The Roosevelt National
THE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL
Yamaha Wins Its Own Gold Cup
JOHN WAASER
IT’S QUITE a deal, these Yamaha cup events. Don Brymer puts up the money, rents the track, pays the purse, and Yamaha puts up the advertising. Only this year somebody apparently cut the advertising budget, and Roosevelt Raceway had a few thousand less spectators than a year ago—right around ten thousand or so this year. To be sure, that’s a decent crowd for a dirt National; but on the other hand, it’s just a quarter of what the facilities will hold, so these guys were racing for an empty house. Whoever cut the budget this time is probably booting himself, for Yamaha took its own cup home—something which has happened only rarely since the cup series originated.
Brymer also felt the squeeze, since his primary concern is to draw a different crowd out to the motorcycle races. “When you have to pay three times for the track what you can give the riders for a purse, baby you’re small time.” His goal is to fill the stands, and give the people a show they’ll tell their friends about. With the event here achieving National Championship status this year, the fans were guaranteed a good show, and all the top contenders were present. Don Castro, whose van broke down, even made his way to the track, borrowed a machine and a set of leathers, and wound up 6th—on a Yamaha, at that.
Creating the most early interest was Gary Scott, currently running in 2nd place in the point standings, only 10 points behind Mark Breisford. Gary was consistently running the fastest times, by anybody’s watch, finally getting down to 26.77 sec. official qualifying time. Gary maintains his “privateer” image, even though trackside rumors say he’s just as much a factory sponsored rider as Gene Romero. So he’s naturally a crowd favorite; an underdog beating the hot-shots. He’s also a neat guy, and has a better chance than Kenny Roberts, at this point, of being the first first-year expert to take the National Championship.
So what happened to him? On the first lap of his heat, he was in the lead right from the first turn. In the last turn his front wheel washed out, and he went down, giving Ted Newton no place to go but over him, the two of them also taking down Bill Eves. When we got to the scene, Eves was up and moving around, and rejoined the fray. Newton was sitting on the deck of the ambulance, and went for a ride with a suspected broken toe.
Someone was standing over Gary, carefully examining him before allowing him to be placed on the stretcher. But who was this guy? He knew what he was doing, but he was yelling hysterically at everyone around, doing his level best to put Gary into shock. Charlie Watson arrived, determined that the guy was not an ambulance attendant, and told him to shut up. As the ambulance attendants got Gary on the stretcher and into the ambulance, Danny Macias watched the dude run off and climb over the fence to disappear. Gary, who had a suspected broken collarbone or shoulder, arrived back at the track all taped up and in a sling. He’s still 2nd in the point standing, and this is only the second race all year in which he hasn’t taken any points.
The weather had been neat, but turned cloudy. In spite of this, and the fact that the track was watered, there was an unbelievable amount of dust. This is a unique track design—a rubber biscuit, about an inch thick, is covered with what appears to be beach sand, mixed with enough calcium to hold a little water, and hopefully keep the dirt on the track. Midway through the evening, they even spread more dirt, but it did little good. The riders would soon be racing on the rubber mat, and they knew it. Doug (the younger) Sehl had been doing very well in early practicebut as he put it, “The track changed a whole bunch.” As the sand wore off, the track became very slippery, suiting the style of the hairy riders—the guys who can ride on the ragged edge and like it. Mark Brelsford, for instance, said his chances got better as the dirt wore off.
Two heat winners who looked like top contenders all night were Chuck Palmgren and Larry Darr. Only three riders from each heat, and three from the semi, would qualify for the final. The semi would pit the 4th through 7th places in each heat, 12 good men and strong, going for three berths in the final. Those 12 included Mark Brelsford, the current National Championship points leader, who had been next to last in the early stages of his heat, and wound up 4th. Kenny Roberts also finished 4th in his heat, after the swinging arm bolt broke on his number one bike, and he had to use number two, which had a different frame, didn’t handle as well, and had an experimental engine which didn’t produce its power smoothly enough. Dave Sehl, who won this event last year, and his brother Doug, who had looked so good earlier, also would be in the semi.
The semi looked like the most exciting race of the evening. It was “sudden death” for some of the country’s top riders. Terry Dorsch took an immediate lead, followed by the Sehl brothers, with Doug in front of Dave. Mike Kidd was in the awkward 4th spot—so good, but not good enough. Bart Markel, back from his injuries, had made the semi, but was running dead last, and obviously didn’t like the track. Gary Nixon pulled out. Mark Brelsford again started way back in the pack. Doug Sehl hung a wheel ahead of Dorsch momentarily, but Terry easily regained the lead, and it looked like Terry, Doug and Dave were going to transfer.
But Mike Kidd couldn’t see that at all. He was pretty far from home not to ride, so he passed Dave. On the next lap he passed Doug, and Brelsford had worked his way to 5th. A lap after that, Mark passed both of the Sehl brothers, for 3rd. Terry Dorsch was still in the lead, followed by Kidd, the nation’s only 18-year-old expert, and Brelsford. But Mark couldn’t be satisfied with 3rd, and while the qualifiers were determined at that point, in the two remaining laps Mark took 2nd and then 1st, followed by Dorsch and Kidd.
Jim Rawls held the lead throughout the junior final, which had been scheduled to run 14 laps. At the conclusion of the 14th lap, officials flew the white flag, and then the checkered on the 15th. And where was Rawls? His footpeg had fallen off coming out of the second turn, and caught in the chain, breaking it. He coasted, then got off and pushed it across the line, assuming he had finished nearly last. But a lap count showed the discrepancy, and officials quickly got to Jim before he could get his machine into the pits, and brought him to victory lane, as Scott Brelsford’s fans stood by amazed. ¿lawls was riding a Champion-framed Yamaha, his first ride on a Champion frame. Jim Houston finished 2nd, and Scott Brelsford 3rd.
The expert final was one of those races—the kind worthy of the name Gold Cup. Chuck Palmgren took initial command, but Larry Darr and Mert Lawwill stayed right close, as the three of them pulled away from the field. Mark Brelsford again got a slow start, as he had all night, but here the competition was tougher. It was his chance to put a good cushion on his National Championship points lead, with the number two and three riders not running the final. Darr, who looked impressive all through practice and the heat, passed Chuck after eight laps, with Mert still 3rd. Darr held the lead for another eight laps, at which time Chuck repassed him. A few laps from the end Mert passed Larry. Suddenly Mark Brelsford had joined the front runners, and passed Darr for 3rd, which is as far as he got, but it was far enough to add 100 points to his lead. Gene Romero finished 8th, and added enough points to take over 3rd from Kenny Roberts. 0
