Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

: Has Someone Created aMonster? '" 0: HERNANDEZ, AGAIN AND AGAIN .0 u.. " ~ w Z W ..J o >o There he is again. just like you saw last week . The race has just started and St eve Hernandez is long gone. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. , Feb . 4 , 1972 - When you 're ho t, you're hot was proven once again at the Cow Palace tonigh t with Yamaha Silver Cup winner Steve Hernandez clean sweeping the field . The 18-year-old whiz of the indoor circ uit was n ever headed at any point and soundly defeated all c om ers. Returning from his first win as a J unior, Mike O'B rien t u rned in the fastest q ualify ing heat to p ut his So nny Kenyon Bul taco o n the pole for t h e first h eat. O'B rie n, while perhaps no t t hc biggest ball of fire in the area, is on a h o t streak t hat includes a second a t the Yamaha Silver Cup classic in New York and a National win at t he Houston J un io r short track. He t urned in co nsistent efforts througho ut t he night and finis hed a cred ib le fifth in the Main. Second fastes t qualifying h eat was easily taken by Hernandez who is using his super hole shot starts t o win the race in the fir st t en feet. The name of th e game in the indoor business is in that measure and yo ung Steve has learned his less ons well. Des pi te o ther ruminations, th e bi k e is a stoc k 250 Ossa with a sp ecial S wa nso n Cy cles built fra me , not const ruc ted b y Dic k Mann and not of th e type th at you buy t o go co wtraili ng w ith. Not le tting Hernandez get away wit h all t he ma rbles was Natio na l p oi n t lead er Ken Rob er ts on the eve r fast A & A Yama ha. Ken wa s a back row starte r in t he quali fy in g h eat an d spent much ti me gett ing to the fro nt of th e pack and, eve n in winn ing, turned in a rather re spectab le t ime alt hough not fas t eno ugh to ma ke th e dash. R oberts had his tr oubles in the h eat but none lik e th os e ex perienced b y Bob Sc ally. Scall y went b ack Ea st to run Philly and New York with about as mucb luck as Harl ey -Davidson has had in "the past with th eir ro ad ra cers : nearl y nil. Scally is o ne o f th e very st ylish racers wh o h as been an Exp ert fo r many years and just in th e past Jew h as made his mark as o ne o f the b est sho rt tr ack ers. Only his lu ck has held h im b ack . Ton ight was n o exc ep tion. He won his qualify in g heat with third fast est ti me and garn ere d a berth in the dash. In th e h eat he led Rob ert s easily enough , if th at ca n b e co nsidere d an easy job . T h en , co ming off t h e last corner heading fo r th e checkered flag, h e busted a crank in half and crossed th e line second. Not o nly di d this pu t h im o ut o f th e semi b ut made t he trop hy dash a three man affair. Cheer up Bo b , thi ngs will ge t By Bill Spencer came back to San Francisco with lots of have made for a great combination that loot from the Eastern tour but had to has put him right in the hu nt. The dash itself was all Hernandez settle for the consolation win once agai n with O'Brien and Hatton cras hing and maybe so me day he will get ti red of spectacularly on the second lap and that race an d go on t o t he Main Event. I starter Hoy Odom calling it a race at know h is sponsor Tim Harr is could d ig that point. Also d o in g a spectacular it. crashing nu mb er was Ric k Ho c kin g on The Ma in of 15 laps was t urning o ut the Steve Doi Stereo Bultaco. Hocking to b e a contest b etw een Hernandez and was in Ro bert s qualifying h eat ' and Roberts. But R ob ert s d idn't hav e the co uldn' t ge t b y D ua ne Sp en ce as ol d zing th at one can no rmally ex pect Ro berts h ad do ne a nd so finis hed that fro m him. That co mb ine d wit h so me hea t in th ird. In h is regular h eat whil e strange noises put Roberts in third for th e ni ght with the lead cho res easily tr y ing t o ge to th e front, he got push ed wide an d on th e next lap cras hed in b eing held b y Hernandez. Second p lace fiery form . T he b la ze was extinguished fo r the distance wen t to Pat McCa ul o n q uickly an d t hen much time was spent a similar Bob Swan so n Ossa and I dou bt in repairing t he bi ke including the if Bob will ever let us stop hearing about all this win n ing o n his bikes. Yo u see, addition of a no ther gas tank. h is b o ys wo n four of the five races held Meanwhile , the reaso n fo r all th is on the East Coast, McCaul win ning tw o crashing was attributed to the leaking and Hernandez winning two. oil line of Bill Calicura's Triumph Cub. The battle for fourt h and fifth was a The ti me spent in cleaning up the track h o t one with m ighty Joe Henry and made for a lo ng, but ex citing evening. The consolation kid, Neal McGre gor , O'Brien getting it on the gas . O'B rien is wo rse. Len Hatton made up tb e th ird man in th e dash and als o won th e fourth heat with Joe Henry tailing him very closely through out. Hatton and his new Bultaco Keith Mashburn (19) fends off S teve Fosters advances . Foster won . __ . . . _ getting to lo o k more like the man that won the Sacrame nto Short Track series last su m mer and will be a potent fo rce on th e J un ior trail this year with BSA's by Sonny Ken y o n . Newcomer Gary Tondax finished a credibl e sixth on the ET Ossa being closely fo llowed by Bob Go odman , who will j o in J im Odom for an assa ult o n t he circuit fo r 197 2. Dennis Brennan, th e KOO L-A lD kid, fo ugh t off J immie Brooks' ad vances to finis h eigh th and ninth whil e the rest of th e pack had troub les of o ne another t hat incl ud ing Steve Foster fallin g down. He seems to b e d o in g a lot o f th at lat ely , such as in the h eat at Houston where h e was fast quali fier . T he point of whether he h it the other rider or vice ve rsa makes for a story by itself an d t h e o utco me of n o t letting S teve race t urned out t o be a bad scene for those officials invo lved and t he u nofficial th at sh ouldn't have said anything. (R esu lts on page 3 2)

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