Battle of the Ascots

• Larry Lawrence

Sander Avant (362) and Greg Comstock (480) race side by side in the E Production race at the 1984 WERA Grand National Finals. Comstock was one of the top North Central riders in his class as was Avant in WERA’s  South Central (Texas) region. I don’t have the results of the race, so I’m not sure who won in this battle of Honda FT500 Ascots, but I always liked Honda’s 500cc single, in fact I owned one and did many long tours on the bike, much to the amazement of my friends. It was also a great starter bike for road racing. I know Fritz Kling, Brian Lantz and many others cut their teeth racing these bikes and many went on to be solid pros. The bike went on sale somewhere in this time frame nationwide at $995 in one of the all-time great motorcycling bargains.

Sander Avant (362) and Greg Comstock (480) race side by side in the E Production race at the 1984 WERA Grand National Finals. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Sander Avant (362) and Greg Comstock (480) race side by side in the E Production race at the 1984 WERA Grand National Finals. (Larry Lawrence photo)

6 thoughts on “Battle of the Ascots”

  1. These things were great on the tighter tracks, where you could keep up with much larger displacement bikes. The truth was, they were pretty low on power, but what it had was so manageable, you didn’t really have to slow down much in the corners. Buzz Pritz was kind enough to let me do an Endurance race on his at Blackhawk, and I can recall the leaders of the race (Cycle Tech) sucking the paint off the FT down the straight, but they had to brake so hard for turn 1, I could motor right back by coming through the turn. Of course, they would disappear shortly after, but it made me laugh each time it happened.

    I’ve thought of buying one of these over the years, but I’ve seen nice examples on eBay for $3000 or more. It’s a fun bike…..but not $3k fun. You should have kept yours, Larry!

    Check out Greg’s ‘racing’ boots. It’s amazing what they let us ride with back then. I’m pretty sure you couldn’t get away with having lace up workboots on the track these days.

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  3. I see Sander has already posted here. I was going to mention that he’s still around in Texas and trippin’ down memory lane once in a while. Great stuff, Larry. I remember when Ascots were considered pretty good roadracers. Geez, I’m old.

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  5. I raced with Greg Comstock (RIP) for 2 seasons. Very fast and nice guy. In regards to the E-Production Novice GNF results in 1984 it was a mixed bag. As fast as Greg was, several riders came to the GNF with Canadian RG250 Gammas and no Ascot or GPZ305 could run with them. Greg was good enough to get into the RG250s but could not beat them. Next year they weren’t allowed in E-Production. In 1985 the GNF Results were:
    1 Thebaut Dutton GPZ305
    2. Greg Comstock FT500 (disqualified in tech later)
    3. Tom Burklow FT500 (moved up to 2nd due to Greg’s Disqualification)

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