as the field entered tum one. Boody, Morehead , Robe rts , Hank Scott: Eklund , Kidd and Keen er were in a bunch behind. Morehead took Boody for second in turn three on the next lap as Roberts maintained his high line blitz in fourth . By lap five, Hank Scott had begun a methodical move .toward the front by displacing Roberts for fourth . Kidd had gotten by Eklund for sixth when Steve slipped off the groove. Keener , Dave Sehl , Rush , Doug Sehl , Schaeffer , . Crabbe and Simmons rou nde d out the field on the follow the lea der groove. Sprin ger was stretc hi ng his lead as the laps ticked away toward ha lfwa y in the 20.lap Na tional. Boody had begun to slip off the groove on both ends of th e track (" If there had been a tu m five I pr obably would ha ve slipped off there also ." ) and was back to seventh by lap eight. Eklund was having his problems also and was going nowhere riding alternate high and low lines. On one slip Steve dropped three places as Keener, Roberts and Rush got past. Roberts, while looking spectacular, was having problems too. He could d rive from turns two and four , but ge u ing stopped in o ne and three was another matter. (" I know what's wrong a nd we'll fix it as soon as we'r e back at the shop. I've got so much weight on the rea r for tra ction that now there's nothing left on the front a nd when I brake divi ng int o a comer there j ust (Contin ued on page B ) 7