Cycle News

'" ~ N ,.. N en ..., > U W ..J U co > :; en 3: w Z Emde (Yam) , Pridmore • By Art Friedman Photos by Tom Kingsley RIVERSIDE, CAL., July 9, 1972 Don Emde just plain ran and hid from everybody there today. His Mel Dinesen 250 and 350 Yamahas were so far in front in the two major Senior events that the races hardly involved him. What was left for the spectator was the back-in-the-pack dices. Reg Pridmore (BMW 750), George Kerker (Hon 750), Steve McLaughlin (Hon 500), and George Roche (Kaw 500) disputed the 500 and Open points while Emde wailed away with 350 honors far ahead. Roche, wh 0 won the last meeting here, had his machine lose interest and he retired. Kerker and Pridmore pulled away from McLaughlin (who was listed in the Open results), and Kerker had it at the flag. The retirement rate was fairly high. The heat got to a lot of machines and a few riders. Practice was marred by all sorts of get-ofl's, especially in turn six. The most significant crash was Boh Reg Pridmore stretches for some more ground clearance on his way to the heavyweight production win. LAGUNASECA Laguna Seca Raceway, the host for the Kawasaki Superbike International, is the brainchild of a band of public-minded businessmen who are well-known in Northern California as SCRAMP, the Sports Car ,Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula. How Laguna Seca came in to being is a success story in itself. Monrerey got started as a sports car racing center during the famous Pebble Beach Road Races from 1950 to 1956. When the crowds got too large for the crooked roads of the Del Monte Forest course, SCRAMP was organized. SCRAMP members personally signed or talked others into signing notes to the extent of $125,000. They negotiated a lease with the Departrnen t of Defense to use a portion of land on Ft. Ord property. The 1.9·mile circuit was completed on the outskirts of Ft. Ord in 1957. SCRAMP, with the aid of Monterey architect Wallace Holm built a European-type road racing course, some 30-feet wide with nine turns. The course is challenging; it has a maximum upgrade of 14 percent and a maximum downgrade of 21 percent. In its initial years, the fledgling race course was hard pressed to meet expenses. But as the sport of auto racing grew, SCRAMP directors decided to gamble and turned to professional racing as their key to success. SCRAMP has not only paid back all the borrowed money, but now contribu tes all net proceeds to more than 40 charities - over $940,000 since its inception and over SlOO,OOO last year alone. Hundreds of unpaid volunteers give their time so that most of the gate can be used for charitable purposes. There are the program and ticKet seIlers, the traffic and parking control, the food and souvenir sales, and the many other facets that make up the complicated business of'road racing - all for sweet charity. There are few settings for racing anywhere on earth that can compare with the beauty of Laguna Seca with its rolling hills, interesting track spTeading oaks and pattern. Drivers commend it and it is probably the best in Amer;ca from a spectator standpoint. Besides that - everyone likes to visit the Monterey Peninsula. This year SCRAMP decided to enter the fast-growing world of. professional motorcycle road racing and' applied to the American Motorcycle Association for a sanction to run a National Road Race:. at Laguna Seca. The AMA was naturally deligh ted to get a chance to include a race at this track in their national championships and duly issued the sanction. In next to no time, Trippe-Cox had agreed to promote the event and had signed Kawasaki to sponsor it. So, on July 21, 22, 23, Trippe-Cox and SCRAMP bring ypu the $50,000 Kawasaki Superbike International, the first major professional motorcycle road .. HOLLAND - The land of windmills and tulips By Tim Luikart and blonde-haired, rosy-cheeked Dutchmen. And oh, the rosy cheeked Dutchwomen. And canals. And Amsterdam, where everything is possible. And once a year, the Dutch TI. lt was hard to miss the TI, once within 30 kilometers of Assen, where it was held. Huge signs, set in the middle of some farmer's harnyard, proclaimed the date and location of the TT with certainty. Farmhouses were draped with Continental Tire banners, Chrvron Oil banners, and many other company associated with motorcycling. Assen is a small town, located about three kilometers from the starting line of the TI. The people love the annual TI. The merchants make money, the residents make money, and everyone closes up for the races on Saturday. The Netherlands is the home of the curren t 50cc road racing World Champion, Jande Vries, and the 50cc model is more popular here than anywhere else I have been in Europe. Old men, young men, old women, and sweet young ones - all have a 50cc something or other_ They love the little things, and J an de Vries is something of a national hero. People carry decals with his name on their car. And wear T-shirts bearing the same. He has been having a race with Angel Nieto of Spain for the world championship this year, and it . looked like a real battle after the practice times. Nieto ran his Derbi around the course for one lap at four minutes flat. Jan de Vries could get his Kreidler around at just four minutes seven seconds. There were a lot of people close to this time. However, everyone in the stands knew who was going to be racing. When the flag dropped it was Nieto and de Vries, and they weren't more than two seconds apart the whole race. Nieto led for the first few kilometers, then de Vries, then Nieto again. With a lap to go, de Vries was leading. In fact, he was leading with less than a quarter lap to go. But Nieto must have been holding back a few bits of horsepower, for he was in front at the.finish. The next class to run was the 350's, always in teres ling, if only to see how much of a lead Agostini can build over the rest of the field. This time it was even more inleresting, as Ago got started in somewhere around eigh th place. He actually had to work his way past a few riders. First lap leader was Janos Drapl, of Hungary, but he retired on the second lap, relinquishing the lead to Phil Read on an MV 3. Read led at the conclusions of laps two and three, but Agostini passed him on lap four, and from then on the race was for second place. lt musl get lonely that far in front. Read could only hold second place for a lap, lhen Renzo Pasolini put his Aermacchi in second, only to relinquish thal on the ninth lap to Jamo Saarinen on a Yamaha. And that is the way it stood, all the way to the lasllap of the 20 lap race when Dieter Bruan of West Germany took his Yamaha pasl Read for fourth 'place. Saarinen had been catching Agostini during the lalter stages of the race, but did not really get within striking distance of the sweet sounding MV. Agostini established a new lap record during the race of 3:06.6 at 148.63 km per hour, and a new race record of one hour, three minutes and two seconds, al 146.63 km per hour. He also held the old record, which he sel in 1970. The 250s got underway at 12:30, exactly as scheduled, for,their 17 laps of the 7.7044 kilometer course; roughly four miles. Rodney Gould fired his Yamaha with the first step, it seemed, and was away and gone for the whole race. Very smooth, and managed to keep his factory Yarnmie just enough ahead of Renzo Pasolini's Aerrnacchi to stay comfortable. Pasolini passed Phil Read on the third lap, and steadily pulled away to hold second place to the finish.Jamo Saarinen also got past Read on the third lap, and he held third place to the finish. Phil Read did hold on to fourth place, and managed to stay in fourth in the world title chase. He is far behind Gould, Pasolini and Saarinen, however, and it looks like one of these three will take the 250 world title. Now ihere was a break in the Ago made a bad start in the 350 race. Here he is in second pi • race to be held at Laguna Seca. During race weekend a telephone will be installed at lhe track to give you up-dated results and information. The number is (408) 372-5444. Harold Bartol 01 Austria at speed on his SOcc Kreidler. Englehardt pushes off the Enders driven sidecar alongside the

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