Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

'. 'JAC K' : RAB • 81 .. By Dick Wri ghl P holos hy J e ll Wri ght ""0 T s HARE SCRAMBLES George Green(6x) on hi s 250 Husky, motors past a young enthusiast seems to be ju st try ing out the trail. Note to non·entrles: a racing course I s no place to putt-putt, , The luck of the Irish shined down on Gene Smith, #59 Triumph rider, as be won the four-loop, sixty-eigbt-mile rougb Mojave desert race in the fast lime of one hour lUld thirty-siX minutes. On Saint Patrick' s Day this seventeen-year-old red-beaded IrishmlLD, wearing the green Shamrocks M.e. colors, claimed his first overall win. J The banner was dropped and the large group of 250cc and Open Class rIders took off for the smoke bomb with a perfect start. To see It as Gene Smith saw It; "1 was on the left-hand trall leacl1ng my group and 1 could see John Gaitz, 1139 on a TrIumph, leading the pack Just to my left, with Steve Scott on a 360 Bultaco rIght behInd him. As we came to the smoke bomb, both tra1ls came together and I tucked In behInd Scott. " 1 stayed rIght behind him until the course made a quIck lett turn that Scott didn't make, and he center-punched a big bush . Galtz and I dueled It out until 1 was able to pass hIm clean on a tworut trall and take the lead, and Just then four r Iders jumped of! the fire r oad to the rIght and took off In front of us. 1 was able to pass all four of them Just didn' t change much the next two loops , and on the final go- around Smith varoomed Into the finis h on the Lamoreauxtuned TrIumph, with a three-minute lead. Patrick had worked his way up to a solid second, and the hard-ridi ng Amateur Steve Staats pulled In third to take first 500cc Class. Staats,Incldentally, Is now the top amateur rIder. Randy Burak, 11796, pulled In fifth and took first Novice. Russ Dlrnell (1I727x), a top Mota-Cross rider, came out to the desert and pIcked up sixth overall and first 250 Expert on his Greeves Challenger. He probablY could have done better, but he had to ride the last three loops with a broken clutch cable. Ron Fry , 116 on a 360 Husky, pulled In eIghth and took first 500 Expert. Ron reallY looked good on those whooptydoos; he Just pIcked up the fr ont wheel and cleared everything. Another trtshman Bill Reagan 1167x, took first 250cc Amateur and seventeenth overall. After the race, everyone In the pIts was talkIng about the cheating done by cutting the course and usIng a fire road Instead of the marked trail. This could very well ruin the spor t, because the young rIders see the old pros do It, and think It's OK. Although It should be noted that no course-cutter has ever won a desert race. Pr etty soon everyone starts cutting the cour s e to the fir s t chec k and that will be the end of It. Let 's hope the Jack RabbIts M.C. got a lis t of the riders Above: Jack Morgan may get his picture In Cycle News a lot, but then he wins a lot. And he always looks good In Iront of the camera. Bel ow: No.2 Jack Froelich (Bull and Earl Penny dice It out.. . 100cc vs 250cc. Trail Bike Duel who used the forbIdden fire r oad and disqualifies them as they should. Anderson, Mor gan continue trail blkes ••v The trail bikes wer e s tar ted illteen minutes after the big ones and went three loops on the same course . It was a good banner start, and Wes Ander s on Jr., 114 on a Hodaka, grabbed the lead at the s moke bomb, followed by Jack Morgan (Ill), also on a Hodaka, and Dean Golds mIth, 1139 on a Zundapp , Anderson ran Into some trouble and Morgan and Goldsm Ith passed hi m. These two battled the entire fIr s t loop and wer e s Ide by side golnl1: down the steep hill. each tryIng to Above: All crossed up In a beautiful slide, young Gene Smith shows the sly Ie he won the Jack· rabbits run with. Below, Smith seems to have started a fad for putting pompons on helmets, as this trail class rid. has one toGo " before the fir s t chec k to retake the lead; (they moved over for us as they knew that they weren't supposed to be there.) Galtz stayed r Ight behInd me until we cam e to the long, steep downhill they call Ja ck Rabbll Hill . 1 started down in low gear, then took off in second halfway down, tryIng to shak e off Galtz." Smith came Into the pits after that fir st loop with a good, long lead. Motocross star Gunner Lindstrom from Sweden was getting some practice and was r unning second, al though he was not entered. Mike PatrIck, #7 on the Norton, was s tarlI ng to move up and was r unning fourth, and Amateur Steve Staats, 1195on a 360 Bultaco, who had come through the s moke bomb with that Taco really turn ed on, had now moved up to sIxth. Big John Galtz , per haps upset about the r iders cutting the cour s e fr om the flr e road into the leading pos itions , pulled In after a couple of laps . The cour s e, in general. was a " rIder-s course ," with ro ugh, up-and- down h1lls and very few rocks . There was a good varIety of sandwashes , hills, a .couple of jeep roads, and open boondocks for pas sing. The lead positions get away fr om the other r ider; GoldsmIth flnallY led it into the pi ts by barely twenty feet. On the second loop, Goldsmith hit a couple of the whoopty- doos a little too fast and los t It - he bruised his left shoulder, but continued. Morgan took over the lead and went on to wIn It with a four-m Inute a dvantage. GoldsmIth pulled In second after having a wheelto-wheel duel with Er ic Jensen, '#7 on a Hodaka, who took third. Cleve Thomas, 1112, took four th and Chuck Purcell, #94 on a Hodaka placed illth overall and was flrst Novice in '3.fter a good, fast rIde. (Results on page 20)

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