Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Scotty Brown (inside) and Jeff Brown (outside) battle for the lead as George Lazor crashes in the background. M ike De lacy leads France' s Th iery Hilaire duri ng Saturday's heat number 18 in Oakland Alameda Co liseum; Hilaire f ini shed second . . International Indoor Ice Speedway Championship Series Brown hot• on Oakland ce By S cott Da lois io OAKLAND, CA, ocr. 9-10 Sco tty Brown is servin g quick notice to the competition th a t it is going to be a long win ter on the International Indoor Ice Speedway Championship circuit. Fresh off adoub lewinatTacoma, Washington, th e previo us weekend, Bro wn ventured to th e Oakland Alame da Col iseum and wo n both mai n event s in round two of th e series. Brown has been to tally dominatin g thro ugh the first two ro unds. H e has won all four main events a nd has taken 16 wins in 20 to tal starts . T he second do u ble-header round of the series had a different flavor. Round one had riders from th e USA, Canad a, Engla nd a nd New Zeal an d. These coun tries were aga in represent ed in round two and th ey were j o in ed by Czech oslo vaki a 's Al es Drym l, Stevan Elias of West German y and Th ierry H ilaire of Fran ce. Friday's openi ng race got as far as tu rn o ne before a .red flag flew. Nor thern Ca lifornia star Bart Bast took an ice sam p le and hi s mi scu e brought abo ut a com p lete restart. New York 's George Lazor, who had a tough' meetin g at Tacoma, seeme d to have refo und his touch and led all the way in the rerun over Bast and j eff Brown . Scotty Br own a n d Col o rad o ' s Kenny Peiper were aweso me in event three as th ey too k the first two places . a nd lapped the field. So uthern California speedway sta r Rob Pfetzing made his ice raci ng debut; he scored six points on Friday but didn't m ake a ma in event. Round one ended with Rob ert " Kid" Curry takin g event four 'over Dryml, Steve Martin and New Zeala nd's T ony Brigg s. That event also saw a red whe n Drym l went down while leading o n lap two. Briggs was deemed th e cause but pl ead ed to th e referee tha t he never touch ed th e Czech . He was sent to the penalty line for th e restart and could never mak e up the dis ta nce. After the even t Briggs smiled and said, " When th e girl carrying th e New Zealand flag fell during the rider's para de I should hav e kn ow n that . was a bad omen for me." Ro u nd two sa w an im p ressive La zor agai n race away for the win . Late in th e race Lazor was . years a head when Canada's Len Dill on , Ha rlan Bast jr. a nd Elias tangled bu t the re was no red flag. Scotty Brown kept pace with Lazor as he pu lled a sp ectacular wh eelie out of the gate in event seven and went o n to wi n over Curry. Curry hounded Brow n over th e o pening two laps but had to wa tch as th e veteran rider pu lled away a t the halfw ay poin t. j eff Brown ended the second round with a wi n over Martin and Engla nd's j oe Kreisberg. Bart Bast moved back into th e main event content ion with an easy triumph in even t 12. La zor dazzled the fans a nd th e competition with a n easy w i n in even t 13. That virt ua lly locked him into the main. Event I4 was more like a dem oliti on derby tha n a speedway race. It took four tries to co mp lete it bu t wh en the checkered fin all y came down, it was Scotty Brown and his Shoe i/ j us tice Broth ers/ RAZ Video/ Tom Bell Chevrol et/Quak er State/ Circle Industries j awa at the head of the pack. The first red came down whe n pole sitter Briggs a nd th e Brown brothers ta ng led just after th e sta rt . The Browns went down and when th ey go t back up both of th em gave Briggs a pi ece of their mind. . j eff Brown got th e gate o n the restart wi th Scotty second a n d . " Briggo" third. T his time the action got as far as lap two before Briggs and Scotty Brown tangled. Out ca me the red a nd Bri ggs a nd Sco tty agai n ja wed at each other. Briggs again found himself off the penalty lin e for the restar t. j eff Brown ga ted on the third restart bu t .Kni ss hooked up a nd hi t Sco tty Brown a t th e end of the first la p and they went down in the nastiest looking cras h of the meetin g. O ut came th e red agai n. Brown 's machi ne was bent but he made the restart and th is time took no chances. H e ga ted a nd about 20 m inutes after the first try to run the event, he took the checkered flag a he ad o f hi s brother. ' Betw een ro unds th ree and four, Rob Pfetzing, who was cont esting his first ever ice race, gu sh ed, "Th is is gre a t. It is even better th an dirt. I ca n' t wai t to ge t back o ut th ere." That became a pparent when he lined up for event 17. H e was in event 18 and had come ou t o ne race early. Ba rt Bast won th a t event over Briggs and Peiper. T hat put Bast into th e main. Pfetzin g go t sq uared away and ca me out for event 18 but Scott Brown kept u p hi s perfect score in the hea ts with a win over Mart in . A co uple of min u tes la ter Lazor closed the heats and kept pace with ' Scotty by win inghis fourth consecutive eve n t over j eff Bro w n . The brothers Bro wn would meet Lazor a nd Bart Bast in th e main. j eff Brown drew the pole with hi s brother o u t of two. Bast pu lled three with Lazor on th e o utside. Before the race could ge t underw ay the tapes were broken . They broke .around j eff Bro wn but th e in fractio n . was rul ed a mech anical fault with the ga te and everyone lined up once again. J eff Bro wn raced into the lead a t th e ou tset j ust ahead of Scotty and Lazor. Bast made it as far as turn th ree before he fell and slid along the frosty surface. As th ey hit turn one on lap two, Jeff Brow n had a very narrow lead over his brother but Lazor clipped jeff's rear wheel and hi gh -sided. That also slowed J eff for a moment and his younger brother, showing no respect, seized the opportu nity and streaked into th e lead . Scotty led the rest of th e way and both he and jeff whee lied across the line. Brown took a victory lap with the checkered flag and had a n ear-to-ear grin as he pulled off h is helmet. That quickly changed. Someone in formed referee H ank Gendusa that Lazor went down on lap o ne and half the field down meant a restart. Gendusa informed the riders of a rerun and Scotty Bro wn exp loded: " No way. I won it al ready . Get my bike o ut of 'here, I am not riding aga in." Ge ndusa the n ch ecked hi s records ' and he saw that Lazor wen t dow n o n lap two. H e decla red that the race w~s over and Bro wn again had the Will . Lazor thoug ht th at .he and Bast had gone down on lap one bu t after being informed that he went dow n on the second lap La zor had th e foll owing to offer. " I didn't realize th at. It is hard to tak e th e checkered flag 'a way from th e gu y who won. H e won fair and sq uare. What's done is done. T omorrow ni ght is ano ther night."

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