Race Watch
RACE WATCH
Suzuki cleans up, Ascot is Scott's, Weinert wins Supercross
A NEW WORLD CHAMPION
Popular road racing star Barry Sheene has at last won a World Championship. By taking the seventh round of the 500cc GP series in Sweden on the Anderstorp circuit, Sheene clinched the title even though there are yet three races remaining. Barry has been riding the seemingly unbeatable RG500 Suzuki in whose development he has shared since 1974.
The square Four 500 proved so tough in this year’s competition that nearly every rider with any real chance at giving the title a chase made sure he was Suzuki-mounted, including Phil Read and Giacomo Agostini. The only real star who didn’t go with Suzuki was Johnny Cecotto, who became unhappy with his uncompetitive Yamaha YZR500 and quit the 500cc class.
Of all the riders on the RG500, Sheene most deserved the title. He not only won it fair and square, but was the one who took the most lumps and bruises during the teething stages when transmissions were locking up and other assorted ills prevailed. Sheene’s winning the title also gives the British back the 500cc Champion, and we know they’re happy about that.
MORE GOOD NEWS
Pat Hennen has become the first rider from the U.S. to win a road race Grand Prix by taking the checkered flag in the 500cc event at Imatra, Finland. Hennen, like Sheene, rode Suzuki’s RG500 works machine, dicing with Agostini in the early stages of the event. Both developed brake problems, from which Ago retired, but Pat went on to finish 23 seconds ahead of his teammate Tepi Lansivuori. With talk that Suzuki will once again get back into U.S. road racing in 1977, when there are no less than eight pavement Nationals scheduled, maybe we'll be seeing more of the talented Hennen next season than we have this year.
SUZUKI ONE MORE TIME
While we’re on the subject of Suzuki and World Champions, it’s once again time to crown Roger DeCoster with his annual 500cc Championship of the World. Roger had a tight go of it this season, jousting with his teammate Gerrit Wolsink right to the finish. This makes it an unprecedented fifth time that Roger has gotten the spoils, putting him ahead of Joel Robert, who won it four times. The deciding race came at Luxembourg in the last event of the FIM season.
The final World 500cc standings: 1. Roger DeCoster (Suz), 183; 2. Gerrit Wolsink (Suz), 177; 3. Adolf Weil (Mai), 138; 4. Graham Noyce (Mai), 113; 5. Herbert Schmitz (Puc), 101; 6. Brad Lackey (Hus), 99; 7. Jaak VanVelthoven (KTM), 92; 8. Ake Jonssen (Mai), 81; 9. Pierre Karsmakers (Hon), 71; 10. Bengt Aberg (Mai), 48.
ASCOT TO SCOTT . . . AGAIN
In the process of picking up his second National of the season, defending AMA Grand National Champion Gary Scott became the first rider ever to win three consecutive victories in the annual Ascot TT National. Privateer Scott switched from Harley-Davidson, the brand on which he garnered his two previous Ascot TTs, to a five-year-old Triumph 750 to do the deed. Leading the event for 19 of 25 laps was rookie Steve Eklund, whose Yamaha finally gave way to the pressure from Scott and 2nd-place finisher Kenny Roberts. Scott thus picked up four more important National points than Roberts, who trails by only 11 in his bid to regain the crown he wore two years running.
Jay Springsteen kept his hopes alive by finishing 4th; that puts him 30 points behind Scott for a secure hold on 3rd overall in the standings. Eklund’s 3rd spot in the TT jumped him into a tie for 7th with Corky Keener and put him just five points behind Ted Boody, the rider with whom he is vying for “Rookie of the Year’’ honors.
Boody made a strong Ascot heat race showing by beating Kenny Roberts in one of the most thrilling races of the season, but spilled early in the main, ruining his chances. The 17-year-old remains a strong threat, however, in the remaining races of the Camel Pro Series.
As an interesting sidelight, two Yamaha TT500 Singles made the National on the fast Ascot surface. Rick Hocking took his into 6th place, while Bruce Hanlon rode Sparky Edmonston’s K-R-framed 500 (see CW, October ’76, for a full report) to 9th place.
Camel Pro Series standings after Ascot: 1. Gary Scott, 161; 2. Ken Roberts, 149; 3. Jay Springsteen, 131; 4. Randy Cleek, 88; 5. Ted Boody, 82; 6. Rick Hocking, 77; 7. Steve Eklund, 73; 7. Corky Keener, 73; 9. Hank Scott, 69; 10. Gene Romero, 59.
SUPERBOWL OF MOTOCROSS
Can-Am team member Jimmy Ellis won his second straight Superbowl of Motocross in the Los Angeles Coliseum, while Jim Weinert wrapped up the 1976 Super Series Championship with an 8th-place finish on a Kawasaki. The largest crowd ever to watch a motocross event in the United States (nearly 70,000 fans) looked on as Ellis ran off with the first moto, won the second while dicing with Suzuki’sTony DiStefano, then finished 2nd in the final race behind Tony to cinch the overall. Pierre Karsmakers presented a nice display of “stadium’’ riding for 2nd overall; DiStefano was 3rd.
Final AMA Supercross Series Standings:
1. Jim Weinert (Kaw), 327; 2. Pierre Karsmakers (Hon), 317; 3. Jim Ellis (C-A), 293; 4. Kent Howerton (Hus), 274; 5. Tony DiStefano (Suz), 250.
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SPIELMAN CATCHES FISH
Saddleback Park in Orange, California, recently played host to the Continental MotoSports Club’s first-ever women’s professional motocross, to which many of the nation’s top women riders clamored, suitedup and ready to race.
The event was, in every respect, a carbon copy of the professional men’s races held by C.M.C. on the Saddleback track: same course, same rules, same fees, same purse, giving the women a chance to pick up some more motocross money. The racing consisted of two 12-lap motos of approximately 20 minutes each.
While Grand National Champion Sue Fish, who earned her title in July at Indian Dunes, would have relished taking the checkers at C.M.C.’s first women’s pro event, she was uncharacteristically upset by Barbara Spielman. Sue stayed in the swim to pick up 2nd.
Because of prior racing commitments by many of the Expert class women, the Sunday pro races won’t become a regular part of Saddleback’s weekly racing calendar at this time. Next year, however, the women plan a full schedule worked around other major events.
Saddleback results: 1. Barbara Spielman; 2. Sue Fish; 3. Johanna Stenersen; 4. Terri Bender; 5. Cherry Stockton; 6. Chelle Blythe; 7. Joann Miley; 8. Diane Harmon; 9. Stacy Bell; 10. Kim Apling.
