Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

BAKERSFIELD: Sexton's ight is a Smash By Spo rtph oto BAK ERSFI ELD , CALIF ., May 3 1, 1972 - In his th ird F irst Divisi on start here , Jeff Sexton pi cked up all th e ma rbles in th e Han dicap Main tonigh t with a w ire to w ire effort. T here w as never any re al d oubt abou t th e fin al o u tco m e , as J eff leaped right out into an imm edi ate lead and p ro ceed ed to stre tc h it o u t: U.S. Cham p Mike Bast w orked hi s w ay u p fr om th e fifty y ard line to a well d ese rved second , ah ead o f Le s Ch an key , Mike Curoso , Stu Morley and Don Cullum. Both Con sol ation eve n ts were super crash-b ang affairs in which only h alf the sta rte rs m ad e it to th e ch eckere d fl ag. In th e Handicap Co nsy , Ron Miller and J e ff Sperry were battl ing fo r th e lead wh e n Danny Becker came in to th e first tu m very h ot, found Sperry right in fro nt, and th ey we n t d o wn, taki ng Larry Sh aw with th em. Mille r coasted home an easy wi nner, as Greg H ascro t and S umn er McK ni gh t we re slowed co ns ide rably avo id ing all th e m ach inery an d people litte rin g the track . Bill Cody neve r m ad e it to the lin e in the Scratch Co nsy , as an earlier crash had tweake d bo th hi s bike an d b od y to the p oi nt th at he h ad to beg off st arting th is event. Don Cullum m ad e an inspectio n of th e track surface exiting th e firs t tu m , dropping h im o ut of th e actio n , th e n Ed Williams found a wh ol e hand fu ll o f unexpected tractio n co ming out of the last tum on lap th ree a nd lo oped it. He somehow m an aged to keep h is engine alive and p ick ed it up to fini sh . At th is p oi nt , it ap peared th at Steve Gresham h ad things all sewed up, b ut h e also found u n fo rsee n bite leavin g th e first turn on th e last lap. Only so me very rapid re flex es saved Steve fro m th e same fate o f Ed . T he Feature Mat ch Ra ce p itted " Li ttl e Les" Chanke y against " D rivin ' Dann y " Becker and for th e fir st la p a nd a half, it co u ldn ' t have been a better race, as the se tw o young me n w ere so clos e t ogeth er, ob servers co ul d n' t really Slidin' S~!lIlJt'(l!.YS Seems as though th e Speedway season is re all y getting in to h igh gear. There is o n ly one t rac k ye t to open for the su m me r se ason , S acram ento , and it opens o n Ju ne 9th to run Frid ay n ights at Cal E xpo Sh o wgrou nd s. O ld ma n La uer . who is the p ro m o te r there , was quite a racer h im sel f in th e early days o f speedway . Rumo rs new abou t h im, almos t as much as today's big n ame racers, ru n n ing a stroker JAP . It was said that he had two b ikes and one o f t he m put o u t 600cc in stead of th e th en required 5 0 0cc . T he interes tin g part ab out th e sto ry is th at Lauer wou ld supp osedl y ch ange the e n gine s from fra me to fra me an d so me n igh ts he w o uld wi n o n o ne bi ke whil e wi nning o n th e other b ike the ne x t n igh t. Never go t protes ted. Ne ve r go t quest io ned an d rarely got b ea t. Makes one w on d er if t hat could be h ap pen in g t oday . T h e bi g tal k righ t no w is th e " co m e b ack o f th eJAP" to th e winner' s ci rcle. Williams , Bec ke r an d C uroso a re all taking h o me m o re th a n thei r share on these machin es. Wo rd is th at Beck ers is a 19 3 7 m od el an d it had to h ave th e ed ge taken off the h o rsep ower to get a good hold o f th e gro un d . Stranger things ca n h appen b ut try to co nvince so meone that a seven tee n-year o ld rid er (Beck er) can be putting it to 'em on a thirty-five year o ld mo to rcy cle. Woods must be co nvinc ed be cause h e just bough t a J AP to ad d to hi s stable o f J awas . The AMA see m s to be ge t ting more interested in sp eed way all th e time. They h ad Mik e Hinshaw ove r to th e specially ca lle d gene ral member ship mee ting th e othe r ni gh t. A lmost like wat ch ing o ne o f those Friar's R o asts o n TV but they weren't quite as funn y. Mike told them th at he wasn 't really ready to make a presentation at this time , and then went o n to prove it. It see ms that h ome o ffi ce Ohio would like to get involved in speedway . That in itself m ight be a good thing but the rid ers feel that maybe the AMA should try to get it go in g so mewhere else as successfu lly as it is no w going in Cal ifornia. " ::> .., c: ~ w Z W ...I U >o be su re which rid er w as as tr id e which machine. Les go t into th e fi rs t tum of the last lap j u st a smidgen t o o ho t. He ap peared to he o n hi s w ay down,"'but saved it someh ow , althoug h h e d id sp in a 360. J im He a th cam e h o me the wi nne r in the Second D ivisio n Main , wh ich h as yet to see th e same name appe ar twi ce in first place in the six races so far this seaso n. Jim was fo llowe