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/125691
Thorwaldson Stops Hart, West in Ascot MX By Shelly 'Smith and Bob Hill GARDENA, CALIF,. Sept. 17, 1970The season s change and the weather gets colder, but the action at the weekly Ascot races goes on. The face that has become quite common here lately is that of Rich Thorwaldson, who for the past several weeks has been dominating the 500 Expert class field at the Gardena track, This Thursday night was no exception with Thorwaldson again taking the honors in this class. AJS mounted Jim West outlasted Tim Hart, who just recently returned to Ascot after being out of the picture with foot injuries for the past few weeks. Bob Hershey bettered the efforts made by the man behind the beard, John Maynard, to sew up fourth place, leaving Maynard in fifth, Bob Messer, being a bit over anxious looped his newest Maico while practicing his starts. The bike was damaged enough to keep him out of this event for the evening. Messer made up for his error prior to the start of the big bike class .by showing top form on the smaller of the two Maicos he is now riding. He displayed his increasing ability by racking up three straight victories in the 250 Expert-Intermediate class. Jim Wilson, his first time back at Ascot since the knee injuries he received awhile bacK, may have been a little rusty, but rode well enough to top Hart for second place honors. Hart, also making a recent comeback at Ascot, placed third ahead of a handicapped Tom Rapp. Rapp damaged his Bultaco during the first round, and used Dave Rodgers' 125 Bultaco to finish up in fourth overall. Steve Elsworth, also astride a Bultaco, brought home fifth place for his endeavors. Johnny Garcia was high point finisher for the second week in a row', handing defeat to Hart in the 125 PERRIS, CALIF.., Sept. 19, 1970 -:. Geroge Gillespie, who says Tony Denius gave him some pointers, proved he was a quick study as he won the 125cc Novice Class Second Division. Second' place Pry6r Campbell made him work for it as he walked away with the second moto with Gillespie nowhere in sight. The second win was the Amateur-Expert Moto where Larry Stapleton applied the pressure but George put on his famous down the backside drive and grabbed off the win. Penny Terry led the ladies around as well as the 50cc riders in the combined 50cc Powder Puff Class. Second place Chuck Summers showed her his back wheel last week but couldn't do it this week. Donna May was third. Taylor Sisco had a dirty trick pulled on him in the First Division of l25cc ~ '" o .... en Q. .- Junior event. Hosford should now be gf moving up to the Intermediate ranks. S. Copeland emerged victorious over L. go Merritt in the 125 Junior contest, '" leaving R. Williams to third and Vagn ~ Forrisdahl aboard his Sachs in fourth. w Fred Gualda, last week's 250 Junior. Z class victor, was the top rider in the 500 ~ Junior class this week. A. Amarillas ~ finished up in second place, leaving F. U Carlisi to take home the third place trophy ahead of M. Causey. (R~sults on page 22) San Pedro IX in Infancy Siage By Jim Brook SIERRA VISTA, ARIZ., Aug. 30, 1970 - Money motocross racing at Arizona's San Pedro Motocross Park drew a small crowd for the third race of the series. Going from one extreme to the other, from a lot of mud to very little mud, was quite a switch. Even though the track was a little bit hard there weren't any complaints from the riders, There was a total of 41 riders present, 32 in the Sportsman class racing for trophies, and nine in the lnternational class for a $300 cash purse. Till.; purse is broken down into Sisco Overcomes Foul Play By Elaine Jones Expert-lntermediate class. Young Jeff Wright put on a fine display of riding to secure a th~d place victory over Sachs mounted Allen Lund of Torrance. A few of the Ascot moto€ross fans are beginning to refer to Wright as another Throwaldson. If Wright continues to ride as well .as he has been doing, the statement may become fact. B. Hosford rode his Yamaha to victory in the 100 Junior class to top Tim Rockwood riding a Suzuki, and repeated himself again by outlasting Rick Brown of Hawthorne in the 250 g: Novices. On the starting line for the first race somebody turned his gas off. It didn't slow him down as much as that guy hoped for as Taylor still got a second. From there he went on to win the next two motos. Shutting off a rider's gas may sound funny but it could have been very dangerous not only to Taylor but to other riders in his class. Robert Wood was second and Norman Blake third. . Tom Stanford and Terry Stanford sandwiched Stew Cox between them in the First Division of 250cc Novices. Stew was getting set up to take a good shot ilt Tom in the third moto when he broke down. The Burtons are again being taken to court in an effort to have the track declared a public nuisance. It's time for the riders to take a stand and prevent this from happening. (Results on page 22) two classes, 250 and Open with first place in each class taking home $50. The best racing of th",day was in the 125 Sportsman and Open Sportsman motos wlMch were combined, since there were only 9 riders in these two classes. But someone forgot to tell John Barron, riding a specially tuned 125 Yamaha. It seems like he lapped all of the 125's and had no problem staying in front of the big bikes either, taking the checkered in the flrS.t two motos. He came back in his third mota. only to have engine trouble, and getting started one lap late. But this'didn't slow him down any. He was turning the one mile course in 10 seconds less than any other 125. This went on until !lis sixth lap when he collided in mid-air with a 360 CZ going over one of the jumps on the course. This set John back with a fourth place 'and an overall second place for the day. First place went to Tom Johnson on a Penton. The Open International class went to a 405 Husky rider, Lynn Morrison, from Tucson. Second place was taken by Joel Ebright on his 360 CZ. The money classes for the day were taken by Larry Losey on a 250 CZ. Second place and $40 went to Doug Schnieder on a l25 Yamaha; The Open. class was won by Jerry Kitchen on a 360 CZ with second place going to Douglas McCully. Arnold Lane was third. The largest turnout in _one class for the day was in the 250 Sportsman with 13 riders starting the day's racing and only 11 finishing at the end of the day. This class was taken three straight without a single challenge by "Super Sam" Redman on a 250 CZ. Norbert Seelman, on a 250 Suzuki spent the whole day chasing Sam but just couldn't seem to catch him, but still took home second place honors in his class. The 100cc lead went to Norman Wykoff (Hod). Fred Sacksted.er '(Hod) and Terry Boyka (Suz) grabbed runnerup spots. By the next race the track should have a whole new surface and some real nice sand pits. (1 SACHS OSSA Parts & Accessories TRIUMPH SUZUKI MOTORS 1049 W. Mission, Pomona, Cal. 714-629-8642 SACHS dOlDlnates IDOtOCroS~- PATRACO Our Apologies HI-PERFORMANCE EQUIPME,JIT PO Box 2611, Palos Verdes Pel1., Calif. 90214 Steens Inc. did not include one of our largest Western dealers in Rickman Motorcycles. Universal Motors Inc. 7733 Garland Rd. Dallas, Texas 75218 ..a", this little tube of additive... CMC MOTOCROSS - 9/20/70 Saddleback 125 EXPERT/INTER. 15t J. Beauohamp - SACHS 125 JUNIOR 1st L. Green - SACHS SEA BREEZE MOTOCROSS - 9/20/70 San Clemente 125 AMATEUR/EXPERT 1sr John Rice - SACHS MOTOCROSS - 9/6/70 Cyciesports Park Houston, Texas 100-125 NOVICE 1st Rex Davis - SACHS Imported by: HERCULES DISTRIBUTING, LTD. 1112 Colorado Annue SIM' lIDnlc.a, CalltCWftla 90404, - ..... ------- ..