Racing Review
RACING REVIEW
DAYTONA JUNIOR 100 MILER
UP UNTIL THE halfway point, the Junior 100 Miler was a toss-up between Yamaha-mounted Ronnie Dottley, Jerry Greene (Kawasaki), and James Chen (Honda).
Chen had the pole position at the start, but couldn’t pull away. But nei-ther could Greene and he was forced to pit his thirsty Kawasaki for fuel on lap 15. It was a rapid stop, but Greene never got back up to challenge the leaders.
Chen and Dottley swapped the lead 28 times and it looked as if their duel would continue right down to the wire. On the 25th of 27 laps, though, the fairing on Chen’s Honda Four came loose, giving Dottley the win.
Chen nursed his Honda to 3rd behind Canadian Jean Lysight (Yamaha), who had been closing on the leaders in the final stages of the race.
Dottley averaged 103.316 mph for a new record. The old record was set in 1970 by Rusty Bradley, on a Kawasaki, at 100.732 mph.
100 MILE JUNIOR RESULTS
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Time of event: 58 mm., 58.79 sec. Average speed: 103.316 mph (new record).
DAYTONA NOVICE 76 MILER
Miamian John Long topped the field of Yamaha-mounted novices in the 76 mile final, but not until Pat Evans dropped out with mechanical problems on the 19th lap. Long was the first Florida rider to win the event in four years.
In the early stages, Long and Evans pulled away from the pack and began swapping the lead. This duel really ended, though, before mechanical problems sidelined Evans. Evans got caught in traffic just after the infield sweeper, and this gave Long a 20 bike length lead.
As in the Junior event, the old record of 95.934 mph was bettered by a considerable margin. Long’s average was a commendable 99.718 mph.
Novice road racers are definitely improving!
76 MILE NOVICE RESULTS
IJLIiJ L~1L'ii~ . .1 aitiaiia Time of event: 47 mm., 21.21 sec. Average speed: 99.7 18 mph (new record).
DAYTONA MOTOCROSS
The Daytona Motocross was run on what has to be one of the longest, narrowest closed courses in the world. It was constructed with a bulldozer be tween pit row and the front straight away. There were no hills or valleys, just jumps, turns, and a dangerous starting area with a 90-degree entrance to the course that took out a lot of riders.
An estimated 21,500 fans watched from the bleachers across the track and, judging from the cheers, everyone loved it. And why not? The racing was good, even if it did resemble a good old big bore scrambles.
Jim Weinert (Yamaha), who laid out the course along with Bultaco ace Gary Bailey, won the hard fought 250cc feature event. For his efforts, Weinert received $1000 and some publicity at the AMA victory banquet. Roxy Rockwood asked Weinert if he had any plans to compete in Class C half mile. Weinert replied, “I’ll race motocross first. When I get old, I can do half mile.”
The factory Husqvarna team pretty well had the open event sewed up. Mark Blackwell (No. 1) won and his teammates Bob Grossi and Bill Clements were 3rd and 4th respectively. The young Yamaha charger Gary Jones was 2nd.
RESULTS: 250 CLASS
RESULTS: OPEN CLASS
