Nazareth

nazareth

The Threes Make A Howling Debut At The Nation's Longest Dirt Track National.

DAN HUNT

tHE SOUND IS NOT particularly loud. But it is slightly higher pitched and wails without the interrupted texture characteristic of the vertical and V-twins snarling around it. Around the back straight at the 1 and 1/8th mile at Nazareth, Pa., the wail becomes higher and more eerie as one of the British-built Threes turns past 8500 rpm and approaches 120 mph.

For a moment the mind drifts off to the Mountain Box. A fleeting memory of a multi, working in the distance, racing up the Isle of Man's highest mountain. A touch of Hailwood. A strain of Redman, or Agostini.

But the settling dust and the crack ling Twins tell us we are on home ground. The venue is in. the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. The track is dirt. And AMA racing has begun a new era.

The "new rule" is upon us. The AMA has put all Class C dirt trackers on an equal footing. No longer do 500-cc ohv machines race against 750-cc sidevalvers. Instead, they may all be 750s, regardless of design, as long as 200 models have been produced and are available for sale in this country. The rule has two basic effects: most riders wili be competing with machines on which little racing development has been done, and Har ley-Davidson no longer enjoys a 50 percent displacement advantage.

The H-D concern, of course, suffered a setback. It could not produce 200 750-cc ohv Sportsters in time to be approved for this year's racing. Having to run their flatheads against overheads

of near or equal displacement could put them at a power disadvantage. This would not be so apparent, however, on the half mile, and H-D did, in fact, win the first two half mile nationals of the season, benefiting from both the riding strength of the factory team and from not having to sort out handling and traction problems which inevitably come with new machinery.

But at Nazareth, the new rule could make a difference. A mile track (plus an eighth) is a power track. Nobody could make any predictions. And when both BSA and Triumph arrived in the pit area with their powerful new three-cylinder ohv 750s, rampant curiosity was height ened even further.

Triumph brought a single Trident for Gary Nixon, who had a 650 Twin standing in the wings just in case the Three didn't pan out. Housed in a Trackmaster swinging arm frame with Cerian~ road racing forks, the three cylinder engine was in fairly standard trim. A three-megaphone exhaust was tried and dropped in favor of a single collector/megaphone unit after practice.

B SA Western brought a similarly framed machine, which, service manager Tom Cates said, yielded about 66 bhp in dyno sessions at C.R. Axtell's shop.

Comparison testing revealed that, while three separate megaphones gave the BSA strong low and middle rpm power, the single megaphone/collector gave the best results high in the power band, so the latter was chosen. BSA Eastern also produced a Three in virtu ally street stock condition, with a sepa rate megaphone for each exhaust. Dallas Baker, who had helped in setting up the Western three-cylinder, somehow ended up on the Eastern Three. And the Western machine was given to Canadian Yvon du Hamel for practice. The combi nation of the strangely shaped threeturn race track and the hefty size of the Three must have given Yvon the "big eyes," because he didn't fare well. Musi cal chairs continued as the ride passed out of the Expert ranks to Amateur Dave Aldana, who carved a set of practice laps as though he had been. riding the Three for years.

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Elsewhere in the BSA camp, Experts Dick Mann, Eddie Wirth, and Neil Keen were attending to business on 650-cc BSA Twins, somewhat ignored by their sponsors. Keen barely got into practice before a hole appeared in the back of his engine. Mann, the only BSA rider in the top 10 of national points standings, was looking very fast on a 650 he uses for TT racing.

As for the Triumphs, Gary Nixon was strong both on the Twin and the Three. He opined that the Three was equal to, but not yet superior to his trusty Twin. Gene Romero, Ed Varnes, Chuck Palmgren, Canadian Dave Sehl and Bob Sholley were all in good fettle on their 650s.

In the Harley camp, Bart Markel, Mert Lawwill and Cal Rayborn were running well on their flatheads. Lawwill had a bad setback in practice when a cam broke in his No. 1 engine, but he qualified at a respectable 42.81 after frantically switching to the backup engine. Dan Haaby’s machine, being newly built after a recent blowup, was not running at competitive speed.

Fred Nix, who won all four mile track nationals last year, was the most impressive H-D rider in practice with lap times in the 41s. In qualifying, he cut a “bad” lap, losing the groove for a moment, but still came up with the fastest time of the day at 42.06 sec., a 96.03-mph average.

Nixon pushed the unfamiliar Triumph Three through the clocks at a masterful 42.08. Markel (H-D) and Mann (BSA Twin) tied at 42.11. Also under 42.5 sec. were Romero (Triumph), Varnes (Triumph), Jim Rice (BSA), and Palmgren (Triumph). Dallas Baker’s near-stock BSA Three, which had been acting like a pogo stick in practice and turned less revs, posted a so-so 43.38.

