Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'" Murphy GP Wrecker By Pat Jen kins MURPHY , 10., Nov. 2 1, 1971 - Most specta t o rs a t the firs t an n ual Murphy G rand Prix ca me ex p ec ti ng t o see Don Willh it e and Herb Uhl d omin ate top p laces at th e finis h bu t from sta rt t o finish th is was a d iffer en t race. Virgin sagebrush is a bi g bush th at h asn't been h ad b y you r throttle cable, jam me d y our gea r lever o r en d oe d yo u in t o a r oc kpile... .. yet. A p prop ria tely a sh otgun bl as t and a Le Mans sta rt se n t 135 r id ers into a n ad ult ed ucatio n cou rse o n what sandwashes, roc k pil es an d ch in -h igh sagebrush ca n d o to a b ik e. And what a co u rse! O . J . Thompson t ook a c o yote trap lin e, threw in some steep hills, ad ded all th e b oulders in the world a nd laid 'o u t a 9 0 mil e happening. If you happened t o b e there , you had fun . Murphy , Idaho, a one bike cattl e t own with a goat herd on the sid e, was the scene o f Idaho's first bi g Team Har e Scrambles. The three-lapp er was pl otted right through the town's best sandwash with p itting ac tio n on Main Street (?) . The locals were as nervous as th e bikers but the sheriff led th e teams , three ab rea st, o u t to the st art lin e with th e d ec or of a M others Day Parade. For w eeks th e ho t -sh oe s were scrambli n g for good 12 5-e rs necessary t o round ou t their t eams a nd wh en th e action h eaded fo r th e smo ke b omb hill m o st teams let the small bi kes set t he ORLAND INDOOR Genna; Tops ST By J ohn Noffsinger ORLAND , CAL., Nov. 13, 1971 - J oh n Gennai gai ned a little re venge o n Steve Pes t oni he took home first place in . the Expert Main here a t th e Orland Indoor ra ces lo cated at the Glenn County Fairgrounds. Pestoni has to be content with third place behind David Massae who had snuck into second place. .', , Jim Hubbard o n his blue Suzuki pushed to first place in the 125 Expert Main. Jim experienced a little difficulty the previous week, however, was not to be denied this evening as he had first all the .way. Danny Peterson, a local boy, really h ad th e crowd ch eerin g as he re ally ran awa y with the 250 Novice Main. Dan h ad his Ducati perking all the w ay , and enj oyed a co nsid era ble lead. A secon d gr ouping of seats were placed in th e south end o f the building. The a rrangem e n t was very enjoyable to the spectators as n ow there was more elb ow room availa b le, a n d one could change seating a rrang em en ts with out worrying a bou t ge t ting a seat b ack agai n. T he races a re r u n in fine o rd er , the boys re all y put o n a a sh ow, a n d what better way to spend a Saturda y evening. "Other wi n ners were 125 Novic e Nic k Rago ; 125 Junior Ray Hubbard ; and 250 Junior Greg F erguson. as Then Does Encore By John Noffsin ger ORLAND, CAL., N ov. 20,1971 - J ohn Gennai of Los Gatos, Calif., agai n ran the op position into the ground at th e Orland Short Track races held at the Glenn County Fairgrounds. John made shambles o u t of the o th er Expert rid ers an d won th e Main Event by a full straigh tawa y over his number one arch rival,Jim Foley of La Fay ette, Greg Ferguson of Sa cramento was th e bi g winner in the Amateur 250cc class, winning all three races he entered. The 125cc Expert - class was dominated by J im Hubbard of Chico , Cali f. He a nd his blu e Suzuki perking all the way , a nd there w as co nsid era b le distan c e between he a n d the sec o nd pl ace fin ish er at the end of the Main. The races were hurt by a con flic t with an Orland-Willows foo tb all game, however, there were still some 400 die-hard fans in attendance. The loc al fans were pleased when h ome t own Dan Peters on aga in was the big winner in th e 250cc Novi ce M ain. Here, to o, it ap pears that bike preparation and rider style was the decider . Danny reall y turns it on , and at this rate will soon sport an Amateur pl ate. (R esu lts o n p age 3 2) (.po "' 5~J:q n o lJ iL'~.~': Fourth place team rides through Murphy's sandwash. p ace. Getting th ere firs t is th e name 0 1 th e game but th e firs t teams t o make g th e steep b omb hill seem ed to b e jinxed o fo r the re st of th e race an d most fail ed t o finish. When th e crowd arrived it was ~ w p ile up tim e h alfw a y up wi th everyone Z trying to grab enough dirt to trac ti on to W ...J th e top . U J ohn Lar sen , Pat Th ompso n an d Ri ck >J enkins, all Bul ta co m o un ted , were the U firs t te am t o rou nd th e Cres t with o ut a get off and w ith th at good o me n fin ish ed o u t th e rema ining 85 mi les t o ta ke h ome th ird pl ace tr ophies. Eddie Barnett an d Kenny Kra wl joine d their 25 0 Huskies with Steve Ol son 's 125 Ri ckman and found th e com b ina tio n t o first place af te r so me fancy p assing during the second lap . Rounding o u t the t op three w as Vic Greenfi eld an d T erry Hartung mating th eir Maicos with Tim Gaskell's 12 5 Penton for a strong second. Six hundred a n d six ty cc s o f Yamaha d ivided between J ohnny T h om p so n, Le on Sackman and Mick Domms was just right for fourth place fo llow ed b y Van Li ttl efield; (3 6 0 Yamaha) , David Logener (360 CZ), and Lowell Davis o n a 12 5 Honda in fifth . And b ack o n the co urse thin gs were h appen ing. A lot of teams fo u nd th at th e o nes wh o stay t ogeth er just mi ght place. N o te am could p ass a chec k point with out all th ree m embers, and th e checks sta rte d .to lo ok lik e social ga theri ngs as riders b egan t o reali ze th at go ing fas t wasn ' t the whole story. Br eakdo wns changed th e results eve ry lap an d if you co uld fin d a riding partn er th at was also a good m ech an ic you were d o ubl y lu cky. Somewher e alo ng th e line Bob Mo or e lo st a team member an d Do n Willh ite lo st th e res t of h is t eam so th ey join ed up in the mi ddle o f the course. Wh y n o t? But Sneaky Week h ad just ended so Willhit e 's a ttem p t at an incognito fin ish d idn't w ork and the " team" was DSQed from sixth place. Herb Uh I's third m ember was ridi ng with a p o orly h eal ed broken shoulder but still · fini sh ed 12th. Wh en th e race was over, th e cat tle m e n d ecided it reall y h adn't been a figh t between th e good gu y s a nd th e bad guys and cyclis ts pi cked up more litter th an they h ad le ft. Except' for o ne go at th at wouldn't give m ilk during the race, there were no inci den ts and the whole thing was pronounced a su ccess. (Results on p age 24) Cook, Waymire Open Leads· at Goose Hollow By J erry Shipman GOOSE HOLLOW, ORE., N ov. 7 , 1971 - The sec ond rac e o f th e Goose Holl ow Northwest Championsh ip Penton Series saw Bill Co o k in the Open Ex pert class and Butch Waymire in th e 100 Ex pe rt class ju m p t o a n ea rly lead for th e overa ll p oints t owards th e $5 ,00 0 combination cash a nd a n ew 125 cc Kapus Gets Three By N. A. Williams WOODLAND , WASH., Nov. 21, 1971 Kap us has a little bad lu ck but still takes h ome three turkey s. Once again 21 8 riders were o n th e tr ack. Each rider was h oping t o pl ace well enough in th e Ma in Events to be ab le t o take h ome one o f th e m an y turkey s given t oday. Gary Kapus (Yam) went d own whil e in the lead o f o ne of the 250 class he at ra c es. Gary got up a nd managed to catc h up and take the win but th e heat was t oo slow for Gary to m a ke th e Trophy Dash . Gary did m ake the dash in the 3 6 0 class, an d he took fir st in that event. Bad lu ck was with Gary agai n in th e 250 A Main . He was in the lead with one lap to go when he went t o o wide while 'lap pin g a slower rider an d D on Dodge (Kaw) slipped under Gary t o ta ke first . Gary came out fast a t the st art o f th e 3 6 0 A Main a n d h eld it all the wa y for the chec kered fir st, with Bill Ehrens ( Ka w) second and R obby Ohge (Mon ) third. Jim Herschback (Suz) h ad h is troubles in the Open clas s. After winning his heat and th e Trophy Dash, h e co uld no t ke ep th e Suzuki running in the A Main