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/125753
o . if Photos by Tol1)..Culp, John Bethea, Ed DrecTl'ilCr-;- AI. Du kef.- lSill '"Cwp and Jim Brooks 0. ,... ~ Ql M N ,; o Z ~ W Z W ...J U > U J Winner Marty Tripes wipes grime from his face as he and teammate Jim Wilson re-ride 250 Expert class. Jim Wilson won the final professional moto of the day as well as the 500 Bob Grossi holds a smile after learning he won the motocross overall along with $1000. Bob Grossi appears in con"trol but two seconds earlier he was running beside his Husky after being flung off to its side while taking a j'ump awkwardly. John R. got all pumped up for Sunday's racing. SIMI VALLEY, CAL., Nov. 14, 1971 - West German Maico ace Werner Schutz and Northern Californian Husky rider Bob Grossi made today's "International Motocross" for a purse of $2500 one of the wildest events of the 13th Annual Hopetown Grand Prix staged by the Dirt Diggers M.C. Schutz got a strong start in the initial round and picked up the win with Grossi holding second from the first lap. The second face-off was the turning point as Schutz again built a tremendous lead, holding Grossi back by five seconds as the wh ite flag came out. But, as he had done in the flTst moto, Schutz began to take it easy, attempting to conserve his machine and still maintain the lead. It cost him the overall win. Grossi continued to charge hard, turning laps in the 3:25 range on the 2.9-miJe course, and as the pair squirmed their way through the water hole just before the checkered, Grossi made- a desperate charge which caught Werner a bit off guard and Grossi got the inside line to the finish with Schutz forced up the embankment where he lost control and dumped the machine, just a few feet from the .flag. He pushed it across for a fourth but Bob now held the lead. As the rest of the program wore away, the final five·lapper came up to end the two days of racing. As expected, Schutz and Grossi were in expert class. --. another hard battle, but this time it was behind a fired·up Jim Wilson (CZ) and Vic Eastwood (AjS) with Grossi third. With Schutz behind him it appeared that Bob had it locked up, but on the final tour, he slid out and twisted his knee badly. Added to his troubles was a machine that wouldn't start and Werner was past and time was running out. In Bob's favor, however, was the fact that the four front·runners had completely left the rest of the pack far behind and Bob finally managed to get his Husky going again, before the fifth place rider caugh t him and Bob finished the moto in fourth, still good enough for the overall win as Schutz could not manage to overtake Eastwood or Wilson. His winnings totaled $1000. Schutz, ....but a darlc cloud Itung over tlte Dirt Diggers' annual classic By Maureen Lee If you attended the massive Hopetown two day event, the person you may have been standing beside watching the race might not have just been a spectator but an FBI agenL In the 13 years running of this great classic this was the first time a threat had ever been received and it was a serious one. In the entry applicatipns was an envelope pieced together from weirdly shaped bits of paper. Inside an application for an entry in the pro class filled out by a person knowledgeable about bikes and a jagged bit of paper. On this was written $10.00, ha, ha. Turn over." When it was turned over there was the threat, "I will be there and kill two girls". It was signed Zodiac. The Diggers naturally couldp't take a chance that this was just a crank and called the Sheriff who took the evidence and sworn statement from the Digger in charge of the entries, these being turned over to the FBI. The police stand was that it was a chance it wasn't Zodiac but you couldn't take that chance. Anyway, to send a threat like that through the mail the person had already committed a Federal offense that has to be handled by the FBI which will put him (or her) behind bars. The battery of tests the FBI has at its disposal has already given them some thing to work on, including a suspect to be watched the whole weekend, so those bits of paper, however carefully camouflaged yielded up their secrets. The thing the police want to get across is that this can happen again at any event where there are pre·en tries and they would appreciate the same full co-operation they received from the Dirt Diggers should anyone else receive one. Sending the threat will put the sender where he b"'ongs, behind bars, so please turn anything of this nature over to your local police bTanch or the FBL On to the happy racing that took place Saturday... 1,200 riders signed in for the two days with over three hundred entries being turned back for lack of room ... there were riders from as far away as Alaska and Mexico and England and of course, beautiful down-town Burbank.... the mudhole was christened by one of the patrol riders before the start of the first race when the front end of his Yammie dropped into a hole depositing said rider neatly over the handlebars to the delight of the crowd... frrst race was the 100 Novice, always wild and wooly. with Larry Hentschel jumping into an early lead...some of the "Flying W's" ridden out by riders were unbelievable and one Novice stalled his Hodaka and kicked until he was blue in the face to no avail as the little machine slowly sunk further and further under...wonder if there is any truth to the rumor there's a Triumph twin still under there from the year it rained so hard on Sunday? .. the mudhole became more impossible with riders of the ilk of Gene Cannady and Pre~ton Petty coming to a stop in it in the 125 Am/Expert bash so the Diggers started tossing hay into it before each moto but hay has an interesting habit of disguising the holes and ruts for a few laps and will also bring a scooter to an abrupt halt!. .. Roger Flaming happy as a clam with his new o Rickman-Montesa after waging the wars for two years on his CZ, he needed a fresh mount and the Rickman is just about the lightest 250 you can buy, "Now I just have to get my shifting sorted out" says Roger...Danny Hockie nursing a fat jaw from wisdom tooth trouble and a bad leg pressed on regardless in two classes against his friendly rival for the number one lightweight scrambles plate, Rob Hosford with only three points sc;parating them and only the Grand Prix and one scrambles to go, but Danny got the deed done...the Powder Puffers showed a lot of cool in tb.e mudh.ole which had become pretty good by the time of their race but the girls didn't just charge into it and hope they would make it through, they chose theirpath...as usual the Desert Daisies were up front along with End Does and Joyce Soyka turned in a beautiful ride to win ... the riding ability of the gals is improving much as the time goes along... 75 nervous Novices started the 250 class and when the dust cleared just at the first tum there were eight bodies down but all sat up and moved away in various methods to continue except one with a ruptured gas tank.. .. Dirt Digger Don Kemp found himself the perfect job for the weekend, announcing and is he ever good, even relating to the crowd the little pet names some of the riders are know by, such as Ron "Slippery" Sloan and "Hog Honey" who is the lovely Lynn Wilson... the use of mufflers made a startling difference, for once you could stand at the start without every cell in your body quivering, and no pit riding at all made the pjts a joy...racing must be becoming a wealthy sport as evidence by the big mobile homes turning up in large quantities...John Hatdey went through the mudhole like a flash wearing his overalls to keep the slop off, if he was going that fast on the rest of the cour.;e the Europeans would have a heck of a time keeping up with him as Werner Schutz took quite a time to catch him...important lessons to be learned from observing mudhole... nineteen inch tires are an ugh, wash out too fast and stand up whilst in the damn thing, Schutz's posterior never touched saddle the whole section, he looked slow and smooth but was actually going like heck...Mike Konle having fun on his "Red Line Special" a springer Greeves with an engine that sounded like it had been breathed on a bit! Bill "Biscuits" Verbiseio's take of a slightly wistful Dick Mann dropping by his shop in San Rafael before Biscuits headed south wishing he were just a bit older so he too could ride the Old Timers Race where upon,his buddy threatened to beat him with a plank if he did ever show up, whatever the year...wouldn't that be a sight to see? And the slightly glazed look of terror in Barney Koogle's eyes as he was also riding the event and had landed a front row starting position, his problem? He was riding his faith ful little 100 Honda and was having strange visions of all those big fire eating monsters behind him. Never did find out what happened as Saturday was all the old body could take so I have to let someone else relate Sunday's tale. But cheers again, "Dirt Diggers", may you always have Hopetown and all the luc,k in the world.