Racing Review
RACING REVIEW
LOUISVILLE HALF-MILE
JOHN WAASER
The Louisville track has a unique surface of crushed limestone; it is a fine powder which tends to collect on anything it can, and eats poorly prepared air cleaners for breakfast. Riders call it a horsepower course. This year Louisville was hot. That only accentuated all the features of the limestone surface, and made it difficult to hold the surface together.
The fact that Harley-Davidson was the .machine to beat was evident after time trials, where Mert Lawwill posted fast time. The field of over seventy riders narrowed to 48 after time trials, then was split into four heats and two semi-finals, each consisting of 12 riders. Two riders from each would qualify for the 12-man final. Lawwill continued his early domination of the event by winning the first and fastest heat, thus transferring to the pole position. Dave Sehl, also on a Harley, had been second, but was dropped to third by National Championship contender Gary Scott. Sehl would have to ride the semi to win a berth in the National.
Dick Mann walked away with the second heat, giving Triumph two spots in the final. Scott and Mann, however, were reportedly plagued with minor problems all night, indicating poor maintenance. Chuck Palmgren was 2nd to Mann in the heat, on an AAR Yamaha. The third heat belonged to Jim Rice, who may be some sort of a probationary factory Harley rider; he was wearing factory colors, but nobody really called him a factory rider. Ken Roberts, on the factory Yamaha finished 2nd in that heat. Rex Beauchamp and Scott Brelsford added two Harleys to the final from the fourth heat, after Dave Aldana, running 2nd, had his kill button short out.
Sehl won the first semi, followed by Ted Newton on a BSA. Cliff (Corky) Keaner, riding retired Bart Markel’s old equipment, won the second semi. Don Castro had been in second from the time he was passed by Keener until he also ran afoul of his electrics—a ground wire broke. That let Mike Johnson into the final; two more for H-D. Harley had more bikes in the final than all other brands combined!
Larry Darr, who had missed a transfer to the final by only one place, won the 12-man, 12-lap, consolation Trophy Race, also on a Harley, and won more money than the last-place man in the National. Darr was making a comeback from the Daytona injuries he received in his crash with Mark Brelsford.
Dave Sehl, who didn’t transfer from his heat, led the National from pole to pole, for Harley-Davidson’s first National win of the season. For Harley, it was a five-place sweep: for Sehl, it was his sixth career National win—and fully half of them have been at Louisville. Behind the Harleys, another very important battle was being fought. Gary Scott was running well ahead of Kenny Roberts. In the early stages, Dick Mann separated them, but Roberts got by Mann, though he couldn’t close on Scott. This gave Scott a meager handful of points to help whittle Kenny’s lead over Gary in the National Championship points standings. Following Sehl in the parade of Harleys were fastest qualifier Mert Lawwill, Jim Rice, Rex Beauchamp and Corky Keener.
21st ANNUAL CHARITY NEWSIES
BY JOHN WAASER
One of the closest dirt nationals of the year saw a tight 3-man battle for the lead virtually throughout the race, as Jim Rice, following a pair of 3rds on his new Harley-Davidson ride, finally got it all together to win. Loudon winner, Gary Nixon, had dirt in the carbs during his heat, had to start the semi from the second row for a crack at the final. He got dirt in his face in the semi, and just couldn’t get it on.
Qualifying cut about 20 riders from the field, narrowing it to 48. Mert Lawwill, the fastest qualifier at Louisville two weeks earlier, was also the fastest at Columbus, smashing George Roeder’s 1967 record. As an indication of how fast the track was, the top 10 qualifiers were all under that record time.
In the first heat, Lawwill won handily, followed by Rice. The big contest here was for 3rd, with privateer Frank Gillespie just nipping Don Castro at the flag. In the second heat, Dave Aldana copped the pole for the national by making his win the fastest. Dave Sehl was 2nd. Roberts came from an early 6th to win the third heat, followed by Corky Keener, on Bart Markel’s machinery, and a fast-closing Rex Beauchamp. The fourth heat saw Dick Mann win, followed by Ohio’s own Ronnie Rail, who is back on a Harley after a brief fling with a water-cooled Suzuki dirt tracker(!). Gene Romero had had the pole for that heat, but missed a shift, and could only work his way back to 4th.
