Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.- ; III • ~ By the second gas stop, a few other riders bit the dust (er, mud) and threw in the towel. The ' following mud-ridden Italian Creek section and fmally Block and Tackle t ra il did their best to delete riders. The fmal tally gathered by an FM radio n etwork n etted 29 riders through the eighth and fmal check. First overall honors went to 400 Penton rider Jim Glenn . (His father fin ished, but made it with a few more points.) Steamboat promoter, John Worcester (Yam) , ca pped the Open class , and Gary Palmgren powered his 250 Montesa to first in the 250 class and second overall. Fort Carson 's Charlie Crouso showed well by slipping his Can -Am to first in the 175 cl ass and fourth overall. No 125s finished the run, although Lynn Wise (Yam) and Dick So uthwell (Hod) did do Pearl Pass, but checked out at the second gas st op. • t so t- m ..... ~ N I-< Il) ,.t:2 e Il) > 0 z ... Fall GP. goes international By Tu lia Vu lgaris HENDERSON , TEX., OCT. 9 Think of the 11 tum, two mile co urse as an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Unseen forces and hazards build tension. Last minute battles - Amazing new Protectant and Preservative for every bike part, Including windshields. ··...far superior to anything we 've ever used before. We detail a bike in less than V3 the time it took before," Harley Davidson West Morino delRey, California RePS AND DEALER lNGUIiJES INVITED Gontoct G. L COll R II S SALES CORPORATION 5123 MElVIM A VENI:J£ T ARZANA, CA 91356 Phone (213) 881-8544 Time to motor 500cc & 600cc; 230 lbs. , f ro m $2350 You won-t beli..8 th e power&: acceleration ! F o r m ore Infor m ati on ca ll :: 815 / 385-4 66 1 CCM IMPORTS AMERICA INC. 4452•• I ~,I Doll Rd. McH•• ry, IUl••is 60050 5900 Mar ita Long Beach, CA 90815 are fought among p rotagonists a t th e edge of disaster . Suspense be comes nearly unbearable as sp ecta to rs anxiously await the triumph of a victor. Sometimes the track intervenes on behalf of one of the contestants; the lure of the place is th at it presents great difficulty to all. Sometimes only the track wins. When all is said and done the Ra ceway remains as implacable as Mt. Rushmore in th e closing scenes of " Nor t h by Northwest." Ultimately it is not Alfred Hitchcock. If one is to win at all it is hard work, in credi ble concentration and fortu ne, good or ill that direct the drama. The Fal l Grand Prix was billed by the Cen tral Road Racing Club as a retu rn match between Gene Homot an d Feddie Spencer, both ' fro m Shreveport , Louisiana, both mounted on red RD-400s an d both superlative co mpet it o rs. But the Master of Suspense himself wo uld hav e ap proved of th e surprise ending that replaced wh at everyone expected. As is often th e case ', the su rprise arose from outside o f the original e quation. ' In the case of the October 10th road ra ce it was embodied in th e pers onage of Jimmy Morales , Mexican National Gran d Prix Ch ampion an d the only Mexican competitor in the Formula 750 series. Morales wa s north of th e border with his an glo tuners Allen Jackson and Larry Beall. In the o riginal script, 4 10 showroom stock was obviously destined to be the piece de resistan ce as the identical Yamahas of Spencer and Homot lined up to start next to the RD-350s o f Jeff Davis and Mike Ward . Within seconds after the flash of starter Ru sty Johnson 's green flag the S&H con test was pulling away from t he rest of the pack. For five laps of the seven lap race it was a repeat of previous di ces . The fates would not have it so. On the fifth lap Hornor 's front end washed out on the Red Bam Turri (No. 11) and he crash ed on the shoulder and into t h e grass. By this time the two had raced far enough ahead to allow Homot to remount and chase after his 14 year old rival, still in second place . Ulti ma tely it w asn't th e broken han dlebar but the lack of brake fluid in h is fro nt master cylin der that forced Homot into the pits a t the end of the sixth go-r o und. About one mile behind Spencer, Davis and Ward fought tooth and nail for second