Southern California Tt Championship

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TT CHAMPIONSHIP

Dorresteyn is nation’s high point TT rider, Hammer takes So. Calif, honors.

CAROL ANDERSON

RAIN, heavy and prolonged, forced cancellation of the Southern California Season Championship TT race at Ascot Park in Gardena, bringing an abrupt and rather anti-clamactic end to the popular, J. C. Agajanian-promoted events.

Dick Hammer was declared AMA District 37 champion for the second straight time although Dick Dorresteyn was within striking distance of the So. Calif. title and emerged as high point TT rider for the entire nation.

Fourteen events comprised the 1961 season-eleven at Ascot’s 8-turn dirt course and three at Saugus Stadium’s combination pavement-dirt layout. Hammer’s BSA and Dorresteyn’s Triumph held a complete monoply on main event wins; they both scored seven feature victories, pulverizing track records almost every time out. Additionally, each man has 4 trophy dashes and eleven heat races to his credit.

Dorresteyn, recognized master of the steeplechase course, was national Tourist Trophy champion in 1958 and national short track champion the same year (as well as in 1957). His impressive racing background also includes being adjudged, in 1957, the nation’s No. 1 scrambles rider, and California State scrambles champion to boot.

Hammer’s rapid rise to the top has encompassed only three full seasons of racing. In 1959, when Dick was U.S. high point novice half-miler, he chalked up 45 wins at Ascot alone, and broke every track record for his class. He also finished second, nationally, in novice TT standings. Then in 1960 Hammer decided to forsake the half-mile in favor of scrambles and TT events, coming out ahead of So. Calif, experts in his amateur year, and repeating the feat in 1961 as a first year expert.

Several exceptionally talented amateurs will worry the experts in 1962, including Jimmy Plain, Dist. 37 high point TT man, and Skip Van Leeuwen, top scoring national TT amateur. Much-improved Dale Norlund, who snared novice honors, advances to the yellow plate class as does runnerup Jeff Sperry.

Increasing crowd interest throughout the past season brings promise of an everwidening California TT schedule, with bigger purses in the offing and more tracks preparing to stage professional Class C steeplechase events during 1962.

SO. CALIF. TT CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS