Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series - Round %2 Last lap pass makes it three in a row lor new series point leader Eklund By Dale Brown Photos by Felix Adamo and Patrick Behar SAN JOSE. CA ,JULY I Steve Eklund pushed his Zanotti Enterprisessponsored Harley-Davidson around the outside of Garth Brow in an electrifying pass through turns three and four of the last lap to win the 20·lap Hoy Odom Memoria l half mile at the Sa nta Clara County Fairgrounds in the Ameri can Motorcyclist Association (Top) Alex Jorgensen battles w ith Steve Morehead in the National. Morehead was third. Jorgy was seventh. (AboveJ Scott Pearson holeshots the National. pursued by Garth Brow (15). Eddie lawson 111 RJ. Alex Jorgen· . 42Jand Bill Schaefer. IBelowJ Corky sen, Steve Eklund (11) Steve Morehead 1 Keener (62) kept Springer out of a transfer in t he fourth heat. 6 . .. Grand !'!a tlonal ChamplOnshI~/Came1 Pro Ser~es. . . . Corning m to this race . the final one m th e ~25 ,OOO fi':5t leg ~f the Camel Pro sen~s, defendmg National Ch~mp Ja~ Spnngs~een led Ekl~nd by eight POIntS. Spnngstee~ finished fourth. and gave up the pomt lead to Eklund, 147-146 . . The one pomt meant $4 ,000 to Eklund . who took thefirst place award of $8 ,OO? to . Springer s four grand. The .montes Will be award ~d to th.e top 10 riders at the July 22 night mil e at Sac:a?1e~to. . . Finishing behind Eklund s !om Hasler -tuned XR and the Klorz/Wiseco H a,:ley of Brow were Steve Morehead , Sp ringsteen , T ed B~y , .H ank Scott, Alex Jorgensen , rookie Jim Mertens, S cot~ Pea n:on a nd Ga ry Scot t. MIke KI~d , who won th e ev';nt a yea r ago . d id not make th e Natlo,:,al a~ d had to settle ~or a tro phy ra ~e wm . Kid d was beaten in the first se.m) w!'en Mert ens pulled a last lap pa ss I~ entl c al to .the on e Eklu nd used m th e Nati onal: Time tria ls Four riders br oke Springst een 's one lap record of 26.14. led by Steve Eklund a t 25 ..18 . Garth . Brow put his Men Lawwill-tuned bike a ro u nd th e track less th an a heartbeat slower at 25 .92 . Hank Scott (Ca rl Patrick H ·D ) and Alex Jorge nse n (Ron Wood Nor ) were a lso under th e. record at 26 .09 6 :>nd 26 .1 32 res~ecll vcl y . T he cui -off nrn e for the 48 -nder field was 27.4 02 . H eat s Harley facto ry rid er Ted Bood y and Gary Scott (KK Supply H-D) got the jump in the firs! heat. However, Ekl~nd cam~ roaring around the outside of turn two past Scott and started to put the pressure on Bood y. Boody's lead lasted another la p , then Eklu nd too k over in turn three and led to the flag. At first , Boo dy and Scott hu ng close, but Eklund started pulling away and finished with a healthy lead. Scott passed Boo d y on the third lap and they finished in that order. Behind the three National- bound riders, J im Mertens (BOSS Frames H · D) edged Pat Marinacci (Torco Oil Tri ) for fourth with a la te-la p pass . In th e second heat , Bill Schaefer (Schaefer's H-D /Bel .Ray H-D) . Mike Kidd (H .D) , and Garth Brow led the pack into turn on e. Brow came out on top and led all th e way. finishing the 10 laps in four minutes and 22 .99 seconds , wh ile th e next fastest heat winner (H a nk Scott ) had a 4 :25 .04 clocking, Vet eran Chuck Palmgren (Da n Gurney H .D ) had a poor sta rt bu t moved up qui ckl y to trail a three . man fight for seco nd between Ste ve Morehead (Doug Sehl tu ned K&K Insurance/KK Supply/Sehla chi H -D ), Schaefer a nd Mike Kidd . While no on e got more than a cou p le of bik es ahead o r behind , it ended up with Morehead (who was riding Seh l's bike) and Sch aefer following Brow (who had a hu ge lead ) int o th e Nati onal. Self-sponsor ed Bobby Sanders. a recognized fast sta rter , started fast in th e th ird hea t. Go ing off th e groove in turns three and four cost Sa '; ders two pos itions . wh ich he ga ve up to Scott Pearson (H a rley-Da vidson West H .D ) and H a nk Scott . Pearson led for the first eight la ps before Scott got around him in th e seco nd turn . Beh ind them was high d ra ma tha t went down to the

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