Sears Point Revival
SEARS POINT REVIVAL
Even Starting Last, it’s No Contest for Kenny Roberts
Tony Swan
Someday someone's going to figure out a way to get around a road circuit faster than Kenny Roberts, but if the Sears Point Sonoma Classic, mid-point on the 1977 AMA Camel Pro Series tour, is any indication, the method will have to include a system of boat anchors and flat tires. Ordinary handicaps, such as a poor starting position don't seem to slow KR down enough to make much difference.
Thanks to a broken chain tensioner in his qualifying heat, Roberts and the allconquering Yamaha OW31 gridded up in the last row for the Sonoma Classic 750 Expert final. Even though the field was a trifle thin, Roberts nevertheless found himself looking at the backs of some 30odd helmets, including those belonging to pole-sitter Gary Nixon, Gary Scott, Gene Romero, Dale Singleton. Ron Pierce, Dave Aldana and KR’s formidable teammate Skip Aksland. But this situation lasted about as long as it took for the green flag to drop, whereupon Roberts shot to the outside, putting half the field behind him going into Turn 1. By lap two Roberts had only Aksland in front of him, and he overhauled the junior member of the Yamaha works team near the end of the fourth circuit as the two entered Turn 1 1, a 180-degree right-hand sweeper.
End of race. Aksland by that time was well away from the rest of the field, Nixon was soldiering along with a fuel leak and ignition problems that eventually forced him to retire, Scott never did get his bike cooking throughout the weekend, and the only contest left was for 3rd place, a struggle between Singleton, Romero and Aldana that eventually went to Singleton.
It was a doubly amazing performance for Roberts considering the events preceding it. First there was the injured left hand, still sore even though it was acquired over a month previous, just prior to the Loudon, New' Hampshire race. This was complicated by a case of flu which had Roberts by the sinuses through the weekend. Between sore hand and flu, Roberts elected to pass on his 250cc ride, which went to Aksland instead (a decision that was thoroughly vindicated by Aksland winning the race). Then the chain tensioner played its trick at the start of Roberts’ qualifying heat, the Yamaha rolling exactly as far as Turn 1 before eating its chain. While Nixon was busy running away from Romero in the heat race, Kel Carruthers and the rest of the Yamaha crew were back in the pits scavenging a spare tensioner and chain off Roberts backup bike.
As history shows, the substitute held up through KR’s great holeshot and 30 laps of racing, giving Roberts the race (worth $4960 in prize and contingency money) and the AMA Camel Pro Series points lead at mid-season (worth $8000 in bonus money.)
After an astonishingly long struggle with a recalcitrant champagne cork—KR and champagne corks are hardly strangers to one another—Roberts allowed as how he was as surprised as anyone about his performance.
“When I went to the starting line I said, ‘here’s one holeshot you’ve gotta get.’ They were kinda bottled up in front of me so I went to the outside and just jetted around ’em.
“I never expected that good a start. I figured I’d have to push it the whole race just get into the top three.”
Someone asked Roberts why he was able to reel Aksland in so easily if Roberts had really taught his fellow Californian everything in the KR bag of tricks. Grinning sheepishly, Roberts said he “must have left out a couple things.”
Aksland, for his part, wasn’t exactly going slow. Pressured into service Saturday morning about three hours before qualifying, he led the 250cc race from flag to flag, trailed home by 17-year-old Randy Mamola and Dave Emde.
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Mamola pressed Aksland closely through the opening laps, once a firstcircuit miscue had dropped Nixon to 6th, and it looked for a time as if the Santa Clara Wunderkind might be saving his best shot for the late stages. However, Nixon torpedoed the impending drama by storming back to reclaim 2nd place and then falling almost under Mamola’s wheels. The near-tangle occurred in Turn 10, a sweeping right-hander that gives onto the back straight, and it shook Mamola off the scent.
“After Nixon passed me,” said Mamola, “I thought I’d just try following him for a while to see what happened. He took a really weird line in 10 and went wide. When he threw it down for the turn it just started sliding, right in front of me. I sat up and downshifted and all of a sudden I realized I was out in the grass.
