Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

down the back strai$ht, he took second away from Land . Mike Minnig led the Juniors off, but Rainey dropped under him in the north tum and it looked like another win for this top J u nior. Bu t Rod Spe nce r had other ideas. First , he got by Minnig then went full cha rge after Rai ney. Rainey tried to hol d him but Spe ncer was not to be put off and passed Wayne on the back straight on the last lap. The start of the Expert final was bad so they restarted it, and Eddie Lawson took the lead immediately getting the drop on Jorgensen from the start , with Ted Boody third. For a while, Jorgy ran at Lawson : but Eddie just kept it turned on a little bit more and stayed his distance with Jorgy finally settling down to staying in second. still winning the Bates series overall. Don Ra mer's Tri umph, which had been spitting fire through one pipe. gave up and he had to retire. The, rest of the field started changing places. Ted Boody was comfortable in third until Tom Berry arrived . Berry was moving fast after taking care of Art Fredenburgh, John Sperry and Travis Patton . Berry on his Triumph and Boody on his borrowed Harley went at it for a while but the Harley rider couldn't stop Berry's forward progress . Tom moved into third but he was still about a straightaway behind Jorgy's second place. Right after the' white nag was shown , Travis Patton tagged John Sperry's rear wheel entering tum one and Patton got off hard. What a way to end a race! but was Eddie Lawson jubilant at this success? You 'd better believe he was! Just one broad grin from ear to ear. Results in Resu lts Section. Rod Spencer. shown here behind Wayne Rainey. was the man to break Rainey's win streak in t he Junio r class at Ascot. Ascot's Bates Series finale to Lawson, Spencer, Haney By Maureen Lee GA RDENA, CA, MAY 5 Rookie Expert Eddie Lawson on his Shell Motors Yamaha broke up AlexJorgensen's winning streak in the Ba tes Point Series by win- 24 ning both the Trophy Dash and the Main at Ascot. And if that wasn't surprise enough , Rod Spencer broke Wayne Rainey's hold on the Junior division although Ra iney did take his heat, the 11th straight win in a row . The Ba tes people are to be commended for co -sponsoring the series and adding fu nds to the racing " pot." W ithou t them, th ere might not ha ve been an Ascot season. The track surface wasn't as tacky as the week before , but even so only one Expert time-tria led in the 22-second bracket, Frank Gillespie got his Harley around at 22.90 while Junior Ra iney turned in a 22.91. The Novices got their heats over fairly uneventfully with the usual frontrunners like Haney, SeIVy, Neihart and Steffen . making direct transfers. Jeff Allison looked exceptionally good a nd knows all about riding that high groove , somethi ng most of the ot hers weren't d oing. . . Rain ey's hea t was the fas test for t he Juniors. He got out in front of the rest a nd was never re ally challenged by strong-running Da n ny Perk ins wh ile Eddie San Roma n and Mike Inderb itzen fought over third and fourth spot. Other direct transfers were Rod Spencer and Mike Minnig, Don Grigsby and Sal Hoffman, leaving four places to be filled from the semi. Everyone wanted those spots. Richie Volk and Eddie San Roma n were so serio us a bou t it they hit each other vying for the same track space. Mark Mu rray won, the n ca me Mike Inderbi tzen, Yolk and Sa n Rom a n . T he first Expert hea t had qu ite a lineu p, Fra nk Gillespie, Eddie Lawson and Ted Boody all in a row . Out to take another look at Ascot, Boody intends to put this experience to good use against teammate Jay Springsteen come the night of the May 13 National. Boody and Gillespie went through the south turn side-by-side with Gillespie taking the lead. Frank, you remember, is on the comeback after taking a shattering crash at the San Jose Mi le two years ago . Eddie Lawson , took second away from Boody who then had Art Fredenburgh to contend with. Ted hung on to his third, and it was Fredenburgh to the semi . The second heat looked wild . Alex Jorgensen was out front after getting a jump on the starter, while Danny Hockie, John Sperry and Travis Penon were running the turns behind him three abreast , Hockie finally had a good hold on second when something broke forcing him into a near tank slapper and reitrement on the white nag lap leaving the direct transfers to Jorgy, Sperry and Tom Bries from Wisconsin,who mixed it up really well with the Ascot regulars. Fredenburgh won the semi followed in by Don Ramer , Tom Berry and Rod . Sex ton . The Novice semi provided the most excitement. The strrter dropped the nag - literally - and the field got away in such raggletai led fashion that t he red came out. Off they went again , and this time two went down in the north