Road Atlanta

ROAD ATLANTA

If OI' Kel Wouldn't Have Bobbled In That Last Turn, Maybe ...

JOHN WAASER

HALL COUNTY, Georgia, is a sleepy little spot, dotted with towns like Flowery Branch and Chestnut Mountain. Country Sausage and Biscuit supplants the hamburger as a traditional short-order bill of fare. Life goes on with a maximum of trust, and a minimum of sophistication; one local car dealer's sign reads "Jessie D. Smith," and on the next line, "Good Datsun Cars." You're simply expected to believe him. But a fierce pride abounds, too. Your ticket stub at the local Kentucky Fried Chicken establishment includes the notation "The recipe is from Kentucky, the chicken is from Georgia."

Hall County is also the home of what must be the prettiest racing circuit in the world (here come the invitations to St. Jovite)—a circuit which Kel Carruthers described simply as "The best motorcycle circuit in America," because of its natural changes in elevation and good, fast turns. It's a rider's course, for sure, where a fast rider on a slow bike can almost equal a fast rider on a fast bike, and can handily beat a slow rider on a fast bike.

rThis year the track sported some esh paint to separate the pits from the track. Riders who had been at the track testing their machinery earlier in the week reported that the paint was exceedingly slippery, and it was noticeably so underfoot. But the fast riders soon learned to avoid the fresh paint, and the riders who did hit it seemed to be less vocal by the end of the week. Of much greater potential danger, it would seem, are the mini-curbs which crop up on the outside of the turns from time to time, though I never heard a rider complain about them. Perhaps the feeling is that a rider who hits them is already headed for the boonies in a big way. Also in abundance was the red clay which flows from the hillsides with every rainstorm, and runs across the track, where it dries when the hot sun comes out. It is almost impossible to thoroughly clean the track of this clay dust, but they do employ a road sweeper, and nobody really complained about the dust this year, either.

Reportedly some car drivers are disenchanted with the course, since the rises and dips are in some cases sufficiently pronounced to raise the front ends into the air just at the entrance to a bend, and I was told the cars don't steer too well that way. The bikes get to be a bit of handful in a stiff crosswind, but nobody mentioned any real difficulty along these lines, and Gary Fisher was prone to pop wheelies on the back straight for as much as 30 or 40 yards when the spirit moved him, which totally freaked out the flagman and spectators.

If you got caught between two public address system speakers, you could occasionally find a gap of several seconds between them, making the speech unintelligible. And yes, the pit exit still puts a rider right on the fast line into turn one. But other than that, the pavement is smooth, the esses are sheer joy to ride or to watch, and the facilities are some of the finest around.

The AMA has come up with a wondrous new plan to ensure what they called "closer racing" by eliminating the fuel stops required by the thirsty 750cc two-strokes. Now, you could argue that a surfeit of power extracts a penalty in fuel consumption, and that machines so endowed should pay that penalty—and that, in fact, forcing them to do so would result in closer racing. And you might be right, for some of the best riders in the world, mounted on fourstroke machines, with traditionally good gas mileage, were totally out of the hunt here this week. The first such race was at Dallas, won by Paul Smart.

The system uses two heats, a semiwhich-is-not-a-semi (it is actually a consolation race); and a final, which is the traditional American approach to dirt track racing. You might feel it is a slur on the American race spectator, since it implies he can't concentrate on a longer race. Whatever your thoughts, it is a totally new concept in road racing hereabouts, and it has somewhat turned the tables. It gives the "hairy monsters" a definite edge, and requires that riders attempt to sprint into the lead, Gary Fisher style, and stay there. The "thinking" type of rider, who starts slowly, and works his way through the pack to suddenly spring on the leaderboard, is not likely to make it here.

Anyway, it's different. The spectator gets to see a total of 135 miles of racing, a little less than he got to see before, since they had heats to determine grid positions before, too. And the spectator gets to see one more start, in the consy. And he gets to see less pit work, since nobody has to make a fuel stop.

