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/126278
(A bove) Skip Aksland guzzles the grog he-got for w inning the Trop hy Race. (Below) Clump of experts including Ted (56z) Davidson. Steve (11) Eklund. Ed (58a) Ingram fight for the spot. (Right! Kidd (72) aims for t he inside shoulder to shoulder with Hank (14) Scott. Steve (68) Freeman. brother Gary (5) Scott. Boody (12) and the national field . (Below. right! Vince Mead br iefly leads Aksland and Hocking. Kidd & Scott brothers top Middletown ha By Jack Mangus MIDDLETOWN , N .Y. , SEPT. A Hank and Gary , the Scott brothers, flanked jubilant winn er Mike Kidd in the winner's cirde at Middletown's Orange County Fairgrounds half-mile Sunday. "After I broke m y hand at Terre Haute, I called my sponsor, "Mert Lawwill , and told him my hand was in a cast. Mert said , " Mike , cut the , cast off and let's go racing.' And that's what we've been doing." With a second in the first of the two Indy. mile races last weekend and a win Sunday, the team of young Mike Kidd and . veteran Mert Lawwill have certainly been racing! Ki dds performance aboard a Lawwi ll prepared H-D XR750 moved the slo -talking Texan into a with Corky Keener for sixth place in the AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series point standings. Again the standings tightened up. as point leader Jay Springsteen cou ld tie 8 only manage a ninth place finish. worth six points , while his fellow H-D teammate Ted Boody picked up nine points -for sixth place a~d moved to within one poi nt of Springer, 188 to 189 . _ It was a disappointing day for Kenny Rober ts. He fell while running t hird, losing advancement to the Na tion a l final -, on the I ~s t la p. of ~is heat race. Then KR finished SIxth In his semi and did not start the Trophy Race. He dropped to third in the point standings. from a tie for second last week with Boody. Qualifying Hank Scott. who has been turning in one strong ride after another since switching to Carl Patrick's Harleys recently, set fast time in time trials : A 25.066 seconds lap broke the track record previously held by Ed Ingram . Second fastest was Corky Keener at 25.338. Rounding out the top 10 were Billy Schaeffer, Willie Crabbe. Steve Eklund. Mike Kidd, Steve Morehead, Mert L a wwill, Ken Roberts, and Randy Goss. Only 34 experts attempted to qualify for the program . Forty-eight riders are eligible for a half'-mile National field . Heats - Kenny krashes Fast q ualifier Hank Scott was long gone fr om t he flash of the green light , b ut the runnerup and third spots were up for gra bs until t he last inch of racing. Garth . -Brow (H.-D) held down second over Steve Eklund and Ken Roberts until "the valves' started really . clattering" on the fourth lap. Brow pulled off the track and Eklund and Roberts appeared set for the 2-3 ad va ncement positions. But Roberts "slid her down coming out of two . It happened so quick and I saw the wall c om in ' up ," Roberts said. "But other than hurting my ankle, I'm O K. " The Roberts get-off handed Jay Springsteen third transfer and a spot in the National. The second heat set the stage for what most spectators figured would be the story of the National. Mike Kidd, starting from the penalty line after anticipating the lights just a bit too much , charged from that handicap to take the win. Kidd moved by early leader Ed Ingram on the fifth lap and then disappeared from a four-man fight between Ingram and his X R, Bill y Eves and his Bel-Ray Ha rley , the Ba rt Markel Harley of Ra ndy Goss, and H- D factory rider Co rky Keener. T he checkered flag saw Ingram and Keener advance to the Na tional, lea ving Goss and Eves wit h rides in the semis. ' Chuck Palmgren dropped out of the second heat on the fifth lap with a grin and a shrug of his shoulders. "1 tore up all my good stuff at Indy in Sunday's National . That really hurt, " said