Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126479
o - PAPERS eo en T he weatherman can - and does - pl ay funny games when it comes to racing. Over the Fourth of July weekend, the only place it rained and the win d blew was right on top of Topeka , Kansas where the National ha lf mile was to be heIdi 'It not only knocked out the event unt il August , it also moved over the all-important $35, 000 W inston payo ff to th e Ascot N a tion a l IT next Satu rday night . Aga in th is yea r , W insto n will p ay the amount to t he riders that a re in t he top 10 a t the hal fwa y m ark . Tha t mark falls on the 19th of this month with every one of th e 10 payoff spots still open to cha nge. At least five addi tiona l riders are trying to move u p on the ones that are already in a payoff position.. (PR ESS TIME CORRECTION : AMA has since inform ed Cycle News t hat the mid -season Winston Pro payoff unll be awarded based on t he series standings prior to the postponed Topeka even t. Ha nk Scott has earne d top Wi nston bu cks with St eve M oreheaii and Randy Goss taking the "show" and "place " positions. Eit her way, th e Ascot T T will be a great show . R ead on . . . Editor.) T he Ascot affair, as in past yea rs, is really a double-h ea der with th e annua l Ga rdena Gold Cup half mi le ru n ni ng for big bu cks on Fr id ay night for th e eigl!t h year in a row . The next night is the 19th runn ing of th e National T'T' , plu s a J u nior IT " Invitationa l" spon· sored by Am erican Honda . Ther e's $35 ,000 a d di tiona l dollars at 'stake plus a few a dditives, such as Gary SCOll go ing back to th e winnin gest IT b ike of a ll time - h is faith ful Trium ph t ha t has won him eight previous IT Na tiona l races. SC is tied for th e a ll tim e IT win Oll to ta l with Dick Ma nn . Last year's Ascot winner , St eve Eklund , will try to break his win / tie with Bart Markel at six victories ea ch and move into the all time fourth place notch a ll by himself. Eklund rode a Yamaha 750 twin to the win last season and will probably b back on the same machine this year - still try ing for his first win of the 1980 ~aso n . T he two previous National T'Ts th is yea r at Houston and Chicago have produced winners aboard 500cc sing les. Ascot should be a d ifferent story, Ascot is the biggest , fastest and also the most d ifficult at speed , over any other IT track on the National circuit. Houston produced an upset winner in Kenny Roberts and Chicago's Santa Fe Park was an even bigger upse t with flat tracker, Ro nnie Jones the winner. Both tim es the machine was a Yamaha 500cc single . No less than 10 di fferent riders that have won National IT races in the pa st will be entered a nd trying for on e of the 16 spots in th e final. It doesn' t leave much room for a luck -in ride by a r.id~r ~i t h little IT experience nor for rooki es. Three rookies made it to th e final last yea r , but the best finish was a distant ninth . In t he past 18 Ascot IT events, d a tin g ba ck to th e ea rly '60s, onl y two ride rs have ever made a 500cc single run with the 750s. Dick M ann rode a single to th e win back in '63 for one of the biggest u~ts of all tim e. Last yea r Rick Hocking rod e a Honda single to second place , riding harder and faster tha n he has before , or since. W ith 16 rid ers in th e fin a l, two m ore t ha n th ey a llow at Hous ton or Ch icago, point lea de r Hank SCOll m ay see his lead go d own th e d ra in if (I) he fails to q uali fy for the final , or (2) if he fails to finish in the top 10 , Last yea r he ra n sixth , To add to the woes of the top' ra nked gu ys going for the bonus is the fa ct that three time IT winner, J a y Springsteen is a set entry for th e race. J ay re tu rned to racing a few weeks ago a t a half m ile in Ohio and won it go ing awa y. At Houston , he was go ing for the win and fell , got back up and finishe d a closin g fourth . He was not entered a t Chica go . He was sevent h at Ascot in '79. Steve Morehead , one of the riders th at can take over th e po int lead , by his own admission , is not fond of th e Ascot IT track or IT events in ge nera l. Alex J orgensen , a one -time winner of the Ascot event a nd another 'rid er near the top in th e standings, d id not qu ali fy for th e final th ere last yea r. Randy Goss, a three -time Nationa l winner last year as a privateer , has yet to win a 1980 National as a full fa ct ory rider. H e finishe d th ird at Ascot in '79 Oll, a nd, like Moreh ead a nd Hank SC has never won a Na rional TT final. On paper a t least, it looks like it cou ld be a b ig n ight for Ga ry SCOll, Steve Eklund , Alex jorgensen a nd th e gu ys that will rid e th e 750cc twins . Ma rk down the factory twins of Spring. stee n and Goss as the darkhorse/outside fa vorites and th e long shots to be anybody on a 500cc single. It 's going to be a long, rough night for point leaders Hank SCOll and More head , so it seems. Either wa y, the best rid er will win, and if it follows the IT pattern th is yea r it will be an up~t surprise win ne r. Of all the non-TT winners that are entered Randy Goss looks like the one most rea dy to win his first - if he can get by gu ys like Gary and Stev e . Kent Howerton ce lebrated his 26th birthday at the los Angeles Co liseum where he raced in the Coca·Cola Bottlers' Superbowl of Motocross. Wife Jill baked the cake and brought it f rom their home in San Antonio. TX for the Ca lifornia race, Machinery specialist Bob Onow got to playing around with h is 504 Malco. and before he knew it. the project evolved into what you see here, The m otor was bored out to nearly 6OOcc. and the cylinder water jacket was constructed with the aid of leckich Tuning. On July 13 at the L A. Co liseum. the Vietor Mclagle n Motorcycle Drill Team led by Col, Harry Fisher (bu ri ed, but at the controls of this Harley·Davidson) set a new world's record by putting 22 men on one motorcy cle. T he Friday nigh t ha lf mile finds Gary Scott the defending winner. It is also th e only time du rin g th e yea r on ce agai n when fans can see a half mile one night and a IT the next. Remember, all street riders pa rk free, (Though t I wou ld th row tha t in d ue to infla rion.) Roxy Rockwood 3