Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

(Yam) and Jeff Fischer (Tri) exited the sweeper , Mertens went down in the oil. Fischer's drive for the lead sent him into Mertens' bike and an over-thehandlebars endo that stopped the race and sent him to the hospital. The race had begun with Eddie Lawson (Yam) on the pole owning fast time . But it was J eff Fischer taking the early lead with Lawson close behind. In th ird, Rick Graham (Yam) had his hands full trying to hold off Mertens. The top four bikes bunched up in the dog-leg right-hander on the eighth lap. As everyone made their move, Lawson hit someone's wheel and went off the track and Mertens was in first by the straigtaway. It was Mertens, Fischer and Graham until the crash. The Novices put on a fantastic show . Riders seem to get pu mped a little m ore t han normal on the National weekend at Castle Rock. A field of 66 riders was narrowed to four heats of 12 riders in the preliminaries. J on Gladman (Yam), John W incewicz (Hon), Ray Dugan (H on), an d Cra ig Lewis (Hon) were in the heat winners. Dugan , an impressive California rider, sat next to popular J oh n Wincewicz on the pole. Wincewicz missed anticipating the green light and found himself the only rider in the third (penalty) row. Everyone asked the same question - could he do it against some of the best novice riders on the West Coast? At the start, Gladman took the lead with Dugan close behind . The question in eve ryone's mind was an.swer~d b y the third lap , as Wincewice moved from last to third place. Dugan took th e lead in the next lap, with W incewicz moving to second . Wincewicz got by in the sweeper coming off th e straight but could not hold it as Dugan took the lead back. Wincewicz would not be denied as he drove for the lead in th e fifth lap. The battle continued until the last lap . Everyone was on their feet as Dugan pa ssed for th e lead on the str~ight .with the whi~e flag waving. Wincewicz had no choice but to give it the maximum effort in th e dog leg. Dugan must have felt the pressure as he slipped off the track giving Wincewicz th e win. The race was nothing short of fantastic as -the time was onl y one second off the 12-lap re~o rd h~ld by National #35 , Randy Skiver , winn er of the following night's National. • Resul ts in Resul ts Section . Booth takes Open Main in Oregon By Lynne Diltz MEDFORD , OR,JULY I Three heats of 125's produced the first action of the evening when season high point leader Bru ce Smylie shut down runnerup Kerry Himmelwright in heat one and Dennis Pool came within inches of dropping Himmelwright to a third right at the line. Cecil Arispe earned hirnself.a Trophy Dash spot by walking away wtth heat two and was joined in the Trophy Dash by Mike Gatt who won heat three after Tony Speck hit the packed track in tum three-four. 10 riders in the 125 A Main started grumbles about too many riders on the track . After a wild , fast start, Smylie . took a sle nd er lead with Himmelwright camped on his tai l. Roger DeSilva was forced out of th e groove in tum three and the next two laps were under the yellow flag while a~tendants .went to check. Doug Blagg wiped out m the first tum and riders went all over the track to miss him as the red flag came out to call help for DeSilva . Two heats of 100cc bikes put regulars Vic Lilya and Robbie Izatt together again in a trophy dash that had four lead changes in three laps . Lilya won that match. After a crowded nine -rider start in the A Main: it was Lily and Izatt again , hanging about as close as two riders can get on the ba nked oval that produces a whole lotr a' speed. Those boys may be young but both have the experience to put on a great style show. Iza tt won after taking the low groove in tum four and coming ou t under Lilya by half a bike's length. The 250 class was four hea ts strong an ? Rod Peterson whipped to a 'fast , quick heat one lead, then went to the high gr oove in tu m three-four and Larry Hooper dove down and arou nd . Peterson mpped Hoo per back right at the checkered flag . Glen Lilya and T odd Puett were the lea ders of the third wave of bikes; Lilya beat Puett by half a bike despite Puett's full-scale, last lap charge. Heat four didn't break up an,l string out as usual, it was close all the way as Jim Booth aced out Cecil Arispe for a Trophy Dash spot. The Trophy Dash was won by Tony Speck after a duel with Booth. Despite mains to a C , there were 13 riders in the 250 A . A two-row start brought howls of protest from spectators in the pit area as one rider was crowded out of the groove and off over the edge of tum one. Arispe was put off the same way and when the ra ce was more than half over , Jim Booth and Kirk Howard tangled in tum one and both went down hard . Riders scattered to miss them and the race was red-flagged with Brett Howard, Todd Puett and Tony Speck declared trophy winners. Three heats of Mini 's produced th eir own break in the action of the larger bikes. Run after the 250's and before the Open class, the little guys reall y turn on around the oval. First heat act ion came quickly as Robb ie Blagg grabbed the lead followed by Barry Pelkey who used that low groov e to pass Blagg in th e three-four turn . The second wave had to be restarted and Troy Izatt got to the corner first. Andres Bales came out of the pa ck to challenge the leaders. He used the low groove to get by second pla ce Rickey Ru ssell but ran out of laps before overt aking Izatt. Matt Chambers handily won hea t th ree and the T rophy Dash was a walkaway for Pelkey. The B Main was a fast one for the little guys - the Pont kids , Robbie and Rick made some fine maneuvers to get out of the pa ck to go after leader Bales and it looked for awhile like Robbie Pont might do it . Bales won by a whisker and Robbie Pont took a second. It was Pelkey again , all alone in the A Main, the toss-up was between Izatt, Bales and Joe Gonsalves. Two heats of Open bike riders churned up the dust . Louie Booth won the first by beating out Greg Wilson and Mark Mattheisen, Smoking Cecil Arispe took heat two after acing out Jim Seigel and Joe Diltz. After previous A Main escapades, everyone was edgy as nine riders left the A Main start line, to what ended as the smoothest race of the evening. It looked like the battle would be b etw een Booth and Arispe but Californian Jim Seigel got the hang of the track and broke them up with a second. • Results in Results Section. r--------I I I SUBSCRIBE NOW! 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