A Topsy Turvy Title Fight!

a topsy turvy title fight!

when the chips are down, bugsy waits for no man

SAN JOSE HALF-MILE

IT WAS JUST FINE. The track was in unusually good shape this year, and there was even room to get two motorcycles side by side on the groove."

...says Jim Rice. Cheerily. Because he won.

Any of his competition who listened probably responded with silent, obscene mutterings. Jim Rice, you see, acts like he owns the patent on how to get around San Jose. He has won four AMA half-mile dirttrack nationals there—two as an Amateur, two as an Expert. So he likes San Jose.

The other riders hate San Jose. At best, it is somewhat bumpy. And after a hundred or more machines have

pounded over its surface in practice, a black patina of rubber, perhaps 5 to 10 ft. wide, marks the path of least resis tance, usually the fastest way around the half-mile oval, It is called the "groove," and it is slick, It is easy to slip off the groove. Once you are off, all is lost, as the crumbly, dusty surface outside the groove is even slicker. The rear wheel loses traction and spins. Your motorcycle slews ineffectually sideways, losing the all-important accelerating drive onto the straightaway.

So most riders work to stay on the groove, although some riders have fought it successfully. Bart Markel fought it in 1968 and won the San Jose national. He went into the turns high, squared his machine off and came out low and fast, a trick for which his Harley-Davidson KR was particularly suited. George Roeder, another H-D man, also could defy the groove on occasion, clobbering his way through the crumblies like a tractor on fire.

Jim Rice-staid Jim Rice, solid Jim Rice-doesn't fight the groove. He ex ploits it. As to how he does it, we must make a few guesses.

For one thing, he gears his 650 BSA Twin a tad higher than normal, so that it is not wrung out at the end of the straightaway. With gearing too low, the tendency is to slow down too soon. As Rice's bike runs well in the mid-rpm range, the higher ratio doesn't cost him much. But he benefits in the middle of the turns, where the higher gearing is not so conducive to wheelspin. He drives around, rather than slides around. Coining out, wheelspin is less with the higher gear, and acceleration may be improved if the engine can pull it.

Charging into the turns on a groove track, the slightly higher gearing offers another advantage. When you shut a tracker off at the end of a straight and lean it into the turn, engine compression will tug at the back wheel causing it to "set." The bike cocks sideways slightly, slows down, and you are "set up" to drive through the turn with everything pointed properly. However, on a slip pery track, too low a gear could cause the machine to cock too far sideways when the throttle is knocked off. Re sult: too much sliding sideways, loss of control and speed. The higher gear may be scary, because the braking action seems less, but Rice takes advantage of the extra traction it offers.

On a groove track, probably the best place to be out of shape is going into the turn, where it costs you nothing in acceleration-that is, assuming that you have your bike set up to hold the groove once you get into the turn. And that, we hazard, is also part of the Rice tactic: rarely does he pass near-equal riders going out of the turns at San Jose. Rather, he zaps them going in. And at the end of that straight, he is moving! Proper use of the back brake, al lowed on the formerly brakeless trackers since the AMA rule change in 1969, can also be advantageous on a groove track (or any other kind of track, for that matter), and Jim Rice is also good at that.

Wandering around the pits, we had a chance to talk to Howard Barnes, whose disc brakes are mounted on most of the Class C trackers using a brake. He noted that the prime purpose of the rear brake is not to slow the bike down, strangely enough. Knocking off the throttle and setting up the slide into the turn does that.

Using the back brake to enter the turn on a slippery track could cause overslide and the usual dire conse quences-i.e., losing the groove entirely. Barnes says that the back brake, in proper use, is applied after you have already slowed down and entered the turn. Just before the apex, you tap it lightly and briefly, causing the back wheel to step out. The bike is set up for the second time, with the front wheel pointing in, at which time you are able to get back on the gas. The bike stays on the groove, its attitude driving you towards the pole.

• . . Which brings us back to what I believe started to be a racing report.

Quite a few Experts-enough to make a first-class national by them selves-transferred to the "trailer," a good number having been frozen out in time trials. Fastest time was Jimmy Odom's 27.25-sec. lap. He, as well as Rice, had found the right answer, and he was nicely aided by the 750-cc barrels which are now an approved racing accessory for 650-cc Triumph Twins.

