Shobert Seeks ‘Cycle Slam’ in Ascot Race

Honda factory team rider Don (Bubba) Shobert can clinch a championship and complete a “cycle slam” next Saturday night with a victory in the 27th annual half-mile national event at Ascot Park, the next to last event on the American Motorcyclist Assn. Camel Pro series.

Shobert, 23, of Lubbock, Tex., has produced five victories in 29 events and currently leads Ted Boody of Sapulpa, Okla., in the season series, 236 points to 200.

However, Shobert appears to be much more dominant on mile tracks (four of his five wins this year have come on the miles) than on half-mile ovals such as Ascot Park. He has yet to win on a half-mile event.

Should he capture the 25-lap feature race at Ascot on his 750cc machine, he will become only the third rider in the 31-year history of AMA national racing to win on all five types of racing surfaces--short track (quarter mile), half mile, mile, TT (tourist trophy) steeplechase and road race. The only two riders to do that were Dick (Bugsy) Mann, a two-time national champion (1963 and 1971) and two-time world and AMA champion Kenny Roberts. Roberts, in fact, accomplished the feat all in the same season, 1975.

Shobert’s only victory that didn’t come in a mile race, was at Ascot where he won the TT steeplechase national on March 30.

Boody, who rides a privately-owned Honda, took the spring half-mile national at Ascot, holding off a last-lap charge by Wes Chandler of Salinas. Chandler is currently third in the point standings.

Shobert’s mile wins this year have come at Sacramento, San Jose, Springfield and at DuQuoin, Ill. The DuQuoin win on July 27 made him the most prolific mile winner with 14 lifetime victories. Naturally, he is the leader of a special series on nine mile races that will pay the winner $50,000.

Last year, Shobert, who is in his sixth grand national season, missed the championship by one point when Boody beat him by three-feet in the finale at Springfield, Ill., thus enabling Shobert’s teammate, Ricky Graham of Seaside, Calif., to take the title, 285 points to 284.

Two other threats in next Saturday’s event are a pair of four-time Ascot national winners--Jay Springsteen of Lapeer, Mich., and Randy Goss of Hartland, Mich.

Springsteen, or Springer as he is know to his fans and friends, recently added to his lead in all-time national wins by taking the Sept. 8 mile event at Syracuse, N.Y. It was the 40th national victory for the three-time champion (1976-78) who has been plagued the past few years with health problems. His Ascot wins came in 1976, 78, 79 and 1983.