Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.1 1 II , . =Central Pipeline ~ E 00 . t:"-o 0") ~ IAbove and below) Austin's Aqua Festival was a blast for riders . . How to beat Austin's heat. Insanity aids Austin Aqua Festival Road Races By Tony Bell Photos by Mike York AUSTIN, TX , AUG . 6 The annual Austin Aqua Festival motorcycle road races were again a ho wling success. For those who aren't familiar with this happen- 52 in g , th e city of Austin declares the month of August party time. T hey h a ve p arades, pet shows. beauty page ants. e t h n ic ni ghts, go lf to urnamen ts. tennis m at ch es, and lots a nd lots of ra ces. T he road ra ces a re actua lly staged on city streets . right in the middle of town . The course is also used by the sports car people wh o had their own road ra ces earlier. Basically, the layout utilizes two huge parking lots surrounding the cit y col iseum and the civic auditorium. A long front straight runs down the smooth su rfaces of Riverside Drive , so named because . right north is the Colorado River. or Town Lake. City crews go to a great deal of trouble to prepare for the races. Light poles are removed and curbs are faired in with asphalt. Miles and miles of temporary cha in link fences provid e adequate c rowd p rotection. Organization is handled by a local motorcycle club , t he Ka pi tal Katz , and hundreds of vol u nteers man the ga tes, th e flags , th e corners and all th e cute li tt le r a dios . to esca pe t he rele ntless four-dolla r adm ission . T he races a re pregridded a nd start with teu toni c pro m p tness . It 's nice to attend an event tha t d raws su c h a la rge a nd excitable , cro wd . By th e th ou sands th ey poured in . T ho usa nds of hom e frie d good lookin ' sca ntily clad Texas chickies. Thousands of lon g ta ll cowbody tyPes . eac h equipped with a bee r coole r . Thousands o f littl e old ' lad ies , scro u ngy bikers, a nd sno-cone covered kid s. And it's n ice to attend an event tha t is so actively backed by suc h a la rge ci t y. The Aqua Festival yea rly generates a new crop of Commodor es who amble about - in spotless wh ite naval dress uniforms making su re that everyo ne is having a goo d time . And talk about luxu ry. whe n it's tim e to look for th e po ttyther e are the usu al po rtacans , bu t a few ya rds u p th e hill is the magn ificent audi toriu m lo bby. icily air cond itione d , a nd a ll gra ni te and m arbl e. Almost eno ugh to m ake you wan t to sta y in th e jo hn . Dan Robertson leads Jim Ratliff 1541 and Gary Lawrence at Wichita. The entirety of th e Aqua Fest ival is floated on a sea of cold beer. No question of whether or not you ca n hav e a beer in th e pits. It 's probably illegal to not ha ve one . T housa nds and th ous ands of thirsty throats swill down cases and cases of coo l ones , a nd eac h and every em pty ge ts sto wed in a ll the nea t plast ic lined red , wh ite a nd-b lue City of Au stin trash ca ns. Even the weather was wonderful. Austi n in Au gu st ca n generally be awfully h ot. H o t e n ough to m el t asphalt - which is great for traction . Bu t th is yea r clo uds covere d m ost of the day , whic h kept the tempera tu re and su n stro kes down to a m in imum. The races themselves were aver age to bombshell. The 25 I ·500cc Grand Prix class .was defin itely th e ra ce of th e day. Try to im agi ne th e very wild est trio of bik es you could match on the sa m e course . St a rt with a 250cc Yamaha water pumper road racer. Natural for a road cou rse . Then , match the road racer against a Yamaha TT 500 thumper. a really fast one . Then add the last leg -of the trio , a Yamaha 400 YZ monoshock wearing road race tires . What a scramble: Benny Del Monico piloted the road racer while David Bearden unleashed the TT scoot. W ild man jack Hicks attacked at close r a nge with the YZ. Imagine, three radically different bikes with three radically different cornering styles flogging through tight comers within inches of each other. Neck to neck. elbow to elbow , wide ope n from start to fin ish . The lead changed countless times , and from tim e to time it was impossible to tell who was ac tually ahead . When th e'' dust cle a red , th e crowd sa w Del Monico pick u p the firs t. In ch es behind ca me Bearden . th en H icks, who had bobbled in tum five . on t he last lap . W ild , manl "Hey , Fred , we a lre ady finis hed t hat six cases of beer?" "Yup." "W ell , we better pick u p a cou p le more cases for th e tri p home." " Yup ." + 546 disqual ified ; 8. chri s Fox:; 9. Kevin Brun son ; 10. larry Kaigler . • GRAND PRIX.QPEN: 1. Gary Parker: 2. Raymo nd Johnson; 3. Paul St ephen son ; 4. Gene Schneider; 5. James Abreu; 6 . Dow Dameron; 7. Clint Davis; 8. Ja ck Kelley. 10. Ed White. Results In recent weeks C .D. Martin ' had wrestled the number one spot in Open class points from 1977's number one Tim Lindfors. So Tim got an XR-750 Harley , but C.D.'s old Yamaha still outran him . But Saturday, the quiet Swede from Lindsborg exploded to victory. Martin ran off with the heat so bad t ha t he spent the last two laps clowning for the crowd , going full lock slides and g iving th e peace sign , . standin g on th e seat" a nd popping wh eelies, etc . Martin also had th e lea d in th e fin al , bu t" Lindfors thunder ed frorn the b ac k of th e pa ck to ca tch him , hou nd him for five la ps a nd then , on the wh tie flag la p , fly a round th e (Con tinued to page 54 ) MAIN EVENT CAFE RACER-Q-4 1Occ: 1. Wayne Even: 2. Abe Cun er; 3. James Raw!; 4. Bobby Goodin; 5. Vernon Davis; 6. Tom Hall; 7. + 8 disqualified; 8. Ronnie lusnford; 9. Stephen Smith; 10 . WiJlliam Sylan. CAFE RACER411 ·75Occ: 1. Paul Stephenson; 2. Mike McAdams; 3. Andy Robbins; 4. Warren Eggen ; 5. Richard Phillips; 6. Greg Theod e; 7. Lewis Rompala; 8. BillyBryant; 9. bobby Goodin; 10. James Wiedie. CAFE RACERS-oPEN: 1. Paul St ephenson; 2. GlIfy Gates; 3 . Dan Morrison; 4. David Chadwell; 6. M ichael Rowland; 7. Charles T revino; 8. Mike Waldo; 9. Rene Chatagui er; 10 . Randy Sherma n. GRA ND PRIX-o-200cc : 1. Duncan Paul: 2. Dav id Langley; 3. Devin Brunson ; 4. J immy Braun; 5. Weldon Tadloc k; 6. M arvin McK im ; 7. Vernon Davis; 8. David Donaho ; 9 . Bill Rogers; 10. Blair Loburg . GRAN PRIX·201-25Occ: 1. Mark Cam pise; 2. Randy Hammond ; 3. M ich ael Turner; 4. Joe Fisher; 5. Chrles lang ; 6. Stephen Ti ppit ; 7. Ron M ayf ield ; 8. M ike Herzing ; 9. James Cantwell; 10. verdon Lem ens. GRAN D PRIX·251·5OOcc 1. Benny Del Mo ni co : (Yam); 2. David Bearden (Yam l; 3 . J ack Hick s VZJ; 4. W ayne Even ; 5. Bill Kasson; 6. Roland M cA dams; 7. Culver doubles, Lindfors zaps Maron, By Dick Ainsworth WICH ITA . KS,jULY 29 Phil Culver has had his ac t together all season . He has been plenty tough and wins quite often. He nearly has a runaway in the KMSA number one, cinched for 125cc and it appears that he will get th e nu m ber two in 250cc. But many wonder what would have happened if he had not had so many mechanical troubles in 1978 . But the motor gremlins stayed away from the Wichita jeeps' short track and .Cu lve r 's StaRacer machines. Maybe it was because it was too hot, 109 degreesl Culver was also hot and won both the 125cc and 250cc finals . jerry Hill took the lead in the 125cc final , but slid high in tum two and Culver took the ' lead. Kirk England and Dallas Babcock, who also battled in their heat with Babcock winning when England dropped back with mechanical trouble , fought for second. At the white flag England was close to Culver and Babcock was trying to take the runner-up spot , but Culver held them off to win . . Bill Snyder took the lead fro m Culver in the 250cc heat on lap th ree coming out of tum two with Culver dropping back with a broken exhaust bracket. Br ian Isabel took the lead in th e final followed by " Rocket Ron" Belt a nd Culver. All three mo ved awa y' from th e field and fou ght it out for the lead. Wi th two laps to go Culver began to move and he picked off Belt going into the white flag and then passed lsa~l on the back chute of the last lap to wm,

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