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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127365
eICE RACE I AMAAmateur National Cham~ionship Ice Races Craig Pickett ( I) fights off Tim Lowe (50) and Doug O'Boyle in the 500cc A Studded class; O 'Bo yle scored the win. Pickett (9IX) he ld o£f Dan Crawford (52C) an d O 'Boyle to capture the overall win in the Open Studded class . O'Boyle rini shed a close secon d. Don R utledge an d Don Burgess ( I) edged o ut Dave Scofield an d Tom T ucker (3IS) to tak e the overall win in the Open Sidecar class . Title fightson the rocks By Grace DiBened etto an d Norm Wes t Photos by Photo Sp ort/ N ick Devinck ~ ALBRIGHTSHORES, M JAN. 26-27 I, he weather wa,s perfect (freezing cold) for the Amateur National Ice Races. Three AMA Distri ct 14 clubs - the Po lka Dots, Valley Trail Riders and T ri Cit y Comp - jo ined for ces to pro vid e th e man/women power and expe rt ise it takes to hold a very professional and smooth ly run T 22 two-day event as large as the Na tionals. Although the weather was cold th e spec ta tors, wh o were standing threedeep a long the fen ce soo n warmed up as the races heated up. Bryan Bigelow took the lead in the 85cc (7-11) class and never looked back. Brice Edm onds claimed the second p lace tro p hy af ter a hard foug h t race between J eH Randolph, Brandon Rose. a nd J oshua Woods. Rose and Wood s had a very bu sy day of raci ng . As soo n as thei r class -was o ver they raced. orr to Fli nt, two hours away, to co mpete in th e Flint M.C. -hosted indoor charity event. Michi ganite Leo Wi seman from Byron Center, Michi gan , took th e chec kered £Jag in the 85cc (12-15) class with Sco tt Sarge nt second and Paul Lync h of No rt h Dako ta third. End uro and ISDE rider J err Fredette of Ill inoi s won h is 200cc class heat and final in fine style. It looked like a two man race between Fredette and Brad Lo we (last year's Na tio na l winner) unti l Lo we took a fall in turn one th at cost him th e race. New York Stat e's Robert , Weiss took a distant second with Todd Piechowski of Michigan in , third. Michigan rid ers gr abbed the top three po sitions in the 250cc Rub ber So lo cla ss. Michael Wi lliams won wit h Douglas Thering second and Ro bert Cadistra nt th ird The 360cc Rubber Sidecar winner's circle was an all- Mich igan a ffair. The fina l was a hard fought race that took everyo ne flat-out to the chec kered £lag . Bryon Bom an a n d Will iam Maynard took first with John Granz ow and Kurt Sch eu r in second. Third place went to Mark Sparling and Douglas Loxt on. Spa rl ing and Loxt on then gassed it hard to lake the 500cc Rubber Sidecar class win . T im H annar and Matt Ph illips took second wit h Norman Forestn er and Bret Peterson takin g third. In the Open Rubber Sol o class th e legendary Leo Anthony took th e win. Leo takes th e corne rs in the Rubber cla ss' lik e most of us - ride o n wet concre te. Fe llo w Mi chi g an racer Geo rge Ranney tried to give Anthony co mpe tition as did Ted Arnent of Co lorado , but neither cou ld match Anthony's style. J am es Murray topped the 250cc B class with Tim Flynn second and T odd Piechows ki third. Har ley-Davidson fans went crazy as Stanley Cope and Joe Gonza les of Michigan scor ed the Open Ru bber Sideca r cla ss win . The team of Tim Roel en s/Mike Nitschke took second with Larry Roelens /Norman For stn er, like the runner-ups, riding a Triumphpow ered rig , th ird. Eric O 'Bo yie took th e lead away from Roland Curler early in the first 500cc A Studded Sol o cla ss heat race. Cur ler returned the favor by taking th e lead back j ust in time to win. Rob Stanic k and Lyle Barber earn ed a place in th e final with their th ird and fourth pl ace fini shes. Tim Lowe successfu ll y held o rr a two-man attac k by Doug O 'Boyle and Craig Picket for his heat number two victo ry. O'Boyle passed Pickett on th e backstretch on the white £Jag lap to, take second. Don Waldbuesser wo n the sem i with Mike Babka and Mark Carlson fig h ting off th e rest of the field for the last two pl aces in the final. O 'Bo yle wasn' t lookin g for a repe at of hi s hea t race performan ce and got around Lowe and Picket by th e end of lap o ne to take o ver the lead , wh ich he kept all the way to the checkered £Jag. Most of the actio n was go ing o n behind O'Bo yle as Tom Brettrager had sys tema ticall y ' worked his wa y u p through the pa ck and by lap four had ' ta ken over Lowe's third pl ace position. On the sixthlap, Breu rager launched a wh eel-to-wheel cha lle ng e with Pickett, taking over second by the white flag lap . With less th an one lap to go there was not eno ug h tim e to go aft er O 'Boyle's lead , but that didn 't sto p Breurager fro m tryin g, earn ing him a great deal of chee ri ng from the lar ge crowd of specta tors. T h e 400c c S tudded So lo class brough t o ut a grea t asso rt ment of bikes - th ere were pl enty of o lder Yamahas and Bultacos, but Suzuki, Honda , KT M, Husqvarna, Kawasaki, ATK and even Maico were represented. Pau l Wackerl e took the first hea t on hi s KTM a nd Larry Pi ek os took th e chec kered flag easily in the seco nd. R ichard Pears on, wh o had run into some difficu lty in the first heat, used this last cha nce to make it into the final to hi s advantage by winning the semi , Richard In gersoll foll owed him across the line in second making sure Suzuki would be represented in the final. Wackerl e's victory in th e fin al didn't come easy as he had to fight o£f Don, Curler every inch of th e way. In the 250cc A Studded Solo class, Curtis Stapert led all the way to the checkered flag in - the first heat race with Erin Earl y, Tom Brettrager and T om Weiss trying hard to catch him. After tradin g pl aces back and forth and getting bumped aro und a few times, Weiss took the advantage and held it for a second place fini sh . J e£f Fredette eas ily won the seco nd heat . Bradley O 'Boyle (the O 'Bo yle family was well , represented a t th e Nationals with six famil y members ente red) tri ed to ca tch Fredette, but in fail ing to do so pick ed up a second place fini sh . Tony Giorno took' the £Jag first in the semi wi th Robert Weiss clos e on his heels. The two hea t race winners opened up large gaps between th emselves and th e rest of the field in the final, leavin g Earl y, Weiss, Brettrager and J eH Chapko to battle it o u t for third. The four riders diced it up until the end with Earl y emergi ng in third behind winn er Fr ed ette a n d runner-up Stapert, -The 360cc Studded Sidecar class heat race and main event turned into a battle of the Hondas. T he team of Robert Willi s and G. Stienhoff took the advantag e over Mike Hoffma n and Randall Rap p in the heat , bu t H offman and Rapp pulled o ut all the sto ps in the final and won the nu mber on e plat e. Keith R oot ,a n d J a m es Murra y looked as if they were o ut for a Sunday drive (it was Sunday) as they came across th e finish line all by themselves in the first 650cc Studded Sidecar clas s hea t. Scott Gatto and Jay Wildfever