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VOL. 53 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 13, 2016 P101 zine publisher Floyd Clymer promoted the event. The '67 race served as the beginning of domi- nance at the track by America's first bona fide road racing star, Cal Rayborn. Harley-mounted Rayborn took over the lead in that year's race from Gary Nixon, after Nixon's Triumph had developed ignition problems. Dick Hammer and Mert Lawwill rounded out the podium finishers. It marked Rayborn's sec- ond national victory, having won his first the previous summer in the road race at Carlsbad. The '67 race at IRP was notable in that Harley- Davidson debuted its "Lowboy" frame for the KRTT, lowering the bike about three inches from the previ- ous road race frame. The 1968 race will be remembered for the inspired ride by flat-track specialist Bart Markel. Markel ditched the traditional road race clip-on handlebars for wide flat-track bars and raced his KRTT like a modern-day supermoto rider, eventually sliding up the inside and past leader Cal Rayborn. Fans were cheering Markel on, but his wild and loose riding style finally caught up with him and he pitched it away spectacularly. That left Rayborn in the lead, but facing a major challenge by Yamaha 350cc two-stroke-mounted Yvon DuHamel, who opened a lot of eyes to the com- ing threat of the speedy little two-strokes. DuHamel's bike propelled him to a big lead, but the Yamaha didn't make the distance and Rayborn took his second-consecutive victory at IRP over Gary Nixon and Dan Haaby. Rayborn and DuHamel put on another great show battling for the lead for a good number of laps in the 1969 national at IRP. After swapping positions lap af- ter lap, Rayborn was the first to blink and ran off the track, handing DuHamel a 14-second lead. But like the year before, DuHamel could not catch a break. Shortly after taking his commanding lead, DuHamel's Yamaha seized coming down the front straight. Ron Grant then held the lead on a Suzuki, but he was chased down and passed by Rayborn, who went on to win comfortably, his third-straight at the event. The Suzukis of Grant and Art Baumann cre- ated some drama, when neither had pitted for the mandatory pit stop late in the race. Finally, on the last lap the two came in and still managed to hold on for second and third. The final national at IRP came in 1972 and it was one of the most talented fields ever assembled for an AMA Road Race National outside of Daytona. Besides Rayborn, the field included DuHamel, Paul Smart and Cliff Carr on Kawasakis; Gary Nixon and Gene Romero on Triumphs; BSA-mounted Dick Mann, and Yamaha with a massive contingent, which included Gary Fisher, Gary Scott, Kenny Roberts, Ron Pierce, Steve McLaughlin, Keith Mashburn and Mike Kidd. After a long dry spell (Rayborn hadn't won since the previous Indy race in '69 due to longtime devel- opment and teething problems with Harley's new XRTT) it was Rayborn putting his stamp of owning IRP with his fourth-consecutive victory at the circuit. Incidentally, 1972 was the only year Indianapolis had the honor of hosting nationals at both Indianap- olis Raceway Park and the Indy Mile, located on the north side of Indy at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The 1972 event proved to be the final AMA National held at IRP. The drag strip, which hosted NHRA's U.S. Nationals and the oval, which later hosted a NASCAR Busch Series race, proved to be much more popular draws than the road course. Perhaps, had it not been for the drag strip and oval, IRP would have suffered the same fate as many other Midwestern road courses and eventually gone defunct. IRP's road course remained a popular venue for club races and even once hosted the WERA Grand National Final, but by the end of the '90s, it became increasingly more difficult to hold races with the deteriorating track surface. The facility is now called Lucas Oil Raceway and if you look on the website there's not even a section for the road course. It still survives, albeit in a state of neglect. It's a shame, too, because many top road racers who raced IRP called the section of turns two, three and four their favorite combination of any road course anywhere. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives