Resweber Again At Watkins Glen

RESWEBER AGAIN AT WATKINS GLEN

AN EXCLUSIVE CYCLE WORLD RACE REPORT

MAVIS GIRTON

CARROLL RESWEBER, defending national champion, catapulted into serious contention for his fifth straight title by taking over the lead late in the race and winning, for the second straight year, the 150-Mile AMA National Championship Road Race at Watkins Glen, New York.

Harley-Davidson mounted, the Cedarburg, Wisconsin ace led the 34-man field on the second and third laps, then appeared to play a waiting game, sometimes dropping as far back as fifth place while feeling out his competition.

Current point leader Dick Mann, of El Sobrante, California, held the advantage on the first, fourth and fifth times around, taking over again on the ninth circuit astride his Matchless. He proceeded to build up a substantial 18 second lead before bowing out on lap 23 with mechanical difficulties.

The next 40 laps saw a torrid battle between Tony Murguia (H-D) of Reading, Pennsylvania and Tom Clark (Matchless) of Knoxville, Tennessee. The lead changed hands six times, with Murguia ahead for 27 laps and Clark 13.

It wasn't until lap 63 of the 66-lap trek that Resweber began to narrow his 20 second deficit. With calculated efficiency he increased his pace over the 2.3 mile, uphill and down, twist and turn course, closing fast on second place Clark. He swooped by Clark on the 64th lap and set his sights on Murguia, overtaking him on the uphill turn just past the starting line, one lap later. At the finish, Carroll led by a comfortable margin over runnerup Murguia and third place Clark, picking up a healthy $1300 paycheck for his second national road race win of the

year.

Fourth was Larry Schafer (H-D) of Washington, D.C.; fifth, Roger Reiman (H-D) of Kewanee, Illinois, and sixth, John Platchek (Triumph), Pottstown, Pa. Resweber, who is now within one point of Mann in national standings, averaged 85.2 mph over the 150.6 mile distance to establish a new track record of 1 hour, 46 minutes, 54.39 seconds. This erases the former mark, set in 1960 by Brad Andres, of 1 hour, 47 minutes, 31 seconds.

Resweber's brilliant victory was overshadowed by a tragic accident on lap 26 that took the life of Robert Webster, twotime Canadian road race champion from Toronto. The crash occured when veteran rider Carlo Monastero of Burlington, N.J. missed a shift and slowed unexpectedly as three other machines were whizzing by. All went down, with 29-year-old Webster suffering head and chest injuries which later proved fatal, and Bates Molyneaux of Detroit sustaining a fractured leg and shoulder. Monastero and Rolland Hedgecock of Alexandria, Virginia were treated at trackside for minor injuries, then released.

Webster had been racing for nine years, and had competed in several foreign countries. Winner of the Canadian championship in 1959 and again last year, his loss will be keenly felt by his many friends and fellow competitors.

50-MILE AMATEUR RACE

The initial race on Sunday's schedule was the 50.6 mile amateur event and Canadian Denton Craig of Ottawa pushed his BSA to victory over a sterling field of his contemporaries, including the Daytona 130-Mile Amateur winner, George Montgomery, who finished fourth.

Craig led all but one lap of the 22-lap event. Second place Jim Varnes (BSA) of Cochranville, Pa., who chased Craig around the course for all twenty-two laps, held the advantage briefly on the tenth circuit. Craig picked up $200 for his winning ride; Varnes took home $150.

Third place finisher was Carl Neitz of Dover, N.J.; fourth, George Montgomery, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.; fifth. Dale Norlund, Venice, Calif. Although four states and Canada were represented in the top five, the first four all rode BSA machines; fifth place Norlund was Harley-Davidson mounted. Riders from a total of eleven states and Canada competed in the Amateur final.

Craig's time for the 50.6 miles was 36 minutes, 47.67 seconds, as compared to last year's winning time (by Jody Nicholas, also riding a BSA) of 36 minutes, 2.59 seconds. Fifty-mile Amateur track record for the Glen course was set in 1960 by Bud Koehler, another Canadian, at 34 minutes, 47.85 seconds.

25-MILE NOVICE RACE

Hitting speeds of up to 107 miles an hour, Tony Woodman of Far Hills, New Jersey came from behind to challenge and overtake Denver's Howard Utsey for first place honors in the 25-Mile Novice feature race held on Saturday.

Woodman, Matchless-mounted, dogged at Utsey's heels throughout the early stages of the 11 -lap, 50-man event, finally assuming a temporary lead on the seventh time around. But Utsey, winner of both the Daytona 70-Mile and Shreveport 30Mile road race events earlier this season, fought back furiously on his BSA. The two riders staged a three lap lead-swapping battle all around the course with first one and then the other nipping ahead. On the last lap, a burst of speed down the long straightaway placed Woodman in a good position to take over for keeps on the 90 degree turn leading to the finish line. His time for the 25.3 mile race was 18 minutes, 29.86 seconds. Although a frequent lightweight winner, this was Woodman's first money win, and he took home $100 and a huge trophy for his efforts.

Third place went to Roger Chase of Meriden, Conn., also riding a Matchless, fourth was Edward Moran (BSA), Farmingdale, N.J., and fifth, Michael Moran (BSA), Windsor, Conn.

SPORTSMAN LIGHTWEIGHT RACES

In the Sportsman Lightweight events also held on Saturday, two youngsters from Fort Worth, Texas stole the show from their more experienced elders. Michael Bonnell, 16-year-old high school junior, turned back a field of thirty Class 4 Amateur riders to score a resounding victory on his Honda, with a fastest lap average of 87 mph.

Fourteen-year-old Jimmy Cook, a high school freshman, finished a full 15 seconds ahead of his nearest rival in the 42-man Class 5 Amateur race, hitting speeds above 100 mph aboard his Motobi en route. When asked how he liked the Watkins Glen International Grand Prix track, Cook (a trombone player in his 85-piece school band) replied in a slow drawl, "I really like it fine!" Then he added, rather ironically, that his father would have to chauffer him back to the motel because, although Texas issues licenses at age 14, he was two years shy of being able to obtain a driver's permit in Yankeeland. Ah, the life of a budding young racer ... •