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/125752
.o!.1 ~,: I f .,... 1'f1'~ M ." '" Q. whipped out the plug and shaved its whisker and took up the chase again, repassing some of those who had repassed me. Reread the previous sentence two more times, for that's how • often the drill had to be performed before I streaked across the finish line, the last to take the checkered flag. Was I pumped up! The rest of the afternoon I must have bored seventeen audiences as I bench raced the entire eigh t laps with full orchestration for any poor soul within range. I was proud that I hadn't fallen off and wasn't even tired. Finally someone suggested that we sneak a ride in the last event of the day. He had observed that for all their efficiency, the SRA wasn't 'checking numbers on the start. I decided that such a ruse would be less than honest and besides I had better not push my luck. I hope the trophy the SRA give me won't have to be cut out and folded like my other one, and I hope they have another Grand Prix just like this one soon. (Results on page 32) ~ w Z W ..J U >- U Above: Abdomens swollen with too much rich living hang over the body belts as eager new racers position their bikes for a good place on the starting line. About 300 machines swarmed away in most of the day's seven races. Below: the course was easy yet fun. Few injuries marred the da'y. Whoops a-daisy! This is merely one of the less spectacular spills of Novice and Riverside Raceway with the SRA. By Charles Clayton RIVERSIDE, CAL., Nov. 7, 1971 - I paid my seven dollars to the lady with Sportsman Racing Association stencilled on her bosom and she handed me a white picnic plate 'permanently defaced with the number I6W (or was it M9I?) lettered in black ink. With some tape borrowed from a fellow racer (I like that phrase), I fastened the plate to the headlight of my motorcycle. Waiting on the starting line for my chance on the course ~ve me ample opportunity to reflect upon why I, an out·of-shape publisher, was riding my first Grand J>rix race. Well, mainly, the ads promised a trophy to every' finisher, and the only other trophy in my collection is one I had to 'assemble myself ("fold along Judging from the lineup, it looked like about 1,500 others (actually 1,271) felt the same way. I was pleased to find lots of beginners in worse shape, riding less competitive equipment than me. There were even two Super Hawks competing with street tires yet. The butterflies that I used to get when I tried to race, which used to swiftly flutter up and carry me over the handlebars, were mercifully at rest. F or some reason my trusty scooter refused to start when everyone else's did and so I was last away, with what remained of 45 racing minutes ahead. But I was passing; guys before even reaching the course. Thi~ fun already! Turning on to the circuit, the casualties lay all about. Worse riders than I, if that can be imagined. I carefully opened the • About a mile and a half of smooth pavement gave plenty of recuperation time between stretches of bumpy dirt. dotted line.....). Then too, I've been an admirer of the SRA since it first started throwing races for beginners. How I used to long for an opportunity to enter motorcycle competition gradually, as it were, on my all-purpose bike, without the attendant risk, expense and frustration of the conventional route, wherein naive beginners are propelled along the same terrain that the best Experts must find challenging enough for their prodigious conditioning. When the SRA offered me and every other wopld-be hotshoe a chance to mix it up with others of our age and stage, how could I refuse? Besides, a Grand Prix! Dirt and pavement. At Riverside Raceway, as familiar to me as Bre'r Rabbit's briar patch. throttle a quarter and plunged into the dust, both brakes smoking. Is this what comes of trail riding with Ron Schneiders? r was passing loud expansion chambers on either side. Easy. A couple of 'miles and the dirt turned into Riverside's famed road race course, where I hoped all my years of testing bikes there would be an advantage, but SRA had cleverly reversed the direction. Even so, I gathered in many of my dirt riding betterS on the unfamiliar (to them) asphalt and forced them to repass me back on the powder. Thus it went for about IS minutes as I silkily insinuated myself into the middle of the pack. The leaders were in sight. I actually flashed winning. Alas, when ego arrived, the spark went. I EUROPE'S LEADING MOTOCROSS STARS AND WDRLD CHAMPIONS COMPETING AGAINST AMERICA'S BEST PROFESSIDNAL RIDERS. JOEL ROBERT, 250cc WORLD CHAMPION. BELGIUM; ROGER DE COSTER, 500cc WORLD CHAMPION, BELGIUM; BENGT ABERG. 1970 500cc WORLD CHAMPION, SWEDEN; ADOLPH WElL, WEST GERMANY: DAVE BICKERS, GREAT BRITAIN: JOHN BANKS, GREAT BRITAIN: AKE JONSSON, SWEDEN; SYLVAIN GE'BOERS, BELGIUM: VIC EASTWOOD, GREAT BRIT· AIN: CHRIS HORSFIELD, GREAT BRITAIN: VLASTIMIL VALEK, C2ECHOSLOVAKIA: RAHIER GASTON. FRANCE: HEIKKI MIKKOLA, SWE'DEN: TORLIEF HANSEN. SWE· DEN; UNO PALM, CZECHOSLOVAKIA; WILLIER BAUER. WEST GERMANY; HAKAN ANDERSSON,·SWEDEN. AMONG THE LEADING AMERICAN MOTOCROSS STARS WILL dE BRYAN KENNEY, BARRY HIGGINS, RUSS DARNELL, TOM RAPP, BRAD LACKEY. JOHN DESOTO. PETER lAMPUU, MIKE RUNYARD. GUNNAR LINDSTROM, GARY JONES, DOUG GRANT, BoB GROSSI. SEE THE STARS OF BRUCE BROWN'S "ON ANY SUNDAY" IN A SPECIAL DEMONSTRATION. THE FINAL EVENT IN THE AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION'S TRANS·AMA INTERNATIONAL MOTOCROSS SERIES. SPONSORED BY CYCLE WORLD MAGAZINE. GATES OPEN 6:30 A.m., SPECIAL CEREMONIES 11:30, RACING BEGINS 12 NOON. Call for Information; (714) 639-5832. PLUS SPECIAL GRAND MARSHALLS: THE STARS OF "ON ANY SUNDAY", MERT LAWWILL MALCOLM SMlnl AND STEVE McQUEEN.