Springfield 50-Miler

SPRINGFIELD 50-MILER

CAROL SIMS

IT TOOK SEVEN YEARS as an Expert class rider to do it, but when George Roeder finally won his first National Championship race, he took the biggest money purse of all — $4000 for first place in the Springfield 50-miler at Illinois State Fairgrounds’ one-mile dirt track.

A capacity crowd of 25,000 watched 83 Experts and 102 Amateurs vie for position in the 10-race program; gray, chilly weather was the order of the day and a light drizzle fell twice, causing a shuffle of events and a premature running of the feature event. Ronnie Rail, national point leader before Springfield, received a cracked collarbone in a short track event the evening before and was unable to defend his position. Another top contender, Roger Reiman, was also sidelined with injuries.

Heat races went to Roeder (who also had fastest qualifying time of 40.06 aboard his Ralph Berndt-tuned Harley), Dick Hammer, last year's winner Bart Markel, and AÍ Gunter, with the latter’s event one of the most sensational and hard-fought ever witnessed. Gunter, Mann, Gary Nixon and Ralph White, all evenly matched in the horsepower department, swapped the lead constantly throughout the entire 10 laps, and the outcome was in doubt right down to the wire.

California’s Bob “Beetle” Bailey (Triumph) nabbed an abbreviated Amateur final; the scheduled 10-lapper was sliced to 5 when a light rain caused extremely slick track conditions. Bailey beat out Ted Heil (H-D), Bob Hinkle (Triumph), Tom Scharlow (H-D) and Eddie Wirth (BSA), in the shortened event.

At the start of the 50-miler, Hammer shot into the lead, followed by Gunter, Dovel, Roeder and Markel. By the beginning of lap 2, Gunter had taken over the lead and a pileup on the south turn triggered by Markel eliminated Hammer and Dovel from competition, though Markel was able to return to action 4 laps later. Hammer sustained a fractured arm in the accident. Stuart Morley moved up into second position ahead of Mann, Roeder and Duane Shadley and by the 4th time around, Roeder was in the lead and stretching it, over Morley, Shadley, Mann, Gunter and Nixon.

Then followed a bitter duel betweeri Morley and Mann for second spot that continued until the 18th lap, when Morley experienced mechanical difficulties which sidelined him several laps later. Meanwhile, Roeder had built up a straightaway lead over Mann, Shadley, Gunter, Sammy Tanner and White (who lost his goggles on the 20th lap).

The pace was picking up, and Roeder’s clocking on the 21st lap — 39.95 seconds — was 11/1 OOths faster than his qualifying time. Mann had the misfortune to lose his face shield at this point, while running second, and Tanner soon whizzed by to take the position, though Dick fought back into runnerup spot on the 25th and 27th. By the 30th lap it was Roeder, Tanner, Mann, Shadley, Neil Keen, Gunter, White, Joe Leonard (up from last place in his initial motorcycle race of the year) and Gary Nixon.

Positions remained virtually the same for several laps, although Leonard was moving fast, picking off first White, then Gunter and Shadley; Keen retired on the 39th, and with 10 laps to go Roeder held a 10 second lead over second place Tanner who in turn held a straightaway advantage over third place Mann. A serious situation was narrowly averted 3 laps later when Gunter’s machine experienced piston and magneto failure simultaneously, and burst into flames as he sailed past the main grandstands. Standing tall, really tall in the saddle, Albert guided the machine toward the rail and unloaded in the turn without injury, after being unavoidably clipped by Markel.

During the remaining laps Nixon and Shadley swapped 5th place numerous times, with Shadley narrowly winning the position at the checkered flag. Fourth place Leonard, 3-time Springfield victor, had turned in the day’s most aggressive ride on his Witham-tuned Triumph, and was clocked at a sizzling 39.84 late in the race. Time for the 50 miles was 33 minutes, 29 seconds for an average speed of 89.57 mph; Roeder was tailed by Tanner, Mann, Leonard, Nixon, White, Mike Powell, Dave Estep, Sam Satterley and Sid Payne.

Although an unofficial protest was lodged soon after the race, to the effect that Roeder passed two riders under the “hold position” flag early in the going, AMA officials decided that if he had indeed done so, it was before he saw the flag, and no official protest was filed. So the hard-charging Monroeville, Ohio farmer reaped his biggest crop to date, and an impressive, well deserved win it was. •

50-MILE NATIONAL

1. George Roeder, Monroeville, Ohio H-D 2. Sammy Tanner, Long Beach, Calif. BSA 3. Dick Mann, Pinole, Calif. BSA 4. Joe Leonard, San Jose, Calif. Triumph 5. Duane Shadley, Oskaloosa, Iowa H-D 6. Gary Nixon, Hyattsville, Md. Triumph 7. Ralph White, San Diego, Calif. H-D 8. Mike Powell, Polo, III. H-D 9. Dave Estep, Columbus, Ohio H-D 10. Sam Satterley, Lynwood, Calif. H-D 11. Sid Payne, Bakersfield, Calif. H-D 12. Bart Markel, Flint, Mich. H-D 13. Bill Taylor, Dupo, III. H-D* 14. AI Gunter, Alhambra, Calif. BSA* 15. Neil Keen, Pasadena, Calif. BSA* 16. Stuart Morley, Topanga, Calif. BSA* 17. Bates Molyneaux, Livonia, Mich. H-D* 18. Everett Brashear, Houston, Texas H-D* 19. Dick Hammer, Lakewood, Calif. H-D* 20. Darrel Dovel, Kansas City, Kans. H-D* * Did not finish