The heats left such riders as Scott Brelsford, Gary Scott, Rex Beauchamp, Gene Romero, Doug Sehl, Ted Newton, and Chuck Palmgren to fight for four remaining berths in the semis. Gary Scott, who is currently second in the championship standings, suffered more of the totally unlikely sort of problems which have been plaguing the Triumph factory team lately. His carb floats kept flooding, reportedly due to what might most judiciously be described as improper maintenance.
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Castro led the first semi, but his nemesis from the heat, Frank Gillespie, came up to do battle, and Frank took it. Scott Brelsford, a few lengths back in 3rd, would have to ride the trophy race. Ted Newton led the second semi, but was passed by Beauchamp, and then Romero, and it was these two who transferred to the final.
Starter Duke Pennell penalized four riders at the start of the trophy race, which was a Doug Sehl benefit. Doug, who probably picked up more loot at this race than his brother, who made the final, was immensely pleased. Chuck Palmgren, on the Dan Gurney Yamaha, had 2nd for a while, but was passed by Scott Brelsford, and then faded to 7th. Brelsford held onto 2nd, as Keith Ulicki took 3rd on the next to last lap, and Larry Darr finished 4th.
Rice hadn’t liked the look of his plug reading after his heat, and consulted Babe DeMay, who advised installing a new magneto, which he did, during the semis.
Pole sitter Dave Aldana chose the outside position, but this tactic didn’t work, and it was Mert Lawwill who led the first lap. Rice, Roberts and Sehl charged to the front as a threesome. Rice and Roberts were riding the outside, but Sehl took the inside line, and hopped into the lead on the 10th lap. Rice and Roberts then dropped down to the groove. At one point the three were running side by side, and Sehl went down on the 15 lap, after making contact with Roberts. Dave blamed Kenny for his misfortunes, reportedly not in the most sportsmanlike fashion. The brief contact slowed Kenny enough for Rice to get the lead to himself, and before Kenny could get on it proper again, he found himself dicing with Mert Lawwill, so it quickly became a threeway scrap again. Rice managed to pull out a bike length before the checkered flag, and Mert got a fair grip on 2nd.
Harley-Davidson continued its domination of the dirt nationals, with four out of the first five places, Rex Beauchamp and Corky Keener coming in behind Roberts. They also took the top five slots in the trophy race. Due to Scott’s misfortunes, Roberts was able to add 100 points to his championship lead, as Rice displaced Gary Nixon from 3rd, and even Mert Lawwill came within three points of the fiery red head. Harley moved to 3rd in the manufacturers standings, while Yamaha continues in a seemingly unassailable lead there.
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THE GREENHORN ENDURO
BY RON SCHNEIDERS
“Come ride the ‘horn’.” For motorcyclists that’s the clarion call that must be heeded on Memorial Day weekend, just as car fans everywhere must listen for the famous, “Gentlemen, start your engines.”
So goes the myth anyway.
Saturday’s course was about 70 percent old desert trail and 30 percent dirt road, difficult in spots but basically uninteresting. The tedium, though, was replaced by anxiety in the latter part of the day for many riders.
Two arrows pointed firmly and unequivocally into a sandwash. There were three options: go up the sandwash, go down the sandwash, or cross the sandwash, but there was no indication of the correct course. Crossing the sandwash was not promising because there was a mountain of no mean proportions on the opposite side and no apparent way over it. Down the wash turned out to be a disaster for many: Eventually riders who chose that way came upon marking which didn’t seem quite wrong. But it was, and it led the hapless riders deep into the desert before fading completely into the approaching night. Rescue Three, District 37’s splendid search and rescue outfit, spent many hours looking for the nightbound, gasless followers of strange ribbon.
Going up the sandwash produced an equally perplexing problem. The riders who elected this course soon found Greenhorn marking all right, but the arrows were pointing the wrong way. Only by ignoring the contrary marking and proceeding farther up the wash did they eventually come upon correctly marked course again. What had happened was that the course crossed itself, but there was no marking at the crossing. Still, most of the riders managed to dope it out...eventually.
