Laguna Seca
Laguna Seca
The 125-Mile National: A Great Day For Pussycats.
There you see it, folks, the beginning of the end. (Photo 1) Everybody knew that Calvin Lee (Pussycat) Rayborn (14) was at last going to win one for Harley-Davidson on this handler’s course in Northern California. Kawasaki had other plans, as they were subsidizing a big chunk of the $50,000 125-mile AMA National, and Yvon DuHamel’s Team Hansen Kawasaki set marginally faster lap times in practice. But four turns from the start DuHamel blew the whole thing by looking down at his faltering machine on a tricky section of the course; he ran off the road and crashed, taking Dick Mann (BSA) and Englishman Cliff Carr with him. This left Englishman Paul Smart (8) as Kawasaki’s standard bearer. But. . .
. . . Kawasaki had a pit stop ahead of them, because the two-stroke Threes, admittedly more powerful than the Harleys, are also much thirstier, and had to refuel. (Photos 2, 3 & 4). To minimize the time loss, Team Hansen has an elaborate and precise refueling system. Here you see Smart nip into the pits. Tuner Randy Hall (left) holds the giant refueling nozzle. Another man holds the target board where Paul must stop. And the boss, Bob Hansen, holds a transparent overflow indicator, to be plugged into a second tank orifice. The actual time for refueling was only two seconds. But by then Rayborn, smoking his front tire into the hairpins and skimming the ground with his knees as he cranked his nimble XR750 through Laguna Seca’s high speed bends, had already passed Smart and established a safe lead. The Team Hansen effort was further hampered when one of the expansion chamber tips on Smart’s bike came off, producing a loss of power. >
LAGUNA SECA CONTINUED
In contrast to H-D and Kawasaki, Yamaha’s attack at Laguna Seca was understated, but successful. Gary Fisher (10) still in privateer status (Photo 5), won the Expert/Junior 250/350 event after a race-long battle with Yvon DuHamel, on the 350cc single-cylinder Team Hansen Kawasaki, and Jerry Greene, on another Yamaha. Yvon finished 2nd, and Greene finished 4th behind Mike Lane (Yamaha) after experiencing problems with his rear brake return spring.
Fisher startled everyone in the big bore race when, after the DuHamel crash, he took the lead in the hook at the top of the hill with Kenny Roberts (Photo 6), Yamaha’s young factory star, hot on his tail. Thrusting so hard that the front and rear suspension on his machine was chattering in the sweepers, he held the lead until Rayborn caught him on the 18th lap. Fisher’s clutch had taken on the least desirable aspects of a '53 Powerglide, so he had to settle for 8th. Roberts did better with a 3rd. Aussie Kel Carruthers, who had been expected in the top three, arrived 5th and conceded in humorous manner that, “I got me — blowed in the weeds.” In the 50-mile Junior event, Yamaha’s Howard Lynggard (Photo 7) rode to 3rd behind Jerry Greene and Steve Baker. Greene’s bike was another Team Hansen Single, so Kawasaki tasted blood at least once that weekend. Tuner AI Godin, shown chatting with Kel and Howard, got an extra 200 rpm from the factory Yamaha by borrowing a page from Suzuki’s book: he had metal shrouds installed over the cylinder head fins, these cause a ram effect and improve cooling, helping to prevent horsepower loss from heat buildup. Small solace for Suzuki, who idled their factory team until Talledega following earlier homologation hassles with their water-cooled racers.
Gene Romero (3) (Photo 8) had been sitting in the Hyatt House a few nights before the race, cracking jokes and opining that Laguna Seca was a “white knuckle’’ track. “I don't know about that course, man, you go breeet, then turn, then breeet. . . then you get hard on the brakes, man, then breeet, then skreeep on the brakes, then breeet down the hill, there’s just no place to relax.’’ Sunday, he got his breeets and skreeeps together quite well and raced his Triumph Three quite neatly to 2nd place. He had a good dice with H-D’s Mark Brelsford (87) until Mark had to pit and lose four laps to pump up a leaking tire. Brelsford still held the season point lead but the flat cost him a valuable margin of safety.>
Laguna Seca National Results
125 MILE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
50 MILE EXPERT-JUNIOR
50-MILE JUNIOR
50-MILE NOVICE
(The win by Floridian Ted Henter was disallowed after it was discovered that he had replaced the front brake on his Kawasaki 350 Single with a Yamaha brake, a combination for which approval had not been made. Another Kawasaki hope, John Long, looked sure to win the event until a transmission case plug came loose.)
SIDECAR EXHIBITION
TOP TWENTY RIDERS TO DATE
MANUFACTURERS POINTS
