Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Roper romps (Continued from page 30) think of was that it jumped a tooth on the cam chain. It's a shame' I could have had it won." ' .Roper had passed Long and now Liebmann was holding off teammate Johnson for fourth. Soon after Liebmann's mechanical problems, Long was also slowed, pulll!lg .off o~ the lOth of 14 laps. "The umlOg slipped. It was running great. I th~>ught I could win it," said Long, adding that he was also having troubl with brake fade. With Long out and Liebmann slowing, Johnson trailed Roper by 23 seconds with three laps to go. Roper turned a I :23.90 a lap later. The win w~s Roper's ahead of Johnson with LIebmann holding on to third and Rogers fourth, after a protest about the scoring. "When the pack took off I tried to stay with them," Johnson said, "but I was afraid I was going to drop it. They had too much motor. I made it into an endurance race and it worked." "I thought John and Curt had a little on the bowl but I got tbrough the fast-sweeper better. I also thought Dameron was the man to beat but he threw itaway. I was a ways back but I saw it tumbling across the infield" Roper said. ' Roper was aboard a 1962 AJS 7-R in the Lightweight One class and had an easy race after last year's winner, Malcolme Tunstall, crashed in the horseshoe on the first lap. Tunstall remounted and moved back in.to second place before dropping out late in the 10 lap race. After two laps Roper, running at a I :30 pace, had a 12 second lead that ballooned to 22 at the halfway point. Tunstall was still in second then with Craig McLean third on a N orto~ ahead of Roper's teammate Marco Polo, ~lso AJS-mounted, and Joe Lachmet on a Yamaha twin. By the end Roper had almost a minute on McLean who led Polo over the line by two seconds. Lachniet was about 10 bike lengths back. Roper was the last one in after ~he race having to be towed ill by IndIan-mounted Philip Childs. . "It got real rough-sounding after the race and I just pulled in the clutch to be on the safe side," he explained. Of the race he said that "After Tunstall fell off I was pretty much alone." Besides Roper, John Long was the only rider to register multiple wins taking his first in the Two-Strok~ Gran Prix class. Long jumped out to an early lead in the six-lap event with only Keith Gonyou able to keep even remotely close. Long accelerated much har~er on the banking with Gonyou closmg the gap on braking. Larry Hanlon, wearing a motocross flak jak and riding an RD Yamaha was third. . Hitting traffic on the white flag lap, Long pulled away for a foursecond win over Gonyou with Hanlon leading Lyn Garland across the stripe. All but one of the II riders in the class was Yamaha-mounted. Long's machine was a 1973 model that started out as a TZ350, but sported air-cooled cylinders today. "Yamaha only produced air-cooled 350 cylinders for one year," Long said, then added that it was the same bike that he won the 1973 Junior Road Racing Championship with. . His machine for the five-lap Lightweight Three class was a water-cooled six-speed Bultaco TSS 125 which Long was surprised to find had both a Femsa ignition and tachometer when he acquired it recently. The races held no surprise though Beno Rodi rode his Indian .to the Pre-War class victory. and he romped to a straightaway win over Mark Sturtevant and Long's brot~er Geoffary Long, on a Benelli. Mike Green, the head of the California Vin~age Racing Group came close to takmg two classes with a 'win in the Lighweight Two and second in the Sportsman 750. His win in the Lightweight Two went largely unnouced stOce the class was run with the Lightweight One class. Ducatimounted Green beat fellow Ducati pilot Michele Brisson with Mike Canepa third. In the Sportsman 750 Green led for the midportion of the race before being