The Mad-Dash Anglo-American Scavenge Hunt

THE MAD-DASH ANGLO-AMERICAN SCAVENGE HUNT

Not All Went Well At The Match Races

Jody Nicholas

MOST OF THE American riders who boarded the TWA 747 bound for an Easter week in England were expecting a hurried visit. But few of us expected the rat race that was in store.

As a member of the American road racing team to be pitted against the English in a series of six exciting match races, I somehow managed to compress two weeks into one.

You don’t go to a foreign country and just race. Problems magnify themselves overseas. You have to be much more creative in a workshop way.

So, not only did I race, but also doubled as a machinist, leather tester (I’ve got the hole in my leathers to prove it), junior arsonist (not on purpose), and even took part in a scavenge hunt (but not for Easter eggs).

Before the racing, the usual amenities. Press conference near the London Airport. Dick Mann (BSA), Don Emde (Kuhn Norton), Cal Rayborn (HarleyDavidson), and Suzuki team members Ron Grant, Art Baumann and Nicholas, all present, and pleased at warm reception. Copious dinner and wines at London’s White House. And some shut-eye.

Rendezvous at Suzuki (GB) Ltd. in Croydon, which is Ron Grant’s hometown. Uncrate the 750s and trundle up to Brands Hatch.

Brands looks a bit like Loudon. It’s tight, twisty and only 1.24 miles long. Preliminary practice revealed that the lowest gearing we had was much too high: 153 mph at maximum power rpm in high gear! So the Suzuki team could only use three gears-a definite handicap.

Mann and Emde had raced at Brands in 1971 with the BSA/Triumph teams. Ron Grant rode his first race at Brands about a dozen years ago.

But Rayborn, Baumann and I had to learn a new course. It wouldn’t have been all that difficult had the track surface been smooth, say, like Road Atlanta. There were special lines through the bumps we had to learn.

Cal’s Harley was ideally suited to the cramped swervery and of course Cal was right at home. Being able to swap the internal gearbox ratios around helped quite a bit, too. Cal’s mechanic, Daytona Beach’s Walt Faulk, managed to keep the big Harley in fine fettle until the second race at Oulton Park, the sixth and last race of the series.

Don Emde was riding a Norton Commando-based special for Vincent Davey of Gus Kuhn Ltd., the largest Norton dealer in England, and perhaps the world. The machine wasn’t extremely powerful in comparison with the BSAs, Triumphs and the Suzukis, but the engine/frame package was quite compatible with the short circuits.

Dick Mann’s factory BSA Rocket 3 wasn’t running spectacularly well, but the package was a familiar one to him. Although he had ridden the track last year, he quipped that he couldn’t remember much about it.

Still virtually brand new bikes, the Suzuki TR-750s were having their problems. Being able to use only three gears made matters difficult and the chassis still needs sorting out. Stronger and larger diameter tubing in the frames Cl/l/'s Nicholas (Suzuki), Ray Pickrell (Triumph) and Ontario winner John Cooper (BSA) scratch around Mallory Park's hairpin turn, which must be one of the tightest anywhere. Note Nicholas' withdrawn dutch lever: Pickrell and Cooper were able to motor out of the turn without slipping the dutch.

may be in order. Having over 100 bhp at the countershaft sprocket doesn’t do much good unless you can put it on the ground.

Ron and Art acquainted themselves with the track fairly rapidly and spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to get their lines down. I was doing the same and had at least an idea where I was going when an accident occurred which very nearly took out one-third of the American team.

After Clearways bend (see diagram) there is a straightaway, which we reckoned would allow a top speed of about 120 mph for the Suzukis. The straight is slightly uphill and at the end is the highest part of the course. Right after the crest of the hill is the entrance to the paddock (pit area) and the track drops off into a downhill, off-camber right hander called, oddly enough, Paddock Hill Bend! There were only four riders on the track at the time, which makes the prang seem even more ridiculous.

Don Emde was having problems with the Kuhn Norton and was riding on the right hand side of the track, very slowly. Distracted by his problem, he traversed the track in order to get into the pits. Bad timing. I had exited Clearways and was smoking up the straight, trying to determine the best shutoff point and entering line into Paddock Hill Bend.

I was pretty well committed to my line and had two choices: try to get by Don on the right hand side and possibly take us both out, or attempt to make it between the left hand edge of the track’s guard rail and a series of 10 or 15 four by four concrete posts which were set out about four feet from the guard rail to delineate the entrance to the paddock. Choosing the second alternative was, I believe, the wisest move and I managed to get the machine slowed from approximately 110 mph to roughly 40 mph when I went between the concrete posts and the guard rail.

But my attempt at saving the situation was foiled as I was going about 5 mph too fast to make the bend. The left hand side of the fairing and the clip-on handlebar touched the guard rail and machine and rider were ejected unceremoniously back out onto the race track.

After a series of sky-grounders I slid to a stop several yards from the point of impact, my leathers worn completely through in the area of the left cheek and my pride bent a bit.

