Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125498
. - fast the next day! Anyway, it was an evening to remember with considerable bench racing going on throughout the whole meal. Sundjiy was of course, IT-Day and come morning it looked like a District 37 race in the pits with all the Coast crowd ready and waiting for practice to start way ahead of the first local riders! As usual all those laps of practice took their toll on machinery. Don Harris had a marvelous time sliding around the track until something let go, making a spectator out of him. He tried to look ferocious and blame us for suggesting ·the team for Tucson· but just couldn't manage it. He'd still had enough fun practicing to make the trip worthwhile. '" ~ Q., r-. <0 0> How The Coast Team Fared They always say that the second time back to a place isn't as good as the first time. Well, this year's trip to Tucson was even better than last year and that's going some. On saturday night, Herb Morris, one of the owners of Eastside Cycle Park and his charming wife Arlene hosted us and the ·Greeves Group· with steak dinners at Pinnacle Peak. If you've ever been in Arizona and haven't eaten at a Pinnacle Peak, you missed a treat! The steaks are so huge it looks like they just took the hide and horns off a steer and plopped it on a plate! Of course, there may have been some subversive activity going on there, like trying to weigh some of us Californians down so we couldn't go Carl Patrick was fiying in practice until a piston stuck and things got pretty frantic wi th repair work going on almost until race time but he got his faithful 'Taco back together in time and brought some gold back with it. Monte Darling had to change gearing and then found out in the uproar to get out of the shop in time he'd left his tools behind, but the crew came to the rescue and he wowwed the local contingent with an exhibition of how fast hig Hondas can go. When the events were drawn up, we had riders in just about all the five classes and all of them did well, some exceptionally so. Bill Fulton on a 160 Honda ended UP tieing Husky-mounted Jim Parker for a third in the 250cc Novice class, the event with the largest number of entries. Bill proved the point that you don't necessarily have to have the same number of cc's as the other guys to beat them. Wi sh We Had Him Here! Beautiful track surfac. IUk.s for plusurabl. rldlne .t Tucson. Above, K.lth Mllhbum (4x) wound up Y1ct...lousln 250cc _nt.Below, top "nl ....rs pose with the rewardx til. Job . .II doD.. Without KAWASAKI? look what yourre missing: The only motorcycle in the world made fly an aircraft manufacturer, , • and it shows the precision !J1Jineering etail. 4 miles on all remaining components (excluding non-warrantable items). materials and outstanding sales, merchan· dilitigaids. financial resources. The 250 expert class was really wild. Arizonan Johnny Halford aboard a Ducati can really haul around that track' Keith Mashburn and Carl Patrick with all stops pulled just couldn't quIte outdo him, much to the delight of the naturally partisan crowd. That is. until the Big Bike Sweepstakes at the end for the beautiful Arizona Championship trophies. Halford was leading just about the whole time, and, like all the local talent, was faster over the twisty sections which' they know by heart. But the Californians all seemed faster on the half-mile seetion, which at Tucson is just beautiful. It just goes and goes and goes! Anyway, Halford is going around it flat out and ri(ht On his tail is Keith 'Mashburn on his IT Greeves with a tremendous dri v~ going and just before the finish line he crawled by the Ducati to win. Needless to say, the Coast group all bunched together at the end of the straigb t were just about bysterical! The track definitely favors the smaller bikes as the Sweepstakes proved, witb ail sizes from 250 to 750 out there together and not much of a handicap given • A guy from Phoenix named Dan Perko on a Triumph WOn tbe open class. He'd' sling thai big machine down at the end of the straight and fairly blast around the turn in a big, hairy slide. QuIte spectacular to say the least! We's sure like to see him at Prado where he could use all that power. Carl Patrick on his Norton and Monte Darling on his Honda made good challenges, but it was Dan's day, aithough Monte did collect the third place trophy, in spite of one ex' citing triP off into the boonies. RidiD' 'aDd RaciD' So all in all it was worth the trip, and now we are looking forward hopefully to next year. This year we fielded more riders tban last so next year we'll get on the bandwagon again and really try to do 'em in. In closing, we wish we could get Herb and Johnny of Eastside to prepare some of Our California tracks! Whatever it is they do to the surface here, it is smashing! It's oiled and even after a full day of racing it hadn't beaten into a solid groove or become torn up badly and it hadn't dried out into dust although they didn't work on it between races and it was a beautiful warm day. Not only that, it took you back to the • good old days·, This was a real fun scrambles, everyone got to ride four times plus all the practice they could take and things are so relaxed that some guys even rode their bikes to the races, competed and rode home again. Not much like District 37, eh what? aki , , , and you're missing the hundreds of "move-up" minded cycle enthusiasts who are now ready to move up to the big ones from Kawasaki. Don't miss out any longer. Write: Mutort:yt:/c Corp. P.O. Box 2066 Gardena, California 90247 • Call: (213) 329·1152 American Kawasaki Motorcycle Corp., A Subsidiary of Kawasaki Aircraft Ltd. John H.lford and his Ducatl I.d the 250 rac.- until the dI.ck.red fl •• WIS In siFt.