Race Watch
RACE WATCH
"King Kenny" Roberts wins 500cc World Championship; Glover takes 125cc USGP and AMA 125cc Championship; Tripes wins 250cc USGP by a hair; Eklund still leads Springsteen in Camel Pro Series
HANK SCOTT TAKES TWO
Whatever Hank Scott and tuner Carl Patrick did to their XR750 during intermission at the Sacramento Mile, worked.
Sacramento is a revival on the Camel Pro Series schedule. The old track Sacramento was closed eight years ago. Then the California Exposition provided a mile track, a classic horse track, and promoter J.C. Agajanian took a chance and brought motorcycle racing back to the state Capitol.
It worked. The stands were nearly sold out and the heats at least were close racing. In the first. Steve Ekiund swapped with fast qualifier Bill Schaeffer for the first laps. then held a narrow lead while H-D team ster Ted Boody was third. In the second heat Steve Morehead edged Garth Brow and Corky Keener. Hank Scott won the third heat, barely. with Jay Springsteen and Dave Aldana (on a spare Ron Wood Norton!) crouched on Scott's rear wheel. Mike Kidd, Alex Jorgenson and his Ron Wood Norton and Gary Scott finished the fourth heat in that order, after umpty-six
position changes.
Good close racing, fairgrounds style. Came the final. though. and I-lank Scott jumped to a 15-yard lead off the pole. Every time around he had a couple more feet and all the action. with Kidd and Springer humping themselves off the groove and Brow sliding into the marbles on his own and Steve Eklund keeping his series points lead by squeaking past Springsteen for fifth. All this was in the pack. though. as Scott had a visible advan tage over eve ryhodv else. Horse-track rules prohibited chemical treatments and the track got faster every lap-Schaeffer set a record in qualifying at 90.95 mph and Scott's winning race average was 94.26 mph-while Scott gained more speed than anybody else.
Nine days later Scott won again, on the Duquoin. Ill. mile, and said on that victory podium that tuner Patrick had found some more power within the XR750. Simple as that, he said, without giving (naturally) any details.
GROUP FOUR DUCATI WINS NELSON LEDGES 24-HOUR
W hen the Ducati leading this year's 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges en durance race loped into the pits less than 20 minutes before the finish, everyone in pit row strained to see what the problem was.
But when the pit crew swarmed over the machine they brandished shop rags and cleaner, not wrenches, quickly removing 24 hours of grime and applying new stick ers before the bike went back out for its final laps.
The stop for last-minute primping was typical of the efficiency with which the Group Four team won their second con secutive 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges. Riders John Samways, Jonathan White, Steve Pearce and Dave Belknap led for 17 of the 24 hours, covering a record-setting 964 laps at an average speed of 80.247 mph. They made it look easy, experiencing no major problems and never running in less than fourth place.
SPENCER TRIES A 750 ... AND LIKES IT
Fast Freddie Spencer made a name for himself by beating established road racing stars in WERA-sponsored club events, riding a TZ250, long before he was old enough for an AMA Novice Professional license. Since receiving his license, Spencer has won the Novice races at Daytona. Loudon and Pocono, and led at Sears Point until one of his bike's exhaust pipes fell off. Now Freddie's riding a TZ750 owned by Howard Racing. Inc., an Amsoil distributor in College Station. Texas. In his second race on the 750, Spencer finished second behind national star Dale Singleton. Not bad for a 16-year-old.
GLOVER WINS U.S. 125CC GRAND PRIX
Y'amaha's 17-year-old Broc Glover won both motos in the U.S. round of the 125cc World Championship motocross series at Lexington, Ohio, beating GP stars Akira Watanabe, Gaston Rahier and Gerard Rond. In overall results, it was Glover. Rond (Yamaha), and Marty Moates (LOP Suzuki). Bob Hannah finished second in the first moto after a bad start, while Watanabe. who leads the World Championship points, pitted with mechanical problems. In the second moto, both Hannah and Watanabe were forced to retire after they collided. Reigning champion Rahier's performance was hindered by an injured finger.
AND IT'S GLOVER AGAIN . . .
