Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Roberts Stops HernandezAgain ar Cow Palace FinaH . ~ '" :2 ~ w Z W .J U ~ U Larry Drew ( 102Z) scoots under Pat McCaul. 40Y is Ron Davies. By Bill Spencer SAN FR ANCISCO , CAL., Feb . 25, 1972 - National point leader Ken Roberts tied together a co up le of new records and a 15 ·lap Main Event win to be come th e cha mp io n of the Cow Palace for the year 19 72. Setting the eigh t-lap rec ord was something to watch but when h e rewrote the ten lap rec o rd, the trophy dash and then the Main, it all seemed to b e old hat for this ch amp io n. While the cred it s are long for the people that help put this effort togeth er, the reward is good. Trying to keep it straight co m es out so me th ing like a Bud Aksland tuned A&A Yam ah a w ith frame b y Doug Schwerim a o f Champion Racing frames. A mouthful, but th ose are th e p eople th at make it all p oss ibl e. T he racing scene sh ap ed u p to b e a baili e b etw een Roberts an d t h e nat ion 's money man , Steve Hernandez. Roberts wo n the first h eat wi th th e record tim e whi le Hernandez wo n- th e fourth with t h e second fast est. Ve teran J o e Henry won th e seco nd after much crash ing an d b ash ing whil e J ohn Gennai wo un d up th e only ma n on the fro nt row of t he th ird heat to win . In the first semi, Ro berts was led off b y Gennai, wh o was ridi ng th e mount normall y reserv ed fo r Eddi e Mu lder . While Ed di e was aw ay, an other mouse would pl ay (o r is th at supposed to b e squirrel) . At an y rate, Gennai led it off but got th e message from Robert s that his A&A fre igh t train wa s co ming through , and so o n th e th ird go -ro und, Roberts went under for the lead and another new record. This one sligh tly ove r a second faster than las t we ek 's and a few te n ths under the re cord o f o ld. In the other semi it was Hernandez on the h ole shot with Ed Rosman d oing th e ch asing. While Ed wasn't tapp ing on Hernandez' doorst ep , his J ack Lan caste r Bultaco wa s re ally showing its st uff and with th e large amo u nt o f experi en ce th is yo ungster is gain ing, he will be a real threat when th e outdoor season starts at Fremo nt in mid-A pril. Whil e th ose tw o wer e off and running, a h ot pack wa s fight ing fo r th ird b etw een Ric k Ho ckin g o n the Mt. View A uto Ster eo special, J oe He nry, and J oe Allen. Hen ry had commented that the litt le kid , Allen was one of the ho t shoes fro m t he Ch ico short tracks an d he ha d spent mu ch of one summer fo llowing him. A lo t of you ng kids see m to be coming o u t of th ese small tracks an d doing injustices to the old timers . Hen ry survived the o nsla ught an d beat Hocking and A llen to save h is newl y ac q uired Expert face. From th at p oint Henry was seen p sy ch ing himself up fo r th e trophy d ash wh ile th e mini-bikers and th e ladies d id th eir co llec tive th in g. A ll were to re ceive lots of trophies at the end of th e night and it appears t h at the mi nis are to b e a regular part o f th e indoo r progr am. Some kid named Andres from A&A Mo tors loo ks good eno ugh to get it o n with the bi g boys, so for him , I say , "Keep on trucking, kid." While Henry mi ght hav e b een d oing th at p sychology b it. Robert s h ad co nsu lte d the proper auth ori ti es an d won the d ash ove r Hernandez. This ca t Hern andez is als o o ne smart kid and was right t he re all night . In fac t, at th e sta rt o f t he 15 lapper , it was ro cket ship Hernandez to the fore wit h Roberts tucking ins ide fo r seco nd . As he usu ally do es , Roberts ke pt up a good he ad of steam and forced Hernandez to get j ust a lit t le b it w ide and that was all sh e wrote . Les Morgan , who was wa tc hi ng fro m the sidelines, shook his head and said, ''That ki d is damn near u nbeatable ." Les has seen a lot of great racers come up in th e world and has fathered two pretty good ones himself. With th at p art of th e race over, Roberts proceed ed to o pen up a two-sec ond margin over Steve and Steve d id t h e sam e o ver Gennai and Rosman. Back in the middle o f the p ack Jeff Hammond an d J oe Hen ry wer e d icing with Hocking a nd All en . Then the b ottom fell o u t and things went h aywire. First o ff, Bob Goodman had gollen pushed wid e right off. Then Allen went down, th en Hammond, and maybe even so me mo re. Enough so tha t Roberts was lapping guys b efore the halfway mark. This is probably what give n scorers grey hair . O n a sho rt track lik e this, th e numb ers go b y real fast and yo u 're no t supposed to miss anybody. This crew under th e abo ve supervi sion o f Walt Masterso n doesn't make to o many mis tak es co nsidering th e size of th e job. ' T ha t 's nice to kno w. A ft er t he regulation 15 laps were co mplete, Roberts was tro tted o ut with Hernand ez to receive pla udits and tro phies. Another year of the great ind oo r scene closes but it see ms th at there w ill be orie m o re rac e here o n Ap ril 9 on dirt . Then it 's the outdoors at Ascot an d Fremont. Salud. (Resu lts on p age 40) MOBLEY'S OLDArTJME MARATHON. WHEW. By Bill Sp en cer F REMONT , CAL ., Feb. 19, 19 72 Co w trailing fo r tro phies sums