The survivors who lined up on Sunday exhibited all the enthusiasm of picketeers on the 532nd day of a labor strike. Surprisingly, however, the trail started out much better almost immediately. It drifted into country that hasn’t been ridden for awhile, so the trails were reasonably pleasant and fresh. The path was generally southward and it took advantage of interesting things along the way. For awhile the riding was over roller coaster ridge routes, and there was the exhilaration that comes with doing wheelies while silhouetted against the sky. The trail eventually wound its way down to the farming country of Cantil, and in the process found some slippery, gooey mud along some railroad tracks.
Sunday’s trail was acknowledged by everyone to be far superior to Saturday’s and indeed the memory of Sunday’s run might well save Greenhorn for another few years. Even on Sunday, though, there was one illegal check, several cases of inadequate marking, and a charge of total non-cooperation lodged by a very mad and frustrated Rescue Unit.
The Pasadena Club used the modern flip card system of scoring which has been producing results in a matter of hours from other local enduros. In spite of the flip cards, however, it was almost three weeks before results appeared. When they did, the sweepstakes winner of the Greenhorn turned out to be fireman Marv Munyon, who is 37 years old, and has a 17-year-old son named Rick who sometimes beats him in the local runs. Marvin rides a 250 Honda, and together with his teammates Jay Tullis and Tony Furtado, he captured the team trophy for Honda, along with the Sweepstakes trophy. Mark thought the run “was okay,” but admits that he might not even have given this mild endorsement had he not won!
Everyone wants to ride Greenhorn once just to say he’s done it, and in spite of the dangers inherent in being a hundred miles out in the desert with no one having any accurate idea of where anyone else is, there are at least a dozen first timers every year, who want to start their careers with a big one.
PORCUPINE NATIONAL ENDURO
BY BILL MOSS
The 1973 Porcupine National Enduro stuck to its reputation as being a very tight, physically demanding event. Headquartered a few miles west of Harrison, Mich., the Michigan Trail Riders marked a 370-mile route that was ridden on two consecutive days.
The course was designed to take away points along its entire length, not at just a few difficult spots. There was constant pressure to maintain the 24 mph schedule, with very little road or two track trails on which to make up time.
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For the inexperienced there were some muck holes, and a fun hill or two broke the monotony of the woods. However, long stretches of twisting, turning, up and down, bouncing, body bruising, peg riding, leg cramping single trackers through the waist high ferns and jack pine forests made up the meat of this event.
A tunnel of arrows made getting lost impossible and at the turns there was an explosion of markers indicating the way. However, most riders did not have telescopic eyes or the magnifying glass needed to read the turn numbers. Even though 70 miles of Sunday’s course backtracked Saturday’s, there seemed to be no confusion. All a rider had to do was sit back and keep track of the time he was losing!
Of the near 500 starters on Saturday, only 99 were left for competition the next day. Of these, just 51 could manage to coax mind, body and machine through the final check. Larry Crouse, 1973 Porcupine chairman, said later that he had expected about 175 to complete the first day’s riding. But rain on Saturday morning and temperatures that moved into the 80s turned the woods into a strength sapping steam bath. There is no doubt that these conditions reduced the number of competitors for Sunday.
Unlike several other Nationals this year, the winner was not a surprise, but the ease with which Jack Penton moved the family machine through the woods to the over-all victory was. Jack’s score of 921 beat his nearest competitor, 1972 Grand National Champ Bill Kain, by 55 points. Bill’s 866 was good for “A” class champion.
Dane Leimbach, another member of the 6-man Penton team, took the top spot in the lOOcc class. Lenny Keen, who has been consistently in the top three or four positions all year, won the very tough 101-200 division. With Dick DeGraw, Dick Burleson, and Tom Penton, Wilford, and Uhl of the Penton collection, it isn’t difficult to see why this is such a tough class. Carl Scharphorn, a Michigander, was first of the 250s and Jake Fischer, mounted on his eight-speed Husky, headed the open class.
This year’s Porcupine is what enduro riding is all about. It was a strong test for man and machine. For most, it was a matter of which gave up first.