and had t o drop out. Jim still had two turkeys though, b ecause he finished second in th e 100 A Main. . ( R es ult s o n page 24) 10 h::T ,=,rl Jt~l '(0 ~lJ J ~ i' "_'·h1!IJ ~ t{ c ~ J Penton MX. The man with th e most points will be ju dged th e overa ll winner. However , most riders like Co o k or Waymire wh o ar e en te re d in tw o separate classes will b e scored o nly o n their highest sc orin g cla ss , n o ad d ing up o f tw o classes. Mud, plenty of it, was th e condi tio n h er e a nd it m ade a course change mandato ry. It was d ecided t o run th e Op en class fir st t o help d ry o ff th e track and righ t off, Co o k led with J a y T erry ' s Maic o righ t beh ind h is Maic o t o gra b second on th e firs t moto. Sec on d ma to was almos t a duplicate of the fir st but wi th Mike Fl eming, also Maic o m ounted, getting in there o n a quickly d rying co u rse. Co o k fin ally t o o k all three with Terry get ti ng a fine sec ond overa ll in fro nt of Fleming. The 250 Ex pert was quite a bit d ifferent with Cook b ein g constan tly h ounded b y Larry Masc otte a n d Bob Rush. Cook ac tu al ly lost a th ird m oto wh en h is bike a nd Rush 's CZ tapped b ars just goin g in t o the gia nt jump, slowing both to let Larry " t h e ch u n k " Ma scotte by to take the moto a nd a good second o vera ll. Waymire really owns th e 10 0 and 125 cc E xp ert class h er e a nd t oday was no ex cepti on. They ran all 100 a nd 125 's up a n ew scratch section righ t in b ack of the co nc ession stand th en o ver to th e next c ut-o ut sec tio n b ack t o the origi nal t ra ck. Butch an d hi s Hodaka{Metisse r eall y m ade .sh o rt work out of it never re all y lo okin g b ack t o o mu ch with on e ex ception, Salem 's Ken Buirl ey . _ Ken, a fte r t rying o u t th e mud, finally got goi ng to reall y press Butch in th e 125 Exp er t class but Wa ymire 's Me tisse jus t wouldn't let th at happ en, so Ken had to se ttle fo r a second overall. Fo llo wing Butch t o a very solid sec o nd pl ace in the 100's was Salem ' s Diane Cox o n a stretched H onda -framed Suzuki powered cr ea te d b y h er " old p appy". This c ombo and Diane's ab ility {~~ ~~q ~..: U?~ Sl) c o really blitzed th e rest of th e b o ys in h er class. Little Wally Klemp o n a " Bab y Greenstrea k " 100cc Kaw . reall y had n o trouble with Rich ard Re ed's Honda in th e 100 Intermedia tes. Richard lo oked con t en ted just t o stay on an d finish in o ne pi ec e. (R esult s on page 24) No Rain Makes Dust By Tracy Lan tz R EDMO ND, OR E. , Nov. 2 1, 1971 Everything was p er fect for th e runn in g of a hare scrambles in Cen tral Oregon's d esert cou n try except th e w eath er , the o ne thing you can 't control. Lack of m o isture for th e la st week made the trail very d ry an d dusty. At 11 a.m. , 15 100-and 125 s b ombed off for five laps o n th e l O-mil e cou rse . Abou t o ne -h alf mil e o ut Dan Lindsay (D K W) held a good lead over T om Mattox (H o n) a n d Paul Hug (S uz) . At the end o f lap o ne Lindsey pitted for gas h aving forgotte n to fill b efore the start. Steve Stotesbury (H o n) took advantage of Lindsa y 's m istake and m oved in to th e lead , only to momentarily brea k o n th e fourth lap lettin g Lindsey a nd Madd ox b y . At the finish i t was Lindsey, Maddox and Stotesbury. First 100cc was Joe O'Halloran ( Hod) fo llowed by Dal e Hicks (Hod) . T he c o ncl usio n of th e small bike class brought the 25 0 a n d O pen bikes t o th e line fo r their chance. Yours truly on a CZ go t a good start wh ile everyone else fough t for p o siti ons b ac k in th e dust. Brian Eastburn (Ma i) worke d from a b ad start t o jus t a few seconds behind a t the fi n ish. Pulling in third , second 250, was S teve Sund seth (Mai) rid in g h is third race. Hopefully , mo re races will be held th is winter . Race da t es will b e p osted in Cycle News. 1 ••••• ~~~~~•,;r.~• • • ••• «> .'" ..~• • • III 1:1 , - "lo"""l"l • • -. ••-

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