Kentucky Roostertails
KENTUCKY ROOSTERTAILS
D. Randy Riggs
Horses And Harley-Davidson: A Tradition At Louisville Downs
A salesman in a Buick rolls southbound on an Interstate highway across the flatness and greenery of Indiana. Shadows are growing long, it is blustery, with storms in the distance. Traffic flows in a nearly uninterrupted stream, not at all unusual for a June Friday growing old. But the salesman, though he is tired from annoyances of a Chicago business meeting, notices something about this parade of sheet metal that strikes him differently than it has on the other Fridays he has driven this route.
It’s the motorcycles. Lots of motorcycles. Some drab. Some chromey. Varied license plates. Many with a rider and passenger, assortments of luggage; a few travel alone.
There are vibes in the air. . .even the salesman, in a trancelike state from the many miles in a quiet car on a ribbon stretch of road, some of his senses dulled by late afternoon Scotch and sodas. . .even he tunes into the vibrations and wonders to himself what it is they’re all heading for. . .it’s surely something special.
The gentleman could not be more right. The motorcyclists and a lot of others from all over the East are pointed toward Louisville and the Grand National Championship Half-Mile, part of the Camel Pro Series. It’s the first National Half-Mile of the season, paying valuable points toward the AMA Grand National Championship. But still, it’s more than that.
Rather than being run on a crusty old fairgrounds circuit, this one lays tracks at Louisville Downs; unusual, because it was built for horses, and even more so because of the wide crushed limestone surface. And, traditionally, it has taken horses and Harley-Davidson to do the winning at the Downs. . .but the horses aren’t of the four-legged variety.
There have been a couple of threetime winners at the Downs: Bart Markel and Dave Sehl, both riding potent V-Twins out of Milwaukee. Bart was there again this year, but in the role of tuner, not rider. Sehl was again ready to “pitch one sideways” in the hopes of seeing the checkered first, as did Mark Breisford in 1972 and Corky Keener last year, mounted, of course, on HarleyDees.
Just what it is that makes Louisville Downs a “Harley track” is perhaps hard to pinpoint, but there is noquestion that the limestone is horsepower robbing, particularly in the deep cushion that builds up on the outside of the turns after some laps have been run. And there is little doubt that the H-Ds have more of that horsepower to give away than anybody, so when that thieving takes place, they’ve still got some pocket change to play around with.
A couple of days prior to the National, a few of the odds-on favorites were in Milwaukee at H-D’s racing headquarters honing their Saturday night weapons. Corky Keener, the defending Downs champ, was busy assembling a new piece of hardware. Babe DeMay fussed with Rex Beauchamp’s muscle, Carrol Resweber (one of the greatest motorcycle racers ever), was supervising rookie Greg Sassaman’s two machines. Greg had just come from a resounding win at the San Jose Mile two weeks previous. Mert Lawwill had done his work at home in California and Gary Scott was headed for Ohio to pick up his wife, load up and head for the “horse track.”
Qualifying at Louisville takes place in the afternoon; serious handlebar slapping goes on in the evening, yet another Louisville novelty. Not many Nationals run under the lights. But while the sun shone, no one was surprised to learn that the Harley-Davidson marque had nailed down the majority of the 48 qualifying slots, the top five included. But what did raise a few eyebrows was Gary Scott, one of the last riders to make his timed run, nailing down the quickest time of 26.096. In contrast, Keener, who many thought was going faster than any of the 108 riders entered, had gone out early for his try and had come up 5th fastest. Very surprisingly, even that was a couple of ticks slower than first-year Expert Jay Springsteen’s clocking; he looked as though he knew Louisville like an elderly person knows the squeak of his own rocking chair. National Champion Kenny Roberts qualified his best ever at the track with 12th fastest, but it would take every bit of his uncanny ability to get his black and yellow Yamaha into the V-Twin
showcase.
Heats, of course, not qualifying, would begin to tell the tale. Keener came from a poor start in heat one, riding high out in the deep stuff, to take 1st away from the rest of the pack. Gary Scott, complaining about the starter’s technique and chintzy game of fake out—as were others—was lucky to grab a 4th and a do-or-die ride in the Semi. Dave Sehl followed Corky, and Hank Scott showed his roostertail to brother Gary on a powerfully quick Yamaha built by Shell’s Racing Specialties.
