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/126281
E -= ~ g 't I.!') I-< ~ ..0 o ..... u o Skip Aksland 1271 goofed during his heat; came right back to pass Chuck Joyner i601for the win. Bill Eves (411 and Somiy Burres 1691 are also visible, IRight! Springer anoints Skip with bubbly after the latter's first Grand National win'. San Jose thriller Aks/and wins; Springer up by point's 3" By Dale Brown SAN JOSE, CA , SEP T. 25 Skip Aksland passed -Mike Kidd and Hank Scott on the last lap and held them off to win the 25- ' lap San Jose mile, his first-ever AMA Camel Pro Series Grand ~ ational victory. Jay Springsteen passed Kidd on the last comer to take third and widen his points lead to 37 with three events remaining in the series. Ted 8 "First wou ld be a lot better. " TIme Trials Jay Sp ringsteen pushed his Bill Werner-tuned factory Harley to fastest time , a ~ 7 . 7 ~ clocking, slightly off the record set last Ma y by Mert La wwill. " Mert was off-pace and qualified 46 th , right behind Diane Cox (T orc o/ KR W / Ba tes H·D ). Ak sland was the only other rider under ~8 seconds, posting a ~7 .9 1. Steve Eklund (Za n otti Enterprises H-D ), Rex .Beaucharnp (H· D), Mike Kidd (Lawwill Racing Products H -D) , Chuck Palmgren (Dan Gurney H -D), and Hank Scott (Ca rl Patrick Racing H -D) werethe top seven qualifiers. Boody fa iled to score any po ints after losing a transfer out of his semi by an inch or so to Kenny Roberts. Both Roberts and Ga ry SCOtt ran well in the early part of the national, but Scott dropped to fifth and Roberts to 11th o After Springsteen (2~5) in points are: Boody ( 198), Gary SCOtt (195) , and Roberts (18~). Aksland rode a Harley-Davidson XR750 owned by Stormy Winters, of . Eureka , Calif. "Stormy tinkers with it a lot in his garage. It's pretty fast: " said Aksland. Hank Scott echoed him, saying, "You had the fastest one there! I could pass anybody off a draft but you." Winters (who celebrated his birthday race day) and Terry Sage did the tuning. Aksland is sponsored b y PJI Lubricants, Dart Development , and his father , Cliff Aksland. San Jose marked the th ird tim e that Hank SCOtt had lost a mile by a miniscule margin . When asked how he felt about, the string' .of seconds, .~,. '. grinned, sa id it was OK , and added Heats: KR just misses again Before the fi~t heat, Babe DeMay, Nick Deligianis and the rest of Kenny Roberts' crew were busy replacing an engine in Kenn y's ' monoshock er . Roberts blew a head gasket on his first qual ifying run . "I think it probably pulled th e case studs" said Yamah a Ra cing T eam Manager Ken Clark. R oberts sai d late r that t he replacement motor was the faster of t he two 'a"i{'if ' tb a t "t h e "rilonoshock ch assis handled be tt er than the shock and springs set -up. The shock unit , itself. inci de nt a lly. is fr om a 250 cc ro ad ra cer. Springsteen took th e lead in th e first heat, but Mike Kidd went by for th e win with in a cou ple of laps, Da ve Aldana , back in h is skeleto n leath ers, ran third, but was pa ssed b y Roberts and rookie Garth Br ow (H -D). Br ow aced Roberts out of a direct transfer to th e main by di ving under him in turn three on th e last lap, Aksland went wide in turn three whil e leading the seco nd heat on th e first lap , He dropped to sixt h . but worked back into t he lead. Bill Eves ( Be l Ray , XR750 ) passed Ak sland on ce, but Skip got it back and th e two of them wer e well in front of third . T hi rd went down to th e wire with a Vin ce Mead/Chuck Joyn e r photo fin ish , awarded to Mead (H· D) . Hank Scott jetted quickl y to the front of heat three , He won it easily over Eklund. Gene Romero (Ocea n Pa cifi c Sunwear H-D) took th ird after a tig ht fig ht with Terry Poovey and David " Bu b ba" Ru sh . The' la st heat sta rted as a R ex Beau champ holeshot , but Harley factory rid er Corky Keener swept by to win th e fastest of the hea ts , Ga ry Scott . (Evel Knievel H -D) passed Beauchamp goi ng into turn three, but Rex got him back lap later as th ey exit ed turn four. The scrap wa s for show; all three transferred to the main. ' Sem is: KR makes it Semi one was as thrilling as the final. Ted Boody's factory Harley shot int o the lead going into turn on e . Roberts was right behind , Kenny got by briefly, but Boody regained it down the straight. Terry Dorsch ( R a cecr a f te r s/ C R C Chemi cals /Bel Ra y/jardine H·D)"was third , but Dave Aldana d isplaced him , then Roberts and Bood y in qu ick su ccession. Al d a n a went o n to win t he serni . . R oberts dropped to fo urt h for a moment but su rg ed back past Dorsch and was dead even with Bood y when they took t~ c: ~ hi te flag , _ Out of turn four , Roberts had th e lea d; Bood y ha d the po wer. They cros sed t he fla g a nd few in the crowd knew who wo n . When . th e announcem ent came.tha t Rob erts had th e transfer to t he main , th e crowd went wild . Dorsch fini shed fourth , Vernon J oh nson (H ·D) fifth . Bill Schaeffer (Tex Peel H ·D ) and Alex Jo rgenson were sid e -by-side on la p one of th e seco nd a nd fin al semi. J orgenson , riding t he Ron W oods Nort on , quick ly assum ed com man d and led to t he fi ni sh , Schaeffer 'd ro p p ed ou t. Bubba Rush c a m e through th e pack to ta ke the fin al slot in the National. Behind them were Del Armour (H- D) , St eve Morehead (KK Insurance /KK Supply H-D) , and Terry Poovey (H- D) . Armour finally got t he th ird spot, Morehead took fourth and Poovey fifth . J unio r Invitational The Junior In vitatio nal boiled down to a battle between the West Coast's fa stest Juniors , Jim Me rt ens (Yam) and Eddie Lawson (Ya m) . They started swapping the lead ' almost im m edi a tel y. with Lawson in front and Mertens second. Danny Hogue (H -D) ran a steady third, getting up to second once when Mertens slipped to third. It didn't last long. On th e last four ' la ps, Lawson and Mertens alternated the lead each lap. Lawson was ahead wh en they took th e checkered . Mertens grabbed second . Hogue third, and Nebraska's Don Ramer (Tri ) took fourth in his firstever mil e race. Look fcir Lawson or Mertens as strong contenders for next yea r's Rookie of the Year honors . Trophy Race Boody gra bbed th e lead in th e trophy race , an event that turned into a passing party. Armour was second early , with Poovey and Dorsch following. Armour beat Boody into turn three shortly before the ha lfwa y point. but Q.n lap six . he was in fourth behind Poovey, Bood y.and Morehead . Morehead jumped into th e lead a lap later; Poovey dropped to third . Boody jumped up to lead for two laps , got passed by Poovey and regained the lead a lap later. On the last lap " Poovey had the lead through turns one-two. Boody dove past in three, but lost the drag race from turn four to both Poovey a nd Mor eh ead . Armour finished a close fourth , The Nat ional - A pass ing orgy From the outside pole position , Corky Keener took the lead going into turn on e. Gene Romero was second and. ignoring his second-row sta rt , Ga ry Scott was third. Eklund was in fou rt h . Eklund d isplaced Scott for th ird on la p two, Ga ry was leading on lap three with Eklund back to th ird . The riders wer e using all of the ' track in setting up passes. Eklund went from t hird to lead laps