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/141031
• !Louisville a I all ile-- Ol M ~ w Z W ...J o >o By Jack Mangus LOUISV ILLE, KENTUCKY , June 4, 1972 - Mark and Scott Brel sfo rd p ull ed off a brother act and w on b oth ends o f the Louisville Nat ional on Sunday afte rn oon after rain caused the Saturday night pro gram t o be cancelled after th e Expert heats h ad been run. Mark, aboard an alloy Harley, h ad fin ish ed ' six th in his heat o n Saturday night but returned Sunday t o lead h is heat fr om flag to flag. He took the lead from Cal Rayborn on th e seventh lap of th e 20- lap Main and w as never ch allen ged on his way to hi s sixth National Ch am p io nsh ip win. The sellou t cro wd was m ad e aware of the fa ct early in the program th at it isn 't only a beer th at m ade Milwaukee famous as t he new all oy Harley -Davidsons were present in the hands o f not o n ly th e factory riders, but m a n y privateer s. including Dayton a winner Don Ernde. As strong as th e H·D ' s were . fast qualifying t im e w as se t b y Triumph rid er J oh n Hateley. Hateley tu rn ed a 25 .8 4 sec ond lap eo rnin g close to the re cord lap o f 25 .3 2 set by Dick Mann in 1969. Word was out that Little Joh n had a tri ck rod setup and after the d ay 's program Expert J oe Barringer attempted to claim Hateley's bike offerin g 25 one hu ndred d ollar bills as the requi red pay me nt. AMA o ffi cials di sallowed the clai m ," and Hateley still has the fast qualifying machin e. Cal R ayborn led nine o f the ten lap s o f th e fir st heat, but Hateley led th e one th at counts b y passing Rayborn on the ten th and final lap to tak e th e checkered. Chuck Palmgren o ccupied second place until the seventh lap when Hateley began his ch arg e. Chuck t o o k th ird to transfer in to the National. Fast heat of the day was the sec o nd , as Mark Brelsford won going away , coveri ng the ten lap s in 4 :27: 40. Mert LawwiII took second , and Rex Beauc hamp got b y Ted Newton on the last lap to ta ke third . The third heat went to Larry Newto n on the last lap to take third. The th ird heat wen t to Larry Darr with the brothers Sehl, Dave and Doug, taking second and th ird . Ted Newton pulled ou t all the sto ps and transferred into the National b y win n ing th e Expert Semi ahea d of Gary Scott and Larry Palmgren. Keith Uli ck i carried on a running battle with Gene Romero th ro ughou t the Semi an d appeared to have th e h orses on G ene. Ulicki and R omero finished a di st ant fourth a nd fi fth m issing the transfe r sp ots. Cu rre nt National point leader , Kenny Roberts, las ted one lap in th e second hea t befo re h is Yam ah a let go and fo rced Roberts to join the fe nce sitters. He h ad good company . T he likes of current and past National Ch am p io ns, Dick Mann , Ba rt Markel, and Gary Nixo n. were among the big guns who we re forced to si t out the Main . Bugs lasted less than a lap during the first heat Satu rday night as the flywheel on his BSA let go, sca ttering pieces of engine throughout the second turn. He p ra cti ced Sund ay using a spare engine bu t d idn' t attempt to q ualify giving as the reason the slowness of the un p re p are d 650 engine. Markel was in a tte ndance in the role of a spectator b u t stated th at he wo uld be back racing a t the Colu mbus National. Nixon, ' who finished n in th in the second hea t , wh ile watch ing th e o range and b lac k Milwaukee alloy parade, co mmen ted, "I t looks like 1968 all over again, except I'm not in the battle this year" . Brelsford se lected the outside p ole position of the National , b ut it was fell ow Harl ey team rider, Cal Rayborn, who pulled off a grea t hole shot to take th e lead a t the green. Larry Darr unlo aded in th e third tu rn o n the first lap su ff ering o nly th e m isfort une of miss ing a chance to wi n his first Nation al. R ayborn led th e firs t six lap s with Breslford co n stan tly challe nging , and on th e seven th lap Mark go t by and never lo oked b ac k. Da ve Sehl to ok over second positi on o n th e ne x t lap , an d by the tenth lap, Triumph-m oun ted Gary Sco tt broke up th e Harl ey parad e b y working his way around Cal vin to take the third sp o t. Chuck Palmgren h ad a ro d let go on th e twelf th lap leaving brother Larry to carry on for the Palmgren family . Larry wasn ' t qui te up to th e t ask as he was running a size able distan ce fro m the field. Other than Chuck droppin g o u t laps ten th rough fiftee n saw the field string ou t with the only p ositi o n changes being ca u sed b y R ayborn being dropped b ack two m ore p ositions by Re x Beau champ and Doug Se hl. T ed Newton worked on J ohn H ate ley for several laps at temp tin g to displace Little Jo hn from seven th p lace, but Hateley didn 't bo bble, and New ton d ropped off the pace on the seven te en th lap . Dave Sehl, atte mp tin g to win h is third straight Louisville Nati on al, clo sed on Brelsford du ring the last few lap s, b u t Mark h eld 'In to a ten-yard lead to take the wi n and se tting the st age for a possible Br els ford br oth er s ' d ay. T ri u m p h-m o un ted Gary Sco tt t o ok third behind the elder Sehl, breaking up wh at w ould h ave been a 1-2·3-4-5 finish by th e Harley marque. apparen tly easy win over Steve D ro st e in the first J u n ior heat and was the im me diate favorite for the Main, Todd Cu m min gs and Del "Chubb y " Armour too k the other Jun ior heats with Armou r's heat p ro vid ing th e m o st action as Dale Furst and Mike J oh nso n bat tl ed with Armour. T he J u n io r Main was all Brelsford's as Scott took the lead at the start and ran away fro m the fie ld. Junior Rawls an d Furst swapped p laces behind th e leader, and, after a strong start, Steve Dalgamo, riding for Gary Nixon , dropped back to sixth at the finish. Del Armour and Droste pushed Furst b ac k t o fif th ahead of Da lga rno and Harold Pugh . Sc o tt's tim e for the 15 lap eve nt as 6:24 : I J. There w as so me con fusion abou t the ti me for th e Ex pe rt National with a 8:02 :56 being p osted in the pit a rea an d a tim e of 8:56:26 being posted b y th e Ho liday Do wns .timer. Either way it appeared tha t less than nine minu tes of Main Eve nt racing wo u ld be th e hi gh spot of t he day for Mark Bre lsford, b ut Mark appeared even hap pie r afte r sittin g b ack and wa tc hing his b roth er, Scott , ta ke the J u n ior win. Ph otos b y Dan Mah o ney Ire JUNIO RS Scott Brelsford , fo u r years Mark 's junior at 19 -years of age , took an I Jumper-turned-back-to-race r, Steve Droste leads the Junio r contingent. Steve finished fourth. Dave Sehl has won this race the past two years. His streak