Laguna Seca 1973 National
Yvon did indeed lead almost the entire race, and did
fall in the corkscrew, from oil on the rear tire. Right hand crankshaft seal
failed on pressure, pressurized the transmission case, pushed trans oil out the
breather hose, right into the catch bottle, right above the rear tire. The
pressurized oil filled up 400 cc's of trans oil into a 250cc catch bottle, then
all over the rear tire. Yvon said he thought it was sliding, and hit the gas
real hard on the last lap to see if it was, it was, and, with a sizeable lead,
the tire indeed, did slip, Yvon did the frog leap, and that was that.
D. Randy Riggs and I then went up to the place he was waiting after the race,
and walked him back to the pits. On the way, Yvon looked at me, then at Riggs,
then back at me, and then said, "One day, I buy this racetrack...then....I take
the corkscrew out of it!". The corkscrew really didn't like Yvon much.
The race circuit was designed by a group, SCRAMP,
Soprts Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula, and their now deceased
(thank the stars), Lee Mozelle.
Mozelle was the3 person that had the ultimate say so at Laguna for over 30 years
of doing NOTHING to make it safer. The attitude of the SCRAMP crowd was "It
shouldn't be a problem, our cars don't have any problems in that turn", or
"there".
Laguna is a fun track if you have a slower bike than a MotoGP championship one.
A MotoGP bike there is really a handful and not very fun to ride.