Same Old Loudon But Better
SAME OLD LOUDON BUT BETTER
One-Percenters Vanish; Roberts Breaks Jinx
John Waaser
Loudon, second biggest date on the AMA's Camel Pro Series calendar, is first in the hearts of many road racing fans. It's shorter than Daytona, the action is visible all around the course, and there's usually more action to see.
The action tradition was more than amply upheld this year. Try these events on for size: Kenny Roberts riding with an injured hand, urging his ailing machine across the finish line to break a personal Loudon jinx and spoil Gary Nixon’s bid for an unprecedented third straight Loudon double: Mike Baldwin entering three races and falling off in each of them, once within 50 feet of the finish line: the first ever AMA-licensed female pro rider: and another rider who arrived on the starting grid in a wheel chair.
Loudon has always been long on atmosphere as well as action, but one of the more odoriferous elements of the atmosphere was conspicuous by its absence this year: To the regret of almost no one, the outlaws failed to show up in anything like the sociopathic hordes of recent seasons. True, the small legion of state troopers on
hand found excuses to make some 200 arrests, but in general, proceedings were much more subdued than they have been. The Hell’s Angels’ private campground was empty all weekend, the Beanstalk General Store was open for the weekend for the first time in several years, and the welcome mat was out for bikers.
Saturday, devoted to practice, heat races and the 250cc final, was Gary Nixon’s day as the veteran from Maryland put on a show few are likely to forget.
Nixon was sharing super wrench Erv Kanemoto with promising young Randy Mamola for the weekend—and possibly beyond—which resulted in Mamola winding up with a slightly crisper engine. Nixon, however, got the trick Kanemotodesigned. C&J-built frame which, coupled with his natural Loudon savvy, allowed him to overtake Mamola in the closing stages of their 250 heat.
The final looked to be a repeat of the heat as Mamola got another good start, but the young California rider made an unscheduled stop among some hay bales at the entrance to the hairpin during the third lap and retired a short time later. This left Nixon in a battle with Baldwin that lasted until lap 11. when Baldwin had his first tumble of the weekend in Turn 2.
The post-race theory was that both Baldwin and Mamola had been thrown down by their experimental Dunlop front tires, which had a very sudden edge to them. Nixon, who also rides Dunlops, was using a slick on the front rather than the new model.
“We were lucky,” he said later. “It wouldn’t fit our rim.”
With Baldwin and Mamola gone, and Nixon well clear of Harley rider Jay Springsteen, there seemed to be a little breathing space. But not for long. A terrific dice between Canadian Jim Allen and Rich Schlachter carried past Springer and began to reel in Nixon himself. While this storm was brewing up behind him. Nixon had his clutch go away and began having overheating problems. Suddenly he found himself sandwiched between the other two. and in need of a little more haste. This he found somewhere, and repassed Allen a few laps from the end. broken clutch cable and all.
Allen held Schlachter off for 2nd, and pavement racing newcomer Springer, who> developed a fine set of right-hand blisters as well as a conservative but effective tucked-in road-racing style, was a solid 4th.
Sunday morning dawned clear and even though there were predictions of more showers, the sunshine seemed to provoke a general optimism; everyone was talking about winning. Erv Kanemoto was feeling much more confident about Nixon’s 750cc machine than the shaky 250; Gary Scott w'as smiling a lot; Dale Singleton, absent from victory circles since winning a Superbike Production event several years ago on a Triumph Trident, was talking about winning also. Schlachter, who’d shown well on the Boston Cycles Yamaha, w'as a favorite with locals, and Baldwin was busy preening the ex-Mike Kidd OW31 replibike with a faraway look in his eyes.
Roberts looked like a world beater in the first few laps of the opening 750cc heat race, building a big lead immediately, with teammate Skip Aksland trailing some way behind. Then Roberts unaccountably slowed and w^as overhauled first by Aksland. then by Nixon.
That set the stage for the sort of thing w'hich only Nixon can do. On the last lap he flew over the back hill and simply ignored the brakes on the way down. Aksland. meanwhile, was braking hard for the right-hand turn at the bottom and Nixon seemed to fairly swoop past. The crowd gasped in disbelief, and Nixon pulled lots of little wheelies all the way to the finish line.
While all this was going on. Baldwin got himself involved with the scenery again, crashing heavily into the wall w'hile he was running in 4th place. He was able to get his bike organized for the main event, but retired in the early stages when the rear brake linkage, damaged in the tumble, went away completely.
The second heat was a Burritto Benefit as Gene Romero led all the way. wfith Gary Scott and Singleton dicing for runner-up honors. During this heat Phil McDonald fell off. and wasn't so lucky as the resilient Baldwfin. suffering a broken arm in the tumble.