turn, Dave Kraft's bike getting completely airborne and jumping the fence. Another restart . This time Stan Kinsey took the lead and held it while Steve Polson and Doug Reiswig really fought over second and third . At one point Polson even rode it off the wall a nd hel d onto it , with J im Birkle right th er e trying to pass one of t hem and not be first a lternate. Frank Gillespie had to scratch from the Trop hy Dash a nd Main, with Tom Bries replaci ng him in the Dash and Travis Pa tt on in the Main. In the Dash , Lawson took off like a shot and just dusted 'em while Boody dropped way back from second when he caught his shoe in the south turn. Come the start of the Novice Main . there was another disappointed rider. J eff Allison's bike wouldn't start desp ite a pl ug change and a lternate J im Bir kle mo ved to the lin e instead . Su rprisi ng ly, it wasn't J eff Ha ney off th e line first. Dyla n Neih art got the drop on everybody. bu t Haney overhauled him about lap two and steamed away . For a while it was a real scrap between Neihart and Derek Land as they went side-by-side down the straightaways, then Clyde Helton caught up to them and passed Neihart . Then, by leaving it on full I Ratho/e Rocky roosts OTHG MX By Lizard Lou Sorenson Chris Easterling gets the holeshot enro Tom Wyatt (061 and Barry Eckess 1861 tc Experts got a nag start in front , followed by 10 Amateurs on the gate and then one DuDu . Stubby Steve kept trying to re -route this one tum and put himself out of both motos. Rathole Rocky put himself in first place with a 1·2 . Piner Pat got the feel of his new Suzuki in the second moto and raced Rocky out of first place; his 3-1 got him second overa ll. The Amateurs wheelied away from the gate and Dinky Denny put himself in first p lace for moto one, but a nat tire put him out of the racing in moto two . Lizard Lou took his usual soil samples in rnoto one, slipping from third to fifth place. In moto two , I kept the rubber side down and first place to the checkers (trailing a Du Du in second place) which was good for first overall in some topsy-turvy racing. Honky Herb 'rod e in a strong second in the first moto, but got held back into fourth in moto two for second place. Petrified Pete and Scabby Skip trophied in third and fourth places . Resu lts in Resu lts Section . LONG BEACH, CA , AP R. 23 A beautiful summer-like day and the O ver The H ill Ga ng went to the beach - Cycle Ha ven , Long Bea ch . The weather was warm and sunny with a light breeze blowing; however, most of the racers agreed that the track was far from great. The Novices had the track to themselves for our first race of the day. Dirty Don and Jester Jerry ' diced for the lead in the first moto: Jerry was first to the checkers. Bu t Jerry decided to wrestle with his Ya maha ins tead of ride it in the seco nd moto , leaving Dirt y Don to t hrow dirt at everyone for top ho nors in moto two and for the day. Bee p Beep Bob kept his Ma ico from loadi ng up long enoug h to capture second place with a 3-2 . Jester Jerry moved up to fifth place in moto two for ' third overall. Dorito Dan crunched his way into fourth place. The Intermediate class was the largest as usual, and with 17 racers at the narrow gate we were watching for Crash City; we saw it. Pa nsy Paul held the lead in both moros until he fa ded back into the pack. Bang Bang Bobo was ru nning secon d be hind Paul in moto two u ntil he flo pped over a berm . Through the crashes Dashing Doug dashed to first overall with a 2-1 tally. Ru n -O ver Ron could garner only second overall with his 1-3. Flippin' Fred didn't and got third , followed by Halffast Herb. The Experts and Am a teurs took to the track at the same time. Four Arizona/California battle at USMRA MX By Carol Campbell PHO EN IX , AZ, APR. 30 T he well manicured track of the Beeline Raceway under hazy skies a nd tem pe ratures in the low 80' was th e setti ng for the second of th e five-race U .S. Su zuki Series bei ng presented by U. S. Min icycle Racin g Association. After looki ng at the fina l scores it look ed as though it 'ha d been a Ca lifornia vs. Arizona competition. A perfect example was the fantastic riding of Arizona Expert Mark Meredith (Suz) and California Expert Eddie Glover (Suz) . Meredith and Glover played cat and mo use with each other all day long. The first chase started in the O pen 105cc class. Drey Dirks of Arizona got the ho leshot with Glover and Meredith co ming out the first turn side by side. It didn't take long before Me red ith overtook Dirks to go into first. Glove r then made his move on Dir ks, goi ng into the second place spot and the chase was on , but Meredith was able to hold off Glover to take the win . Glover finished second and Dirks third . The 12 years and over Modified Expert class had to be one of the best

• Cover