The track that p roduces the b ig
winners around the country in the .
major events has a new crop for th e rest ,
of the riders to worry about. A record '
opening nigh t crowd o f close to 8,000 • .
people were on hand to see the new " ."
look As cot and th e new na mes in the
th ree classes.
Rookie first year Experts usually do
no t win their first tim e o u t; th ey d id
th is time. Out-of-state No vice ride rs
have never wo n at Ascot ; t hey did this
time. Second-year J unio r riders do not
win openers; they d id this year .
The n ew record crowd p oured $4 ,500
into a new opening night record purse
wh ich was announc ed prior to running
the t h ree Main Even ts . T he battles to
get to th e fi als was wo rt h th e eveni ng
n
as 165 p ro fessionals battled it out in the
heats and semis to get to the
m o ne y-paying finals .
The E xp ert class loo ked lik e a
National . All three '72 National winners
M
.
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Cl
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Ivan Shigemasa is about to unload. To mak e it wo rse, he was running second at th e tim e.
Ascot Opener
we re en tered, b oth of the '7 1 Ascot
National w inners were there, tw o
former Gr and N ational Ch ampions .were
o n h and as w ell as the top two Juniors
in th e natio n from last year. Most o f all ,
the riders th at d omin ated th e en ti re
National circuit w ere there an d read y to
go . Hatel ey , Roberts and Emde, th e
th ree National winners this ye ar, we re
ready un til Ernde , th e Dayto na winner ,
bro ke do wn early in pract ice an d did
not compe te. Hateley then cl oc ked the
second fastes t tim e tri al with Roberts
six th fastest. Neither rider was ab le to
win his he at race.
Both we re in the seco nd h eat where
Keith Mashburn , wh o has been looki ng
for a w in , any win, for many laps, upset
the two new stars. Rob erts wa s seco nd,
Joh n third in the slowest o f th e fo ur
Expert five lap warm-ups.
Sammy Tanner, st arting his 16th ye ar
as a racing pro , upset th e fi eld in th e
first heat that included Frank Gillespie
second, Mark Williams third and fast
q ualifier Dave Aldana, who ran fo urth
after crashing after the flag for fas t time
earl ier in the nigh t ,
Lawwill retu rned to Ascot act io n for
the first time since ' 70 and it was
altogether different as he could only
pull a third place in the h eat r ac e behind
winner Gary Scott and second pla ce Mel
Lacher.
The fo urt h heat of the night was the
h ot one , pitting both of last y ear's
Ascot
Natio nal
winners,
T om
Rockwood and Mark Brelsford, in with
' 70 kingpin Gene R omero. The thre e
rode as one most of the way with
Ro mero a slight w inner over Rockwood
who re-passed Brelsford for second out
of the last tum.
The heats were all hot enough to
eliminate from further competition
name riders such as Don Castro, Terry
Dorsch and Shorty Seabourne. Bob
Bailey, on his privateer special, was the
last qualifier and also failed to trans fer
The tight d uel: Gene Romero (31 and Gary Scott went down to the wire before Scot t won,
from the heat to the semi, o r the final.
Brelsford and Aldana were the two
riders who made th e final b y running
one-two in the semi Main. Lawwill was
eliminated with a third place finish as
was Oregon 's Mark Williams wh o ran
fourth. Hateley, Lloyd Houchins , Eddie
Wirth and Rookie Ron Moore also fell
by the wayside in the b attle to re ach the
bucks in the final.
Before the final it was the T rophy
Dash as the first money payer. The four
fastest were Aldana, Hateley, Scott and
Rockwood. Tom Challenged Gary earl y
but dropped back as the rookie held to
the finish . Aldana moved up late fo r
second. Hateley had his problems from
the start and was a dist an t fourth .'
The Mai n Event opened with a bang
and the bang was Mel Lacher who has
been known in the past for trying to
win it all on the first lap . He zeroed the
crash wall go ing onto the b ackstretch o n
the fir st lap. End of La cher's try for his
first win since mid -1970.