“When I got it back together 1 was set up wrong for Turn 11 and Skip was gone, so I just sort of cooled it after that.”
Emde, who distinguished himself the next day by riding a 350cc bike very capably in the 750 race, came home 3rd after harrying Steve Eklund most of the way. Emde’s strategy with the 350 vs the 750s had to do with the high fatigue factor involved in wrestling a 750 through 30 laps on the demanding Sears layout. His bet was that he could finish 10th, and he came close to being right, winding up 13th.
Aside from their brief moments of drama, the 250 and 750 Expert events were essentially parades. But the Superbike race was something else as local Paul Ritter chased—and ultimately caught—journalist/racer Cook Neilson in a super Ducati shootout.
Neilson trailed Steven McLaughlin, who was manhandling the powerful Yoshimura Kawasaki, into Turn 1, but during the course of the first lap slid past and began to move away from the rest of the pack. The Kawasaki proved to be a real handful on the 2.53-mile uphill-downhill Sears layout, but McLaughlin nevertheless kept Ritter at bay for several more laps, giving Neilson a chance to build a threesecond lead.
When Ritter finally got into the clear, he wasn’t able to make up much ground at first. But as the race drew into its closing laps he began reeling Neilson in, finally powering past in Turn 11 on the 15th circuit (of a 16-lap race).
Although Neilson’s Ducati has trick everything inside its engine casings, Ritter reckoned that on the tight Sears Point course his much-more-stock 900cc engine gave him a substantial advantage in> torque. Five years’ racing experience on the circuit didn’t hurt, either.
After his duel with the two Dukes, McLaughlin fell steadily back and finally retired with ignition problems. Ron Pierce’s BMW eventually filled the 3rd spot, well behind the two leaders.
There was a big field and spirited action in the novice category, eventually dominated by Coloradan Bruce Sass, and the pro sidecar event wound up as a 10-lap dogfight between perennial rivals Larry Coleman/Wendell Andrews (Suzuki) and Wayne Lougee/Randy House (Kawasaki). Coleman/Andrews, defending U.S. champs, their right-hand hack perhaps better suited to Sears Point, came out on top.
The race was the first AMA Grand National event at Sears Point since 1969. To put that in historical perspective, consider this: The 1969 event was attended by one Kenneth Roberts, witnessing his firstever road race.
“At the time, I figured guys had to be crazy to do this,” said Roberts. “But I’ve been waiting for this one ever since.”
Roberts, who generally favors highspeed courses, was with most of the field in enjoying the challenge of the slower (KR’s average in the main event was just over 82 mph) Sears Point layout.
“It’s not fast,” he said, “but it’s fun anyway because of the uphills and downhills. It’s really a working course, too. Your arms get a little tense sometimes, and there’s not really any place long enough to rest a little bit.”
Ritter, who probably had more experience at Sears than any other rider present, reckons the hills and hairpins amount to 22 shifts per lap on his Ducati. Add bumps and this track’s natural tendency to become a trifle slick when the heat turns up in the afternoon and you have enormous potential for spills. However, there weren’t many of these, and only one—Nixon’s— affected the outcome of a fight for 1st place.
Beyond the disappointment of two DNFs, Nixon suffered little more than a fresh set of scuffs on his well-traveled leathers. No major injuries were reported during the weekend.
Although Sears Point didn't have hard attendance figures as we went to press, the crowd looked to be a good one, estimates running in the 12,000 vicinity. Sears has always been a super place to watch road racing. Combine this natural feature with an interesting, professionally-run show such as the Sonoma Classic and it seems likely this will be an event few road racers will skip in future seasons.
But if Kenny Roberts is going to be there, they’d better bring lagbolts and tiedowns; fastening KR to the pavement might just make it a race. l§
RESULTS SONOMA CLASSIC SEARS POINT INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY AMA CAMEL PRO SERIES