Second fastest was a bit of a surprise: a 27.48-sec. lap by Triumph-mounted Don Dudek, a relatively unknown rider. So everybody took the opportunity to embarass the hell out of the guy by asking him, "How did you get such a fast time." This, of course, is no ques tion at all. It's a psych job of the same import as the TV commercial that goes, "Oh Alice, what a darling maternity dress you have on, dot, dot, dot, oh you're not!"

Some of the other principals in the cast hovered close by in the 27s: Rice at 27.60; Mark Brelsford, 27.87; Mert Lawwill, seemingly disappointed with his 27.62; Chuck Palmgren, 27.62; a revived Eddie Mulder on the comeback trail, 27.98; a disgruntled Bugsy Mann, littered with hay from a practice crash through the bales in Turn 3, 27.95; Dave Aldana, a sideways 27.65. All of this means nothing, as San Jose is a very `~evolutionary" sort of track; it changes so much that setting up to run perfectly in qualifying could well lose you the heat race.

In the first heat, northern Californian Don Castro, who was Dave Aldana’s biggest nemesis in the Amateur ranks last year, got off first, but to no avail. Frank Gillespie spilled and crunched himself, so the race was restarted. Odom led the replay from start to finish, and Castro, running 2nd in the beginning, slipped slowly backward as he lost the groove to Easterner Chuck Palmgren on a good running Yamaha 650, and Western Ascot point leader Tom Rockwood.

Heat 2 was won by Dave Aldana, who overcame a surprisingly fast Lloyd Houchins. A bit back, Mann slid off the groove and sailed from 3rd to 6th spot in one swoop. Meanwhile, a determined Dave Smith worked his way up into 3rd.

The third heat was a disaster for the factory Harley team of Lawwill and Breisford. Not that they were such sluggards. It was more a case of not being able to get their “thing” together. Lawwill’s time trial was only two hundredths of a second slower than Rice’s, hardly something to be ashamed of, but a case of indecision had him subtracting his rear brake, with which he couldn’t come to terms, and then adding it for the semi. He was also having doubts about the suitability of his XR-750, with its tuned length double intake system. The carburetor and manifold for the rear cylinder projects forward and left in an arc, and that for the front pot projects right and rearward, a recipe cooked up by tuner C.R. Axtell, which gave the engine the look of a clump of giant vermicelli garnished with a pair of cauliflower. Unfortunately, Mert felt the engine was serving up the entree in the wrong part of the rev range. Brelsford had his own private war going, but, as is the case with close teammates, he was no doubt discouraged along with Mert. You can see this sort of inverse morale thing happening often, the most memorable occasion in my mind being Nixon and Palmgren at the 1968 Castle Rock weekend. These two were working out of the same gear ratio book, made the same mistakes in unison, and almost had a collision trying to beat each other up the loading ramp of their truck after getting blown off in the preliminaries of both the National and the Six-Star the night before.

So, while Jim Rice, Eddie Mulder and Dave Hansen earned direct transfer to the main event, Lawwill and Brelsford had to run in the second-chance semi-main, along with Paul Bostrom and Gary Nixon.

The order of the semi-main was headed by Don Castro, who erupted into the front ahead of Gene Romero and Dick Mann. Off to load up their bikes went Dewayne Keeter, a haybaled Keith Mashburn, Nixon, and, alas, Lawwill and Brelsford, feeling extra glum because it was the first time in more than three decades that a Harley-Davidson had not made the main event at an AMA national.

Outcome of the Expert final went according to plan-Jim Rice’s plan. Jimmy Odom took the initial lead, and then Rice slipped underneath him entering Turn 3. They were followed by Palmgren, Aldana, Castro, Mulder, Romero, Houchins, Rockwood, Hansen, Smith and Mann. Aldana got sideways and slipped off the groove to lose two places. Mulder moved up into 4th until his motor soured, then back to 10th. And Mann, faced with the prospect of a seized BSA Twin, pulled into the pits, rather than risk exploding what was left. Thus Rice moved more comfortably ahead of Mann in the chase for national championship points—Rice having 320 points to Bugsy’s 292, with Dave Aldana and Gene Romero in possible striking distance at 264 and 260 respectively.

The Amateur main was won by Terry Dorsch (Triumph), after overcoming a first-lap charge by Bill Morgan (XR-750). A relative newcomer from Michigan, Rex Beauchamp (Triumph), who has been wowing the crowds at Ascot, edged by Morgan to finish 2nd. John Hately ran 4th, until he was victimized by the groove and lost five places. Another favorite, Don Emde, failed to make the main.