Broc Glover topped his USGP victory by taking the AMA 125cc National Motocross Championship for the second straight year. With two races to go in the 10-race series, Glover had an unbeatable points lead and the title.
AMERICANS DOMIN-ATE U.S. 250CC GP; TRIPES WINS
Team Honda's Marty Tripes and Jimmy Ellis finished first and seeond in the first U.S. 250cc Motocross Grand Prix, held at Unadilla. New York. Tripes and Ellis tied on points with Tripes declared the overall winner by .71 seconds in total elapsed time.
Ellis won the first moto; Tripes came from 14th to second. Bob Hannah (Yamaha) won the second moto, with Tripes second and Ellis third.
Overall it was Tripes (2-2), Ellis (1-3). Hannah (5-1), Hans Maisch (Germany, Maico, 3-7), World Champion Gennady Moiseev (USSR. KTM, 11-5), Neil Hudson (England, Maico. 7-10), Valery Korneev (USSR, KTM, 13-6) Tony DiStefano (Suzuki, 10-11), John Savitski (Yamaha 15-9) and Torleif Hansen (Sweden, Kawasaki, 23-4).
BOLD'OR CHANGES
Last time we mentioned the 24-hour endurance race at Bol d'Or. Reg Pridmore thought he was going to ride a Japauto Honda with Wes Cooley. It turned out that Pridmore was going on the word of a French journalist who promised to arrange the whole thing. The trouble is, no one told the people at Japauto. and the deal never really existed.
Meanwhile. Honda hired David Emde and Dale Singleton to ride an RCB at Bol d'Or; Ron Pierce and Steve McLaughlin
decided not to ride a Bob Behn Kawasaki; and Cooley and Pierce were slated to team up on the Suzuka-winning Yoshimura R&D GS1000. After all the changes. Pridmore and McLaughlin were lelt without rides.
QUICK, WHERE AM I?
The finishing order at the Pocono Camel Pro Series road race final was exactly the same as it had been at Sears Point for the first five places: Mike Bald win, Gene Romero, Dale Singleton, John Long and David Emde. In the Superbike Production race, Wes Cooley used the
Yoshimura R&D GSI000 to beat Mike Baldwin's controversial Ducati. Baldwin's bike, built to the same specifications as the Ducati Mike Hailwood rode at the Isle of Man, was protested before the race as being illegal and not meeting homologa tion rules. Baldwin rode under protest. was
barely beaten by Cooley, and was later disqualified. That left John Fuchs on an oversize Honda CB75OF in second. Randy Mamola ran away with the 250 race, beat ing David Emde, and Fast Freddie Spencer did it to the Novices again.
KING KENNY IS WORLD CHAMPION
K enny Roberts became the first Ameri can to win the 500cc Road Racing World Championship by finishing third at Nurburgring. West Germany, the final event in the 11-race championship series. Riding conservatively with his Yamaha jetted rich to avoid any chance of seizure,
Roberts still finished ahead of defending two-time World Champion Barry Sheene (Suzuki). Even if Sheene had won the race. all Roberts would have needed to take the title was a fourth place finish. Final points standings were: Roberts, 1 10; Sheene, 100; Johnny Cecotto, 66.
IT'S STILL EKLUND, WITH SPRINGER GAINING...
privateer Steve Ekiund continued to lead the Camel Pro Series, holding off Harley-Davidson's Jay Springsteen for an other six races. At the Sacramento mile, Hank Scott won, crediting tuner Carl Patrick with finding more horsepower, then did it again at the DuQuoin mile. Ekiund finished fifth at Sacramento, Springsteen sixth. At the DuQuoin mile, Springsteen closed the points gap with a second to Ekiund's fifth. Ekiund came back to win the Santa Fe short track, with Springsteen second, but Springsteen finished third to Eklund's fourth in the Peoria TT. won by Chuck Joyner. Neither Ekiund nor Springsteen entered the Pocono road race, but Springsteen closed up again at the Des Moines half mile, taking third behind Gary Scott and Ted Boody, with Ekiund fifth behind Phil McDonald. That left Eklund's point tally at 235 vs Springsteen's 233, with Ted Boody a distant third with 150. Seven events remained in the Series, four miles, two half miles and a road race.
