Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 nai moved into second in the standings behind Hocking after two rounds. On December 1 the series moved to Minneapolis Auditorium and it was Gennai making it two in a row. Gennai battled early leader Dave Hansen, moving into the lead on lap three and leaving Hansen and Hocking battling over second. Gennai moved to within 10 points of Hocking in the standings after his Minneapolis victory. The stop at the St. Louis Civic Center on Dec. 10th marked the halfway point in the season. It was there that the monopoly of Hocking and Gennai came to an end. Unlike most of the tracks in the series the Civic Center's racing surface was made up of sheets of plywood over an ice rink. Maybe the different surface got the two stars of the series off their game. Hocking, who led the series coming into St. Louis, didn't even make the main. And double race winner Gennai finished a distant 10th in the Main. But that was good enough however to give him the series lead at midseason. The St. Louis winner was Cupertino, California's Al Kenyon, holding off a determined challenge by Steve Dalgarno of Baltimore. Barry Gerald was third. Eight of the top 10 were on Bultacos, with the other two on Ossas. Interestingly Gary Nixon, who had pretty much gone strictly to road racing by this time, showed up at St. Louis and finished ninth. It was only his second race back after having a 17inch pin removed from his broken leg. Nixon said of his race, "Well that was a pretty good indoor. I only got off four times." The intermission show in St. Louis included Playboy bunnies racing around the track on Honda Trail 70s with several of the riders volunteering to help the young ladies learn to ride. Hocking bounced back to win the next round in Ft. Worth, Texas, taking back the series lead in the process. Hocking beat Gary Tonda and Pat McCaul in that event. Kevin Schwantz' uncle Darryl Hurst was fourth. Over 10,000 fans stuffed Detroit's Cobo Arena where Hocking won his third race of the series over Pat McCaul and Gary Nixon. Bart Markel P111 came out of retirement and put his Harley Sprint in the main, finishing fifth. Detroit marked a big turning point in the championship. Hocking's win, combined with Gennai missing the main after jumping the start in his Semi, meant that Hocking left Michigan with a nearly insurmountable lead in the series going into the final two rounds. The big surprise at the February 5 round at Madison Square Garden was the appearance of Kenny Roberts. 168 riders braved New York City traffic and showed up to vie for the 12 spots in the Main. It was a great final with Gennai bolting to an early lead only to have his bike suffer brake problems. That put Hocking in the lead with Roberts on his tail. The two raced first and second the rest of the way with Roberts waiting for a mistake from Hocking that never came. Finally on the last lap Roberts, realizing he had to make something happen, made his move, finding just enough room to stuff his front wheel inside of Hocking and prying inside to run alongside and then take over the lead, winning by a wheel length. The 10,500 fans roared their approval at seeing Roberts in his prime coming in and beating the best indoor racers at their own game. It was not a total loss for Hocking though; he clinched the series championship that night in the Garden. The season wrapped up with the finale at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and again it was Roberts coming through with the victory over Al Kenyon and Hocking. His two wins gave Roberts enough points to put him in seventh in the final standings. And so it was. Supercross was coming, pushing indoor flat track back into a regional event. But for one glorious winter big crowds showed up to watch a group of great riders having closequarter battles on arena floors across the country.CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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