CASTLE ROCK TT

RICE'S LUCK ran out the fol lowing week at the bucolic TI at Castle Rock, Wash. He might have done well, except for the fact that his engine soured. After a dismal 7th place in his heat race, he recovered by win ning the semi-main, thus getting into the national points final through the back door. Starting the main in the back row, he made very little headway on the tight track and finally dropped out to take 15th place.

For Dick Mann, the gloom of the preceding week had disappeared. He usually runs quite well at Castle Rock, which resembles a slightly haywire halfmile more than an honest-to-goodness TT. It starts out like an oval, cuts 100 feet or so into the infield in a decreasing radius left-hander, and then, with only one shallow right bend, spits the rider back out onto the last sweeping turn of the oval. The secret of this track is to sacrifice speed in the decreasing radius left, to allow the bike to go farther left than usual, then get pointed straight across the right-hand bend.

This technique allows the rider to get the throttle full on about 100 feet earlier and gives him a rather stirring drive out onto the oval. From that point on, a bonus in speed is gained all the way around the half-mile section—if the rider happens to be a good half-miler. And Bugsy is a good half-miler.

All he had to do was contend with those other good half-mile riders, who, like himself, are also good at TT. In particular, he had to contend with that flashy first-year Expert, Dave Aldana.

Aldana, who with youthful verve seems to be everywhere on a track but where you’d expect him to be, has proven irritating to Bugsy at times. Mann, like his confrere, Neil Keen, doesn’t take kindly to a lot of wobbling and banging around.

Bugsy, after taking 2nd in the heat race, found himself in the company of front runners Mark Brelsford, Don Castro, Aldana, Mert Lawwill and Skip Van Leeuwen as the main event got under way. Brels stuck his H-D in front, then Castro took over momentarily, before Aldana swooped up from 4th past Lawwill and Brelsford in one of those typical high groove Aldana rushes. Next lap around, Aldana put his BSA Twin ahead of Castro’s Triumph. Fellow BSA rider Mann had also been moving up meanwhile, and soon was closing on Aldana. Realizing that his tires were getting a better bite on the slick track, Mann made a play to pass the leader on Lap 13 on the outside. But Aldana drifted outward and Mann almost got his bod pasted on the crashwall.

Commented Bugsy drily: “I waited about five or six laps after that to make sure I wasn’t mad and wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

On Lap 19, he again got alongside Aldana on the front straightaway, this time on the inside and stayed inside into Turn 1. Aldana left the gas on, perhaps hoping to outdrive Mann into the tight left into the infield. But it quickly became evident that Aldana had been sucked in. Sweet, amiable, sensitive Bugs wasn’t about to be sweet and amiable and shut off, particularly when he was dealing his card from the inside of the track. Nor was Aldana going to be sweet and amiable, for it would'be totally out of character.

“If Aldana had really been racing, he would have shut off and dived underneath me,” Bugs said. But Aldana didn’t shut off, and therefore, bit the dust. Bugsy motored on to win in record time, earning $1620 and 53 points, which thrust him back into the lead for championship points.

ASCOT 50-LAP TT

THE ASCOT PARK, Gardena, dirt track TT is regarded as the tough est circuit of its kind in the country. It has a high jump which sends rider and machine careening off into space at 70 mph. It hurts when you hit bottom. And it tears up the machinery. When it comes time for the 50-lap AMA National at Ascot, the main concern of the rider is centered around keeping his motorcycle reliable, unbreakable, and making sure that the tires won’t give out as they are alternately crunched to the rim over the jump and then scoured through the turns at incredible angles of lean. If you stand by the high speed turn at the end of the front straightaway, and listen to the boys come through in fighter pilot formation, you can actually hear the squeal of rubber above the din of big Triumph, BSA, Norton and H-D Twins!

In qualifying, TT king reincarnate Eddie Mulder served notice that he definitely had returned to the living with a 45.16-sec. lap-about a half second faster than No. 2 qualifier Mark Breisford (H-D) and two or more seconds faster than most of his opponents.

