Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

gunaSeca Carr's .crunched Kawasaki and put him ou t. Am a zingl y none of th e riders were hurt. When it all cleared Roberts had a clear lead over Fish er with Gary Nixon , Paul Smart (Kaw), Mike Lane (Yam) a nd a ca u tious Cal R ayb orn following. Fisher passed Roberts as Rayborn began working his wa y towa rd th e front. Nixon fell and was out an d by lap five Fisher had a fou r-second lea d over Roberts with Rayborn just behind a nd Smart a bit fu rther ba ck . In five more laps Roberts was dropped to fou rth by Ra yborn a nd Smart while Fisher hung on to his fou r-second lead. On la p 20 Rayborn suddenly moved to with in one second of Fish er and p assed on t he next lap to take over th e lead. H e was never headed for the remainder of th e race , though it got a bit exciting in the final laps when Ra yborn wanted to take advantage of his 20 secon d lea d to pit for gas , just to be sa fe. W ith th ree ja ps to go Ra yborn came by his pit pointing frantically a t his gas tank , but his crew was unprepared for another stop. They waved him on and hoped he had enough gas to finish the race! H e took the checkered nag and the victory with a o nearly em pty tank! ~I Fisher had clu tch problems shortly after R ayborn I passed him for the lead a nd dropped back to finish ~ seventh. Smart had an expansion chamber break with 15 laps to go and nursed his bike to a fourth ~ place fin ish behind Gen e Romero (T ri) who moved ._ into second on th e 49th lap of th e race and finished in th at posit ion , and Kenny Robert s wh o finished th ird on th e 350 cc Yamaha . In 1973 Kaw asaki aga in sponsored th e race and though th eir original idea behind th e Ka wasak i Superbike title was based on public rela tion s, t hey wer e not adverse to the idea of winn ing t heir own race! Indeed they d ominated the eve nt in 1973 with a su per performance by th ei r green three -cylinder su pe rbikes . Gary Nixon took his second road r ace in a row followed by teammate Cliff Carr in second place . Third place fina lly went to T rium ph mounted AMA Number One contender Ga ry Scott, but until six laps from th e en d of th e race Kawasaki had a strang lehold on th e first fou r places in th e race! DuHamel, determined to m ak e up for his first lap crash 'of the yea r before , had the race sewn up and was com fort a bly in the lead when he slid off with six laps remain ing in th e racel DuHamel knew something was not quite right with his machine beginning three laps before he fell , but he thought it was just the shoc ks wearing ou t and was not overly co ncerned. But it was not a shock problem. A shiftsha ft seal had sta rt ed to leak oil on the rear wheel and when DuHamel swung a bit wide and gassed it to lap se ve nt h- p la ce Cal Rayburn ( wh ose underpowered H -D just cou ld not keep up with the powerful 1973 racers provided b y the other factories despite his riding talent) his bike just slid out and DuHamel retired . Kawasaki still held on to th e top three spots with Nixon in heriting the lead followed by Carr and Art Baumann, but two laps later Baumann failed to come around , his ignition had called it quits forthe day. Gary Scott inherited third as Ken Roberts who had been closing on Baumann several laps earlier after dicing with Scott ea rl y in the race had th rown a chain seven laps fro m the end of th e ra ce a nd retired. The 1973 ra ce was on e of the most exciting events held on the Laguna track wit h severa l close races wit hi n th e race consta ntly going on. Though they would have liked to ha ve the top three places in the race, Kawasak i was ob viously hap py with the res ults. (Clockwisefrom bottom , rigiu} Kenny Roberts, winner in '74-'75. returns to Laguna Seca after a years absence; Gary Nixon. winner, in '73 on a Kawasaki. puts the Green M eanie into an in credible iaheelstand; and Gary Fisher led the inaugural Laguna Seca race. Kenny Roerts dominated th e 1974 Laguna race, which was once again sponsored by Kawasaki , on his six-speed , 360 -pound , 120 hp, 180 mph, incred ibly strange handling TZ700 Yamaha. In th eir first year out , the forerunners of todays alldominating and very fas t TZ750s wer e brutal and violent machines best su ited to the super-speedway tracks and not th e twisty road courses. Roberts was one of only a handful of racers ever to master the TZ700 , perhaps its only real master, next to Giacomo Agostini (who won the 1974 Daytona event on one) and in 1974 Ken was still comi ng into his own as a road racer! DuHamel who rode with a sore hand , ca used by a practice crash before th e race, fin ished second wh ile Gene Romero , who over-thrilled himself all day long, finished third and remarked , "I did enough wobb lies out there - none of them purposely - to last me a lifetim e." Paul Smart (Suz) rounded out the top four . La st yea r's winner Gary Nixon , who had switched to the Suzuki team , did not ride due to inj u ries gained earlier in the year. Roberts was never headed during the race in which he shattered Nixon's old Laguna Seca track record for 75 m iles by better than 43 secondsl His average speed for the race was a hairy 92 .68 mph . After the race Roberts shrugged off congratulations and informed everyone he was lu cky to have _ finished the race at all. He had gotten off the road a nd started to lose the front end for no good reason on th e fifth lap whil e ru nning about 135 mph! "The handlebars wer e doin g tank slappers, the back wheel was b reakin g loose in th e di rt, and all I co uld do was try to save it by gassing it . 1 still don't know how I m ade it ," frowned Robert s. But it was Roberts' race on July 28, 1974 as he chased his 21

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