Cycle News

VOLUME 58 ISSUE 16 APRIL 20, 2021 P135 loose, and Alexander crashed as he came into the pits. After falling behind making repairs, Duhamel again rallied the team and put them back in the lead until a cracked cylinder put them out for good. That left the other Yoshimura entry of the Parriots alone in the lead. Pridmore made a late-race charge, but Mike Parriot was given the "EZ" sign from his crew and took the checkered flag with a 30-second cushion over Prid- more and teammate Marty Lunde. The race officially got the 6 Hours designation in 1975. That year was one of attrition among the front runners. David Aldana, teaming with Mike Par- riot, crashed the favored Yosh Kawasaki. Bob Endicott and Pat Evans had a crank break on their Z-1. The BMW of Reg Pridmore and Cook Neilson led a lot, but Neilson crashed when he ground through the Beemer's rocker-box cover. Team Hansen's blazing Laverda, with Keith Code and Lane Weil, got a flat tire, while Ron Pierce and Pat Lagan's BMW had a series of troubles that put oil all over the rear tire. Underdogs Martin Carney and Roger Hagie won the 1975 race on a box-stock Kawasaki Z-1 that had no oil showing in the crank- case window at the finish. The pair's prize money was $485. Carney and Hagie were Kawasa- ki employees who "borrowed" a company bike to race in that very first 6 Hours. Hagie remembers the strat- egy that won the first Ontario 6 Hours: "Martin was a Brit with GP ex- perience, so you know who was the faster," Hagie says. "Endur- ance racing wasn't very common in those days and a lot of teams came out and rode like they were in a sprint race. Martin and I just got into a nice smooth rhythm and eventually found our way to the front." Perhaps the biggest upset ever in the Ontario 6 Hours came in 1976. That year, Steve Mallonee and David Breetwor sneaked under the radar with a sweet-handling Triumph T160 Triple. As Breetwor described it, "All the hot rods blew up," and he and Mallonee motored to victory by four laps over Wes Cooley and Mike Parriot on a Yoshimura Kawasaki that was some 30 mph faster in top speed than the win- ning Triumph. "The original plan was to win the 750 Production class," said Breetwor. "I did a lot of club racing there [at Ontario], and I knew that if we turned 2:23s we'd probably win our class. Mallonee was a little more aggressive than me and he was turning some re- ally good laps, plus, we had our pit stops down to 25 seconds. I did okay until I found out we were leading the race and I started get- ting slower, I was so nervous. The headline came out after we won that said something about the tor- toises beating the hares and that rubbed me the wrong way." The next year, 1977, was the year the race really came into its own. It was held in April, the dead spot on the AMA calendar after Daytona, and with all the publicity the race received, the factories decided it was a good showcase. That year, Yoshimura had a Kawasaki entry with Wes Cooley and Tony Murphy and a Suzuki entry with Pat Eagan, Terry Waugh and John Ulrich. AMA Superbike standouts Keith Code, Reg Pridmore and Cook Neilson piloted a Racecrafters Kawasaki KZ1000. Paul Ritter, who would go on two months later to win the Sears Point AMA Superbike National, was in the race on a Ducati with teammate Vance Breese. David Emde and Harry Klinzmann were on a Lester Wheels Kawasaki KZ1000 and defending Ontario 6 Hours winner David Breetwor teamed that year with Jim Haberlin. A total of 82 bikes roared off the starting line at the '77 race, with 45 bikes surviving what was becoming a six-hour sprint race. That year might best be remem- bered for the massive scoring confusion that seemed to always plague the event. Cooley and Murphy were originally declared the winners on a Yoshimura Ka- wasaki Z-1 and Cycle News' cov- erage even heralded their victory. Four days later, the AFM issued a press release stating that Emde and Klinzmann were the ac- tual winners on a Lester Wheels Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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