d to the chec ke r b y D ubb Ferrell , Paul Hen d erson , Ke ith T e n n is, Harlan Bast a nd Ed Schwei tzer . (Results on p age 4 0) If it were to spread na tio nally th at w ould b e t he b est th ing fo r everybody concerned but the riders in the California a rea feel that they have a good th ing go ing and so m eone is try in g to slip in to thei r w al le t. A suggest io n th at wasn 't b rought up at the meetin g: maybe some o f the officia ls co u ld ge t t ogeth e r from b oth organiza tio ns and agree to b asic co m pe tition ru les th at wo uld b e co mpa tib le, and even a cross licensing agreement for the racers. May be you guys co uld even bend ove r backwards to put on some exh ibition races at app ropri ate tracks in the east and midwest. Irw in d ale has bee n nominated as the winne r of the "Engine Eater" award. The larger track po in ted ou t the real difference in h orsep ow er and reliab ility th at h as ex iste d , b ut n ot to o visibly, for the last few seas ons. It will sure be in te re sting to see wh at so me of those b ikes so und like in a fe w ' more mo nths of fo ur, and soon to be five , nigh ts a week o f racing. You know alre ady, th o ugh, w h at some o f th e o ldtimers say , " T ha t 's h ow they d o it in England ." In te resting th ought while sitting at the typewrite r. At th e mee ting the re w ere nom in ati o ns to fill th e o ne emp ty bo ard slo t. Some on e nomin a ted George Wenn , an d lonesome Geo rge co uld hardly co nceal th e sm ile b ehind h is minu te mou stache be cause he isn't eve n a member o f the association this year. A ' qu estion w as raised abou t moto cros s riders turning int o spe edway riders in th e last co lu m n . A sho rt lis t of a few wh o h ave tried it includes Lar s Larsson, Bru ce Baron and th e J ones broth ers. How su ccessful w er e th ey ? T o put it mildly , they were much b etter m o to cros sers. It see ms the Jones boy s kept as k ing Harry Oxley to p ut in a jump an d a few m ore h oles. Alth ough I d on't ge t to spen d too much tim e in. th e gra nd sta n ds anymo re , I understand th at the fa ns in th e stands no longer bear an y re se m b lance to a PTA meeting. Not th at they ever reall y did but the y do tend t o ge t a bit more rowd y this ye ar than last. Sure would be a scary p osi ti on to be in if y ou we re the referee at Costa Mesa and a wrong d ecisio n emptied the r owdies out o f the stand s on to your bac k. Wonder if H arry pays the re f Hazardous Duty coverage . O r maybe even special appearance money just for showing up. -c - Something for Everyone Bv Ralp h Springer IRWI NDAL E, CA LIF.. !\lay 2 5 . 1972 - R ap id ly beco ming a favo rite o n the S RA circ u it , th e I rw indale Raceway clay ov al fe atured so m e o f th e finest Spe edway raci ng of th e seaso n las t Th u rsd ay w ith unpredi ctabilit y th e key w ord. Rick Woods, th e Huntingt o n Beach ro ck et wh o d omin ated action a t th e tra ck tw o w eeks ago , w as left o u t in th e co ld . m an aging only a p o or fourth in the Scr atch M ain eve nt. I t w ould b e a toss-up as to wh ich eve nt was more spec tacular...the Scratch Main o r th e Handicap Main . Both were highlighted by fierce co m pe titi on and, in the Handi cap , a surprise winner. It w ould be a to ss-up as to which even t was more spe c tacu lar.. .the Sc ratch Main o r the Handicap Main. Both were h ighligh te d by fier ce co mp e tition a nd , in the Handicap, a surprise win ne r. Sev enteen y ea r-o ld Steve Gresh am held back a gro u p o f riders for th e d ista nc e to ta ke the Handicap even t wit h Mike Bast, Steve Bast, Scott Autrey and Re ube n Benites d icin g it out for the finishing positions. It w as Gresham' s fo urth First Div ision win and came because th e youngste r said HI just lef t the thro tt le on . I usu all y ride arou n d and feather the throttle but this time I just jam med it on an d th en held on !" In th e Scrat ch Main, Bill Cody, Mike Bas t an d Steve Bast sh un ted Woods to th e o u tside an d Woods ne ver did reco ver, final ly doin g a gra ceful slide-o ut o n th e last lap to re tire. Mik e Bas t cap ped a fine nigh t w ith the win ove r Steve an d Bill Co dy . T he Handi cap Consola tion eve n t h ad so m eth ing fo r everyone. Cra sh es, cl ose racing , wheelies, y ou name i t! Sumner McKnigh t, DeWay ne Kee ter and Greg Hasero t ini tially got in to a scrap e for the lead. Haserot grab bed a little too much tracti on on th e b ack s tra igh t and lo ft ed his front wheel, lo sing several posi tion s as a result . Then McKnigh t did a vicious flip on the last tum o f th e last lap a nd Rick Woods d rew some d eserved applause by lay in g his bike down to avo id cen ter-p u nch in g McKnight. (Results on page 40)

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