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/141064
in N " s M ..... Ol N e " ::> .., en :;: w :2 w -J U >U -- -~-_'_--=-.--., - .- t. . '\.. «: Perry chats wi th Cal R ay bo rn be fo re go ing out to make it tw o -in-a... w for Suzuk i. o more Nationals by less space tha n anyone in the wor ld . ' th e water-cel led 750 w as flyin g. Roberts broke the pace o n lap ten , thrusting Carruthers in to th e lea d with Perry separatin g the Yam aha d ~ o ; b y lap twelve it was Perry in the le ad . T he r a c e b e c am e a w el l exec u ted dem onst ration of the ar t of road racin g wi th all t he speed , skill an d savvy mixed into an exp losive package th at was pure d ynamite . Perry d omin at ed lap s ele ven thro ugh fifteen wh e re K el re gain ed th e top spot whil e th e gap betwe en th e tw o o pe ne d and closed a d ozen ti mes a lap . G ary Fish er h eld d own fo urth p osition a t midway follo wed by a gree n s treak th at contained Baumann, a h ard ch arging DuHamel, Hurley Wilvert, th e Yamahas of J erry Green and Jim Allen, and Cliff Carr. Five laps from th e en d a fran tic DuHamel began reeling in Gary Fisher and cutting off almost two sec on ds o n the leader. Yvon bagged Fish er on th e wh ite flag while Perry and Carruthers exchanged the lead twi ce. Carruthers re gained the lead through th e slow corners on th e back o f the co urse , closing it on th e long straight but closing again before ge t t in g wo b bly going under the bridge. Perry took th e tigh t insi de line out o f th e final co rn er with Kel getting a tre mendous drive off th e high line an d a wobble to go with it; th e sp lit second low th ere cost the ra ce. Perry to o k the victory by a wheel an d p an dem o niu m broke loose as even th e officials co uld only gape in awe of what transpired in the last 100 feet. RESULTS , 1. Geoff Perry (S uz ) : 2 . Kel Carruthe rs (Ya m) ; 3 . K en R ob e r t s ( Y am ) ; 4. Yvon D uHamel ( K aWI; 5 . Gary t=ishe r (Ya m); 6. Cliff Carr (Kaw ; 7 . Jerry Greene ( Y am ) ; 8. H urley Wllvert Kaw): 9 . Dave Smith (Yam): 10. Cal Rayborn ( H-D): 11. Gary Scott (Tr l) ; 12 . James Ev an s ( Ya m); 13. Doug Li bby (Yam) : 14 . Ro n Pierce (Yam) ; 15 . Steve McLaughlin ( Y am); 16. M ike N inel (Yam) : 17. R obe rt Winters (Yam) : 18 . Marty Lunde Y am ) : 19. Dick Mann (Tri) ; 2 0 . Jeff March Yam). l Combined b y Jack Mangus Ph otos b y Gary Van Voorhi s & Mangus FLOWERY BRANCH, GA. , June 2 Veteran racer and Yamaha factory team rider/ manager Kel Carruthers chalked up his third c o nsecu tive Ro ad A tlan ta 25 0c c Exp ert /Junio r Combined victory aft er a ra ce-long b attle wi th teamm ate Gary Fish er . Carruth ers led the fifth, six teenth, nin eteenth and last lap to take the win ove r Fis her, who led every o ther lap . T h ird was taken by Yvon DuHamel, wh o t urn ed in a fantast ic p erformance by c o ming fro m hi s forty -second sta rti ng p ositio n, o n the las t row of the second wave, to take the: show po sition . DuH amel h ad foul ed a plug in his qualifying h eat, fo rcing him to sta rt in th e b ack of th e gri d. Yvon was aboard a sin gle cyclin der 35 Occ Kawasaki as were dropouts Cliff Carr and George Roch e. Yamaha factory rider Kenny Roberts : h eld th e pole fo r th e 50 mil e race but dropp ed o u t early w ith ignition problems. Roberts, Carruthers , Dave Smith, J ohn Long an d T ed Henter took turn s in th ird place with Carruthers moving up fo r th e win an d DuHamel movin g b y Sm ith, Lon g and Henter to gain the final sp ot in vic tory lan e. T he battle be twe en Carruthers and Fisher for th e lead saw the p air never separated b y more than ten bike lengths. Fish er, questi on ed in victory lane about his dropping to second on the final two laps, s ta ted , "the transmission just didn't cooperate." Foridians J o h n Long and Te d Herner n ailed d o wn the fourth and fifth spots after a race long battle that, at times, saw Dave Smith, Gary Ni xo n and Billy Labrie scrapping with the talen ted J uniors for those positions. T he action was close enough to prompt Dave Smith into requesting a me eting with referee Charlie Watson to discuss the "fairing banging" by Long and Hen ter , While Smith question ed the hard riding by the Florida Juniors, he was seen after the race pointing out to his sponsor, Don Vesco, the tire mar ks that he had left on the righthand side of Fish er's fiberglass tail section. Carruthers broke his own Road Atlanta record for the race by averaging 90.901 MPH . RES ULTS , 1. Kel Car ruthers ( Y am); 2. Gary F isher (Yam); 3 . Yvo n DuHamel (Kaw) ; 4 . John Long (Yam) ; 5 . Ted Henter (Yam); 6 . Dave Sm ith (Yam); 7. Jim Evans (Yam): 8 . B illy Labr ie (Yam ): 9 . Gary N ixon (Yam) ; 10. Ron Pierce (Yam) .