Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141020
M c "o '" 0N ..... '" ttl N Co« tn ;;: W Z W ...J U >- U Jody Nichol as at Oulto n Park i n England . two weeks ago . ROAD ATLANTA Sunday's National saw Jody come in first with Ivon right behind on a ay more legal-looking bike. One of them will get the checkered flag M 1. By Jack Mangus FLOWERY BRANCH, GA., April 16, 1972 - You pay your money but you don't get your choice - that's the story fro m Road A tlanta 12 5-Mile AMA Grand National Ch am pi o nsh ip Road Race. . T h e w inners in t he eyes o f the tho usands of wa s Jody Nicholas aboard one of the water-cooled 750cc thre e -c ylinder factory Suzuki superbikes. Unfortunately, officials dis covered in te ch d uring technical insp ectio n that Suzuki's cylinder heads didn't app ear to b e production castings p and there might b e an official " ro test if t he three facto ry machines entered th e Natio nal . T hey did and there wa s. A co mmi tree- will convene May 1 in Ohio to hear Suzuki's case and a de cisio n will be reached regarding th e legality of th e bikes. If the protest is upheld, the win will gQ to Yvon DuHamel and his Team Hansen Kawasaki three-cylinder 750. S o, at the end of a very long weekend, 56 Expert riders, countless me chanics, friends, sponsors, etc., left Road Atlan ta with no purse money, uncertain o f th e eventual awarding o f national points. It was summed up by 10 th place fin ish er Gary Fisher whe n' h e stated, "It 's a bummer. You show up , go to work and d o y o u r job and yet you leave . em pty-handed. " The race itself, protested or not, was mo re th an the preceding Na tio nal Road Ra ce at Daytona was expected to be. T he in itial lap saw Team Han sen's Kawasakis, ridden by D uHamel , Pa ul Smart and Gary Nixon, tear o ff the st arting grid and open up a gap b etween them and th e rest o f the field. T hey ma intained that group lead until th e fourt h lap when Art Baumann , who had been o n the pole as a result o f wi n ning th e fastes t o f the two qualifying h eats, slipped his Suzuki into th ird an d Nich olas to ok o ver fourth , pu shing Nix on into fifth. Bauma nn to ok over the lead o n th e eigh th lap with DuHamel second, and Ni ch olas too k ov er third dropping Sm art to fo urth. DuHamel regained the lead o n th e nin th go-ro und and o n "th e nex t lap Baumann dropped o ut leaving Nic holas and Sm art to take up the chase a fter th e swift Candian. departure it Wit h Baumann's appeared that th e superb ikes were about to repeat t heir Daytona drop-out show and on the very next lap DuHamel stopped o n the front st ra ight. Yvo n's sto p was momen tary, though, as he had only co me to a halt to rep lace a p lug lead t hat had come loose and t urned his multi in to a twi n. The stop cost DuHame l several positions and gave Nicholas the lead whic h he held until the 25th lap when Smart took ove r th at position when J ody pitted for gas. After a four-second pit stop Nicholas took back the lead o n th e 28th lap and wa s never headed. The super K's h ad to make two pit sto ps for fuel while th e te am Suzuki machines o nly required a singl e st op . T h is, co upled with th e stop DuHamel mad e to snap back o n his misch ievous plus wire , perhaps chang ed th e entire unoffi cial results o f th e ra ce . Behind t he leaders several heated battles went o n. The first hal f o f the race saw Dick Mann and Gary Fish er tie up toget h er fo llowed closely by Yamaha riders Ken Roberts , the current N at ional point leader, and last year's Road Atlanta winner Kel Carruthers. Gene Romero joined the battle and eventually moved his factory Triumph ahead of the pack to take a sol id fifth place be hind Ro n Gran t's Suzuki. Bugs finis hed in sixth place ahead of Gary Nixon wh ile Carruthe rs edged out teammate Roberts fo r eighth. John Ha teley had m o ved h is Triumph in to 10 th p lace in the last fe w laps only to run o ut of gas o n the wh ite flag lap and see h is 10th disso lve in to a 14th . The t hree-cylin der Beezumps had shown at Ontario that they we re c ap ab le of running 125 miles nonstop b ut perhaps that is stretching things as Gene Romero ran out o f gas o n his way around the course after taki ng the ch eck ere d flag. The awa ited debut o f th e all o y Harl ey -Davidsons is "still that - an awaited debut as Cal Rayborn, fresh from his grea t performan ce in Eng land Anglo-Ameri can road race series, sh ow ed up at Road Atlanta aboard o ne of the iro n H-D's and lasted a h andful of lap s. Ro ger Reiman and Ga ry Fishe r, riding th e Krause-Yosh imura Hondas, were th e first indep ende nt fin ish ers with Fish er tak ing 10th an d Reiman 11tho Dave Smith finish ed 12th on the Don Vesco Ya maha that he h ad ridden to a third at Daytona. Daytona's second-place finishe r Ray Hemps tead placed 13th behind Smith wh ile Daytona wi nne r Don Emde's Mel Dinesen Yamaha wasn't up to th e task on hand and Emde was listed in 35th place. Nicholas averaged a reco rd 9 .39 2 mph and his margin of victory was nin e seconds over Smart. J od y had held a 17 -second lead but b ack o ff on the last two lap s when he knew t he win was his. Yvon D uH amel at On tario . 19'1 . NEXT WEEK: results and wrap-up