The AMA had some other innovations up their sleeves, also. They had scheduled sign-up and practice much later than usual. Since in the past they never could start on time, the riders looked on this change as a measure of realism. When they actually started sign-up before the scheduled hour, everybody was shocked. But that lasted only until the scheduled start of practice, which didn't....

Kawasaki had put their name on the race, like they do at Laguna Seca, and had rented the track for some early practice. Reportedly Cliff Carr was the fastest rider during the practice days, with Gary Nixon suffering from various problems. The big green machines are by far the thirstiest of the lot, and the elevation changes at this course can cut mileage a bit, so it was not inconceivable that the Kawasakis would need a gas stop. But while you might expect a mileage check to be one of the top priority items at those early practices, they apparently were waiting until Sunday morning to do it.

Yamaha showed up at the appropriate time on Friday morning, set up their benches to get the machines off the ground, and generally looked like they knew what they were doing. Kel Carruthers, as team manager, has injected an air of thorough professionalism into their effort, without the haughty air of secrecy which has surrounded others who attempted to appear "professional." Kel was racing this week; at Dallas he had been just a tuner and team manager, and those who were there reported he was more at ease in that role than when he had to be all that and racer, too.

Is he finding it hard to grow old gracefully? He says he no longer enjoys riding for the sake of riding; he rides only to do well. He dislikes the thought of a production super-racer, saying there are only a handful of riders in this country who are capable of handling a 100 bhp motorcycle. He and Gary Fisher are flying to Japan right after the Road Atlanta race, to test the 700cc four-cylinder Yamaha two-stroke production racer. Said Kel, perhaps only half jokingly, about the prospect of racing such monsters—and more specifically, about the prospect of any idiot with $3500 racing one of those monsters—"When they come in, we'll just hook everything up to a dyno, and whoever has the most horsepower wins."

By Saturday morning, several people reported they had clocked Gary Fisher running quicker laps than the Kawasakis. The only problems the Yamahas were having were with the brakes. Fisher in particular, likes to charge hard into a corner, get on the binders at the last possible second, square it, and get the lead out. He switched from Fontana brakes back to the stock units with green linings, but still was not happy. Reportedly he will be bringing back a disc brake setup from Japan, "even if it weighs a hundred pounds." Yamaha has been testing discs, and having problems. Most of the weight of a disc is out near the edge, and when that gets spinning, the rotating mass is enough to give a heavier feeling to the steering than with a drum setup.

Don Vesco showed up late, and had problems with one of Doctor Pepper's ignition systems on Dave Smith's bike, so Team Vesco was busy. The ignition system had been hastily assembled, and had not been "temp-cycled"—that is, heated and cooled a number of times, to weed out early failures.

Harley Davidson had a skeleton team here, with Doug Sehl, Scott Brelsford and Cal Rayborn. They could not hope to be competitive in the shorter race, and while Calvin was working the first turn harder than anybody, it all seemed fruitless.

The British four-strokes sort of camped together, Triumph with their big truck, and Dave Aldana with his smaller effort. When BSA started the effort, they painted "Championship Racing Team" on the sides of the truck. The slogan was intact, but the word "Championship" appears to have been scratched off one side. Aldana was sitting below that, but denied that he was waiting for some of the championship to rub off on him. "You guys keep cheering for me," he said Sunday night, "one of these days I'm going to stay on two wheels."

He had the same bike he rode at Daytona, which is to say it might well be the fastest four-stroke around. When asked what kind of lap times he was turning, he replied, "Fair. We'll see after the race." Gary Scott noted that he was turning faster lap times than anyone had ever turned on the Beezumphs—and he was still out of contention. Reportedly Triumph had tried to build some Twins, but they were slower than the Triples. They had the Triples outfitted with smaller, lower, gas tanks and other worksy dodges, but you knew they'd never be in the hunt.

