Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

:-A •••• r ·~.I .!. . . . . . ";1 '. , iJ Costa Mesa - San Bernardino - Ventura - Auburn - Napa - C..ta Meea - San Bernardino - Ventura - Auburn - Napa - C..ta Meea - San ~ SPEEDWAY WEEK e erect flag and Coors Wright was second! Results HANDICAP MAIN: 1. Steve Crawford ; 2. Steve Elstins ; 3. Andy Gilbertson; 4 . Bobby Holmes; 5. Kevin French; 6. Dave Faria, Jr . SCRATCHMAIN : 1. Duane Yarrow; 2.Tom Ferri s; 3. Paul Orlandi; 4 . And y Gilbertson . DIV lWO: 1. Dennis Davis; 2. Charlie Haines; 3. Harlan Bast. DIV THREE: 1. Kevin Krugh; 2. Hal Scheetz; 3. AI Underw ood. J R MAIN : 1. Scott Brant ; 2. Coors Wr ight 3. Bobby Hedden. Burba surprises IMS stars By Scott Da loisio SAN BERNARDINO, CA, JULY 28 Tom Burba proved that dreams do come true as he defeated . some of the top stars in American speedway to capture th e Keith Larsen and Tom Burba battle at IMS. Burba topped the Scratch main. Faria, Abbott sail at Ventura By Bill Locey VENTURA, CA, JULY 27 It was business as usual for Mike Faria tonight as he kept his average at .500 by winning his eighth Scratch main in 16 16 tries at the Commotion By The Ocean. And in a controversial Handicap main, Dennis Abbott was declared . the winner over a hard-charging Shawn McConnell. Also , 21 riders fell down - none too seriously - to thrill the fans of vicarious motorcycle mayhem. After Abbott left everyone to ea t his dust in the first heat, things took a turn for the strange as riders and red flags fell like. rain. For example, in the second heat race , none other than Mike Faria went down and how often does that happen? In the same race, Mike Mazzacane came up with a dead motor coming out offour and tried to coast it into the infield. Rick Miller, behind him with no place to go , slammed into Mazzacane, sending both riders to the dirt amid writhing motorcycles. Miller suffered pulled abdominal muscles -and a hip pointer, but came back to ride the rest of the evening. Many crashes and restarts later in the main, Abbott outgated fellow 10yarder Chris Reichardt and set about building a comfortable lead. After three laps it looked like a basic followthe-leader yawner with Abbott leading Reichardt, Buddy Robinson and McConnell. But McConnell , tired of th e entire set-up, decided to do someth ing about it. First, he pa ssed the usually unpassable " Bud Man" on the outside, cu t underneath Reichardt, and suddenly it was a race again. Abbott didn't help his ca use wh en he bobbled slightly on the fin al bend as McConnell got an unreal drive on the outside and began gai ning on Abbo tt. Wh en th ey reac hed th e line, it was McConnell according to the announcer, McConnell and th e crowd. But a . few seconds la ter, th e man wh o ma t.tered, refer ee Andy Cadoti , ruled Abbott th e winner. On the coun t of three, the crowd did its best to -boo Cadoti off th e track , proving once aga in that being the referee is not th e best way to make friends. Thus, let the record show Dennis Abbo tt not o nly took his first-ever First Division trop hy in Ventura, bu t he wo n a ll h is races and left unbeaten. In Scratch ra cing, Faria was also unbeaten , incl udi ng a laugher in th e main . Miller , hurtirr' fo r certain, app lied some heat to " Flyin' Mike" but the outcome was never in doubt. Faria is simply an awesome speedway rider. In Second Division racing, Oxnard local Guy Helderlein led in the main for two laps, blew it on a turn, and suddenly was in third place. Bob Ott, certainly the next Danny Becker, pulled about 12 pounds of wh eelies , and in between, went fast enough to win his second main in a row. And Ventura local Pat Smith, after trying for a long time, won his first ever Third Division trophy on his home tra ck - by plenty. The moral of that story is never give up. Finally, most of the hard-core spectators .know how hard it is to be a speedway fan these da ys. You must learn to keep score in ink, make it to the bathroom and back without missing a ra ce, and be able to empty th e parking lot after the races in less than seven minutes. And then there's all those dates to rem ember. Well , here 's two more dates to remember: Aug. 10 will be the Ventura round of th e qualifiers. And Aug. 24 the big one is . back , the now-legendary Gone With The Wind of Skin - the Ventura Raceway Bikini Contest! 