Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Vi ntage Motorcycle Days I I M A TT B ENSO N C L.ASS IC B IKE M AGAZ IN E O IRT TRAC K LEXINGTON, OH, JULY 7-9 t' s no doubt c onfounding to promoters how some ev ents flourish wh ile others fizzle . Th e organizers of AMA Vintage Motorcycle Da ys East at Mid Oh io Sports Car Cou rse have hit on tha t elusive secr et to success in cre ating an event that just k eeps outdoing itself y ear aft er year. The 2000 ed ition of VM D hel d tru e to for m - if so me particular asp ect wasn 't bigg er, it was better . And th at held espe ciall y true for th e Ameri can Historic Racing Motorc ycl e A ssociation co m pet iti on . T he weekend' s ra cing b eg an F riday in front of a pa cked gra ndstands crowd w ith ov er 160 d irt tr ack entr ies - up 30 from the 1999 tota l - at the Ashland County Fa irground s, a bo ut 25 m iles northeast of Mid-Ohio. The pre- 1952 Dinosaur class se t th e tone for the rest of the eveni ng 's finals. Craig B reckon t ook th e ho leshot on his T rium p h 50 0c c twin , but Georg e Will s was so on p ast th e M ich ig an rider ab oard h i s ha nd shi ft Ha rl ey -Davidson WR. With D enn i s Clark runni ng a lon ely th ird on anoth er Harl ey , Breckon w ork ed o n Will s S T O RY A ND P HOTOS BY I 46 JULY 26, 2000 ' cue I e n e vv s for the remainder of the race. Br ec k on got a bett er d rive off turn fou r coming up to the wh ite fl ag , slipped into th e lea d and held off his Ill inois rival by a wheel leng th at th e fin ish line. Gig Hamilton d id his best to make it a close one in th e next rac e, th e ov er -50 Senior cla ss, but his Ma ico motocrosser gave up just to o much di sp lacement to the Triumph 750 of Californian Martin Lewis on the fast cush ion half-mil e. Still , Ham il t on kept th e throttl e w ide o pe n t o fin i sh a close second ahead o f Larry We iss on a Yam aha . M ik e Connell managed to stay ju st out o f th e rea c he s o f C lass ic 250 class ch amp J ohn Bova, ridi ng a Bul taco tw o-stro k e in a field dominated by Harle y Sprints. Wendall Ware to ok t h ir d after a good battle wi th Ka rl Wilken. It was a two - strok e H a r l ey th at prove d t he class of th e fiel d in th e next fin al, Sp o rt sm an 25 0 . Co nnecticut racer Greg Bastek just held off a determined D onn ie Warf, wh o was work ing to o ve r com e a fuel -flow pr o blem with his Ossa DM R. The race for th ird involved as many as five rid e rs at t im es , and it was Yama ha m ounted K e ith B r y a nt eve n tually earn ing the position ov er Ti m Swain , Roger Davis , Dave Sch eff er and Billy Kennedy . Racing family p at r i a r ch D a vid A therton came off th e line hard and imm ed iatel y open ed a hug e lea d in Classic 500/750 , but th en hi s brak el ess BSA Gold Sta r beg an m a k in g ex pe nsi ve noi ses an d he pu ll ed off, hand ing th e lead to dirt track leg end Ronn i e Ra i l. Th e M i chig an d a ir y fa rmer was chased th e rem ainder of the race by Will s and Robe rt Li tten , who pulled awa y fro m a good battle for fo urt h involving Rusty Lowry ove r Bern ie B reec e. The top five all were riding Harley -D av idson KRs. Another fo rm er Pro , Rick Hock ing, earned the first of his t wo popu la r w ins in the o ve r - 3 5 V et eran class af te r a clo se , r a c e - l on g d i ce w ith Maryl and 's Bri an Eckh art. Following a red-flag -induc ed re st art , Ho cking came from the sec ond row to third by turn two. Qu ic kl y he was in second , his Bu lt ac o reel ing in Eckha rt's big Triumph twin . Hocking grabbed th e lead at t he h a l f w ay point. Eckhart ke pt it close for a wh il e, but Hocking grad ually inched awa y . Third went to Triumph -mounted Kenn edy. In the Sportsm an 600 fin al , th ere was no pr etense of k eep ing it cl ose . Ho ck ing blast ed off th e l in e o n a Yam aha TR3 -pow ered , Cha m p io n f ram ed ma ch in e an d proceeded t o op en up a hal f-la p lead o n the ho wl ing two-stroke tw in . T he race was for . second, with Hamil t on eve ntually tak ing it aft er rep eated ly trad ing posi tions w ith Yam ah a -m ou nt ed D oug Horner. The battl e fo r fo urt h went to BSA rider E d Vali ke t ove r D an Gedeon. Rail w as back o ut in the over-60 Super Sen ior final o n a BSA Single, p laying the high -l ow gam e with Tri umph rider Cu rt Zeiter. While Zeiter roared around cl ose to th e inside of the track, Rail would dive extrem ely d ee p int o th e t u rn s and zap Ze iter coming down th e st ra i g h ts . At th e c h eckered flag , Rail m ade su re he was t he lead er. Norm Gruber emerged in t h i r d after a race - long d ispu te with Sam Gray . Riding a borrow ed Yamaha , after his BSA b l ew up in pra ctic e , Mike Gilkey dom inat ed Sev enties Singles. Beh in d se c ond -pla c e fin i sh er Joh n Bower Jr., the battle for third went to

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