Back in the pits, John Ingham from Red Wing was helping many of the front runners with suspension trickery, and his smile showed that Red Wing equipped bikes were doing more than their share of the winning. Bill Robinson was smiling, as well, since many of the bikes were running Good Year rubber. But no one had grins like Team Vista-Sheens’ after Jay Springsteen carted off heat two as effortlessly as a coyote in a chicken coop, for the fastest 10 laps of the night. Behind Jay, though distantly, was a battle that kept the pro H-D crowd jumping. Jim Zeigler, Billy Eves and Chuck Palmgren went most of the race stuffing it in on one another; out of the trio Palmgren went to the Semi.
Heat three was a Rex Beauchamp benefit, but had rookie Sassaman gotten off to a good start (he came off the line dead last), it might’ve been a different story. Greg manhandled his sanitary H-D tracker, the San Jose engine bolted into a new chassis, into 2nd at the end, which was good for a direct transfer to the biggie. Paul Pressgrove and Eddie Wirth chased him home.
It was obvious that the crowd was anxious to watch National Number One have a go at the now changing track surface, and he didn’t disappoint them. 01’ Kenny slambanged his way into first for half the race, when a calculating David (Bubba) Rush took his last name to heart and swooped by to take over from Roberts. Steve Droste followed the pair in for 3rd.
In the National Points picture, the heat was on Scott, as usual. He was facing three of the most important events of the season: this one, Harrington, Delaware, a week later, followed by Columbus. All Half-Miles, all tracks on which H-D machines hold a slight advantage over the opposition, at least in theory. Roberts, going to Louisville, held a precarious points lead. Scott, knowing this, needed 1st place in the Semi to even make the National. Roberts, by finishing 2nd in his heat, was already in. But even if Scott won the Semi, it was five more miles of wear and tear on the engine, creating more of a chance of mechanical problems in the National.
Naturally, Scott knuckled down and won his Semi, after Chuck Palmgren had won his. But in the National, Scott would have to start a position away from the inside pole, not an enviable starting slot at Louisville. Springsteen, by virtue of his fast heat race, was sitting on the outside pole, just the spot from which 13 other riders wanted to watch the green flag drop in the singlerow start.
Several riders had the same feelings about technique and strategy for the 20-lap, 10-mile race. “Ride high in the cushion for several laps until it gets bumpy, then drop down to the groove and motor.” But there’s an abrasive dirt spray to hassle if you’re back in traffic, one reason why so many of the riders were using an abundance of tearoffs over their face shields and wrapping duct tape around the vulnerable parts of their machines.
But the big trick would be getting off the line first-or at least near the frontdifficult on a limestone surface with the large quantity of horsepower most of the machines had. And once underway, whoever could keep the right twist grip wired open the longest for 10 miles, remembering tire wear and all that wheelspin. . .well, maybe he could pull it off.
Again the starter fooled several as the National was flagged underway amidst a shower of limestone spray. Springsteen did his trick once more to lead the pack into turn one, stretching his advantage on the backchute. With their reflections glistening off the infield lake, the riders charged around for lap two. Bubba Rush dropped from the fracas at about the same time 3rd-placer Rex Beauchamp lost fire to one cylinder.
Keener worked his way into 2nd, displacing Sehl, while Gary Scott found himself in the middle of traffic looking for an opening. He was forced to stay low in the groove, and lost ground to the leaders, ground he couldn’t make up later.
Greg Sassaman again was last off the line, and, again, was making a charge toward the front. Roberts was riding high in the cushion and spectacularly, but it would be short-lived, since his rear wheel bearings went south, causing a wheel wobble and a lost chain. He parked it on the backstretch.
By halfway, the leaders had settled to the groove and their final finishing positions: Springsteen, Keener, Scott
and Sehl. But behind them it was far from over, with Hank Scott, Sassaman, Steve Droste and Bill Eves going to the wire in that order. The victory was Springsteen’s first National; he’s the youngest ever to win one. The 1 8-yearold starts school in September as a Senior. Somehow we don’t think he’ll have to discuss potential careers with his counselor.
And you can’t help thinking about that salesman in the Buick. You gotta believe he was farther south, pumping some prospect full of Scotch, talking about all those motorcycles he saw on the highway. He was probably still wondering where they were heading and what he was missing.
What he was missing was one hell of a motorcycle race. ...
RESULTS
