Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.. '" ~ iii Ii o ~ w Z w oJ o > o Hoffman, Smith Take First Perris Wins By Elaine Jones PERRIS, CAL., Sept. 18, 1971 - Shay Huffman and Mike Smith both landed in the winner's circle for the first timc in their racing careers Saturday nigh t and popular winners they were. Shary captured his win in the Novice Moto 1 holding off a strong attack by Gene McKinney and Jim Groover. Gene had his Honda set up for desert so next time round if he gets a new fron t end it will be a good go. Smith also won in the big bike class taking the Novice Moto II over new faces Louis Gimenez and Greg Pool A3 usual the Amateur-Experts put on the show. It was Walt Foster who showed the boys home and a strong running Yamaha he has put together. Yamaha of Fontana has snapped up his option. Vince Graves had a strong second with Larry Stapleton third. Andy Skeel got back in the saddle and after being sidelined for four months with Ascot injuries and looked good but admitted he was out of shape. Ossa riden took two of the three wins in the 250cc Novice classes. Tim Holm is becoming quite a threat but had two tough contenders in Craig Johnson and Dennis Junker in the 250cc Novice III Division. It's a class that will always Gillespie Closes Time on Sexton By Elaine Jones PERRIS, CAL., Sept. II, 1971 - perriS trophy but a new tire of his choice from was in high spirits on Saturday night Buddha Bultaco who sponson both with a big turnout with most of the brothers. regulars on hand after their fine showing Dan Albright is another who gets a at the Las Vegas races. The Perris lot out of a CZ and proved it by bunch, including the Burtons, made the winning the 250cc Novice I go. Norm Vegas trip and picked up quite a bit of Blake took the second 250cc go but had the gold with Jeff Sexton topping the to contend with regulars Dan Johnson state's best rider. and Stew Cox, who are never far behind Jeff was absent Saturday but when he and who never let you make a mistake. returns he is going to find a fast George Gary Whitehead got his graduation Gillespie ready to challenge hini. George papers as he rode to another win in the turned a sizzling 38.6 a bit second 250cc Novice Ill. slower than Jeff's standing record of Jamey Blunt came back from his 38.5 Walt Foster and Vince Graves who vacation and did it again in the ran second and third turned 39.2 and 175-200cc class. Jamey also picked up 39.6 respectively which isn't bad, either. an air cleaner compliments of Buddha George Luther gets more out of a CZ Bultaco. Jamey's teammate, Tom then seems possible and he put it to Avoian, took the second place honors. Larry Stapleton and Ken Miller in the Jeff Coleman has a Kawasaki that flat Amateur moto. George has just started screams, just ask the rest of the field in making big noises and is a name that the 100-125ce Amateur-Expert class. should be written in your "look out" They had trouble just keepmg him in books. sight. Paul Lambert Jr. and Doug Mason Doug Mason, sporting new red had a much closer battle with Paul leathers, still has the best line around coming out on top in that one. the track. In the 250cc Expert class he Larry Lambert came up the winner in never seems to make a mistake. Chris the 100cc Novice III class and picked up Smith put up a good fight trying to get some tie downs from Buddha Bultaco some distance since Doug comes froro along with his trophy. Mark Costilow, behind but he couldn't get enough. who has been out almost every week The Stanford brothers shared the since the season began, made his first honon in the 250cc Amateur class. appearance in the result column as he Toby, with Tom hot on his heels, got nailed down second. home first and not only collected a (Results on page 32) be up for grabs when these three get together. Ron Marx Jr., who has come on strong in the last few weeks, did it again in the 250cc Novice II Division. Steve Waller was the boy who broke up the Ossa grand slam and did it in fine style. John Lowe and Wayne Spasadling rounded out the field. Tad Willis came back after an absence and socked it to them in the I75·200cc class. Tad had to come from behind to do it and Frank Schnetz and Gorden Bettencourt sure made a lot of traffic to wade through. Dan McWhorter picked up the win in the 125cc Novice II. Shawn Huffman following in dad's footsteps gets closer to the top as he took second and John Wetzel was third. Paul Lambert Jr. is back and already has gotten back to his winning ways. Paul amost had to give up his racing last year due to illness but made it over the hump and it is sure good to see him back again. Dave Racine, Mark Upton and John Cockburn each took the win in the 100cc Novice goes. The 100cc Novice classes have been spawning some fine material this year and the caliber of the riders keeps getting higher and the ages younger. Silencers are now a must for Perris so don't be surprised when you see the gins. (Results on page 32) DESERT By Dick Wright RED ROCK CANYON, CAL., Sept. 26, 1971 - The Shamrocks Hare & Hound has been running for more than 20 years and traditionally marks the start of the winter H&H season; this year was no different. Th-e weather was cool and the entry was big, all the hounds came out, in fact the start had to be held up half an hour