So the ultimate test on the big track showed that Harley had not wasted its money all these years tuning its flatheads to the Nth degree. In terms of development of a given design, they are no less sophisticated then a Honda Six or an MV Three, and they were now holding their own against the inherently “better” ohv designs.

Eddie Wirth beat the field to the first sweeping turn of Expert Heat 1, and was shadowed by Bart Markel through Turn 2 onto the back straight. Markel slipstreamed him as they picked up speed and got by as they approached Turn 3 and went onto the front straight. Wirth suffered a similar fate at the hands of Palmgren. The final order was Markel, Palmgren, Wirth and Dallas Baker on the BSA Three.

Pennsylvania local favorite Ed Varnes kept his Triumph 650 in front for the duration of the second heat. Haaby started out in 2nd place but got drafted back to 3rd by Mann. Final order: Varnes, Mann, Lawwill, Haaby.

The opening laps of Heat 3 were gorgeous. It went Brelsford, Nixon, Brelsford, Nixon with the continual prospect of collision, Gary’s Three finally settling ahead of Mark’s H-D. Then first-year Expert Jim Rice pushed his BSA Twin past Brelsford to engage in drafting contest with Gary. They finished with Gary in front by a few feet, then Rice, Brelsford and Larry Palmgren, etc.

Heat 4 went to Fred Nix’s Harley after Sehl, a strong first-year Expert, led an initial tour. Gene Romero and Cal Rayborn got past Sehl also. Sehl and Rayborn dueled for 3rd, but Rayborn had the edge on the 100-mph Turn 1 and held 3rd place at the finish.

Managing a back-door transfer to the main from the Expert Semi were Fred Varnes (BSA), du Hamel (BSA), George Cunha (Triumph) and Bob Sholley (Triumph).

The Expert 50-lap national, worth 71 points to the winner, had a Nix-Nixon opening commensurate with time trials. After initial place swapping, Nixon stayed in front for several laps. But as he explained later, “My throttle arm gave out and I couldn’t guide it anymore.”

Gary lost the groove and was passed by Nix, Ed Varnes, Bart Markel, Chuck Palmgren and Mann. After that, Gary— wishing that he had installed a balancing spring in the twistgrip to offset the tension of three carburetors—concentrated on smooth riding, and held the leaders’ pace. Meanwhile, Markel’s H-D quit with a broken magneto wire. Haaby, running with a sputtering engine in midfield, was also pitting intermittently.

Then Mann began a long-legged drive to the front. He arrived in 2nd place and, at the fantastic pace he was setting, could have taken over the lead in a few more laps. But then his BSA Twin went bang-crunch. The other BSA Twins suffered malaise of varying severity—including riders Wirth, Rice, du Hamel— and only the Three of Dallas Baker was in contention to the end. But Baker’s skid shoe became a dangling missile and he had to pit to remove it.

Nixon had worked his Triumph Three to 3rd place behind Bugsy and inherited 2nd when the BSA blew.

Nix, in the last few laps, had nearly the length of the front straight on Nixon and took it easy to the finish. They were followed home in attenuated manner, by Romero, Varnes, Chuck Palmgren, Rayborn, Sehl, Larry Palmgren, Lawwill, Bob Sholley, etc.

AMATEUR FINAL

The Amateur bash was a foregone conclusion for Dave Aldana on the BSA Western three-cylinder. He had the fastest Amateur qualifying time of 42.26-which would have made him fifth fastest in the Expert class. By way of comparison, the modal Amateur times were in the 44-sec. bracket. It is not unreasonable to assume that this bike was the hottest machine at Nazareth that day. It ran with unfaltering reliability, and its first-time-out victory, coupled with Gary Nixon’s impressive Expert class 2nd on the similar Trident, gives convincing proof of the design’s competition potential. Another Three, the BSA of Amateur Royal Sherbet, finished an impressive 5th place in the final on its first time out.

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Towards the end of the season, BSA and Triumph Threes may begin to dominate the mile tracks. On the half-mile nationals, which by their great number have greater importance in the point standings, the odds are temporarily against the Threes. Handling and ground clearance assume greater importance on the tighter tracks. As all men on Threes had to vary their riding style to keep from grounding the cases, modifications will be necessary if they are to be competitive on tracks where steeper banking is required. The alternatives would seem to be refabrication of the primary chaincase, alteration of the automotive Borg and Beck clutch, or offsetting the engine in the frame.

The prognosis for the lighter 650 Twins on the half miles is much better, and Dick O’Brien, H-D racing chief, concedes that his riders are having to work much harder to stay ahead.

It is general knowledge that the Milwaukee concern puts more money into racing, which in the end produces results. Riders in the opposing camps say they have no reason to believe that this pattern will not continue. So Harley may be able to withstand the pressure of a season that is truer to the spirit of “Class C” than ever before. [Ô]