Strangely absent from the fastest 10 qualifiers was Skip Van Leeuwen, who, having adapted the new 750-cc barrels to his Triumph, wished he hadn’t, feeling that his original 650 was faster, and more reliable. Mert Lawwill, who has been plagued with mechanical difficulties all season and still is the highest placed Harley-Davidson rider in the point standings (7th), qualified at an unexpectedly mediocre 12th fastest. Dick Mann, always slow to warm to the occasion, surprised no one when he didn’t appear among the fastest qualifiers. Jim Rice, his closest threat in the points race, was also disappointing. Mann’s other two most important adversaries, Dave Aldana and Gene Romero (the pair who make up the entire membership of the informal racing association called “Team Mexican”), were qualified in the top 10: Aldana, 4th fastest at 47.15; and Romero, 9th fastest at 47.39. In the first heat, Mann made up for his deficiencies in qualifying by working up from 7th to 4th, which would give him a second row starting position in the 50-lap main event. He was clearly psyched up' and ready for action, and (this a rarity) quite willing to get out of shape for that last bit of extra speed. Mulder was off in a different world, running seconds faster than anyone else. He won, well ahead of Aldana, Tom Rockwood, Mann, Dusty Coppage, Mike Haney, Jim Rice, etc.

Heat 2 was a snap for Skip Van Leeuwen. Breisford was definitely running faster, but the throttle cable on his Sportster snagged on some tubing; as he made a play to get by Skip, his machine refused to shut off and he caught his front wheel on Skip’s rear wheel and bailed. Triumph rider Eddie Wirth inherited 2nd, then was disinherited as he wobbled off course on the right hander after the jump. Final order: Van Leeuwen, Bob Bailey, Lloyd Houchins, Don Dudek, Wirth.

Gene Romero won the 3rd heat followed by Dallas Baker, Mert Lawwill, Paul Bostrom, Dave Hansen, Sonny Burres, etc. Don Castro, who placed 5th in the national standings, crashed.

In the semi-main, Jim Rice worked himself back into the main event in a great battle with Ralph White, who has rejoined the battles on a Triumph.

The Expert main began with a brief bit of comedy, which hardly felt funny at the time to “Superthin” Tom Rockwood while they were extracting his foot from Paul Bostrom’s Triumph after the two tangled in the infield. Looking as shaken as Rocky Raccoon, he was able to make the restart with his paw intact and operating quite well, judging by the way he was riding.

Eddie Mulder, making his usual gorgeous opening swoosh, was the initial leader, but his bike began to sour after a few laps and he soon was passed by a fearsome trio composed of Romero (Triumph), Baker (BSA) and Lawwill (H-D). Finally Eddie’s bike failed, the trouble being diagnosed as a broken stator. Aldana crashed with great verve, was able to get going again, but finally had to drop out.

The Romero/Baker/Lawwill battle continued, while Van Leeuwen followed at a distance. Some yards back another trio was having at it-Mann, Wirth and Superthin. Then came Bailey, Bostrom and Rice. At about the halfway point, Van Leeuwen’s 750 Twin broke a piston. Dusty Coppage, who usually always does well at Ascot, was repeatedly in and out of the pits with his Yamaha 650 Twin; first, a rock had broken a spark plug in half, then his gas tank started coming loose, and then it was one thing after another.

Meanwhile, Lawwill had gotten past Baker and was now working on front runner Romero. “He’s really hard to get by,” said Mert, “so I tried several passes around the outside on the half-mile part of the course. After awhile, he was expecting me to keep trying the outside, so I dropped inside and got through. After I broke free, my biggest worry was keeping my tires, so I rode just outside the hard stuff to save them. And they stayed.”

And that is how Lawwill won the 50-lapper. He finished about a half lap ahead of Romero and Baker. Mann, running 4th and staying just ahead of Eddie Wirth, picked up another 12 points to add to his championship lead while Rice, placing 20th, got no points at all. Sixth through 1 2th places went to Rockwood, Bostrom, Mark Williams (on a four-stroke Kawasaki Twin), Chuck Palmgren, Ralph White, Dave Hansen and Gary Nixon (whose leg, broken at Santa Rosa last year, is getting stronger every day).

In the Amateur final, John Hately (Triumph) won a marvelous four-way battle for first, working his way up to the lead from 4th past AÍ Kenyon (BSA), Terry Dorsch (Triumph) and Chuck Joyner (Triumph).

Next on the agenda was the mile dirt track race at Santa Rosa. Everybody was wondering: is Bugsy going to do it?

Tune in next month. [Ö]