Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

N ti o ~ w Z GENNAI GAINS w By Bill Spencer HAYWARD, CAL., Sept. 25, 1971 lap 12 had taken .over the third place >- Capping off the season for the Hayward spot and was cuttmg down th~ lead. U M.C. brough t out over 200 riders for the Foley was less than a second behmd the 25-lap Expert Main and the annual high leaders on lap 15, Hocking's motor gave point trophy presentation. For John up and Ge~na! was left to h~ld off the Gennai it was a good night with a win ever advancmg Yamaha. He dId, making the 250 Expert Main, his first w in the battle for hig~ point in the district since his wrist injury three weeks ago. ever more =pressIVe and close. For National Scrambles Champ Jim In the 650 Expert battle, the first of Foley, it was another good night as he two hears went to. Ro~ Talbot over took the overall high point honors Ste~e Hernandez with JlffiffiJe. Brooks despite a second in the Main to Gennai taking a second behmd Genna! 10 the that cost him another point in his third second heat. . . consecutive bid to become the black For the MaIO, Brooks took hIS Cycle plate No.1 in the district ·and a shot at ~enter BSA right to the front and kept beComing the National Amateur It there for the entIre 25 lap~. Dan Scrambles Champ for the third year. H~ghes held Bill Budde for .the dl~tance Gennai smoothly won his first 250 with Hernandez and. Genna! holding up heat race with Rick Hocking moving up the rest of the trophies. to second. Barry Webb pulled out the After a restart for falling Rocky second heat with Bruce Teixeira the Malynn and Monte Tavares, Foley third. grabbed the lead in the .500 Exp~t Main ov~r Hocking and MIke VanLmed~n. With but four spots open for the Main, the semi was quite a battle. Bill This lasted only a few laps as Hocking Groce led out over Harry Dring with Bill got by the faltermg. Yamaha of Foley Budde holding off Foley. and went on to wm by a cool two Pat McCaul led out the 25 lapper, second.advantage. . . .. but with riders down the restart went Durmg the half ume mtenmsslOn, to .Hocking. This ti~e Teixeira and the high point tr~phies were distributed another rider were left sitting at the and some mterestIng note~ were present. line' the restart went to Webb with The brothers Lemlar, Rick and Mark, Gen'nai second over Hocking and Foley. won both the 100 and 125 Novice class This was the magic start and after the for the A .&. A racmg. team With George first go-round, it was Gennai, Hocking, Com~s uem~ Dan Jensen. for the Webb, Foley and Teixeira. combmed Juruor ~d Expert utle 10 the This lasted for five laps with McCaul same class. Genna! and Hocking also holding down the sixth spot until the kept the A & A efforts at the front With seventh lap when he crashed into the wins in the 250 and 50~ Expert classes. fence in ·a low side pass attempt. Jim Foley was the hlg~ pomt over~ Hocking then tried an -outside pass on winner with the most POIn~ cOmIng. 10 Gennai that didn't work and they both the 250 Expert class. HIS ,;,nfailing settled down to some serious racing that Yamaha has brought hIm an put them a full two seconds ahead of unprecedented third ?igh point trophy the pack by lap 12. All this time Foley that will take a long tIme for another to was pressing through the pack and by have such a streak. 13 Smilin' Sonny Victor is high-point 650 Junior at Hayward this year. No word on how the girl did. HIGH POINT TROPHIES OVERALL HIGH POINT Jim Foley 250 EXPERT John Gennal 350 NOVICE Todd Oleson 350 JUNIOR Eric Bengtsson 100 NOVICE Rick Lemlar 125 NOVICE Mark Lemlar 100·125 JR. George Combs· 500 NOVICE Dan Jensen* JOhn GiUSti 175 NOVICE Joe Sickle 500 JUNIOR Dennis Tomberlin 500 EXPERT Rick HOCking 650 NOVICE Don Porter 650 JUNIOR Sonny Victor 650 EXPERT Bill Budde 200 NOVICE Mark Beningo 200 JUNIOR Gary Tonda* Rich Brown* -,250 NOVICE Don Bernstien * Tied HOCKING SN.EAKS PA·ST fOLEY By Bill Spencer FREMONT, CAL., Sept. 24, 1971 -In one of the great District 36 battles of the year, Rick Hocking flew home the winner in the 250 Expert Main Event at Fremont Raceway's regular Friday night scrambles. While Jim Foley and Hocking were desperately doing their thing, at the start, Pat Hennen snuck under both riders and led for three-laps. Foley. kept Hocking in check for two but went wide. and Rick was off like a shot after Hennen. It took him about a lap and a half to get by an the checkered made it official. In the pack, John Gennai was slowly working his way from a bad start and despite his wrist still aching, by lap five had had pulled another one of his thrillers by riding around Foley on the outside of a right hander. This put Gennai another point closer to the margin Foley had set up in the two weeks that Gennai was sidelined. Hocking made it a repeat in the 500 Expert Main. Mike VanLienden and Hocking diced through the first few turns and then Rick