Grafton '67
GRAFTON '67
Canadians Trounce The Yanks At A Fun But Muddy Meet
JOHN WAASER
THIS YEAR’S GRAFTON International Moto-cross event was another of the sterling events of international caliber run by the recently formed New England group called Intersport. “Grafton” has been running since 1958, and has been used as a Canada vs. United States challenge meet since 1962, under the auspices of the New En-gland Sports Committee.
Coming as it does in the middle of the vacation season, and offering the attraction of a weekend of camping in the hills of Vermont, plus all the flavor and excitement of a truly international motocross meet, it is fast becoming one of the most popular of sporting events in New England. Also very appealing to most of the local riders is the fact that in the small Vermont town of Grafton, local residents have not heard about the Hell’s Angels, the atom bomb, Viet Nam or LSD. Or if they have heard of all these, they’re not letting on. The motorcycle enthusiasts flocking to this meet are received with open courtesy by everyone from the local residents to the Vermont police. The treatment accorded the riders at Grafton is the finest this writer has seen at any event, and in spite of the dire predictions of the yellow press, the riders return this favor by respecting the person and property of local residents.
This year on Saturday night there were no police in evidence at the track site at all, and over the weekend we heard instances of local officers helping stranded or lost riders, directing campers to offtrack camping locations to save them the trackside camping fee, and other acts of kindness. Truly, it is refreshing to come to Grafton and get away from the cares of the workday world, and still be treated as a human being. If Grafton ceased to exist there would be nothing available to fill the resulting void in our lives.
The Grafton Dustbowl this year earned the title of the Grafton Mudhole, and we would possibly have expected that it might be old-timers day in the winners circle, but this was not necessarily so. Grafton great Don “Goer” Gore retired after injuring his back in a first lap spill in the first heat. Two-fifty class Joe Bolger just could not get popping until late Sunday, when he finally won a heat. Mel Gancsos had a tough time fending off younger riders such as Terry Barber and Glenn Vincent. Among the Canadian riders, one smashing standout was young Dave Sehl, and anybody who has seen this event for the past two years could easily have predicted this. Dave’s younger brother, Doug also showed his capacity for hard racing on a 360 CZ,
In the early years of this event, the AMA scoring system for motocross events
was used, and the United .States almost always scored a smashing victory over the Canadian opponents, who rode fiercely if not wisely. A few years ago the Canadians started to settle down, and last year, for the first time, resoundingly crushed the New Englanders. This year the FIM scoring system was used for team events, with first place being one point, second counting two points, third three, and so on. The racing was much closer this year, and with a slim two-point lead going into the final heat (low score wins in this game) the New Englanders blew 10 points and lost by a total of eight points.
The crowd was hyper-enthusiastic this year, and well they should have been, as the racing was fantastic. In the first 500cc team heat New England’s Skip Escott and Canada’s Yvon Duhamel both quit on the first lap, as Dave Sehl took a tremendous lead for Canada on a stock 500 Triumph. As Dave came over the jump» the crowd ran to watch him, as he looked even more impressive than Don Gore did many years ago when he dusted off the western U.S. invaders.
Best placed New Englander was (unbelievably) Roger Durkee, riding what used to be a 305 Super Hawk. Roger is a big boy, and he has modified the Honda with a 350 kit, and various frame mods, but it remains basically the Hawk (not the scrambler) frame. He does no maintenance on the bike whatsoever, yet in an average Sunday race he can be counted on to be in the lead for the first lap anyway. From its distinctive howl to its fantastic performance this has got to be one of the most unique scrambles machines around.
In between the team match heats there was a full card of motocross activity over the full international course. In the 250cc amateur class Mike Kelton must have overcome his Bultaco reliability problems, as he looked great out there. Mike was injured in an industrial accident last year, in which he lost the sight of one eye for a long time. It’s good to see him out front again.
Just for chuckles, Glenn Vincent rode in the 250 expert heat, and grabbed the lead on the last lap from a New York rider not involved in the team races. One of the Babe Alden Doug Thieme Ocelot machines of several years ago entered this event, but had trouble with the rear engine fouling out. He ran just great as a 125, but it was funny to see him trying to pull the starter cord for the second mill while riding in the race. These machines were triangulated frames designed for lightness, and driven by two (in the 250 class) gokart engines through centrifugal clutches with no gearbox. Disc brakes on the rear, trailing link suspension and an all-up weight
of about 175 pounds made them about as totally unique an experience as Colt 45 Malt Liquor.