to get all the entries signed up. This run was set up as a 44 mile first loop and a 57 mile second. This type of cross country race generally takes its SPEEDWAY SCOOP Sammy Tanner, Ascot's favorite half-miler, will be presenting his Third Annual Long Track Speedway at the Gardena facility on Oct. 9. The program will feature Dave Cifford, the Bast and Haserot Brothers, and all of the other notables. No telling who else might be riding. Watch Cycle News next week for the complete lowdown on what is going to happen. Speedway buffs who are out looking for a place to practice should give Vic Wilson's Saddleback Park a try in Irvine, Calif. The oval has been well-groomed and is now in excelent condition. . Phone: 714/639-5832. Morris Norman, this week's big winner. Norman is a college professor but must know there is a lot to be learned in the desert, too. Hell-heh, toll of riders "nd machines and this run was a rough one, as a large group of top riders went out early. After the drop of the banner, the riders headed for the smoke bomb and Rich Thorwaldson'. Suzuki grabbed an early lead with Bill Bogner (CZ) right behind ..him_ ~er was not content with eating Rich's du!t and tried to take 635 SHOW UP FOR THE WORM, BUT..,.. By Lou Whitney Photos by Dale Coats ADELANTO, CAL., Sept. 12, 1971 ..... about 50 of them didn't believe the SRA ads which read 8 a.m. start for Novices and 8:10 for Beginners. It seems that many riders are used to lolly-gagging around until the last minute and then'sauntering down to the line for the start where the SRA sign-up crews just smiled and handed them back their money, but asked if they could get there a bit earlier next time. The only other problem of the day was non-eooperative weather: hot. Heaping insult upon injury, the early morning breezes which usually blow the dust out of your way during a race was gone too. The practice dust almost never made it off the starting line in time to start the race. Then, the Beginners had a long wait before the Novice dust was off the three mile run to the bomb, which was a bit bigger than usual and could be seen above the dust, so no great problem. After the bomb, the course ran straight into a boulevard sized flat-out sandwash for abou t three more miles where Check One popped up, then a hard left turn out of the wash through a pass into the hills. This turn had a disconcerting effect on a bunch of riders as the dust hung low and it was hard to pick up the trail after the tum. Some riders just seemed to like the wash and went around the signs and ribbon and streamers and stayed in the wash to ride off into the sunset and never be heard from again. Others reported that they got off the trail and picked up some other marking from other courses that have been in the area during the past year or two. No breezes... old markings...a bunch got lost. SRA likes the area because of its closeness to town and is now launching an effort to get all old ribbon down, regadless of who left it. Good luck! The coune stayed on WIde trails, but wound through the hills for a few miles, including some troublesome off-eamber stuff, and exited on a fast road for a couple of miles to give everybody a bit of relaxation before turning off into the hills again for a tete-a-tete with some .choppy spots, a little sand hill, and then . check two. From there came a quick trip home. Total mileage of the two loops approximated 44. - 'The first Novice into the home check took 37 minutes and had a good quarter mile lead. He fell victim to the dusty turn in the wash and was replaced by a hard charging Ossa Pioneer ridden by none other than Trials rider and Enduro ace Dave Evans, who was getting his feet wet in some racing. Rick Thompson came storming in right on Daves' tail for the gold in the Open class. In a surprising finishing position was Jack Hawk on a 125 American Eagle taking fourth overall behind 14-year-old Brian Harber (Hus). Fifth was Roy Sheridan on a 175 Yamaha. Bob Koch's Hodaka cleaned the 100 class with th e big bad Baja of Loren Holmberg exactly 12 feet in back of him. Back at the ranch, the Beginners had_ the dubious distinction of trying to elude the dust and still catch the 10 minute lead of the Novices. As it turned out, quite a few of them did just that as Dave Anderson took his 400 Suzuki into a respectable 51st position overall by the checkered flag. He was followed in quick succession by Ossa mounted Joe LeSage and Mark Gunlogson on a Montesa. Top 175 was Corey Timms with honors fOr 125 riders going to Paul Howard, both on Yamahas. Honda even got its share of gold with Phil Cowan winning the 100 class and Dennis Tolton bringing home the bacon in the newly formed 75cc class_ Power Purf honon wen t to fIrst time racer Joyce Harris who was way up in the pack of men on her Yamaha. Joyce will give the boys mucho fits if she keeps it up like that! Again as promised, the race was over for most of the riders by 10 a.m. and the pits emptied fast so that everybody could go to where it was really hot back to town! With the weather staying hot, SRA has decided to put on one more Early-bird Hare Scrambles on Oct. 10,1971. This time they have promised a wheeled roadrunner for the fmisher pin..•sounds different. (Results on page 32)

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