Loudon 1969

LOUDON 1969

Fred Nix Discovers A New Metier And No.1 Meets Disaster, While The National Guard Shuffles Around In The Rain.

DAN HUNT

IVAN J. WAGAR

IT IS A CONSOLING thought that Loudon (ex-Laconia) has become so prestigious in this turbulent modern age that it rates attendance by the National Guard, their jolly, olive drab trucks decked respendently with ornate trellises of barbed wire. Such an honor is usually reserved for more so-cially oriented affairs, i.e., the Poor People’s March or the biannual Stink Bomb Party and Sit-In at the Oakland Induction Center.

Tod bad the American nature is so wild and woolly. Tens of thousands who trek to the Isle of Man look no different than those who come to Loudon. But the sum total of their wickedness seems to be a relatively harmless penchant for riding fast. Unfortunately, the anti-enthusiasts among the crowd in New England build their machinery so that it is incapable of going fast, and they feel they have to make up for it when they set foot to earth. So the reputation of the harmless grub (you almost have to be grubby to ride in the New England rain-swelter) suffers along with that of the bummer minority. Conventioneers, sporty car types and Newport-Ensenada sailboat racers often manage to wreak more physical damage on their venues than motorcyclists ever have. Somehow, the bikeys get all the publicity...and the Guard.

If you can focus your eyes past the rubber-streaked pavement, beer-can littered shoulders, and the pioneering types flitting about underneath the dripping trees, you find that Loudon ex-Laconia is still a beautiful place to visit. The track is at Bryar Motor Sport Park, set on rolling land between the trees. Quite picturesque. And it smells good, too.

The road race course is replete with swervery, most of which is visible from the grandstands. It is a compact 1.6 miles long, and the distances between riders never get too strung out. The result is perhaps the best road racing show available to the enthusiast in America-one that is equal to Mallory or Brands. In terms of spectator appeal, Loudon makes Daytona a complete bore by comparison.

250-CC AMATEUR/EXPERT

It is a pity that the Amateur/Expert lightweight bash is relegated to the position of being a mere preamble to the big-bore feature. At least the riders get paid. But the 250s are nearly as fast as the 500/750 bikes, just as exciting, and just as dangerous. It’s an awful lot to ask a rider to put his life on the line for 75 miles and not offer him points toward the championship. If he is injured Saturday, he can’t race for points on Sunday. For this reason, Gary Nixon won’t easily forget Saturday at Loudon. What happened then may have cost him the championship. More about that anon.

Nixon was clearly the favorite in the 250. His practice times on the Yamaha bettered those he made on his Triumph 500, and indeed he was fastest, regardless of displacement, in Friday’s practice. His strong opposition would be from the fast Yamahas of Yvon du Hamel, Jody Nicholas, Mike Duff, and perhaps the Kawasaki of Cal Rayborn. Nicholas could be considered a “dark horse” candidate. He had been away from road racing for eight months while flying with the U.S. Navy. (Shortly after Loudon, Jody returned to his carrier, off to the South Pacific, to pick up the space capsule returning from the first moon landing expedition).

Nixon won the first qualifying heat, but he had to pass Nicholas to do it. Jody had obviously forgotten nothing. Order of finish: Nixon, Nicholas, du Hamel, Stuart Atwill-Morin and Rayborn.

AAMRR racer Frank Camillieri led the second heat all the way, followed by Ron Pierce, Mike Duff, Dick Mann and Ralph White.

The 75-Mile main event was a closely fought show, run in dry, sunny weather. Nixon took the lead almost immediately, hounded by Nicholas, du Hamel, Pierce and Morin. These five were within three seconds of one another until the fourth lap, when Pierce crashed. Back in the field, Rayborn and Duff were scrapping and gaining positions in the progress. At halfway, the order ran Nixon, du Hamel, Nicholas. Behind, closing up on Nicholas, came Rayborn’s Kawasaki, followed by Duff, Art Baumann, Camillieri, White, and Mann. Andres Lascoutx had crashed his Kawasaki at the pit gate turn, losing his place ahead of Mann.

The last half of the race continued much the same. A big mid-field placeswapping battle developed between Duff, Baumann, Camillieri and White. On the second to last lap, Nixon, having lapped 9th place Dick Mann, seemed assured of victory. He had only to hold a steady pace to the finish.

But he came up on Frank Camillieri, who was in turned involved in passing another rider. There are conflicting versions of what happened, but the end result was that both Nixon and Camillieri went down.

