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/125678
t-. 1551 TOPS AT MAMMOTH: ~ By Ron Szilagyi • 1970~y of the i Sierra d annual lance in standing all pines mendous red 500 it on the :s. Lars :k in the >ressure verthorn Ion also. t got out b.l ..:l U :>.. moto. SUverthorn and Runyard were second and third overall. 'Mlen the 250 Experts were flagged off in their first moto it was John Maroney Jr. who led for a few laps before giving uP the lead to Greeves rider Jim WUson. John settled for second ahead of Sachs man Gene Canaday. The second malo bad to be restarted three times because of some pUeuPs but when the scoring was complete after the third moto Jim Wilson was the. overall winner ahead of Mike Runyard and Bill Silverthorn. Maroney finished fourth for the day. After the grueling races every face showed almost complete exhaustion. The 125 Experts walled on each other in U John (24) DeSoto leads Ron (22) Petersen around a muddy hole in the 250 Senior fray. Neither showed up among the front runners at the finish. The class was won by Jim Wi Ison. -g to be muddy after this. I made a l8lmoto. 'inch the Q WUson the last Saturday's races. A two man war developed between Tom Rapp's Bultacoand Lars Larsson'S Penton In thefirstmoto. Tb1s was Indicative of the final outcome since they finished In that order after the scoring was figured out. In the second malo Tom bad an altercation that dropped him back so when he found himself running dead last In the third moto he starteq a now-or-never catch uP ride tbat was one of the greatest rldlng exhibitions we've ever seen. From dead last Tom gave chase to the pack. He was all over tbat Bul. At times, going over the jumps he looked like an old time pony express rider hiding from the Indians by sliding all the way over on one side of b1s mount. Halfway through the first lap he was eighth. He moved uP quickly and squirted around Gene Canaday before setting his sights on leader Don Emler. Don led the first laps of all the 125 Expert motos but Rapp made short work of the American !'agle and came home for the overall win. Lars and Don were second and third for the day. crowned the fastest 500 Junior. Tired but still competitive Steve Rauch won the t1rst of the two finals and tbat helped him toward b1s second overall finish. In the last moto Ron Matheny worked uP from sixth to second behind Dave WU11ams. Ron was scored third overall. In the first of two final motos for 250cc Juniors Rick Norris put his Montesa out front ahead of Ron DeSoto's CZ. Rick just faded away and Ron took over. David W1lllams worked uP from behind for secOIld. Will1a.ms won the second round to claim the overall victory ahead of DeSoto. By the end WUl1ams was completely ex- bausted. Part of the exhaustion that hit just about everyone was due to the high elevation but some of it bad to be attri- buted to the SuPer course tbatdidn'tgive the riders a single moment to relax. Steve Armstrong carried off the overall win among the 125 Juniors but not without trouble from second placer Randy Klasson and third man Don Reynolds. The course was well watered and can only be described as suPer. Typtylng comments from the riders one was heard to remark tbat, ''If the EurDPeanS came over and raced on this course they probably wouldn't want to go home." (Results on page 22) After two elimination heats and two more final motos Jeff Robertson was • Dan (54) Armstrong leads 8i II (57) Grossi Jr. through the air in the 125 battle. n Emler leads Gene Canaday over some Mammoth hoop-de-doos. ,