Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

.. f'- "" '" "" '" Q..~ 00 se '" - , - =-:; ..., tI:l :: t.:I ~ t.:I ...:l L> :>.. L> Matchl ess MeUsse mounted Paul Hunt snatched top honors In 500cc Expert class! Nice to see Pau l rldlne aealn! Sunday 's competition proved to be just as great as Saturday's. Paul Hunt and his trusty Matchiess managed to sneak ahead of Montesa-mounted Nelson for the 500cc class win with Ronnie taking a grea t second. Nelson won the first moto, then managed to drop his chain twice in the second moto and finally drop out. The third moto was all Nelson an d the movln ' Montesa 360cc Ca pra. Roger McPeeters copped fi r st Open Novice aboard his Triumph, M. Schaffer brought in his big " T" for s ec ond place brass. Babe Jay, a Btshop Pa ck Station owner an d grandfather, completely dominated the Open Amateur class aboard a Triumph. Babe hasn't r idden in six years . The la st ev ent on the program was the Sweeps takes race on Sunday , Jun e 9, 1968. Only two r iders .out of the two days of com pe tition managed to make It to the Sweeps tak es an d they were 250cc Amateur winner Bob Myer s , aboard a hot Bulta.co, and 100cc class winne r Bill Pe ttigrew r idi ng a Hodaka. The best lap times were recorded from the pr evious day 's racing fr om the two riders an d a Rleht Eo Moe Bell (Hod. #250) leads Steen Hodaka mounted Bi ll PetUgrew and Hodaka rider Keyln HIli (#615) throueh sandy midcourse turns. Pettlerew was eyentual winner with Bell In third and Hill fourth! Lower rlcht: Bultaco enthusiasts Bob Clark and Bob Myers collect some well earned moto-cross brass.. Bottom: These younc'ns collected some brass of their own f or collectlne lareest amount of trash after races! Great club i dea! They'd Like To Be Members Good Scrambles Solution Remember the discussion about belonging to clubs, etc? We've reported on suggestions coming out of the referees' meeting and asked if anyone had any other ideas. Dave Sprayberry's dad (Mr. Sprayberry sir, for the lite of us we can't remember" your first name as we write this, and our apologies!) was down from Bakersfield and took the time to track us down and let us know they 've solved things up there in their District. They allow club· members who are tn there swinging for low number plates to ride their own sponsored races except for the two members who are the referee and the starter. Very important, though, is the rule tbat it you are riding your own event you cannot start on the pole so no one can say you have an untatr advantage even it you do get on the line first! trophy, : Sounds to us like an idea well worth discus s ing at the next scrambles ret's meeting. We scrambled around again Sunday and made the scene at Perris. It's unfortunate that when Perris Valley M.C., throws a race they and I always end up with some sort of contlict. We report races as we see 'em and never intentionally try to tear anyone down. This is a sportafter all but It Is still the duty of the press to report on what happends, good or bad. So, our apologies riders, we got static early on Sunday morning and after the day started badly right oft with 50'S, l00's and 250' s all practicing together it seemed the only thing to do was forget the whole thing so as to avoid some of the contlict (the writing was on the wall) and the charge that we pick on them all the time. We spent the day gathering ma ter ial for several columns by talking to people whose opinions we value in the sport. We picked the brains of J.R. , Jim Hunter, Don Alfred, etc., and came home feeling all wasn't lost. handicap was drawn up from this. Since Bob's Bultaco had a thirty second faster lap tim e around the 1.7 mile course than that of Bill's time, a s ixty- s econdhan dicap was arranged for the two la ps of the race. With it done this way the two riders s hould come up to the finish li ne a t the same time. Bill and his Steen Hodaka managed to sneak by with a fif teen second lead to copp the 3 ft. Sweepstakes Like we said we talked to quite a fe w different riders Sunday and our Number One John Rice admitted that sure, he ' d still like to belong to the California Gophers, but when he was really in contention for that number one plate along with Ji m Hunter, Jim had quite the club an d John sure wasn't going to allow J Im to ride maybe three events and gain points while John was oui holding a flag or making up heat sheets! By the same token, Hunter told us a long time ago that he had quit because of the same problem. The whole argument in a nutshell! Two good men lost to a club because of rules. We spent Sunday discussing all kinds of problems with scrambles and hit Don Alfred for some comments on current affairs because Don has been riding scrambles probably more consistently than anyone still riding every week. He fee ls one proble m is that too much fun has gone out of It. Too many riders are " out for blood" forgeWng this is still a s por ting event and conducting themselves as If a thousand dollar purse were involved, In the same vein he admits scrambles have changed themselves and that ever since Prado Park, where horsepower counted so much along with the money to buy those extra ponies , we have been fa c e d with a serm-proressl onal-type situation. If