In the second set of team matches Bruce Maguire showed just how good his father is at tuning those Bultacos. Considering that the field was almost entirely composed of identical Bultaco PurSangs, and that Bruce must weigh at least twice what any of his competitors do, his Bultaco had no right to be so much faster than those of his opponents. But it was. Bruce took some of the most fantastic jumps possible on a 250cc machine, and had the crowd screaming itself hoarse. Bruce frequently seems to tire toward the end of a race, and so to be sure of a New England victory, Ron Jeckel did a great job of running interference, keeping the Canadian riders behind.
By the start of the second 500cc Team Match, the Canadians had amassed a total score of 47 to the United States’ 61. Remember, in this game, low score wins. A warmup lap was held, wherein Roger Durkee went down, injuring his shoulder. He did not start the race, which left the United States team with onlv three good men — Terry Barber, formerly a Triumph Cub rider in the 250cc class, now riding mostly in New York on a Ghost-tuned BSA Victor; Glenn Vincent, another exCub rider, perennially number one in our 250cc class a few years back, and one of the smoothest riders around; hard-riding Mel Gancsos was the third remaining member, and he has had some heart-stopning rides at Grafton, fending off the challengers’ beat up old Gold Stars, and things of that nature. Terry Barber took the lead quickly, but Glenn Vincent looked very smooth, appeared to have gobs of power in his Triumph-Metisse, and took the lead a couple of laps later. Mel Gancsos went down on the next-to-the-last lap, hurting New England chances further. Canadian Jack Hunt showed evidence of the most careful preparations, as his Matchless-Metisse quit just inches over the finish line, as the perfect race machine should do. In this heat we noticed many riders lengthening the course lightly by going off into the start area to avoid a very bumpy stretch just after coming out of the hollow.
In the second 250cc Novice event we saw the largest pileup ever recorded at Grafton, as 11 riders went down in the first turn, a downhill left-hand hairpin.
Before the third 250cc team heat, referee Les Beach took the team riders aside and issued a stem warning about flag-jumping. When he finished, all the New Englanders were joking about, “Repeat that in French, will you, Beachy.” At the start, however, it was two New Englanders who jumped the line, these restarted in the front row. not the rear as promised, so the starter delayed the flag for a second on the restart. caught those two off guard completely, sending the rest of the field off in a ragged start except for Joe Bolger, also sitting back on the line waiting for the flag to fall. The race was black flagged, and restarted, this time cleanly.
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Saturday night, with not a policeman in sight, the “unruly ones” set up a hillclimb on the side of the campground hill, practically straight up, and, all in good clean fun, invited all passing riders to try it. Bob Hicks was among the top riders to turn them down (had his wife on back) but a couple of the more popular local enduro riders ran it. One rider, on a Zundapp of about 50cc displacement, made it up the hill with a flat tire, and a few other good rides were seen. One Triumph rider (500cc) made a series of beautiful rides, including one with a standing start from the base of the hill. When one youngster could not make it all the way, the riders formed a chain from halfway up the hill and pulled the kid up over the top. Such fun we are all in favor of, as no harm was done and it kept the troublemakers (and perhaps even more important their audience) busy. Never before at a bike meet have we seen as much open and uninhibited, gay carrying on as we saw at the base of this hillclimb. But nobody semed to mind that, either.
The rains came quite early, breaking up the hillclimb and all other activity, and sending everyone scurrying for their campground. At times during the night it cleared up a bit, but at seven a.m. Sunday it rained very hard. At noon a torrential downpour came, clearing for good at 12:15. By this time Sunday afternoon, the entire area was a sea of mud, cars were getting stuck left and right, and the riders were going through long puddles over a foot deep. The bulldozer had graded the muddiest sections of the track, and the racing resumed for the second day of this twoday meet.
The 125 expert first heat set the tone for the day as a good battle ensued for first place. Shortly, Alan Munroe dropped out and Dave Burnett took the lead. But he lost it on the second lap, and Andy Calizewski stalled it while trying to avoid Burnett in the deep mud.
