Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News1972 04 18

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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 . 1b 0.. .... '" Cl o 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) • r r, • , , • -; •• • • • • • 0 " ••• _ O' .- ..- ..- • • • • 0" ' . I r I , ,

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