Luckily neither the machine nor I was seriously damaged, but the incident de-tuned me a bit.

After the day’s practice the U.S. team had a meeting in the Suzuki (GB) caravan, or trailer. It was obvious to all that Cal was the man for the Anglo team to beat. We were all circulating around the track at respectable speeds, but Cal, on last year’s XR750, was really moving! Last year’s overheating bothers with the Harley weren’t a problem in England because of the typical Easter weather: mid-50 degree temperatures with grey, overcast skies.

Thursday was a practice day at Mallory Park near Leicester, about 2(4 hours drive from our hotel in London. Our team arrived fairly late in the afternoon, but still in time to get familiar with the not-too-difficult circuit.

Cal was flying, as usual, and Dick was cutting some pretty hot laps. Don Emde was also lapping respectably, but the Suzuki trio just couldn’t get with the program. Still limited to three gears, the hairpin (see diagram) was taking its toll, and the vicious wobbles we were getting into on the rougher portions of the track made us a bit reluctant to hang it out, as it were.

Still de-tuned from my prang the day before, I tried some different rear shock absorbers, but the day wore on, the temperature dropped and it began to sprinkle. I was just beginning to feel the effects of the long trip and rushed schedule and really didn’t care if I rode longer that day or waited until Sunday.

Good Friday morning we arrived at Brands Hatch early. Even at nine o’clock the grandstands were getting full, and the paddock was a beehive of activity. The fans in the paddock area were milling about, looking at everything with interest. A keener bunch of people would be hard to find anywhere, and the American team members were kept busy signing autographs all day long.

The Easter meeting at Brands Hatch, and the other two tracks in the series, included a full program of racing, from the 125s to sidecars with the AngloAmerican match races in between. Because Nick Nicholls, CYCLE WORLD’S man in Europe, is doing a report on the Series, I won’t itemize the finishing positions but will try to convey my own impressions of British short circuit racing, and throw in an anecdote here and there.

Plagued by stubborn clutches (one of which caused Ron Grant’s retirement at Daytona in March) and an overabundance of oil, the Suzukis were slow off the line. All starts in the match race series were USA-style running engine starts, which sure beats trundling off down the road trying to push a 400-lb. motorcycle and even more especially when one of the pushers (Nicholas) weighs just a shade less then 125 lb. (or 9(4 stones), and one of the others (Grant) still has a weak leg from being hit from behind in a start accident at Talladega two years ago.

I still didn’t feel much like racing, and getting off the line almost dead last didn’t help much either. Quite frankly, I don’t remember too much about the racing at Brands Hatch except that my backside was sore and raw. Check Nick Nicholls’ report elsewhere in this issue for the full results.

Saturday was our one day off during the trip, but it was put to good use. Ron and I had talked and reckoned that if we were going to do any good at all we’d have to get some lower gearing for the Suzukis. We went to Suzuki (GB) and talked it over. I suggested that we take the smallest rear sprocket we had (3 0-teeth) and make some overlay sprockets. We figured that we needed at least four more teeth on the rear wheel than our 38-tooth items, and I had already talked to Don Emde’s sponsor, Vincent Davey, who thought he had some “blank” sprockets the size we needed, and would loan us his shop facilities to make them fit.

However, it was impossible to put a larger rear sprocket on because of insufficient clearance between the rear chain and the expansion chamber and one of the frame cross members. Ron then asked Rex White, Suzuki (GB)’s technical director, if he might have 14-tooth countershaft sprockets for a road GT-750. No, he didn’t, but he did have some 14-tooth T-500 Twin sprockets which were the right chain size.

Suzuki countershaft sprockets are heat treated to make them wear better so we heated the three 14-tooth T-500 and three extra TR-750 sprockets cherry red and let them cool slowly to take the temper out. Most fortunately for us, the company that is in control of Suzuki (GB) is also in control of Trojan Racing, builders of McLaren racing cars, and their shop was located only 100 or so feet from where we were working on our machines.

We found several men working on Saturday and asked if we might borrow their facilities to finish up our work. They were only too happy to oblige and we got busy. I was machining the insides out of the 14-tooth T-500 sprockets while Ron, working at a lathe to my right, was machining the teeth off of the TR-750 sprockets. W'e were happy and pumped and the chips fairly flew as we worked. Meanwhile the three Japanese mechanics were preparing the machines for Sunday’s race at Mallory Park.

1 was being as careful as possible but I’m no machinist by any stretch of the imagination. After finishing up two of the sprockets, Ron at the other lathe decided he needed the inside micrometer I was using to measure something he was machining. I passed it over to him, took another cut inside the sprocket, and asked him to pass the micrometer back. This happened a couple of times and during the exchange the adjustment screw on the micrometer loosened and the measuring portion grew larger and larger! Not knowing enough about the situation to suspect anything, I kept cutting away and ruined the last of the 14-tooth sprockets. Luckily Ron found a 13tooth sprocket so the day was saved.

