Ascot Opener
ASCOT OPENER
FOR CALIFORNIA RACERS, the opening half-mile event at Ascot Park each April is more of a New Year’s celebration than January first. Tuners have labored long and hard throughout the winter, preparing and improving their very special machines for this very special Friday night. Riders, primed and ready after a five-month layoff, try to outdo one another with flashy new leathers, jumpers and helmets. And race fans by the thousands, eager for the fresh, new scene, attempt once more to predict the unpredictable.
THE FIRST WEEK
Novice riders, mounted on brake-less 250cc machines, open the program. These men are novices in name only, however, and it shows as they battle determinedly through their heat races. Each must accumulate at least a year of sporting scrambles experience and hold a current amateur or expert sportsman license before touching a wheel to the Ascot clay. This safety-slanted policy of AMA Referee Bert Brundage, while limiting the number of potential novice entries, has definitely increased the quality of new rider talent for 1966.
First across the line in the novice main event was Jim Deehan, a trackwise secondyear rider who competes for Long Beach Honda. Dick Turner (Bultaco) and Mike Lithicum (Honda) finish two-three.
Many of last year’s novices have acquired the necessary 20 points and now advance to amateur status. Making the big jump to 500cc equipment, they arrive at a new plateau — faster machines, bigger purses and, consequently, greater pressures. BSA-mounted Bert Ershig takes the opening night amateur main event, staving off spirited bids by Pete Bodette and John Carter, also riding Gold Stars.
As the expert main event field lines up, Sammy Tanner has won 299 races in eleven years of professional competition, including spectacular victories in this evening’s heat race and trophy dash. But nine of the finest riders in the country will be doing everything in their power to keep him from making it 300 tonight.
Off they roar, Tanner in the lead. Dan Haaby grabs second; Dick Hammer (riding AÍ Gunter’s BSA in a quick switch from Triumph) is third. First year expert Eddie Hammond challenges Mert L^wwill for fourth, as the rest of the pack jockeys for position. On lap five the order is unchanged, but Hammer retires with engine trouble on the sixth, moving Guy Louis into top-five contention.
Suddenly, in the north turn, there is a pileup! Cal Raybom has lost control of his Harley, taking himself and Eddie Wirth out of contention. And Neil Keen, using split-second evasive tactics, lays his machine down to avoid the tangle.
Abruptly black-flagged at ten laps, the race is no less a resounding 300th win for Tanner. The C. R. Axtell-tuned BSA on which Sam has won four Ascot Championships seems stronger than ever.
THE SECOND WEEK
A new winner appears in the swiftly changing pattern of first-year novice racing. Marty McDonald, whose H-D Sprint blew in its initial outing, charges strongly through traffic to heat race and main event victories. Fast-closing Don Roberts (Yamaha) swoops in for second, ahead of Montesa-mounted Ed Applegate.
Amateur action finds John Carter receiving a spontaneous ovation from the crowd after his free wheeling, high-groove heat race win on Jack Hately’s BSA. But Pete Bodette, smooth and steady, pilots Don Butler’s BSA to first place in the 10lap final. Carter finishes a close second; Casper Grief (BSA) moves up to third.
CAROL SIMS
. . . and Sammy Tanner still leads the way.
In the expert division, Tanner’s win streak is briefly jeopardized. Doing an unintentional wheelie off the line at the start of the trophy dash, Sam is last to the turn, trailing heat race winners Dan Haaby, Jim Nicholson and Mert Lawwill. He quickly closes the gap, picks off Lawwill, then Nicholson. But not until the last turn does he challenge Haaby, sailing by on the outside and holding his advantage to the checker.
The main event results surprise no one. It’s Tanner all the way — with Haaby (BSA), Lawwill (H-D) and Louis (R.E.) assuming their runnerup positions of the previous week. Fifth place goes to Hammer, again BSA-mounted, this time for Norm Reeves. Sixth is Nicholson, out for the first time on Joe Dudek’s Triumph, which Hammer rode last year.
The continuing drama of the Ascot half-mile unfolds every Friday night, through November, with top professional racing in all three divisions.