In the first 250 team event, young George Parmalee, lone CZ rider among the big-gun Bultacos, dropped out on the first lap. The New England teams seemed to be having far more trouble than their Canadian counterparts with this dropping out, and each drop-out resulted in an automatic last place worth eight points. Even Bruce Maguire’s unbelievable lead could not make up a point deficit like that; only teamwork could help save the locals. Joe Bolger, realizing this, and having had a poor day on Saturday, shot past two riders on the second lap. and by the third Ian was up into second place, where he stayed. And the crowd went wild! To this writer it appeared on the last lap that Joe’s left rear shock absorber was bent out of shape, but we didn’t get a chance to check this.
In the first 500cc team race, the bad luck switched to the Canadians, as one of their most experienced riders, Yyon Duhamel, dropped out on the first lap. Mel Gancsos started out in the lead, while Glenn Vincent worked up to second. Terry Barber flipped on the second lap, putting him out of contention, while Glenn Vincent, his Triumph Metisse obviously the fastest thing around, took over the lead on the third. The faster riders all began to take the bottom turn way high, thus turning on grass, and building up speed to go straight through the mud. This is a technique which has been used sporadically before here at Grafton, but in the mud it really worked.
In the second 250cc team heat, Brucie Maguire, who is yet one of the youngest riders involved in this event, led all the way from flag to flag. His surplus bulk must have helped keep the bike planted firmly on the ground through the mud, as nobody could stay with him. Joe Bolger had an early third going, but dropped back to fifth by the third lap. On the other hand, Ray Boasman, from Canada, went from fourth in the early stages to second by the third lap, shifting the point balance even more toward Canada.
The second 500cc team heat saw some hot action as Mel Gancsos and Glenn Vincent fought for the lead with a Canadian rider. Vincent got the lead, lost it quickly, then gained it back again. This boy Vincent has proven to be one of our best riders, particularly in the international prestige events, shunned by his older brother, Charlie, who rides the open class, not used in the match races.
The last 250cc team heat was a humdinger, as Bruce Maguire got a poor start into third place. He worked his way quickly to the front, while Joe Bolger was also battling his way from third. Joe got to the front and he and Mike battled for the lead, with Joe scant inches ahead most of the time. There was some argument that the race might have been run an extra lap, and all kinds of verbal protests, but as the official decision had it, Joe Bolger crossed the line first. Nice to see Joe take at least one heat on the weekend, and maybe now he’ll come on strong for the rest of the season; he has not been much of an early season contender the last couple of years.
The total point tally at the start of the final match race showed the New England team ahead by a scant two points. That is about like holding a two-inch lead at a hundred yards from the end of a mile race. It doesn’t take much to whittle it away. Chances looked slim for the New Englanders, as Mel Gancsos got tired of busting his hump in the interest of team spirit, and refused to ride.
Terry Barber couldn’t get ready. They waited a very long time for him, finally replaced him with Smiley Hulbert. Terry got ready just as the flag was ready to drop, so came to the line. Smiley backed off. Then someone discovered a loose rear wheel on Terry's Victor. They changed places again, so Smiley got to ride anyway.
The race got off to the best start of the afternoon. Glenn Vincent was chasing Canadian Jack Hunt really hard when he went down on the back section of the track. Meanwhile. Glenn Calawa stalled his Maico 360, and Skip Escott went down in the first turn and could not restart his Victor. The ambulance could not make it to the back section of the muddy track, so the race was black-flagged while a fourwheel drive truck went out to pick up Glenn Vincent. The race was restarted single file, but with only Smiley Hulbert, in second place, wearing the stars and stripes. He kept second to the end, with Canadian riders holding down first, third, fourth, and fifth. You know what that did to the point standings.
Now came the real fun for many people — trying to get their cars out of the quagmire that was most of the parking fields. We were on an upper level, and saw many cars stuck. The pits were something else, with cars sliding all over hither and yon, trying to pull heavy trailers, getting in each other’s way and the like. Almost more of a show than the races, and well worth the price of admission.
We usually stay around until some peace and quiet has returned to the area before leaving, in order to avoid the traffic and to avail ourselves of the opportunity to bench race with some of the stars, the not-so-stars, and the girls ... A quick last snack at the refreshment stand sponsored bv the local PTA (for variety one of the bike clubs had a barbecue stand also) and we were ready to leave.
As we drove out of town, we waved goodbye to Grafton, the greatest little town that ever held a motorcycle race. Darkness and peace once more settled
on the quiet Vermont hills. ■
1967 GRAFTON RESULTS
