Left: TIle CIty., ED _ _
Is laid CMIt like L.A., 0111)' nidi
smaller. Course was
top
cent. of 11I1 s plcbw.. A.d
here lIIe brolllers MorglD ba~
tie ......1 to wheel In l00cc
class for their o....two win.
_.r
EIISEIIADA G.P. SCRAMBLES celt.
aaent. The starts were wUd and wooUy
as lbe kllOb~-tired machines skidded
and scooted to where lbe track turned
lert onto the dirt. From there it mopped
lert again down a bill onto a straight,
two more lefts then ... the big hill,
Do wn on the olber side with a right at
the bottom. lert onto the straight which
ran along a fence ror a long city block.
lert two more times through deep sort
dirt, anolber straight. lben up an inclinedlo-be-treacberous orr-camber hiD where
lbe dirt really Dew as the riders gunned
... it and up to lbe top of the plateau. A
rew more twists and turns, down into a
narrow little sand-wash. up the bank and
out onto the street agaio!
Ride of the Day
Tbe 250 classes were really something to see on their starts when the
riders funnelled into the steep downhill.
jostling for a position. To make things
all the more interes tin g, the sand would
occasionally tweak the front end a mite
too hard for the rider and down he'd go
in the middle of, the troops. This happened in the start of the 250 Expert
class. and led to "The Ride of the Day"
by Preston PetliY.
A man went down right in the middle
of the gaggle of 3D-plus riders, and
Petty, right behind him, tangled up in
the machine and killed his engine. By
the time he got free. coasted to the bottom aod restarted his Greeves, the pack
was away in the distance with the leaders already wailing up th e big hill. A way
went Petty in full cry after them, and
lap after laP passed rider after rider. Up
front, the leader was Norman Nils on a
C-Z, with Montesa-mounted Swede savage and Ivan aden on a Greeves hard
after him. On the sixth lap, Preston ap-
peared on the scene and nailed them
one by one, finally passing Nils to take
the lead.
The rules were that if you signed up
and paid your entry for two classes, you
could ride them both. More than several
riders were out on the track in various
events.LaITY Verdoorm on a Bultaco and
Tom Clarke on a Husqvarna mttled
away in the 250 Novice foray and also
in the 350 Novice. Larry won the 25U
class and took third in the 350. while
Tom reversed things with a win in the
350 and a third in the 250! Clarke was
the hard-luck man on Sunday though
when he took a real hard fall at the heginning of the Sweepstakes. He dropped
it right in the middle of the pack as they
turned off the asphalt and was clobbered
by the rider hehind him who had no other
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o)'OR_C'/Vv
Glendale, Calif,
So. of Kern County
Leavitt Power Tool Co., Inc,
2265 Sunrise Blvd.
Rancho Cordova, Calif,
(Phone (916) 635-6910)
No. of Kem County
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place to go. We understand they tOOl<
Tom off to the hospital with suspected
broken ribs, and we wish he could have
heard the cheers he got for his performance.
Al Holley took the 3~O AmateurExpert event, with two similarly nUlllbered machines really puttinc: on a show
behind for second and third. Ivan Oden,
bearing black number 66 (scrambles) on
his Greeves and Red Thomas ..ith a
red (desert) 66 on his Jawa ding-donged
their way around with the crowd screaming • Andelay" and ·Ole" at them in
delight. One delightful thing about raing in Mexico. lbe sPectators don't just
watch. lbey really participate!
Vi va Las Senoritas!
The closing race of the day was t4e
Powder Puff, another innovation that bald
the local residen ts com letejy unglued
when they realized on the firStIap lnat
those weren't men on the bikes. but
pretty girls! The crashes were frequent,
especially on the off-cambered hill. but
they all finished their three laps with
Carol Gooding on a Hodaka taking the
win. She was the only girl 'who didn't
take a tumble!
Bud Ekins vs. Van Leeuwen
As Sunday came around. some of the
famous names in racing were on the
scene.
Bud Ekins had to do some wrenchhending on Steve McQueen's beautiful
Triumph-Metisse after a hard-riding practice session lost him a bolt on the
swinging-arm, but a piece that fitted
was found and off went Bud to the wars
in the 650 Amateur-Expert class to win
hands-down over an impressive line-up
of talent. In secooo, who was it but
Skip Van Leeuwen down from his TT
riding the night hefore and putting some
fun back in his life by finding a scra~
bles he's allowed to ride! Third place
went to Mike Van Acker aboard a Triumph. (Skip disqualified himself for
cutting the course, but the club gave
him his trophy anyway, for good sportsmanship.)
The 500 Amateur-Expert class had
aoother ooe or those batUes wilb lbe
local population wildly cbeering lbem
on. Charlie Brown of lbe Dirt Diuers
who had taken a wrong tum in the recent Jack Pine wbeo be had Ibe lead,
didn't take any wrong turns SUnday, and
was Oat doing in Ibe rest of the class
on hi Tri~h. Bebind were Frank
Harlan 00 a Matcbless and Ken Watkios
(Triumph) who were making a real race
out of it. Frank held a slight advantage
lap after lap with Watkins going every
which-way to find a place to get by.
Finally, up 00 the plateau by the pits,
Harlan went a little wide and Watkios
saw his cbance and gunned by in a
sbower of sand. Charlie Brown must
have received some "you've got it made"
signs from his buddies because he appeared to be slowing down, while Walkins started rolling like a SDowbaU
downhUl. The crowd was screaming at
both riders, but ingpite of pulling out
all stops and really cracking it on, Watkins couldn't come within real)y serious
challengin g distance, and Charlie woo.
Shades-of Rusty Nails!
All day long the big bores had good
racing. from the Sidehacks who started
the proceedings to the winners of botb
day's events who rode the Sweepstakes
at the end. After a black flag when Tom
Clarke went down. Mike Van Acker
again shot into the lead and really built
it up. While a lot of the guys were using
full desert traction, Mike had a K-70 on
the rear and a trails on the front of his
TT Special, and did he ever haul! Bud
Ekins who was a real favorite to win.
hadn't had much time to check things
over as his was the race prior to tile
Sweep. After pulling a nail from the
(CoatiDued on page 17)
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