Thus du Hamel, who had been holding a steady 2nd place, inherited the victory. Behind him: Nicholas; Duff; White; Rayborn, who had salvaged a good placing running with a slipping clutch; Dick Mann; Bobby Winters; Ron Grant and Art Baumann.

In spite of his crash, Nixon had covered enough distance to rate 10th place. But his right hand was so badly mangled that he felt he wouldn’t be able to ride in the Sunday feature.

100-MILE NATIONAL

The Harley factory team had practice under much better control at Loudon than had been the case at Daytona, where mechanical chaos went rampant for two weeks. First-year Expert Mark Brelsford rigged his 750 flathead without fairing and with wide TT-style bars; on the tight course he was getting around quite rapidly. Cal Rayborn cut good practice times, too, despite grumbles that the other H-D team bikes were developing more steam. Roger Reiman had his machine set up similarly to Brelsford’s and was a good bet with predicted rain.

Yvon du Hamel, on the Bob Worktuned Yamaha 350, would be a top threat from the two-stroke brigade, as would Ron Grant, on the fast 500-cc Suzuki Twin.

Gary Nixon surprised everyone by showing up, looking haggard, a big white bandage on his throttle hand. He normally does well on a dicer’s track like Loudon, but the most optimistic predictions would have him finishing slowly, if at all. He cut a hole in his glove to allow the bandaged hand to fit. Then he tried switching the front brake lever to the left-hand side with the clutch lever. Finding the arrangement somewhat spastic, he returned the lever to the throttle side.

Rain began during practice, but the race could run as long as visibility was good. Bryar has excellent drainage and much of the course is steeply banked, promoting quick run-off. But racing style was compromised, with much foot dabbing. The only riders who didn’t dab were on two-strokes; their abstention was motivated more by terror perhaps than by pretensions of pure style.

Ron Grant won the first of two five-lap qualifying heats. The surprise was Freddy Nix, who started off 2nd. After getting passed by the Yamaha 350s of Nicholas and du Hamel, he held 4th place ahead of the more “official” road racing types—including Mike Duff, Ron Pierce and Walt Fulton III. Nixon finished, albeit slowly.

The second heat, stopped by downpour at the end of the 4th lap, went to Rayborn, who was followed by Ralph White (Yamaha 350) and Mert Lawwill, on an unfaired H-D.

Freddy Nix won the big 100-mile race in great form, but it was hardly an easy task. After grabbing an initial lead, he was passed by Grant’s nimble Suzuki. After a brief place swap and re-swap, Freddy showed commendable cool and studied Grant’s line through the rain for the next 25 laps. Yvon du Hamel had started well back in the crowd but was making up time rapidly. He soon wedged himself between Rayborn and Lawwill, who had been running 3rd and 4th.

Put out or slowed with mechanical bothers early in the race were Art Baumann’s Suzuki, misfiring badly; Nicholas’ Yamaha, ignition drowned; Dick Hammer’s Kawasaki Three, continual misfire; Duff, pitted early; Brelsford, black-flagged to fix dangling number plate; Reiman, misfiring.

By halfway, du Hamel, lapping consistently at 1:24, passed Nix, who in turn had passed Grant. Yvon’s time is indicative of Loudon’s suitability for rain racing; in the dry, a 1:20 lap is considered good time.

Behind the front trio ran Cal Rayborn. Then the Yamahas of Mann and White engaged in a terrific battle. Midfield, Lawwill set himself a personal record of sorts by falling overboard at more than 110 mph when he overexercised the front brake at the top of the hill. He suffered nothing more than “the big eyes” (“Whee, that’s the fastest I’ve ever crashed!”). Meanwhile, Gary Nixon, pained by the injured hand, plugged doggedly onward, looking surprisingly fast.

Then Nix got a break. Du Hamel had been steadily grinding away the bottom of his left-hand expansion chamber, which finally broke, making the Yamaha run sickly. Grant’s Suzuki also soured and he pitted. New order: Nix, Rayborn (way back), du Hamel. Suddenly the rain sheeted and the race was stopped.

Common sense would dictate that 47 laps of a 1.6-mile course was enough to call it a day. Had the race been a non-national, it would have been called. But the AMA rule book dictates that no national points may be awarded unless the required distance is covered. A ridiculous situation. As the number of points is predicated on the distance covered in a race, it would be much fairer to prorate the points to the shorter distance, and avoid the hankypanky involved in trying to create an equitable restart.