passed for the win by early race leader and defendingchainpion Frank Shockley. Both were Triumphmounted with third place Jim Abreu a distant third on a Norton. The Sportsman 650, which ran with the 7505, had just two finishers ~ith George Rockett's Triumph bestmg Bob Reynolds' Norton. The first rider across the finish line in the Sportsman 500cc class was BSAmounted John Zwerican. Unfortunately Zwerican was on a 650and was riding in the wrong class. The first 50~ across the line was the Triumph twtO of Glen Towery who inherited the lead on the seventh of eight laps ~hen Ted Hubbard dropped out while to front. West German Karlheinz Huber put his Honda 450 into second place with David Matthews third on a BSA Golden Flash and Mark Samuelson fourth, also on a BSA. Samuelson came back in the Pre1950 class to lead all six laps and take a close win on his Norton. Pat Moroney ran second most of the race before running into trouble on the fifth lap and dropping to fifth. Wayne Allen took over, and finished second with Pat McHenry third and Beno Rodi fourth, both on Indians. An Indian also took Rodi to his only win of the day in the Pre-War cl,,:ss with fellow India'n rider George Wilson second and Larry Feece third on a Rudge. • Looking for a good .deal"! Read the Cycle News Want Ads. [~ 1985 Yamaha ~ Imme~~~~~~~ .......... . w. _ _ ...... 52,895.00 Huge Inventory Of CR Parts!!!!! CR SlIpport DuJer Fast UPS Service Daily 1987 TZR 2505 InS'fd' F~or-==Ex-..., ~:':';.t ORDER BY PHONE TOLL 'FREE (800) 647·5700 Call 'or Prices M_.c.rd, VIsa ...lplM ...... deposits • (NatIon",itlelncludln, H.....) M=lIU:~ iRm.moaR) 3303 W".r _ . Wio....'. Omrio 5 minutes from'Detroit lew 3R9 (800) 356-5700 (WIsconsin) C.O.D. or charge To Visa-MC :. . . . . Info: 519/966-6035 Ask For Bruce or Randy Cedarburg. WI e\S' pants· <;I\8llS, etC, full Slleet \.ea\llllfS: Jacl\ CATALOGUE: $3.00 Vanson Leathers, Inc. 58 Thayer St., Boston, MA 02118 (617) 426-3907 '(800) 343-2124 Results 2·STRK GP: 1. John Long (Yam); 2. Keith Gonyou (Yam); 3. Larry Hanlon (Yam): 4. Lyo Garland (Yam)' 5. Stan Nicholson (Yaml. . SPRTSMAN 500: 1. Glen Towery (Tri); 2. KarlhelOz Huber (Hon); 3. David Matthews (BSA)' 4 Mark Samuelson (BSA); 5. John Stauffer (Hon): . F-750 4-STRK: 1. David Roper (BSA): 2. Pete Johnson (Tn); 3. Kurt Uebmann (Hon); 4. Robert Rogers (Tri); 5. Chris Scott (Nor). PRE·1950: 1. Mark Samuelson (Nor); 2. Wayne Allen (Tn); 3. Pat McHenry (Ind); 4. Beno Rodi (Ind); 5. Pat Moroney (H-D): PREMIER 500: j. David Roper (Mat); 2. Pete Johnson (Hon); 3. Frank Mrazek (Hon); 4. Paul Dean (Mai); 5, Lee Parker (Tri). PRE-WAR: 1. Beno Rodi (Ind); 2. George Wilson (Ind); 3. Larry Fe."e (Rud). SPRTSMAN 650: 1, George Rockett (Tri): 2. Bob Reynolds (Nor). SPRTSMAN 750: 1. Frank Shockley (Tri): 2. Mike Green (Tn); 3. J,m Abreu (Nor):4. Lee Parker(Tri): 5. Don Bannerman (Tri). LIGHTWT 1: 1. Dave Roper (AJS); 2. Craig McLean (Nor): 3. Joe Lachniet (Yam); 4. Marco Polo (AJS): 5. Alan Cathcart (AJS). L1GHTWT 2: 1. Mike Green (Due): 2. Michele Bnsson (Duel; 3. Michele Brisson (Due); 4. Jeff Hecox (Due); 5. Wenda II Ware (Due). L1GHTWT 3: 1. John Long (BuQ; 2. Mark Sturtevant (Yam): 3. Gaoffary Long (Ben); 4. Alan Barker (Bul); 5. Danny Jaworski (Hon). . YAMAHA RZ500's A,Y.'" from stock In Toronto or CorftWllll. or we'lllhip. 86 RZ500 13.000. 'U RZ350 from 12.100. (U.S. " ) CaMdlan SpIe. FZR750. FZR1000Awl..... from ItOCk. yI. & V.rna'" Out:tK.rd MotON AlIIO Av.lIabie. HURST YAMAHA Distributors or O••lers C.II for product CA"'ADA'S LARGEST rA"AHA DEALER 158IT1oe..........,.r• _(418)255-3441' .700 _ _I An.. Cor_I. Otit. P""'"'1613) 932-1465 .-.Ont. Florida Dealers Wholesale Only 800/223·5996 -- S&vJ1ene (213) 946-3581 !.IB.. . . . . . . . LT2S0R , TIIis Week's . SPECIAl. 900 W. 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