Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dave Pieper and John Boaseman slide out on the ice. Pieper went on and finished fourth in Saturday's North American Chempionship. Gary "Ice Man" Ford won everything in sight at the International Championship Event ice racing at Salt Lakes's Salt Palace. Eric Rooker (8). Mike Corte. (6). Mike Jaundon (12) and Scott Ormiston (14) bettie in tIw second heet race with Omiston winning. North American Ice Speedway Championship/ World CfJI Finale The Ice Man taketh it all By Dorde Woodruff Photos by Jim Olive SALT LAKE CITY, UT, NOV. 8-9 Ontario, Canada's Gary "Ice Man" Ford came to the final event of the International Championship Events (ICE) season at Salt Lake's Salt Palace, and won everything - every heat race he was in in the two individual days of ;acing the North . ' Amencan Ice Speedway Championship (Saturday night), and the World Cup Ice Speedway finale (Sunday afternoon). Ford possessed high score for the season going into the two-day event, 52 points. Neither one of the runnersup, tied at 49 points, Scotty Brown of Ohio, and George Lazor, a New York resident, had a very good weekend. In fact, after Saturday during which Lazor had bike problems and Brown pylon problems. it would have been virtuaIly impossible for either to surpass Ford. ICE's version of speedway ice racingissetuplikespeedwaychampionship matches. nat is, rather than scratch and handicap elimirtations, each of the 16 rider runs in four of the 24-lap heats, ridingagainst every other contestant, and from each starting posit!on at least <;mce. Three points are given for a Win, two for second, and one for third. The four high scorers of the 20 scratch heats compete at the end in one main event. Just as dirt-track speedway was often associated with horse tracks, ICE races are held in hockey arenas. Action was fast on the Salt Palace's one-tenth mile track, so fast that if you blinked you were likely to mis a pass. Although it provides a winter outlet for speedway riders, ice speedway in this country is so new thai up until now there haven't been many events per year. These are in widely scattered parts of the country, and most riders find it hard to go to all of them. So they don't get much practice, except for the ones who live where there is natural. outdoor ice. And make DO mistake, ice speedway is different. as top California dirt speedway riders from Sam Ermolenko on down found out last winter in Fresno, riding against Lazor and Brown. So that's why good riders who have stuck with ice speedway -like Ford, Brown, and Lazor - are in a class by themselves. Ford drew a place in the very first heat, and demonstrated the most common patlern seen when one of these three was riding: an exhibition of classy speedway riding which was a joy to watch, by one guy who pTaeticaIl y lapped the field by the end of the heat. With maybe a good fight for second place. Already in heat two there was a restart, which happens if two or more bikes go down in the first lap. Ice speedway has even more spills than regular speedway, it seems. Lazor started his bad day in the fourth heat. a pin in the front of the primary opening the master link in the primary chain. Ordinarily he never has bike problems. Then his new clutch stuck. AIl this caused him to miss the main. Heat seven, the next motorcycle race which foUowed two ATV races, saw the first of Brown's problems with cutting too close to the pylons. Brown on the outside did not get off to as good a start the second time, after a restart because both he and Lazor went down. He finally grabbed the front position in turn two of the last lap, but was disqualified for touching a cone, and for. in the referee's opinion, riding off one of the others too aggressively. The crowd, which liked Brown's vigorous style, did not like this decision. Heats II and 12 were also ATV races. In heat 13 Bart Bast of California made a good quick start but couldn't keep up the pace. In 1976, at the height of a flurry of speedway interest by a few local riders. Salt Lake's only dirt speedway events were held in July and November at the Salt Palace. Bart's cousin, speedway great Mike Bast, rode in these two events. Though they followed horse shows, keeping down the cost of hauling dirt in for the track, the Salt Palace proved to be too expensive a facility for the gate, and no more economical one could be found. Heat 16 saw a father and son race, George and John Lewis from ew York. George, 48, demonstrated that the old man can still beat the kid. Lazor, with his clutch problem, crossed the line behind Ohio's Brian Daily, fourth in season's accumulated points up to now. But Daily also to.uched a pylon, giving Lazor the Win. Heat 22 saw another couple of relatives competing against each other, the brothers Pieper from Denver, Ken and Dave, who rank close to each other in the results. Dave won this particular heat. Another brother also races, and mother and father are the pit crew. They started with dirt track. but prefer speedway be,cause it is .safer, with not so many riders crowding the track at a time. Heat 24, the most exciting of the day, featured Brown on the pole, Ford next, then Daily, then Mike Jaudon of Colorado, one of the newer riders. Ford and Daily had perfect scores up to now. Brown, formidable when he is mad, managed all the way to the flag to hold off Ford, usuaUy quite adept at grabbing the lead from any position, with Daily right behind. Nineteen-year-old Bart Bast ran a good race in heat 25, after a restart, but Lazor passed him about halfway through to win. The pace was accelerating, with the field for the main still not decided. In the last scratch heat, dirt tracker Randy Green of Washington had the pole, followed in the lineup by fifthranked Steve Martin of California. Scott Ormiston of Colorado, and George Lewis. Martin and Ormiston went down, calling for a restart. Green jumped out, Ormiston got a pylon. and Green developed a big lead, with Martin second. The main consisted of Ford on the pole. with 14 points, Martin next in line, with 11, Dailey with 13, and Dave Pieper with II. Ford (of course) won. Brown's dislike of the pylons brought up some other disputes with management - and unfortumitely Brown did not ride on Sunday. Infield markers in jce speedway vary somewhat with the track and the promoter. Some of the other riders also had trouble with these particular cones, but Brown's style seemed to be the most incompatible. Being already behind Ford in points this year. the disqualifications ruined Brown's chance of.r.epeating his last year's season title. Even on Sunday, Lazor lost his first heat. Though hockey arenas are all more or less .the same, there are some differences, in the quality of the ice for one, and probably the problems with the bike had not allowed Lazor to dial in for this track. After that, he was at his usual best ... too late to catch Ford. Lazor's and Brown's less than satisfactory weekends in Salt Lake might be mitigated by the happy thought of the two of them going to New Zealand in a couple of weeks as part of a six-man team assembled by that speedway immortal Ivan Mauger. Ice speedway being a relatively new sport in this country. the sponsoring organization is willing to look for solutions to problems. On Sunday the offending pylons on the turns were cut down close to their bases. The ice itself was newly prepared before Sunday's races, and was so slick and slippery three ATV races were run off first to get it scuffed a bit. (Continued to page 23)

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