Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.-----------~---- -- ~ -- Skip Aksland 127 1leads the start of the National. Chasing Skip are Mike Cone 1 : Gene Romero 1 . Dave Aldana 11 01 Gary Nixon 1 Dave Emde 1561. Rich 471 31 . 91. Schlacter 1 481. Randy Mamola 1 26/. Dale Singleton 1301 and Ron Mass 1401. Note how far winner M ike Baldwin (431 had advanced from his last row start. AMA Grand National Championship/Camel ProSeries- round 15 Baldwin blasts to win in crash-rna By Dale Brown Photos by Dale Brown and Charles Morey SONOMA , CA .JULY 16 Connecticut's Mike Baldwin blasted from the back row of the grid to take the lead on the fifth la p , going on to win the 3D-lap , 75-mile American Motorcycl ist Association Grand National Champions hip /Camel Pro Series road race a t Sears Po int International Racewa y o~er Gene Romero and Da I e Singleton . 6 "We ca me 12,000 ' mi les for this race ," jo ked Bal dw in after it was over, "o u t and back. out and ba ck." T he jo ke was in refer ence to flying home from Eu ropean rac es to ca tc h th e origi nal Apri l date that was ra ined out , the n hav ing to travel back for th e new d a te . Privat eer Ba ldwi n. who gets help from Laurel En terp rises, Pa ul Napier a nd Per ron Lea th ers. fini shed abou t 17 seco nds ahead of Don Vesco / Oc ea n , Pacific·sponsored Romer o . who had a simila r dis ta nce over Singl et on on the - Taylor W hite Con struction bike . All m ach ines in the 750cc N a tio nal were Yama ha T Z750s . . Several crashes left their mark on th e weekend . In th e 750cc N ational class, the list was: Steve McLa ug hlin (Saturday pract ice) . Roge r Sta n ley (before the heat race). Steve Ekl u nd (heat race). Ron Pie rce (heat race) , Skip Aksla nd and Da ve Alda na (while ru nn ing 1·2 in th e Na tion al ), Ala n Barb ie (while ru nning about l Oth) , and Gary Nix on (whi le ru nning fift h two-thirds of the way thro ugh) . Stanley and Ba rb ie wer e ta ken to the hospi ta l with broken bo nes, while Ekl und . Aksland , Pierce . a nd Nixon were a ble to get up., Aksland (with a possible shoulder inj u ry and fairly severe asphal t ra sh ), Eklund (abrasions and a sore back) and Pier ce (com plai n ing of neck an d rib inj u ries) went to the hospi t al for x-rays and fu rt her checks. McLaughlin was taken to the hospital and released within an hour. Heats The reason Ba ldwin started at the back of the National grid was because after work ing up a big lea d in the first four laps of the fir st five-la p heat. his c ha in busted . Beh ind h im . R ich Schlacter , Skip Aksland (D .A . R .T. Dev .lPJ l/ Lec tro n-sponsored) . Romero and Singleton were mixing it up p retty heavily. After Baldwin's demi se. R om ero tooka b rie f lea d . but Schlacter pa ssed him . Aksland got by Schlacter lat e in the la p and hel d him off. by one bike le ngth . Rom e ro . Singl eton . Dav id Emde , Ga ry Nixon . riding th e Erv Kanemot o-tuned KK Supply T Z, and J ohn Long followed. Dav e Ald ana put his Paul Dahmen sponso red m ach ine int o t he secon d h eat lea d wi t h Mario Za not t ispo nsored Steve Eklund second and Wes Cool ey th ird . But in tum five. a downhill left hander known as th e Carousel . Eklund went down . What happened is not exac tly clear, with Eklund mainta ining that Cooley bumped him . and Cooley saying that . while trying to pass Eklund on the outside , Eklund bumped him and . as Wes hit the brakes and moved ou tside . Steve got into a tankslapper and lost cont rol of t he front end . What was clear was th a t Eklund after coming from th e back of the pa ck in an 18th lap re-start to fini sh fourth in th e 25-lap Ascot TT and taking th e Camel Pro points lead fro m Jay Springsteen. 174-166 - would not be a ble to gai n any more ad va nt age. His TZ was damaged beyond rep ai r in the ti me rem ain in g before the N ation a l. a nd Steve was hu rting. Alda na led the rem a inder of the hea t with no p ro b lems . finishi ng with a good m a rgin . Cooley hung on to seco nd until the last lap . wher e Jim Doyl e -sp onso red R and y Mam ola p assed him . Ron Mass (R on Mass . Ent .) and H arry "M ike". Cone (Cone M/C Sal es) finished next. Nationa l Skip Aksland , starting on the took t he lead when " Bou ncing Malley dropped t h e green Romero followed Skipper into po le. Bob " flag. turn

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