Practice finally did get underway on Friday afternoon, and it was "Fear Incorporated," as one rider put it. Cal Rayborn noted that he'd "Never seen so many nutty amateurs in my life—there's more guys on the ground than on the course." Of course that meant heavy use of the ambulance. While the riders didn't complain nearly as much this year about the ambulance drivers as they did last, they noted that the drivers would run on the muddy shoulder, and then cross the course to get to the injured riders, leaving in their wake great galloping lumps of red Georgia clay. "Crash" Baumann went down hard enough to cause him to forsake his 250 ride, so he could recuperate enough for the big race. The hottest riders were lapping about 94 mph, some 20 mph down on the fastest cars.

Saturday morning was more of the same, and again things ran a bit behind schedule. Gary Nixon's bike problems had been traced to crankcase leaks. They had airchecked the bases when it was cold, and everything seemed OK. If they checked the plugs after two laps, they looked great; two laps more, and they went lean. The cases only leaked when hot. So Irv Kanemoto, Gary's tuner, installed the spare engine.

First racing on Saturday's agenda were the 250cc combined junior/expert heats. Gary Fisher found out he'd be in the same heat as Yvon duHamel, and he was glad—he wanted to blow the Frenchman's doors off. DuHamel stalled on the line, restarted, got as far as the pits. They installed a new plug, and Yvon came out on the third lap, in front of Gary—and maintained the lead for the remaining laps.

Kenny Roberts edged out Kel Carruthers in the faster heat, so the factory team had the top three slots on the grid, with the fourth team member, Don Castro, in 7th spot. Dave Smith and Gary Nixon, riding a Dirty (Distributing Co.) Yamaha filled out the front row. The first Kawasaki was George Roche's private job, in 15th place.

The combined heats were followed by the novice heats, and final. Some may remember, a few years ago, an old gentleman who brought a dyno down to Daytona, and set it up right outside one of the garages. "Pop" Abbott, his name was, down from Stover City, Missouri. While there, he became disenchanted with his rider, and met a Massachusetts youngster named Don Mayer. Don had a super ratty TD-1B, and jumped at the chance to ride the Abbott "C." His ride ended quickly, in a long, long slide in the first turn, which was later to be immortalized in slow motion in the movie "On Any Sunday." Old Mr. Abbott, again disenchanted with his rider, always willing to take a chance on a new youngster, received a call from Montana shortly before this Road Atlanta event.

The caller was Scott Erickson, whose former sponsor had known Mr. Abbott, and suggested Scott give him a call. Could something be worked out? It could indeed; Scott drove to Missouri, where he joined Mr. Abbott and a 250cc Yamaha for the trip to Road Atlanta. The combination was good for 2nd place, behind the pole-sitting Daytona winner Jay Levingston.

Jay is a small, mild and unobtrusive Floridian, who seems intent on duplicating Johnny Long's domination of the novice class last year. And his finely fettled Yamaha has the legs on anything in the class, so he may not have much trouble doing so. In 3rd was Rohn Ishmael, of Weslaco, Texas.

In the combined junior/expert final, Gary Fisher and Kel Carruthers started a dice from the drop of the flag which was to last virtually the whole length of the race. Kel led a couple of laps at the finish line, but he's just cagey enough to let another rider set the pace, even if it is a teammate. Ed Fisher, Gary's father, and himself a prominent road racer back when a Triumph Cub was a hot piece of iron, was going bananas. He wanted Gary to stay behind Kel for awhile, and learn a few things. He figured Gary was hoping he could get a few lengths lead and lose Kel in traffic, to prevent Kel from passing on the last lap. "As Gary says," quoted Ed, "you can't win 'em both unless you win the first one."

Gary is big on doubles, having won both events at Loudon last year, and tried for the double at Daytona as well. Running in a close 3rd in the early stages was Dave Smith, who at one point must have been very close indeed-he left a mighty heavy streak of rubber on the right side of Gary Fisher's seat, at which point Dave slowed a bit. He was promptly passed by John Long and Ted Henter.

