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/125721
- ri .~ « ~ w By John Bethea Photos by Bethea & Larry Montgomery PLYMOlITH, CAL., April 4, 1971 - If you are the type of person who is always looking for a star, then young Bob Grossi would have been your vision today at the Dirt Diggers North M.C.'s 3rd Annual HangtoWn Motocross. Grossi, whose bout with the Army is still pending, ran each race he entered with an open throttle while never really looking back. Going through the long sweepers, the 21-year-old European bound AMXT rider displayed the skill and determination of a half-miler on a flat track with full, power-locked-type slides. The only Open Sr. competition he faced came in the early stages of the £"Irst moto when Pat deBenedetti pushed his Maico to a fust lap lead with Jim West (Hus) running a close second ahead of Grossi's Husky. A quick tour of the 1.3 mile course changed that, however, and Grossi had taken the lead and began building his Z W ...J U >- U ever-increasing lead. Bob Bowers (Hus) made himself def"mitely felt in each moto. In the £"Irst, he overcame a poor start which found him bottled in the middle of the pack running 16th after lap one. By lap three, however, he was closing in on Bryar Holcomb (Mai), Mike Cram (Mai) and Lars Larsson (Hus) , running 4th, 5th and 6 tho F our laps later he had passed all three and several tours later began pressuring West for third, whom he passed on the nex t to last lap. He caught a good start in tlte second moto and ran second to Grossi all the way. The 250 Srs. was such a packed £"Ield that two divisions were set up to create an elimination for the £"Inal, which was to have the top 15. Brad Lackey (CZ) won the fIrst Division easily with second going to Ron Stockman (CZ) followed by Grossi, Glen Lund and Ron DeSoto (CZ). The second went to Tom Rapp (Bul), followed by 73, Washington star Jim Pat deBenedetti made a good showing for the Maicos. ASCOT MOTOCROSS GETS SEA'SON UNDERWAY By Gary Schmythe GARDENA, CAL., April I, 1971 There was no fooling around this April Fool's Day as the CMC got this season of weekly night motocross at Ascot Park underway with several hundred riders in competition with more than 2200 fans in the bleachers.' John DeSoto came through with a pair of wins in the Expert classes. He teamed up with his CZ-mate, Tim Hart, and headed a first-second sweep in the 250 class. Then, he locked handlebars with Husky seated Jim West to put on a real show in the 500 class before winning. Jeff Wright, still working back into shape after a broken collar bone suffered in the desert late last year, picked up a 125 Expert win while holding off Bruce Baron. Both rode Rickmans. Baron had a disappointing night, even though he still made a good showing. Coupled with his second place to Wright, ~ruce bagged a fourth in the 250 Expert class. If you bunched the 125 Jrs. from all three divisions together, you would see that Yamaha's had their night. Div. I winner J. Scotland, beat B. Henderson and S. Cristy to the line, while R. Williams did likewise to H. Bergkamp and G. Owen in Div. II. Div. III fell to B. Brown with J. Powers second and D. Frohuck third. All except Owen and Powers were Yamaha mounted.