Meanwhile, it became generally knowm in the pit area that Roberts’ problem was fuel spillage that was getting onto the rider’s hands. This seemed mysterious for a time, until someone in the Kel Carruthers crew' discovered that the Yamaha’s carburetor mountings weren’t quite trued.
Back on the track they were getting ready for the production race, w here Baldwin, despite his two falls, was regarded as the favorite on his Moto Guzzi. The Moto Guzzi’s power delivery and handling are very much suited to this course, and Baldwin puts his knowledge of the course to good use. Reg Pridmore. who formerly favored BMWs, is riding a Kawasaki this year. He barely lost the heat to Baldwfin. and took an early lead in the final. But Baldwfin and then Ron Pierce got by. and the tw'o settled down to a serious battle for the lead. Pierce found a way past briefly, but Baldwfin got it back, and held on to it until the last lap. Then Pierce eased the BMW to the front again. Baldwfin w^ent for the faster-but-longer outside line through the last turn, w hich they negotiated side by side. Pierce already seemed to have the edge in the drag to the flag when Baldwin suddenly got in among the hay bales lining the concrete wall. The tumble occurred only 50 feet from the finish, and Baldwin was up and pushing the bike in a flash to salvage what he could. He apparently got across the line in 3rd place, and Kurt Liebmann cheerfully yielded the position in victory lane. Then came a reported onelap penalty for receiving assistance in getting the bike across the line and Baldwin was dropped to 6th in the final results.
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Pridmore complained of lack of brakes, while Baldwin again blamed his woes on the tires (Michelin this time), saying the front tire balled when it got hot so the front end kept grabbing and hopping at every turn.
As the skies began to threaten, the organizers decided to run the 750cc bikes before the novice event. Roberts established a clear early lead. Skip Aksland sneaked by Nixon for 2nd. Romero was running a steady 4th. Schlachter 5th and Singleton 6th. Gary Scott dropped out on the fourth lap when his countershaft nut backed off after the safety wire broke.
After a while, Nixon retook Aksland for 2nd. Then Romero came up to challenge, and all three of them began a dice for 2nd that was strongly reminiscent of Saturday’s 250cc event. Right about then Roberts seemed to slow, as his bike changed its tune. Would the jinx hit again? Romero crashed out unhurt, blaming it on a toostiff monoshock unit, and Pierce, recovering from a slow start, entered the picture, passing Singleton, then Schlachter. Then Schlachter closed in on Ron again, whereupon Pierce’s bike quit altogether.
Nixon and Aksland were going at it hot and heavy, literally arm wrestling their Yamahas up from near-spills lap after lap. Their battle carried them within sight of Roberts with two laps to go. which seemed to light a fire under Nixon. He broke clear of Aksland, and made a bid for Roberts.
Lapped riders became a definite part of the picture, seeming to hurt Roberts more than Nixon until KR finally used one fora shield on the last lap. Aksland was also hampered by a lapped rider on the final circuit, but all three riders came through the last turn virtually together. Two more laps and any of the three could have won it. Great stuff.
Once Roberts had the Yamaha parked in the winner’s circle it was easy to see why he’d slowed. A large patch, welded on to the number four pipe at Daytona, had blown out. Roberts felt it must not have gone out all at once, because the bike ran inconsistently. Powerband characteristics changed every few laps or so. for more than half the race. Roberts was all but deaf from the noise and thought a header pipe had broken. He spent the last half of the race waiting for the exhaust pipe to cross under the bike and cause a spill.
The novice race was delayed briefly by more rain, but the sun returned quicklv, and the field was flagged off. Mark Alan Jones, from Kansas, w'on it. as Carter Alsop. the Southern belle, got a bad start, passed about five riders, then dropped out as her chain slithered off. She made AMA history anyway by being the first woman to compete in an AMA professional road race.
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Harley-Davidson team member Ted Boody. leading the National Championship point standings coming into the weekend, has virtually no road-racing experience. so he ran at Loudon as a novice. He dropped from 4th to 9th one lap at the bottom of the hill, when he “went in like Nixon, but couldn’t come out like him.” He wasn’t used to the pressure on his arms, and got passed a couple of times in the closing stages (once by Johnny Bettencourt who was getting around the pits in a wheelchair, thanks to a recent motocross injury). Boody wound up 10th. exhibiting a strong reaction to any comment that he was cherry picking by riding a novice event.
True to promise, they ran the short track event off after the road race, with a total of 18 entries, virtually guaranteeing some money to everybody who rode. Persistent Loudon short-track winner Mike (Racin') Krasun, an AMA novice, walked away with the gold on the new Ossa short tracker, a nifty-looking made-for-the-job bike if ever there was one.
It was a helluva weekend, all 48 hours of it. And while there may well be another Loudon like this one, there will never be another race like Loudon. ES
RESULTS LACONIA CLASSIC