After a soggy 45-minute pause, with riders shivering about the starting grid, the riders were restarted single file. A time allotment was allowed to the first four runners.

Then the rest of the field was sent off double-file, but en masse, with no regard to the previous distances between riders. This was rather dumb, as a rider could have already lapped the man placed behind him. Yet, because of the restart, the lapped man could now be right on the tail of the man leading him—an undeserved handicap.

Restart order was Nix, Rayborn, du Hamel and Brelsford (surprise!). Then came the masses: William Sholly, Mann, Grant, Nixon, Dusty Coppage, Gene Romero, etc. Rayborn, down 30 seconds from Nix, turned the heat on to no avail. Brelsford moved up to 3rd when du Hamel made a fantastic 70-second pit stop to replace the damaged expansion chamber. Du Hamel returned to finish 4th. Ron Grant moved up to finish 5th.

Dick Mann filed protest over the scoring of the race and the execution of the restart. Referee Charlie Watson refused the protest. When Mann appealed, Watson’s ruling was upheld by an ad hoc appeal board consisting of AMA executive director William Berry and two men (chosen by AMA President William Bagnall—Dick Klamfoth and Gil Dosemagen). (Surprise!)

100-MILE NATIONAL

1. Fred Nix, Franksville, Wis........Fl-D

2. Cal Rayborn, Spring Valley, Calif. . . H-D

3. Mark Brelsford, San Bruno, Calif. . . H-D

4. Yvon du Hamel, Montreal, Canada Yam.

5. Ronald Grant, Brisbane, Calif......Suz.

6. Gary Nixon, Baltimore, Md.......Tri.

7. G. Romero, San Luis Obispo, Calif. . Tri.

8. Bart Market, Flint, Mich..........H-D

9. William Sholly, Camp Hill, Pa......Tri.

10. Russell Coppage, Burbank, Calif. . . . Tri.

11. Dick Mann, Richmond, Calif.....Yam.

12. Ron Pierce, Bakersfield, Calif.....Yam.

13. Walt Fulton, Hacienda Hgts., Calif. . H-D

14. George Cunha, Johnston, R.l......Tri.

15. Art Baumann, Brisbane, Calif......Suz.

16. Roger Reiman, Kewanee, III.......H-D

17. Chuck Palmgren, Freehold, N.J. . . . Tri.

18. Mike Meyer, Reistertown, Md.....Tri.

19. L. Moniz Jr., E. Providence, R.l. . . . H-D

20. Bob Bulmer, Morrice, Mich......Yam.

250-CC AMA TEUR/EXPER T

1. Yvon du Hamel, Montreal, Canada Yam.

2. Jody Nicholas, El Cajon, Calif. . . . Yam.

3. Mike Duff, Toronto, Canada .....Yam.

4. Ralph White, Torrance, Calif.....Yam.

5. Cal Rayborn, Spring Valley, Calif. . Kaw.

6. Dick Mann, Richmond, Calif.....Yam.

7. Robert Winters, Ft. Smith, Ark. . . Yam.

8. Ronald Grant, Brisbane, Calif......Suz.

9. Art Baumann, Brisbane, Calif.....Kaw.

10. Gary Nixon, Baltimore, Md......Yam.

11. Andres Lascoutx, Ashland, Mass. . Kaw.

12. Frank Camillieri, Chelsea, Mass. . . Yam.

13. Dick Hammer, Los Alamitos, Calif. Kaw.

14. Jess Thomas, Sea Cliff, N.Y......Kaw.

15. Herbert Kresge, Bangor, Pa........H-D

Time: 1:02.10 (72.579 mph)

60-MILE NOVICE (250 CC)

1. Harry Cone, Sherman, Tex.......Yam.

2. Don Emde, San Diego, Calif......Yam.

3. George Taylor, Hellertown, Pa. . . . Yam.

4. Kiyomaro Kato, Hollywood, Calif. Yam.

5. Robert Sharp, Kinghtdale, N.C. . . . Yam.

6. James Zubritsky, Hazelton, Pa. . . . Yam.

7. David Townsley, Metairie, Pa.....Yam.

8. H.B. Myers, New Brunswick, N.J. . Yam.

9. John Nash, New Haven, Conn. . . . Yam.

10. S. Grant, Wappingers Fall, N.Y. . . . Yam. Time: 53:54 (67.664 mph)

60-MILE AMATEUR (cancelled because of rain)

FREDDY'S RIDE: NOT AN EASY WAY TO FIND OUT YOU'RE A ROAD RACER.