A Doodle Dandy Of A Dogfight

On the 19th lap Spencer passed Roberts; on the 21st Roberts took back the lead. The crowd roared at each pass and every feint. On one of the slow, banked turns Spencer stuffed it inside Roberts, but he had tried too hard and found himself sideways. He was just able to straighten out, and when Roberts peeked over his shoulder to see if Spencer was still upright, Spencer waved to him, as if to say, "You're making me scare myself, you know that?" From the roof of Spencer's motor home in the paddock, a friend said, "I's a dawg faght." And indeed, the way the two bikes peeled off for the next turn, they did look like banking fighter jets.

On the 33rd of 36 laps Spencer repassed, and for the final three he held Roberts off. On the last lap Roberts got caught through one turn behind a rider they were lapping, and Spencer won the race by a few bike lengths.

He was to depart that night for the next race, in Austria, along with Sarie. Roberts saw them off with a hoot and a wisecrack and then went to a restaurant fit for a peasant and got rowdy and made everyone in the place laugh for the rest of the evening.