place with Ward taking it by a hair. The exhu be ra nt Davis rode into the pits, threw his helmet on th e ground and exclaimed, " God damn that's fun, let's do it again! " Meanwhile in 750 Prod. Jon Minonno turned in a victory \ - This man's name is J . Saranoff. Don't be as big a fool as he . with his ever faithful Big D 750 Bonneville. Not quite so faithful in the 750 Cafe rac e the Bonney locked up its powerplant, th e victim of eit h er a broken p rimary cha in or a broken cran ksh aft . The Can-Ams of David Cheek and Campise led the Honda twin of Team Deviate's Vernon Davis home in th e 250 Cafe in th at order. In 410 Cafe Spencer wo n decisively o n his Big D Ya maha RD-400 Cafe bike over Hornot who took second on his produce RD. His retu rn to comp eti tion was facilita ted by loan of a master cy lin der and fluid fr om Spencer. There was no rea l battle as the m odified RD was quite a bit more rapid than the virgin model. 20 0 G.P . sa w David Chee k lead followed by Bubb Byars rapid 200 Su zuki and the m otocross bikes of brothers Earl and Gerald Sm ith. Dane Stewart forced h is way to first in 250 G.P. fo r his first win over Spencer ever ! Af ter Hornor 's cras h anticipat ion and atten tio n had be come focused on the Open G.P . fin al. On the st art ing line the riders were pumped to say the lea st . The heat h ad been a disap pointment as Morales ran aw ay from the rest of the p ack. "Hogman " Step henson 's Honda Ro ad Burner had spi t out its cha in on the line leavin g him to push back to the pits. Between the heat and main he had led Minonno a merry chase to st ea l away Open Cafe honors. M IA Am ateur Daytona winner, David Rob inson's B&B Honda 55 0, cu m 750, circul ated rapidly wedged between the two until the last lap when it began to loo k iike a cross between a destroyer lay ing a smo ke screen and a one man mosquito con tro l effort. Ro bi nson felt the W/E .R.A . p o ints slip thro ug h his fin ge rs as he ground to a halt wi th a holed piston on lap six. Ro binson 's tu ner , Bill King h ad been upset all day by a lack o f mid ran ge p ower and a Yoshimura gear box not suited to t he tight course. Filling out the Open G.P . startin g line was Gary Parker on th e 550 Su zuki he had pil oted to a win in 750 Cafe wh ich was disallowed when he was protested for lac k of lightin g equipment. Minonno made four. T he green flag made evident a horsepower advan tag e for Mor ales and to a lesser extent, Stephenson 'a s theyl assumed the p ositions they would hold for the rest of the race . The Mexican TZ was gea red so low that it was feas ible to use only third , fourth and fifth gear. The Honda used all of its gears to no ava il. Even the her cu lean effort of th e Farmers Bran ch , Texas fire man co u ldn't co mpensate for the horsepower discrepancy. T hat is n o t to say that Morales ran a wa y an d hid . Hogman kept Morales u n der pressure the whole time and was w ithin st ri king dist an ce for the entire trip should the Mexican m ake a mista ke . By the sixth lap the bla ck four was within a few feet of the TZ Yamaha but the 19 ye ar old Morales never made the mistake the Texas rider needed. The con test and the day ended with a standing ovation for the exot ic foreigner and the hometown -hero . No one had ever seen Stepenson circ u late Oak Hill that fast - not even Stephenson. Now if T o m my Byar s h ad bro ught his T Z-750 , what a battle that would have been ! • Results in Result s Se ction. Rice 125 MX State Champion By Action OZ LEADVILLE , COLO. , OCT . 10 By vote o f the competitors, Leadville MX Park, the colise um of Colorado m otocross trac ks, was chosen to host the ' 125cc State Cha mp ion sh ip event, with the · Open Expert class ridin g in support. At over 11,000 fee t elevation , you loo k West to the Ro ckies' highest peak, Mt . Elbert at 14 ,000 plus. T he 125 A class came off t he line with J ay Rice (Suz) ge tt ing the holeshot, Jack To dd (Suz) was r ight on his tail for secon d . Alb er t Firest ine (Yam) wick-wristed his wa y past Todd to take

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