Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ =:daylolla'SQ------- e Journalist Alan Cathcart won the Lightweight contest. 20 comfortable lead. Phillippi was running second with the Moto Guzzi of Ronald Raymond moving up tochaJlenge. Phillip Fryday had advanced his BMW to fourth, and a lap later, Sharon Fridus was up to fifth. At the halfway point, the order for the top three remained as it had been. Fridus had taken over the fourthplace position, but found herself with a lot of ground to make up on the leaders. The ground came a little easier than expected. Phillippi retired from the race on the eighth lap and was followed a lap later by the leader, Williams. Raymond had troubles as well, and lost a lap. With four laps left to run, Fridus kept her cool and stayed in the lead, losing a lap to GP rider Church near the end of the race. Grady Miller/ Casuol/Michelin rider Mark Moulouz found himself advanced to second and the Ducati pilot stayed there. Third went to Fryday. Not expecting to win, Fridus seemed a little in shock in the winner's circle. "We worked so hard to set the bike up. It worked great and all I could do was work hard to ride it." Lightweight Modified The second BOTT race of the day featured the Lightweight (75Occ or less) Modified machines and the Stock class. The first start wave featured the former, and when the green flag dropped, Ducati-mounted Mark Mercadante took advantage of being on the pole (riders were gridded according to 1983 points) and led the field storming onto the infield. Alan Cathcart went quickly to work, however, and was leading off the banking at the end of the first lap. Triumph pilot Ely Schiess was up to second, and Michael Ingles advanced to make it two Triumphs in the top three. Cathcart was making no polite conversation in his quest for the win and had forged a seven-second lead after three laps. SchIess was hanging on in second, riding what he referred to as, "my 12-year-old sueet bike." Four laps further into the race, Cathcart had increased his lead over SchIess and Mercadante to 15 second. Ingles had two places taken away as he was passed by a Ducati duel involving Ste.ve Rathmeyer and Roger Sears. On the ninth lap, Ingles pulled into the pits and pushed his bike behind the pit wall. About that same time. Mercadante Church (8), Rob Sbordone (99) and Jimmy Adamo (1) escort the GP class across the line. Roger Reiman leads runner-up Malcolme Tunstall early in the race. Reiman ran off the track and dropped back. had reeled in Schiess, and while Ingles was pulling off the track, the New York rider made the pass to take over second. The hottest duel on the track was the one for fourth between Sears and Rathmeyer, or Rathmeyer and Sears, depending on where one viewed the action. They swapped back and fourth for five laps. keeping the track announcer very busy in an otherwise set running order. In the last few laps, however, Rathmeyer finally got higher paw (upper hand) in the battle and locked in to fourth, pulling a small lead on Sears. When the white flag was shown, Cathcart had let his advantage whittle down to 12 seconds, but that was still enough for a handy win. Mercadante was second with Schiess third. "No problems; the bike ran absolutely perfect," said Cathcart after the race was over, clutching a trophy. "We deliberately overgeared the bike because we weren't sure of the wind. The credit should go to Maurice Ugier, who buill the bike and did a superb job. The machine is a 580cc Laverda; probably a lot smaller than what the rest of the field was running. Maurice likes to go racing with bikes that no one else would likely favor." "We had the bike running better in the early pan of the week," said Mercandante, "but we blew it up and had to borrow some heads, so it was a little down on power. I would like to thank Reno Leoni for his help in setting the bike up." Third-placer Schiess still had a smile, saying, "Once the tires went away and started to get greasy. that was it. I should have changed them before the race, so it's my fault. Plus, the frame is cracked in half on the main backbone." Stock The Stock contest was no contest; it was Will Roeder's. The Roeder Harley -Da vidson/Harley- Da vidson, Inc./KK Supply/SouthEast HarleyDavidson/Sure-Fire-sponsored rider took the Stock lead from the start and soon obscured himself among the Modified riders who had started ahead of him. Second place did involve a battle; the battle involved Todd Welch on a Ducati and Brent Ross on a Yamaha. They went back and forth for the first seven circuits around the course, then late in the race, Ross made a move for the runner-up spot after trailing Welch through the middle laps. It worked and he was second across the line when it counted. "The bike worked perfect. You just couldn't have asked for a better one," grinned the young Roeder when the day was over. • Results STOCK: 1. Will Roeder (H·D): 2. Brent Ross (Vam): 3. Todd Welch (Ducl; 4. Frederic Frenzius (Vio); 5. Thomas Daubs; 6. Jim Cagle; 7. Dave Zupan; 8. Wayne Reise; 9 .• Paul Harrison; 10. John Wittmer. L1TEWEIGHT MOD: 1. Alan Cathcan (Lav): 2. Mark Mercadante (Due): 3. Ely Schiess (Tri): 4. Roger Sears (Duc); 5. Steve Aathmeyer (Duc); 6. Ed Culbertson; 7. Roger Eliasson; 8. Marcus Dav; 9. Rick Herndon; 10, Stanford Crane. GRAND PRIX: 1. Gene Church (H-D); 2. Malcolme Tunstall (Due); 3. Harry Klinzmann (MKM); 4. Roger Reiman (H-D); 5. David Roper (Due); 6. Martin Wimmer (BMW); 7. Ron Sbordone (Due); 8. Madison Cox (Due); 9. Jeff Elghanayan (Due); 10. R.V. Brockie (Due). HEAVYWT MOD: 1. Sharon Friduss (M.GI; 2. Michel Boulez(Oucl; 3. Phillip Friday (BMW); 4. Bob Sellers (Due): 5. Bud Riddle (Vam): 6. Ted Van Beek (Due): 7. Ed La Belle (Due): 8. Seppo Kouvo (Nor): 9. Mark Carozza (Due): 10. Ronald Raymond (M-G).

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