Henter and Long were putting on their usual show, which always includes a bit of fairing bumping in the corners. Long had motor on both Smith and Henter, and was usually able to keep the lead to himself where it counted. Meanwhile, Yvon duHamel, on the Big Horn, having started from the last row, following his miserable performance in the heat, was cutting through the pack. He "...was driving it..." as somebody later put it. The Yams had lots more power, but the Kawasaki, being lighter, could outbrake the Yamahas. Yvon was troubled by vibration, and said the seat felt about 6-in. thick, but he never shut it off. "DuHamel is just incredible," said Henter later. Fisher said he started having trouble downshifting his Yamaha about the 15th lap. (Earlier rumors said it wouldn't upshift: Kel Carruthers said,

"I just went a little bit faster the last couple of laps.") Charlie Watson, the referee, called for judges on the finish line. "It just might be that close," he said. It wasn't. Kel passed Gary, and pulled out a comfortable lead in the last > lap or two. Yvon the Incredible had worked his way by Smith, Henter and Long, and came in 3rd.

The really tight race was between Long and Henter for 4th, though there was little doubt Long would take it. Kenny Roberts had lost his ignition; he later explained that they were running at the limit for a 250, and that it would have been a hell of a race if his bike hadn't quit. (He had been in the top five for about the first five laps.)

Into the lead of the junior final roared Johnny Long, but you could tell Ted Henter could pass him, as he drafted John for the first five laps. Ted got by then, and just proceeded to pull a short lead. Billy Labrie settled into 3rd like he owned it on the first lap, and that's how they finished—though not without some mini-dices further back in the pack.

Fourth spot finally went to Phil McDonald, the Daytona junior winner, who had been fourth on the grid, as we noted earlier. Phil had been running 6th or 7th early in the race, but didn't have the steam the others did—and at Daytona, his bike was the jet in this class. Pat Evans coasted to a stop on the front straight on lap 18 with a broken crank on his borrowed 250. After the race, both Henter and Long were out of shape and physically tired.

Yvon duHamel squirted into the early lead in the expert race, but wound up overshooting turn one. That started a three-way race for first between Kel Carruthers, Kenny Roberts, and Geoff Perry. Geoff had been the best looking Suzuki in Friday's practice sessions, or the most consistent, anyway, and he would pass the Yamahas halfway down the straight, only to lose ground to the smaller bikes in the esses.

Dave Aldana was motoring along when he again threw it away. Some guys don't have to win to get publicity. Just think of all the publicity Norton gets out of Dave. Geoff Perry even gave the incident an unsolicited comment in the press room after the race. "He's always all right-he's incredible, that guy."

With the event getting short, Yvon duHamel had worked his way into 4th (he had a rough time getting by his own teammates—for a while the Kawasakis had been running four in a row.) Geoff and Kel were still doing the pass-andrepass thing, with Roberts still hanging in there in 3rd. On the last lap, Kel was ahead past the halfway point on the straight. As they came under the bridge across the track, Kel intended to run wide, and dive inside Geoff for the last turn. Suddenly Kel felt his front wheel sliding; in an instant he was committed to the outside line for the last turn. Down the hill they raced into the last turn; it looked like Kel had the edge. Through the turn, Kel bobbled badly, which slowed him a bit. Geoff won the race by a scant six inches.

It was Geoff's first AMA points race—he had just signed up. While he could run on his FIM license (Paul Smart did last year), he would not be eligible for the AMA points fund at the end of the year, so he could lose a lot of money that way. (Paul Smart did last year....)

For those who still don't know, the name is pronounced "Jeff," not "Goff"—there is an "e" after the G.

So how does the new AMA formula stack up? It certainly was close racing— about as close as the Mark Brelsford/Kel Carruthers finish at Loudon two years ago. It's just too bad the four-strokes couldn't be in the hunt. 5I

COMBINED

1. Kel Carruthers, 2. Gary Fisher, 3. Yvon d u Ha mel. II IAIIf~~

JUNIOR

1. Ted Henter, 2. John Long, 3. Billy La brie.

NOV/CE

I V LI VI (~, 1. Jay Levingston, 2. Scott Erickson, 3. Rohn Ishmael.