'Result s SCRATCHMAIN : 1. Mike Faria; 2. Rick Miller; 3. Buddy Robinson; 4. Guy Ermolenko. HANDICAP MAIN : 1. Denn is Abbott ; 2. Shawn McConnell; 3. Robinson ; 4. Chris Reichardt 5. Steve Lucero; 6. Ron Preston. SECOND DIV: 1. Bob Ott 2. Andy Northrup; 3. Guy Helder lein; 4 . J immy O'Dell ; 5. Mike Coniglio; 6. Scott Talkington . THIRDDIV: 1. Pat Smith ; 2. Ludie Carlton; 3. Russ Bacerella ; 4. Mike Dwyer; 5. Joh n A itken ; 6. Dave Smith . MATCH RACE: 1. McConnell def . Faria. Crawford, Yarrow warm Napa crowd By Jann Houston NAPA, CA, J ULY 24 The speedway fans in Napa come to the rac es in ski jackets , rather than halter tops and shorts, but the devotion and ent h usiasm is all the same! They are all happy to have at least a min iseason of races, after nearl y a three- mo nth delay d ue to a state inspec tor who condemned the gra ndsta nds. That nightmare is now over, not on ly for the fans, but for the promoters as well, so let' s get o n with the races. Keep an eye open for Steve Crawford . In the Handicap main ton ight a t Napa, he was fantastic! After a restart (Kevin French go t.himself a little extra back-yardage), Crawford was out in the lead displaying a smooth, controlled, beautiful style. Meanwhile, Steve Elstins and Andy Gilbertson were engaged in a heartstopping battle for second place, making it impossible to call on every turn. Crawford's lead widened, but on the last lap, Elstins turned on a little more of something. H e pulled away fro m Gilbertson and gained on Crawford . In turn four on the last lap, Crawford was heading for the checkered flag when he went just a little ' wide. Elstins came under him on the inside, gi ving the " all of a sudden, not so co ld fans ," a speedway photofinish. Gilbertson was th ird. In the Scratch main, Duane Yarro w got the holeshot off the pole, with Paul Orlandi giving him no room to breathe in the first lap. In turn two on lap two , Orlandi went wide, and Tom Ferris was right there to take advantage of the situation and moved into second. Orlandi dropped to th ird, just ahead of Andy Gilbertson. On the final lap of the final event of the evening, there was little doubt that Yarrow was abo u t to repeat last night's action at Auburn with a victory in the Scratch Main, which is exactly what he did. Ferris was second, followed by Orlandi and Gilbertson. In the Division Two main, Dennis Davis got a good start coming off the 20, passed Charlie Haines for the lead by tu rn two and held it for th e entire race. H aines sett led for second. Harlan Bast was th ird. T he Division Three checkered flag went to Kevin Krug h of Fountain Valley, who is livi ng, worki ng and racin g in the north this year. Hal Scheetz was second, and A! Underwood third. . I hesi tate to call it the Jun ior main , the " Ju ni or Mish ap" would be more accura te! Bart Bast 's bike quit, John Houston 's chain broke, Darrell Anderso n went down between tu rn one a nd two and Bobby H edd en did a very professional job of la ying-itdown to avoid what cou ld have been serious. Scot t Brant took the che ck- win in th e Scrat ch main before th e biggest crowd of the season at John LaDouceur' s Inland Mo torcycl e Speedway. Bur ba (Kenny's Muffler/Cody Prod ucts J awa ) won the ma in as well as his heat and semi over the likes of Alan Christian, Dubb Ferre ll, Mike Far ia an d Shawn McCon nell. Burba took the gate from the pole positio n in his first ever IMS Scratch ma in over Mike Bast (J ust ice Brothers/ Knobby Shop J awa), Steve Lucero (Su per Seer J awa ) and Keith Chrisco (Win dl ord/Vans Weslak e). The field ca me out of turn two four abreas t wi th Burba easing into the lead for good going down the back chute. Chrisco took a few shots at Burba over laps twoand three but was unable to get by. The final lap was all Burba as he put them away and took the che ckered flag by five bikelengths over Chrisco and Lucero. Northern California's number one rider in 1982, Buddy Robinson (Budweiser Jawa) led all tbe way from th e 20 to win his first ever IMS Handicap main on the red flag plagued night. With Robinson building a big lead on the first lap, the attention swung to the battle for second spot between Dennis Bran sford (H ome Vido Jawa), Denny Scopellite (Ho t Moves Weslake) and Jim Lawson (Roaring 20's Pizza/Oakley Jawa ). The three riders exchanged posi tions two through four a number of times until Lawson took itfor good at the start of the fourth lap. It was too little lOO late for Lawson since Robinson had built up a half straightaway lead. It was the " Bud-Man" chased by Lawson and Bransford at th e finish . Ron Blanton (Castrol/].R. Troy Co.lBell Godden) picked up this third Division Two main of the season at IMS . Steve Flanagan (Jawa) was th e initial leader over Don Bovee (0' Neals 76 Jawa). Blanton, starting from th e 20, got Bovee for third on lap two with Bovee then crashing on lap three and suffering a broken collarbone. Chris Reichardt (Gene Plues Mot orcycl es G odd en ) inherited Bovee's third spot and along with Blanton they began to mo ve in on Flanagan . Bla nt on (inside) and Reichard t (o uts ide) sandwiched Flanaga n in tu rn three on th e final go 'ro und. It was Blanton and Reichardt handlebar -to-h andlebar as the y ca me out of fou r all th e way to the chec kered wi th Blanton tak ing th e win by inches . Bob Bechtold (Ca m 2 Mael y) ended a long layoff by taking his first IMS Third Division main of the season. Following Bechtold, who led tapes to che ckered, were Robby Stone (Jawa) and Kenn y H ansen (Busby/ Kima t Godden).

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