Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

co {j u. ~ w Z W ..J U >- U T his is a symbolic photograph . Numbers 21. 72N , and 91 stand for the hundreds of indoor shorttrackers who spent a weekend trying go get in front of Steve Hernandez for even the teensiest of moments. Number 19. of cou rse, stands for Steve Hernandez. Joe frazier says,---------....- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ''Wowl Those guys ~That are crazyl" The Weekend By Don Woods NEW YORK, N.Y., Jan. 24 , 1972 After only two years, the Ya ma ha Silver Cup Race has become the premier event for indoor racing. With the advertised purse of S15 ,000 in mind, every racer that could beg, borrow or steal a bike made it to the sixth floor of the Madison Square Garden complex. Prior to last year's event the New York press had sensed something unique in the first motorcycle race held in the big city. The resulting publicity caused a stomping, cheering, SRO crowd of 17,000 to tum out. This year's event was old hat to the jaded New York press and poor publicity resulted in 7,0 00 empty seats. Although successful, the show didn't have the electric excitement that a packed house can generate. Promoter Don Bynner saw to it that the cro w d was well entertained with bands, maj orettes and World Boxing Champion Joe Frazier filling in the gap s between the racing. Th e AMA st aged the even t just lik e it was a National, holding qualifying time trials and limiting th e field to 48 The qualifying was so start ers. co mp etitive that less than ha lf a seco nd separated the field . Fresh from his first big win the d ay before at th e Spectrum Indo or in Phil adelphia , y oung Steve Hernandez, a firs t-ye ar Novice fro m Sunnyval e, Cal if., mad e it tw o in a r ow b y ta king every th ing in sight during th e eve n ing's racing. Steve, who rides an Oss a with a special frame built by Dick Mann (not a DMR ) did most of his winning b y ma king flawless starts. O nce away in fro nt of t he field , he would cut every lap in exac tly the same line, as if h e we re fo llowing a pain ted line . The res t of th e field had to do the typical indoor th in g, cras hing an d bangi ng for positio n in the corners and h oping that when th ey fell, eno ugh of them wo uld go down so th at th ey could ge t a re start . Un less you 're Steve Hernandez, it really pays to be a bad guy to be successful at indoor racing. If you can get inside a competitor in a corner, you may get around him, but sometimes you wind up under him. What it usually takes to win at indo or racing is a lot of muscle, a nd enough brassiness to fake your competition to the outside in the comers. Unless you're Steve Hernandez. Wat ching his first ra ce, he avyweight champion Joe Frazier kept sa ying over and ove r, 'wow: those guys are crazy! Those guys ar e crazy; the champion had been brought in to present the beautiful Yamaha Silver Cup to the winner, but his presence created about as much excitement as that of the ra cers. Hernandez completely " zapped the field o ff the starting line" in the feature. The only rider th at was close to him was Mike O 'Brien, another of those California indoor racers . O 'Brien , also getting a go od start off th e lin e, held second fo r th e entire race. But it was a distant second as Hernandez was in h is own world. Robert E. Lee, w inner of last y ear 's Santa Fe N ati onal Championship Short Track, gave O'Brien a good ra ce fo r second ea rly in the going but fin all y had to settle for third as O'Brien pulled away n ear th e end. Rick H ocking, California, edged in to fourth spot ahead of Dave Aldan a, wh o was ridin g th e o nly fo ur-stro ke in th e featur e. Dave was using a bo rro wed T riump h 250 and whil e th e ma ch in e see me d to be a littl e down on horsepower, A ldana made up fo r it by using anything he could to get aro und th e track . He was the most exciting rid er of the nigh t to watch as he bounced off walls, han d leb ars, wheels an d any bodies th at wer e sticking out too fa r in h is effort to keep up with the faster bikes. Finish ing six th (a nd the closest Yam ah a to th e Silver Cup) was firs t year Expert Mik e Kidd of Texas. He rn an d ez, besides h is money for the Kid' Couldn't Be Beat heat wins, pocketed o nly $ 74 0 for .h is first place finish. If this sound a little small for a $15 ,000 purse ra ce, it's because it was only a $15,000 race if yo u were riding a Yamaha. A third of the purse was contingen cy money posted by the sponsor. Regardless, there's one very happy young.racer on his wa y back to California after doing it to just about all o f the nation's to p riders. Wonder if he can ride on dirt? Steve Hernandez Oss M ike O'Brien . . • . • .. . