Portland Meadows Mile
Portland Meadows Mile
BILL CHRISTOPHER
THERE WERE 62 NATIONAL points and a purse totaling $8,100 on the line for the first running of the Portland Meadows AMA 20 miler, and every mile winner since 1962 was there to take the prize. There would be no cherry picking. Both Gary Nixon and George Roeder knew it.
On the 15th lap of the 20-lap championship, Nixon, his chest and chin flattened on the blue and white tank of his Triumph, moved past Roeder’s Number 94 to take the lead, and the ultimate win, in the first mile race of the season. It was an especially tasty victory for Nixon, who in five of seven nationals on this year’s circuit tasted little else but dust. He had been without a win since he finished first at Laconia following his double dynamite at Daytona.
Not since 1955 when local rider Eugene Thiessen put his Gold Star out in front of Harley’s own Joe Leonard for a 5-mile victory had the Oregon horse track been used for motorcycles.
Among signs that read “Pari-Mutual Betting,”“Sellers,” “Cashiers,” “$2.00,” etc., the riders and their followers flocked into the Meadows. Located on the edge of Portland’s business district just off the freeway, it features a 5,600-seat, glass enclosed, air conditioned grandstand and a nine-hole golf course laid out on the infield. Inside are restaurants and cocktail lounges where the weary fun seekers can be inspirited with new energy. The pit area, or paddock as the horsemen call it, is unique in motorcycle racing. Laid out in a circular shape with a tail leading onto the track, the paddock houses individual cement stalls for the racers. The onlookers can wander on the encircling sidewalk and gawk at their favorites while their favorites are protected by a waist high cement wall and their mounts.
At the lower part of the enclosed grandstand which looks out on the 5,800seat open air bleachers, the race goers can sit at trackside tables and down drinks, while in the upper part the fans sit in a more typical grandstand fashion.
Out front lies the track, a clay track that was watered at intervals to keep the dust down. Throughout the day it continued to be slightly dusty and bumpy but, as winner Nixon said, “That’s usual for the first time out.” Hopefully the track will be up to the rest of the facilities next year.
A crowd estimated at 10,400 watched during time trials as Fred Nix threw the bravest slides of them all and came up with the day’s fastest time of 43.32 seconds. Roger Reiman was second with a 43.50. Roeder, in a groove of his own, turned 43.54, and fourth fastest and first non-Harley rider, Dick Mann, brought his BSA around in 44.26 seconds.
The first expert heat had six national numbers, and of those six four made it in the five transfer spots. Thirteenth fastest qualifier, Markel, beat fast man Nix into the first corner. Nix powered on and got by Bart on the backstretch. Sammy Tanner got his Gold Star going and had moved from fifth to third by the second lap. Immediately behind was the HarleyDavidson of Mel Lacher. Lacher went by Tanner on the backchute during the fifth lap, but Sammy came right back for a better grip on third. Nix and Markel were still having a run for first when half a lap from the finish Markel coasted to a halt with a broken engine. It was a bitter disappointment for Bart who has finished only once in three years of Northwest racing. The crowd could only mirror his feelings as he made the disheartening halfmile push back to the pits.
In the second heat it was a battle between Nixon and Reiman with Nixon leading the first four before being overtaken by Reiman’s Harley.
George Roeder came home the winner in the third and fastest heat of the day ahead of Mert Lawwill. The final expert heat was a start to finish win for Dick Mann. Second went to Chris Draayer, third and fourth spots were taken by Elliot Schultz (RE) and Johnny Tibben (H-D). Hard luck man was Triumph rider Richard Hardmeyer of Sacramento whose engine went bad on the last lap letting Eddie Mulder by to gain the last position in the final.
Seventeen national numbers lined up with three other experts for the championship, which was marked by the absence of a single Northwest rider. Roeder was on the pole, his preference being the outside slot, but he was trailing Draayer, Nix, Nixon, Rayborn and Tanner on the first lap. By lap two Nix had nipped Draayer and Roeder moved up to fourth behind Nixon. The third lap positions changed en masse. Nixon and Roeder went by Draayer, Tanner and Mann, and Reiman charged past a humbled Rayborn. Nix, Nixon and Roeder continued to hold their positions in their exclusive group until midway through number seven, when George passed Gary and took over second. Mann dropped out with mechanical problems, and way back Phil Cancilla was beginning to move.
Living The Good Life
As the eleventh lap approached, Roeder made his move and went by teammate Nix. Shortly after, Reiman dropped out. Following that, halfway through the twelfth, Nixon got by Nix and three laps later he was in front of Roeder. The battle quickly moved to second and third as Nix poured on the pressure for a lap. Then it was back to first and second as Roeder closely followed Nixon across the line starting lap 18. Into the corner Nixon stayed low and in the groove as Roeder ran high and outside in his. Coming up hard on Nixon’s machine, Roeder’s Harley slid out and dropped to a distant third while Nix winged past. Less than a lap later, with fewer than 10 yards separating him from the finish, Nix saw Roeder go by to nose him out of second money.
Later, talking about the slide, which may have cost him his first national win of the year, Roeder said that earlier in the race he could stay high and get away with it, but finally — lap 18 — his worn rear tire would no longer hold in the soft stuff.
Nixon, whose time through the dust and over the rough spots was exactly 59 seconds slower than his current 20-mile record set at Sacramento in ’64, was asked if he was taking it easy and lying back for the first half. “Hell no” was his answer, “I was going full bore all the way!” Nix finished third, Draayer fourth, Tanner fifth and Lawwill sixth. Only a week before Lawwill, then the sixth fastest qualifier, a second place heat winner and Harley-Davidson mounted, had captured the Castle Rock course, which is not a Harley track. This week Nixon also had qualified sixth fastest, finished second in his heat race and rode a Triumph — an upset winner as much as Harley was the previous week.
Earlier in the afternoon, Jimmy Odom made it three in a row when he copped the 10-lap amateur final. Riding a Harley for the first time in his career, he led all but two laps as he romped home in 7:20.48. His big competition came from another KR in the hands of Earl Lout. Lout took the lead just before the start of the seventh lap and relinquished it as he went dead on the far turn of the eighth. Odom went on to finish with a quarter mile lead over fast Royal Enfield mounted Roger Goldthwaite.
With both Castle Rock and the first Portland Meadows 20 miler on the books, the week’s racing came to a close. Riderwise the score was West one, East one, Northwest none, and in both cases the spectators came home winners. Castle Rock has always drawn the crowds with its show. Now, with the resurrection of the Meadows for a race site, the popularity of racing in this area will undoubtedly increase. As one fellow said, hashing over the Portland event, “Good race, drinks were fine.”
So, if only to watch the race in semiluxurious surroundings as they down
their Sunday suds, this year’s crowd — and more — will return for next year’s Northwestern spectacular.