Under the new rules this year an
altern ate can replace a rider in the fin al
so Mert Lawwill moved in for Lacher o n
the restart . The new rule, p roposed at
the Congress by Lawwill , also states that
the alternate will give most of his
winnings to th e rider he replaces. La cher
watched wh ile Mert went out and ran
ninth in a ten rider field .
Romero jumped into the lead with
Sc ott passing Mashburn fo r seco nd on
the second lap. The kid from Covina
was trying to bec ome o nly the second
firsLtime rookie to ever score the sw eep
on openin g night, Dan Haaby did it on a
BSA b ack in 1965 .
Scott moved his T riump h up behind
Romero 's T riu mp h b y lap 9. They were
side by sid e at th e lin e o n lap 10 . Then'
Scott too k ove r but th e lead was to
ch ange a total of six times before th e
finish line with Scott in front fo r the
win
with
one
of
the
fastest
r egu lar-s eas o n Mai n Events in man y a
lap.
Mashburn, Gillespie an d Aldan a held
off lat e lap charges b y Rockwood in a
four-rider
duel
for
third
place .
Brelsford, Roberts, Lawwill and Tan ner
brough t u p t h e rear of the p ack to clo se
out open ing ni te fo r t he weekl y Frid ay
n ight half mile events.
A lo t o f p eople were also wa it in g to
see the new Ju niors on the big b ik es fo r
the first time . They saw them b u t will
have to wait until n ext Fri day to see if
o ne can w in.
R ex Barrat looked like a winner ,
posti ng t he fastest J unio r t im e t rial on
h is T riu mph but it en de d there ' for the
former Utah rider that now lives in
Pomona.
S econd yea r Junio r AI Baker, also
Triu mph-mo unted , was wa y down in
time tri als but came from the b ack row
in the opening heat race to win and
clock th e fastest J unior he at race t im e.
Barratt ran second.
Last years' ·t" o top No nce riders,
"tT)
Steve Nichols and Scott Brelsford , had
rough going all night. Nichols ran
sec ond in his he at behind Steve Snider.
Brelsford appears to h ave trouble
j um p ing from the smaller 250's and was
allover the rac e track in the heat race
and t op p ed it off by center-punching
Gary Lozano on the .las t turn for the
he at race win.
N ichols cam e back to win the semi
and t h en come fro m way b ack in the
final to challenge Baker fo r the wi n on
th e las t lap , Brel sford was a distant third
with Lozano fourth and last year 's
Novi ce TT ace T om Wh it e running fifth.
Since 1957 no o u t-of-stat e Novice has
ever b een ab le to come to Ascot and
w in the 250 Main Event. That a ll
changed opening night when a rider by
th e name of Scott Erickson cam e all the
way from Lewistown, Montana. Last
March Erickson fo und his wa y to the
Daytona sh ort track races where he
defeat ed ove r 150 Eas tern Novices o n
th e quarter-mile for a majo r upset.
This time he headed for the fastest
hal f-mil e in th e na tio n. He sto pped off
lo ng eno ugh to p ick up a sponsor, Dick
Kelm's Buena Park Yam aha, and then
put it on the California, Arizona an d
New Mexico riders. There was also two
riders from New Jersey en tered this
t im e as well.
He ran sec ond in his h eat race behind
second-year No vice, Guy Bailey. In the
final hig hl y-regarded Rick Hocking from
the North jumped t o the front b ut gave
up th e lead on the fifth lap to Bailey.
Erickson was off to a slo w start but was
up to t hird by lap three.
Th en Rick passed Hocking o n lap 7
and it was a near t ie for the lead as t he
rid ers started the eigh th and final lap .
T h e sm o oth-runn ing rid er fr om the state
th at has no p rofessio nal racing then
sco o ted to the front on the last tu m to
win th e fin al. In o nly two races th is y ear
th e Montana co wb o y h as m et and
defeated every t op Novi ce rid er in
Am erica . Where do y ou go for an
en co re ? Erickson will now cal l A sco t
h om e b ase . ~very Friday night.
, ... '""".
(
tilts on page-39)
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