Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

IAbove) Starting one of the Scratch events. There's seven men visible in the picture, with Penhall. Autrey and Nutter the first three underway.IBelow) Autrey won both main events. Autrey · ominat es d Ascot "not quite" Speedway By Dennis Greene GARDENA. CA . OCT. 28 There was a Class A motorcycle show at Ascot last Friday night. The riders were on Speedway bikes, but only for that reason could it have been called a Speedway Race Meet. Scott A~trey showed his European long-track experience. winning both main \ events. However. many top contenders never made either main. 10 Unlike European and American Speedway. the fans had to sit through two hours of practice and time trials . It was not until 9: 30 that the first race was started. , Here. too. it was not a Spe edway show because there were no starting gates; each event was started with a green flag. This in itself made for a poor show . In most of the Handicap events. the back yardage riders were rolling. in several events as much as 10 yards. All over the world there are never more th an six riders in a Handica p event. even on tracks that are twice as wide as Ascot. The riders. promoters and sanctioning bodies have said that it would be unsafe to start with more than six riders (all events at Ascot were run with eight riders at one time). Even the Scratch races were ru n with eight riders on the starting line . putting the riders so close together that their handlebars were to uching th e riders on either side. Problems rea lly started several days before the event; the riders were told that it wou ld be an open race meet . with no sanction. Most thought that the event would be run under the same rules they have been running under for years. But at sign-up for the event. which opened at 5:00 p.m . • they were told that because of the Europeans who were in the show . that they would have to join the American Motorcyclist Assn . (AMA) to ride. The A M A is the American branch of th e Federation Internationale Motorcycliste (F.I.M.) . which says that if two or more Int erna t ion a l riders compete. the event must be sanctioned by them . This was told to t he m a n agem ent of Ascot just 48 hours before the race by phone and they applied then and there for a sanction and got it. Under the rules of the A M -A • and with the fact that this was now a true International event. the rules should have been en forced . not overlooked . Under the A M A I F I M rules . you can on ly run on alcohol. There was enough nitro in the pits to make a small bomb . Under the rules . you can only use a I9 -inch rear wheel; there were everything from I9-to 22-inch tires being used. Under the rules . you cannot make any change in the exhaust system ; there were several riders with megaphones so big that it would make your. teeth hurt when they went by. Under the rules . each event must be started with a starting gate; th ere was no gate. There sho uld be just four men in a Scratch race ; there were eight; no more than six in a Handicap race. there were eight. A good crowd was on hand to see a Speedway show. Ascot has in the past years played hos t to the last event of the Speedway season and ~veryone looks forward to seeing the guys on the ' long track. This event has become the lo ng-tr ack championship here. and th e title of Champ is important to them . In the first event of the nig ht . a Handicap race . the pattern was set for the night. One rider after another had his motor go bad . T his is understandable up to a point; it was the last race of the season why put a lot of money into the bike? The strain of the long tra ck was just too much for a lot of tired equipment. Fo u r -time World Champ. Barry Briggs. ha d equip ment t ro u b le a ll night. which kept him ou t of ei ther Main Eve nt. Five -time American Champ . Mike Bast. h a d electrical troubles in the first ra ce . keeping him out of the Handicap Main Event. Previous winner Sonny Nutter. was out with equipment trouble a nd the list goes on . Gene Woods ou t with a flat tire. etc. Bruce Penhall even lent a bike to Barry Briggs and the rear ti re went flat on itl By the time the main events rolled around . it was after 11:00 p .m. and &r1 everyone was on edge. As the riders '.=1 lined up fo r Scratch Mai n Event . handleb ar to handlebar. Gene Woods jumped the starting flag and was put back 10 yards. Mike Bast was told tha t he too had jumped 'a nd that he would have to start fro m the 10-ya rd lin e. Mike. alo ng with all the people in the stands. wanted to know what the starter was talking about. This led to words and th e referree stepped in. pointing back to the 10-yard line. Mike said " Bull Manure" and rode off the track a nd put his bike in the pits. rather than giving in to a bad call. The Scratch Main Event was without a doubt the highl ight of the night. with Scott Autrey and Bruce Penhall swapping dust for the fou r-lap main . Autrey showed that the past three yea rs he has spent on the big tracks in Europe made him the man to beat. For the whole night . Scot t totally dominated the show . Bruce Penhall had one more shot at Autrey in the Handicap Main. but both riders had to take a back seat to young Kell y Moran . For the first co uple of laps . Kelly h ad the lead and was stretching it out when something let go in the motor and he ha d to ro ll to a stop in turn one. Autrey dove under Bill Cody and Steve Nutter along with Penhall as they went on to the back straightaway and Aut rey started to pull away from Penhall, staying on the gas just a little longer than Bru ce . Scott go t th rough the corner just a little quicker and was again the first to take the checkered flag. giving him a clean swee p in both Main events. There is some tal k of another Speedway show at Ascot in ) two weeks. This wou ld be just great if 0 it,would be a Speedway show and not a -r modified A M A half-mile race. " Results 11£' HANDICAP M AIN EVENT: 1. Scott Autrey. 2. Bruce Penhall, 3. Bill Cody. 4. Steve Nutter, 5. Kelly Moran, 6. 't Rick J ones, 7. Larry Kosta. 8. Craig Schaefer. . SCRATCH M AIN EVENT: 1. Scott Autrey. 2. Bruce ') Penhall 3. Steve Nutter. 4. Tom Ferris. 5. Dennis Sigalas: 6. Tom Morley, 7. Gene Woods. 8. MikeBast.

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