Rex White’s brother is an excellent welder and he was persuaded to come down to the garage and weld the sprockets together. After the welding we again heated the sprockets cherry red and plunged them into oil to retemper them. I was in charge of the quenching operation and managed to set a portion of the shop on fire in the process! But we got the temper back.

Later that afternoon we began our journey to Mallory Park and stayed in a Holiday Inn at Leicester, only a 1 5-min. drive from Mallory. The fans were there bright and early and we signed as many autographs as we could before getting down to business. I’ll never cease to be amazed at the enthusiasm of the British.

After practice in the morning the American team again met in the Suzuki (GB) caravan for a strategy talk. It was obvious that Cal would lead us home and it was decided that if one of the rest of us beat him into the first corner (which we hadn’t been able to do up until then) we’d let him by and then get in the way of the opposition and let him build up a lead. The rest of us would ride as well as possible, of course, and try to add valuable points to our tally. At the end of the first day’s racing we were behind 85 points to 69.

The first race at Mallory was a Ray Pickrell benefit, but Cal was close behind. I still couldn’t get it all together and after a poor start finished 10th. Things just wouldn’t work, but the gearing was better although not perfect. We could use the first four gears, and Ron could usé fifth as he had the only 13-tooth gearbox sprocket on his machine.

But surprises will never cease I guess. For some lucky reason my clutch didn’t become inoperative during the start and I found myself in the lead in the second race. There are a series of S-bends leading into the hairpin turn (see diagram) which I was negotiating in third gear, just above the bottom of the power band. But about every other lap the clutch wouldn’t disengage and I couldn’t slip it coming out of the hairpin. I was too busy with the unfamiliar circuit to have a look behind, but on the seventh lap I heard a noise coming up on the right hand side.

Because my assessment of Devil’s Elbow (take the turn close, straighten the bike up and squirt it on) was in error, I was losing valuable time, and Cal got a magnificent drive and almost caught me going down the straightaway. When I looked back under my right arm and saw the familiar orange and black I rolled the throttle back and waved Cal by with my right foot. As soon as he passed I nipped in behind him and managed to keep him in sight for another four laps.

Ray Pickrell and Ontario winner John Cooper were right behind me but I reckon that my antics on the bike made them reluctant to pass. The clutch was still alternately behaving and locking up, so I sometimes had to just ride around the hairpin and wait until the revs built up to the power band. If I could get the clutch freed up I could beat Pickrell and Cooper to Devil’s Elbow and lead them to the flag.

On the last lap they had both gotten by me, but I managed to get the clutch freed up by jambing the machine through second and then into low gear. But I was foiled again as I hadn’t gotten the machine completely back into low gear and it jumped out of gear just as I fully released the clutch lever. Things happen so fast on British short circuits that if you sneeze three riders will pass you.

At any rate, I had snapped out of my post-prang doldrums and was feeling like riding, but the U.S. team was still down, 166 points to 145.

After loading we journeyed up the road to the last race of the series at Oulton Park. Oulton is the longest of the three circuits and was much more to my liking. Also, we could use the lowest gear that we had brought with us, but I would have preferred one more tooth on the rear sprocket. Practice went well but just wasn’t long enough for me to learn the circuit. Only Dick Mann and Don Emde had ridden the circuit before, but the job that Cal did of learning the circuit in 10 laps is amazing.

The officials had really rolled out the red carpet for us and both teams were driven around the circuit in sports cats before the first race and after the last. The British fans came to see the U.S. team get beat, which they did, but not without one hell of a battle.

Cal smoked off the line first and held his lead until the end. Don Emde had fallen off in practice and reinjured the shoulder he hurt at Daytona, so he wasn’t feeling up to scratch. I started on the second row in the first race and had to battle with a frozen clutch while everybody streaked away into the distance. Thinking I was all by myself, I was motoring happily along after passing a couple of riders, but I still didn’t feel too confident about where I was going. Oulton Park is a difficult circuit to learn because of several fast, blind corners, and I had no desire to throw the machine (or myself) up the road. Pretty soon Phil Read, who had been cleaning his face mask when the starter dropped the flag, came up to do battle. In fact, he passed me at Old Hall Corner on the third lap. Nipping in behind him, I followed as closely as I could, trying to learn the circuit, which I obviously hadn’t done very well in practice.

Luckily, Barry Sheene came over to our camp before the last practice session and offered to show us the way around for three laps, which was an appreciated gesture, and a couple of laps later when I’d got my courage back up I squirted by Phil and took up the chase. At the end of nine laps I was in 5th place, some 10 seconds down on Cal, who won the race for us.

The second race went better, but I was still almost last off the grid. The race this time was between myself and Peter Williams, who handled his truetracking Norton extremely well and smoothly. At the end of nine laps I was catching John Cooper, who was tiring badly. I could see Cal Rayborn just ahead. But Cal’s engine lost 500 rpm near the end of the race and he just couldn’t hang onto Pickrell. Art’s Suzuki had been misfiring all day and he finally retired with a broken chain. A series of ills, to be sure, but the British team had their bad luck too.