we can't figure out a way to get along with it we're In trouble, Scrambles have changed from the pure fun type scene and we'll have to make the change together whether we like it or not or scrambling will go under in this locality. Riders spend too much time and too long a day sitting around wai ting for their class to ride and then just getting a few laps for all their effort. It looks like the only solution could be to split the divisions completely. John Rice came up with the idea of running lightweights one week at Perris with heavies at Elsinore and the next run reversing the procedure so that riders get to ride both places, or one division could be hosted at our two desert tracks of Adelanto and Littlerock. This would take some thought as no club has the manpower to run two The event was very well managed, the course was the fine s t to be found in tile country, the wea the r was gr ea t a nd the scene ry was fantastic . All the riders seemed to groove on the course an d all that were ques tion ed ag reed that despite being a long drive for the Southlanders it was well worth i t in the LONG RUK. GREAT RUN! (Re s ul ts on page 20) tracks so it would mean doubli ng up of clubs an d figuring out who was going to run what divis ion where. Don Alfred and Jim Hunter both thought that a s plit couid help the situation in bringi ng out more riders if they tho ught they stood a chance to ge t more riding in. Especially the heavyweights. The se boys have flat had it s ilting around when the lightweights turn out in big numbers and the ' big bores don't practice until three hours after the time the posters said! The dust was bad, bad, ba d Sundayand John R. came up with a su ggestion and Gerry Burton would like some comments on this. In the hot season why not run Perris as a wet track? Keep the track almost sloppy all the time with water dumped on every so many heats, advertise the fact that you should have a knobbie front and rear it you wish to keep In an upright position and help control that dangerous dust, even if the whole track has to be super-damp! Good sug- ges tio n, Another thing we'd like to bring up. Did you know that Heavyweightand lightweight poi nts are paid differently? Now don' t ask us HOW it happened; it did. For Ins tance •••it Is said that now no one can win the Number One lightweight plate on a 250 because there are just too many l OOcc riders. Expe r ts in any class receive points for the combined total of riders In their engine class . So, winner of a 250cc Expert Main with a totalof 75 250cc entries (this Is an example) would receive 80 points for his win. On the same day if a gang of 100cc Novices showed up, the winner of the Expert 100 class, if there was a total entry of 98 would ge t 90 points, and boy, do those l00's show up! Now••Jn the heavyweight division the 500 Experts and the Open Experts get paid the same points. It more 500's show one week than Opens, the Open boys still get the same as the 500's or vice-versa. We've questioned this time and again and have been told tbat 1I we saw the records we'd find that the number doesn't difter enough trom Week to week to make any difference. However, we still see a real difference when one class has to run mota-cross points for lack of entries and the'other one runs a progressive program. It you don't get maybe a third or second in the semtmain you don't get any points at all for that day . Last place in a ' moto gets points, and that includes the guy who was dea d last In one an d didn' t ride the other two! So, if both class es didn 't ride a progressive program someone go t ouched for a few points or so. One r eason for all this we were told one time was "If we didn 't do it this way, a 500cc machine wouldn't stand a chance of getting Number One." Pat On The Back Dept. We DO have a couple of pats on the back this week. First to Long Beach Honda, one of the shiniest prettiest examples of the "new image" in motorcycling. At Long Beach Honda #1 they keep John Rice going and they also put wgether the bike that carried Larry Bergquist and Gary Preston to a first place in the Stardust 7-11 Las Vegas event. Congratulations ! A pat to Perrts Valley M.C. who with only five members is carrying on the tradition of District 37 clubs to throw races for District points. If we all ye ll hard enough, P,V., maybe we can get these rules bent just enough to help build up club memberships and keep the good old cl ubs like yours going. To Wanda and Ernie Pico, who are always behind racers. They solved the hot weather problem for us. Mter eyeballing the sleeves the desert riders wear we decided they must be on to something, but all we ever saw in shops was "basic black." The Pico-s happily agreed to make a pair befittinga lady-type racer. Would you believe I could have had lavender leather? So take it from me, fellow scramblers, lIyou've never worn sleeves, try 'em! Heatprostration is something we don't need on the track and fnll leathers do it, when it's 111 degrees! If you are one of the jeans and sweatshirt brigade I'll match my elbows against yours after a highside with sleeves on! See you next week at Perris when Coachella Valley throws their bash! CHEMICAL S law

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