departed for the duration. Duane Spence brought his 400 Suzuki to the fore and he and VanLienden battled to the checkered with the Cycle Center Suzuki beating out the Montesa. Rick Otto led out the 650 Expert pack but Rick could only make it to the righ t hander after the jump where he succumbed to a rare fall. From there Don Franco, with Bil! Budde pressing very closely, rode a very straight up race on his Trackmaster Triumph and won his very first Expert race in the process. Budde tried just about every way to make a pass but had to settle for second over Stockton's Alex Jorgensen, Gennai and Jimmie Brooks. Jorgensen was riding a BSA out of his fath er's works and with time this youngster will be as great as his father was back in the good old days of grunt Goldstars. Tom Tyrrell got a good jump at the start of the 650 J urnor Main but it was Henry Sanchez that found the winner's circle at the finish. Sanchez has his 650 Triumph working quite well and has proved nie onto unbeatable in the past few weeks, as did Ricky Raanes in the 650 Novice Main when he coasted home the winner. Mark Smith led out the 125 Jr/Ex. combined affair with Chuck Kole and Mark Asbill in hot pursuit. But after two l.aps, he fell and Asbill and Kole seemed to had things.in control, until Ken Eggers came on the scene. From the jump, Eggers was way back and appeared to be out of the running for this race, but he is in firm control of the division lead and is rarely out of the trophy circle. So are Kole and Asbill. Young Asbill is the terror of the central valley on both his 125 Bultaco and a brand new 500 BSA MX. This is his first mix with the Bay Area boys and he was out to make it a good one. Randy Clark made the transfer from Novice to Junior this race and made a mark for himself by taking second to Pat Walker in the 200 Main. Clark still holds the division lead as the points he accumulates are held in that division, no matter what rank he is currently holding. The scrambles will revert to Saturday evenings starting Oct. 9 and will finish the series with a tmal race and trophy presentation on Friday night, Oct. 29 (Results on page 32) Neil MacGregor, is a rising star and regular a,t Fremont Raceway. Turlock Winner Gets an Inch By Loretta Davidson TURLOCK, CAL., Sept. 24, 1971 With a smaller turnout of riders tonight, 106, a full program of racing was still held much to the enjoyment of the spectators. The weather is turning cool now and became pretty nippy before the night's events were finished. Jim Meservy came up the hard way to take the lead in the 250cc Novice Main and keep it the rest of the way with Jerry Wayne keeping second over Mark Brateng by a half bike's length and Rod Murphy there in fourth keeping them honest. The 250cc Juniors had a rough time getting started with several restarts. This was a hard-fou~ht race with Larry Dunagan takIng the lead over Lee Rice who pushed all the way only to fall on the last lap, letting Don Clasby take second and Jim Dunagan take third on his first Junior ride. The 250 Expert Main was actually two races in one as the battle being put on by Ray Huff and Roy Winters for first and second was fast and furious. Ray managed to hold the lead by inches. Jeff Holman and Jeff Davidson rode as though they were one side·by side for third. It was difficult to tell who was ahead each time they came across the line. On the last lap as they took the flag, it was Holman by fractions. Last week these two boys finished in a dead heat for second. (Results on page 32) Henry Doubles at Cyclelanel By J. Noffsinger CHICO, CAL., Sept. 25, 1971 - Joe Henry, riding one of his last races here at Cycleland Speedway, put on a good show for the folks. Joe is soon to turn Class C Expert and will not be permitted to race at Sportsman events in the future. He and Del Silva put their bikes and skill to a test in the 250 Expert Main. Silva led the entire race until the last three feet when Joe managed to just squeeze by on the inside for the checker flag. Silva did manage to partly even the score when he held off Henry for the win in the 250 Scratch Main. Paul Carter began as he ended last week hy running at the head of the pack in the 250 Ha,ndicap until Henry came up from the back of the pack. Joe pushed hard and forced Paul to go wide in the south comer. Joe then scutted through and away for the win. The battle for season high point honors took a different tum this evening in the 200 Handjcap Main. Ron McGil and Jim Hubbard are really going at it each Saturday night. Jim was ahead by two points going into tonight's Main. Ron managed to push a little harder this evening, and actually ended the race on his back straddling the finish line. He slid out and just managed to fmish the race. By taking third place this evening, with Jim Hubbard taking fifth, Ron again took the lead for season high point honors. (Results on page 32)

• Cover