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . • . . . Sui Robert E. Lee O ss Ric k HOcking ..• . •... . . . . • • . . • • • . • • • . . • SuI Dave Aldana . . .. . . •.•. . • . . . . . . . . . . . • • • . . Trl Mike Kidd ... . .. . . . . ... •.. ..... •... . . . Y am Steve F oster ... . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . • • . . • . • • • S ui N eil McGregor . .. . . . . . • . . . • . • . . . • . . . . . • Oss Dave Hansen . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s uz Frenchie LeBlanc ...... ..•.. . . ..•... . . Yam ...and the day before that, in Philadephia... By Don Woods PHILADELPHIA , PA., Jan. 2 3 , 1972 Bart Markel was standing in th e infield watch ing practice prior to Philadelphia's first ind oor motorcycle ra ce. T aking note of the fact that about 100 o f the 150 so m e-odd entries were Novices, Markel co mm en ted , "we o ld guys really h ave to work to win with all o f th ese kids racing now. They ride every day, while we usually only ride once a week. Th ey 're really sharp". Other seasoned Experts found out th at Bart's observatio n was not an idle o ne as many were elim in at ed from th e da y's racing during th e qualifying scr at ch he ats which were held in lieu of the usu al t ime trials. T he field th at survived th e he cti c qualif yin g was m o stl y mad e up o f Novices, Junio rs and first-y ear Experts. But as th e field was tri m m ed d own to th e fin al 30 rid ers fo r the three sem is, th e experience of the seasoned Experts starte d to show, with on ly I I J unior and Novi ce riders making the final cuts. The racin g was typica lly in door, lots of roller-derbying in the corners, lots of crashes and lots of riders finding that getting t he jump off the starting line was the only way to in sure a good finishing position. The on ly Novice to survive the wear and tear of the afternoon was young Steve Hernandez of Sunnyvale, California. Steve and his dad had made their firs t tri p E.ast to gain so me experience in th e b iJ.'( Eastern indoo r events. He didn't get much experience in how to get through traffic though, as in the five events in which Steve competed during the afternoo n , he led every lap o f every even t. Starting with his scr atch heat and working his wa y to th e feature, Steve displayed experience th at belied his youthful 18 years wit h h is fantastic starts that a lwa ys go t him into the first co rn er with an uncat ch abl e lead. While y oung Steve looked com ple tely ca lm as he prepared for each ra ce , his fa th er was a bundle o f nerves. During eac h of Steve's races, dad went through a silen t scr een -type flicker-flick of ch eer lead er m otions th at ha d th e cro wd in suc h a fren zy th at wh en Steve cro ssed th e finish line to win th e featu re, yo u could n't h ear th e so und of th e ra cers' engi n es ove r 'th e cheering of th e ex ube rant crow d. Seven thousand spectators proved that in do or racing is ga ining a footh old in the East. The feature races was abo ut evenly sp lit , between Eastern and \Vestern riders as more Eastern cities take to this winter sport. T he n o rth ern Californian dominance of indoor racing should be somewhat equalized. R ESU L TS Steve Hemen cez . . . . • . ... . . . . . . .. .•. ... Oss Robert E. Lee Oss Gary Ba il e y . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . B ul Chuck Pal m gren . . . ... . . . .. . . . • . . . . .. .. Yam AI Kenyon Sui Gary Hodges S ui Mi ke Ki dd . . • . .. . .. . . . .. . . . . .•. • ... . • .. Sui Pa t M cCaul . . . . . .. .. . . . . .. •. . . . .. .. . . . . Su i Bart Markel • . . . . . .. ..... . . . ..... •.. • . . . H -D

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