The Astrodome Tt

The Astrodome TT

Oddsmakers Were Wrong: Twelve-Year Veteran Mike Haney Scores First National Win.

ANY oddsmaker in the crowd would have picked Kenny Roberts (Yamaha No. 80) to win the Astrodome TT. After all, he dominated the event last year until a stalled engine temporarily sidelined him. He was untouchable in both qualifying and in his heat. And, his wildly sliding, power on style won him a

tremendous lead over eventual winner Mike Haney (Triumph No. 91), Gary Scott (Triumph No. 64), 2nd placeman Randy Scott (Triumph No. 50) and slow starting Jim Odom (Triumph No. 18).

Roberts seemingly had it made. Then, on lap 10, fate repeated itself. He relaxed for a second while going over the jump and his engine stalled. Not realizing it, Kenny let out the clutch and bobbled. The restart simply took too much time and energy because confusion over the rules kept the infield crowd from pushing until it was too late.

SOMETIMES being a TT

specialist pays off. But Mike Haney isn't your ordinary specialist. He actually prefers bumps. Why? Because other riders don't like them.

So, while others worried about losing an encounter with one of the Astrodome's numerous holes (it could mean a trip over the bars), Haney left the throttle on and pulled away from the pack.

When Kenny bobbled, the race was all but over. No one could get close enough to Haney to muster a serious challenge. And Haney, riding one extremely cool, headsup race, wasn't making any mistakes.

For the 12-year veteran, it was a well-deserved win, and the best performance of his career to date.

TWO won years the TT ago, on Jim his Odom own Triumph. After a year on the Yamaha factory team, Odom dusted off the same Triumph, trucked it to Houston, and fought his way into 3rd place.

For Odom, it was a comefrom-behind race. A mediocre start kept him bottled up in the pack until the halfway mark. Then, something clicked and Odom forced his way up, finally passing both Dave Hansen (No. 89M) and factory rider Gary Scott. >

:ARK Breisford (H-D) won 2 his qualifying heat race, but could do no better than 6th in the final. His big V-Twin had an abundance of power, but there was no place to use it on the tight Astrodome course.

P ERHAPS the most luckless entrant was Dave Aldana, debuting his factory Norton at Houston. He looked good in prac tice, but found himself riding a Single instead of a Twin when the flag dropped for his heat. At the end of the first lap, Aldana pulled into the infield, to a waiting me chanic, but he had a misfire which ntiId nnt h~ tr~t'ad

GARY competitor. Scott is Not an impressive only does he have one of the smoothest styles in pro racing, he also remains calm enough during an event to analyze his chances of winning. Whenever the risk of moving up is too great, he’ll back off and collect national points instead.

For a time, Gary diced with Paul Bostrom (Triumph No. 46) before moving up to 4th. Gary, incidentally, bettered all other factory riders in the TT.

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