up the idea of the marathon an d it h as really caugh t o n at Fr emo nt Raceway with Saturday events scheduled for every other w eek until the regular seaso n sta rts in m id -April. For the seco nd running o f th e original Mobley's Oldman Marathon , 119 bikes started the three, two-hour events with only slightly over 30% finishing, most o f th ose being in the Open class when the mud hole widened to ab o ut 50 y ards, no thanks to so me sab oteurs who evidently sh oveled th e dirt crossin g aw ay in the 250 even t making th e d ry cros sing any th ing but dry. T he attritio n rate immediately sk yroc keted. This w ill be re ctified for th e n ext even t and hopefully . th e sabo te u rs w ill stay away an d let we ll eno ugh alo ne . Open ing up th e day's activities was th e 125 ru n and for th e mo st part, all those entere d d ecided to take the dry ro ute eve n tho ugh it was so mewhat slo w er . Toward th e en d of the stint a fe w bikes were taking to th e wa ter and th ese guys w ere ru nn ing just as fas t then as a t th e o nset. The most o bvious of t he fast guys we re J ack Ha mm ers, Jim a d o m an C rl Rodrick. It was "Ha n an a Yam an a an a th ey ere teamm ate J ohn McDo nanell rode to a really screaming. No guesses as to who very n ice second spot on a 175 Puch was rid ing the Yam ah a. an d just to ma ke sure that they we re ' t D e spi t e man y crashes by all , goofing off, th ey rode a Maico in th e Hamm ers was the easy w inn er with Op en class and got a seco nd in th at, to o. Rodrick second . Odom fin ish ed about AJS riders were prevalen t and th e fourth, but wasn 't reall y rac ing , just team of Bo oth and Lewis were right in foolin g aro u nd . Jimmy obviously like d th e hunt until a busted gas t ank the idea o f the race at 8 a.m .: h e was sid elin ed for en o ugh laps to dro p them o u t putting tires at corners and helping to third. Still a gre at effort an d o ne th at get the trac k ready . It's always n ice to w ill bring them b ack as the contingency see help like th at. award s th at Norton Villiers h as set up Hammers ' co-rid er wa s list ed as Pop . will make them that mu ch harder to Odom but at race time , Jim 's d ad h adn' t b eat. Right, Mik e J ackson ? made it and so Jack started b y himsel f T h e winners o f the Open eve n t we re and rode th e entire tw o h ours. Fo r th e team o f Brad y and Pompileo . T he ir those th at would like to d o that, it 's Maico n ever gave up the ca use despite a o ka y, but it sure does we ar yo u o ut. very bad dump at the water hol e th at Rodrick ro d e m ost of h is tw o h ours but left o ne of th e team with a b ad elbow h ad a lit tl e help. It see ms like so me of and re q uiring the o th er m emb er to rid e these guys co uld probably ride fo r six th e rest of th e d istan ce b y hims elf. It hours at a crac k if th ere wa s en o ug h gas. was a d ese rved win. It's a wonder th at n o t man y Northern C omp e t i ti on ca rn.e f ro m t he guys ride the NORRA events like the S imas /M o rrell team. They led it fo r Baja 1000. some tim e bu t d evel o p ed m ech an ical T he 2 50 run we nt to th e team of problems j ust sho rt of t he halfway point Dickso n and S ilva, b o th o f wh o m we re and had to dro p out. It was he re t hat the w inners at the o pener. T he two guys Roger Sel by and teamma te Brian are both Novices and their Sel by O'Hagan took over on a 360 Rickman. Rick ma n seems to be the hot set-up. R oger was riding at th is p o in t an d led it While th eir lea d wasn 't what it was from the first run, it was still a full lap and for nine laps until he bailed at the th e fie ld was almost all 250's wh ile the waterhole. While rem oun tin g h e noticed fir~t ru n was ull to 0 with a lot of •• s m ing miss!!J.g th aircleaner and 125 's thrown in . ReggIe Kittrelle an ihe s Ide in the camu retor wo uld no t co me o ut an d so they were o ut of the actio n for the day. T his let the Brady /Po mp ileo team dig out and th ey held th e lead fo r the distan c e al though the Ki ttrell e/M cDonnell Maico wa s catch ing them fas t at th e close. T he team trop hy we nt to the 2-plus - 2 o u tfi t wi th the Rasmussen/Smith team gett ing a fifth in t h e o v e ra l l. Wayne Morrell and teammat e Kin g fin ish ed a very credib le sixth on a 125 Penton, just for fun .and if Morrell keeps tfiis up, he just might make Junior wi th ou t having to ride an y scramb les. Hon orable mention has to go to Ben ny Mosier an d Wall y Weisler for b ein g the two olde st guys ou t th ere and th ey snuck in fo r a te n th place troph y and a great job o n a 500 BSA. T he n ext eve nt is o n March 4 ' an d w ill b e just like the previo us with t h e 250's starti ng at 9 :30 an d t he Op en at noon an d t he 125's at 2 :30. No need to pre-enter as th e first 75 signi ng up will be taken. Practice and sign -up w ill take place a half-hour before the race. T he scorers, Donna Hall and Sandy Spe ncer, would app reciate it if all riders w o uld put good legib le numbers o n th e b ik e and the righ t h and side of the hel me ts to etten Ia cili ate oring. {Res ul ts o n page 40) >. • ••

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