Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

GREAT WESTERN CANADIAN MOTO-CROSS CHAM PIONSHIP Story and Photos by Maureen Lee 00 ~ AL DERGROVE, Briti shColumbi a, ...... Sept. 1 - It was a l ong way to go 0; but it sure was worth it for all the ~ ri ders whether they travel ed half~ way across Canada to get thereor o went up from the Unite d States. ~ We j ust wish that some of our r.J really big names had been able to ~ make i t•••they would have had a ..,J blast! . u ::... u :( A portion of the beautllu l Canadi an motocross circuit where riders wound around through the trees. Alder gr ove is jus t over the border, a small town but with r eal grea t racing facilities . They have over 42 acr es , all green grass and trees ; jus t bea utiful, and each week change the circui t a bit so no one gets set in the ir ways . They al ways have new gras s to r un over while allowing the pre-used s ections to gr ow over . Pr actice ran until four 0 ' clock Saturday with the Califor nia rider s especially enjoying the novelty of r unning in dee p wood shavings strewn over the track to hel p cu t down any dus t problems for the spectators. The y sure make a neat cus hion! All through the day the riders kept arriving. The Calgary Motor cycle Club came in a big bus (Alberta and British Columbia have quite a thin g going between their riders as to who Is better) and a gr oup arrived fr om Pr ince George way up in B.C., both gr oups traveling over 700 mUes one way to enter . South ern Califor nia fielded John Rice, Kurt Lohmeyer, La r ry Nolen and Larry Ver doorn with a nice number coming up from Washington and Oregon to round out the Yankee contingent. Everyone practiced a s much as they wis hed and af ter it was called , out went the hosting Totem M.C ., to change the course in s ec ti ons so that all riders would have a fresh s tart Sunday morning. Sa turd ay night ••.ye s ••.8atur day night. Well , no one can say that Canadian s aren ' t hos pitable ! We mean this sincerely. Member s of the Totems took the United States rider s into their homes for the whole dur a tion of their stay includ ing those who made a tr ip out of it a nd went up with the ir wive s and children. Saturday night we had dinn er at Wall y and Joan Sukaroff' s home foll owed by bench racing and the dr i nking of " Logies," a concoction of Monte Darling (now li ving In Was hington) that has gone over big uP there . These hel ped all of us sustaln a nice little glow when the rain s ta r ted that night and raln it did , all night and way into "r ace day but i t was a treat fo r us Souther ners to s mell green wet gr owing thin gs . The local people looked mor e dis mal abo ut the rain than we did but once again they went al l out and there wasn' t one r ider who lacked for appropriate foul weather gear if he hadn' t brought any. We'd like to gues s that just abou t everyone dropped it a t least onc e In practic e or the early rounds . The sotl Is clay, getting like bear grease when wet and no knobby In the world gives you enough tra ction. The wood s havings beat down into the earth helpin g cons iderably but there was one s ection under the tre es that mad e for w1ld and wooll y exhibitions of r iding all day long even af ter the r ain let up. J ohn Rice crashed r ight a t our feet there and Jolin doesn't go down very ofte n. The 100Cc class started the sh ow, all 18 of 'em with Stan Amor (Zundapp) grabbing off the lead and Hank Van Ca li fornians all - 250 Junior s #183 Kurt L ohmeyer (Bult aco) and Larry Nolen (V amaha); 500cc Experts #166 John Rice (Mal co) and #70w Monte Darling (CZ) , who now lives In Washington. Over the roiling, grassy hills go a tlghtly· knlt group of l 50cc Juniors . Th e coursewasabouta hall·mlle In length, last and bumpy, with a big ju!"p In the middle 01 the straightawa y. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• HARLEV- DAVIDSON Of Long Beach 3654 No. L Beach BI,d. 426-nOl ong ......................................................... " Br eug el (M- B) r tght after hi m. Han k took over and won the r ound with Amo r s eco nd and Gr an t Johnson (M-B) thi rd . But thin gs al ways change in mote-cros s ; a s the r ounds pr ogr es s ed it was Grant Jo hns on the overall winner, Van Breugel - and Amor were bac k in 4th and 5th with Hoda ka r ider Ha r ry Ca nfield second and Al P endergast (M- B) third. The course wasn 't too long, ma ybe half-a- mile, but you did n' tget any chance to r est. It v.'3.S fast a nd bum py, up and down and the big jump was in the mid die of the s tralght by the s coring and sound booth and ther e was eno ugh racing to kee p even the diehar d s happy. The 10OCc ' s went 8-lap r ounds , the 250 Seniors, and the 500 J uniors and Seni ors went 10- lap r ounds and the Grand Prix for high point men of the day went 25 laps . No wonder some of the qualifier s for that declined to ride ! The 250 J uniors had a bit of confusion in the ir class . All 28 of the m s tarted out on the fir s t 10- lap r ound which was blac k- flagged early when the leader s s tarted lapping the slower ones ma king it extremely difficult to score, s o the - clas s was s plit into Group I an d II . Group I took off on their first round of six laps with half of the troops still in the pits so after it was run"it was ca nce lled and they al l got a chance to start from scra tch. Each man went three six r ounds pl us a fourth if he ma de the top seve n in fini s h- ing posttlons . Some of the r iders ended up r idin g the first ten , and the fi rst cance ll ed Gr oup I plus all the othe rs, an d to mos t of them it was wate r off a duck's ba ck. They sho uld come South an d hear the groans fr om a lot of our guys if they have to r ide mor e tIian five laps ! Two r iders who s urvived all of thi s were Califor nians La rry Nolen ( Yam aha) who got 6th in his class and 9th In the Grand Pr ix and Kurt Lohmeyer (Bultaco). Kurt made a sortie off the track into the bushes Satu r day ge tting a fa t lump on his leg in the process but wouldn't give up and continued on through Sunday (al though hurting) to end third over-all in class behi nd Wayn e Schule r ( Bultaco) a young Canadian who goes very fast an d CZ-mounted Pe ter Wuntkefrom Calgary. Our " her o" in that class was Ron Metz fr om Pr ince George on a brand new PurSang. Ron bl ew his Greeves in Satur- ' day pr a cti ce but he was on holiday and was deter mined to ride at any cos t. He hadn 't driven 800 miles jus t to ride practice laps! So down they all went to the local dealers and after bein g made a very good deal, Ron was back in action again aboard his new scooter, and very well he did too considering shift pattern and handling differ e nces . He won two heats but over-all points ended him seventh. Cheer s, Ron! An Aldergrove rider by the name of Peter Van Breugel (Yamaha) won the 250 Senior and before we got to Canada we were tipped off to watch hi m. He' s goodl Pete r is one r ider we'd like to see down South for the Inte r nati onals at the end of this year, al ong with some of the other local boys. Washington's Norm Kopp took sec ond on a Bullaco in the same class , then went On to win the 500 Senior on a Ma teo and firs t on a 360 Bulta co in the Wayne Schuler , in be twee n r iding the busy 250 Jun ior class, was also out in the 500 Junior division and won that one handily with Char les Sto rmofrom Washington on a Husky second an d Clover dale'S Fred Wynne (Maleo) third. Nor m Knpp r eally racked up a bunch of wins for the day an d that 500CcSenior divis ion was a hotly conte s ted one. Truman Heggs fr om Everett emerged second and John Ri ce (Malco) ended third ove rall with Edmonton' s Don Reynolds on a C-Z fourth . Odd And Ends All th e Victors up there are G.P .' s ••• wonder why we never got any here in Southe rn Cal ifornia when all they get in Canada is tha t model ? Not so long ag o local r iders would have given their eye teeth for a G.P ., ••.all Bultacos, Gr eeves, etc ., arr ive in Canada with 21" front wheels so no one has to change ••.DO W that California is going more and more to mota-cross we hope tha t local di stributors will order some bikes with the 21" wheel for those who aren't plann ing to ride desert or TT which need s a nice bi g fa t 19" Ure on the fr ont•••the fun tha t Monte Da r li ng and J ohn Rice had back again on the same track. J ohn just couldn' t ca n Monte out of his C- Z to race after he tried it in practice Saturday but he did ride it in the Gr and Prix Sunday to 7th place. We saw Monte ch op J ohn good on one downhill (you could hear Jo hn yell) Washington's #1 Norm Kopp (Bultaco) shown en route to second place In the 250 Senior, switched to Malco lor a win in the SOD Senior, then hopped on a 360 Bultaco and raced off with 25-lap Grand Prix honors at day's end. Talk about endurance! Grand Prix with Van Breugel . ending second. but two laps later in ano ther section Jo hn gave as good as he go t going uphill in the s li ck by gelling on the inside and letting Monte have it at the top but with these two nothing is ever s erious:••Monte is developing inlo a mote-cross r ider since r iding there all the ti me and he's lost 15 pounds; saId one Totem M.C. mem be r " He even ge ts up on the pegs once ina while." ••.m eeting Fredolf Johnson who owns Evergreen Honda in Ever e tt , Washington where Monte works ••• Fredolf was one of the original seven Califor nia Gophers and if you want to go up there an d take him on, watch out, he still goes•••the nic e chat we had with young Dave LaBonte from Prince Geor ge who didn't know to what heights Hodaka has arisen down her e and we're going to send him some info on the super-goodies he can send for ••.and last but not least••• After the da y's racing no one was in a tearing hurry to get home. We all went into the big barn on the premises where a buffet was laid out and everyone ate and drank and then went into the main part of the building to sit on the fioor and sing until our throats hurt to a band (i ncluding Peter Van Breugel whoplays a mean accordion) and imbibe of the local mead•••we hope that up there they never get s o competitive as we are down bere••• we' ve forgotten how to have fun at our s cr a mbles •.•they haven't and their riders are jus t as tough! We ' ll be back! (Results on page 20)

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