Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

SMRA BACK AT SAN ANGELO By John Blanton SA N A NG E LO , TEX., Nov. 2 1, 19 71 In a surprise move, the Southwest Motorcycle Racing Ass ociation (SMRA) ex tended th e T exas road ra cing season by h o ldi ng ye t an other event a t th eir h ome track at Wall , Tex. , jus t eas t of San A ng elo. It was the fir st regular event h er e since the cl ose o f the 1968 season , ra ces b eing run in th e interim a t co urses near Austin and Fort Worth. The years h ave se en an astounding change in the old airport co urse. In previous seasons the course was n oted for its boondocky atmosphere, and negotiating the track was a real adventure. (On my first attempt to circumnavigate the c o urse in 1964 I got lost am o ng th e sunflowers and ha d to wait for a rac er to come by so I co uld tell which way the course went.) No more. Today the racing surface is as clean as a Monday m orning blackboard, and the number two straight has been turned into a first class drag strip wi th lights, grandstands and guard rails, themselves a mix ed b lessing. David Watkins turned up on his TD2 Yamaha, and I mentioned to him that it had been a lo n g time since he had appeared on th e West Texas course. He replied th at it certainly h ad b een a long tim e. The last time he h ad ridden here he had ridden a 650 BSA and his 17 5 Bultaco and h ad won the wheelie contest and the 175cc class. Dave seemed d etermined t o win th e 250 class this time o ut, but it was not to b e. Although Da ve ca me aro und in fr ont fo r the first few laps of the heat , his friend Mike C one fro m Sh erman, T ex., was n o t far b ehind and led th e remainder of th e race. In th e 250 feature D ave could n ot do even that well and had to foll o w Mik e for th e whole d ist ance . Third in both th e:. heat a nd the fea t ure was Larry Beall, Jr. , sliding a hi gh b ar Ossa th rough t he turns in the style of another well-known Beall. The older Beall was aboar d a kitted 750 Honda in th e Open class and was having a devil of a t ime of it. He insisted that he had en o ugh power fro m the four but th at he was n ot ge tt ing it to the ground properly. That see ms doubtful in ligh t o f the circumstances. Each d own shift of th e fo ur brough t fo rth a great cloud o f wh it e sm oke from o ne of th e cy lin de rs , so much th at th e H onda 's p rogress ar ound the course could b e n oted b y watch in g the exhaus t. It is hard t o believe th at an en gin e ca n d evelop full power when so m ethi ng is th at wrong with it . Besides th at, Beall was riding in t op form, sliding th e b ig bike int o the turns with smoke co m ing off th e tires as well and never seem ing to miss h is line. Never-th e-less, in both the h ea t an d the feature, Beall steadily lost ground t o both J .C. Klusme yer (Nor) and to J on Minonno (T ri) . Mike Cone h ad a 250cc TR2 Yamaha for the Open class , but he seem ed to get off to a late start in th e heat and never made it u p. In th e feature, however, Mike soon p assed Beall's Honda and began to challenge Minonno's Triumph for third place. He David Watkins (181 and Mike Cone got locked in a wild du el in the 250 heat . ~M.mberl .To rep rese nt in gov ernment Moto rcycle Owners, Riders, and Ent h usiasts PO Bo x 26062. Sacra me nt o 95826 ~ ~~U~~R~~y=EST SUZUKI GENUINE PARTS AND KIT -PARTS THROUGH OUR MA IL ORD EA DEPARTMENT, DEPT. CN-W P.O. BOX 2446 SANTA FE SPRINGS, CALIF. 90610 HODAKA-BILITY se e y o ur local HODAKA dealer Distributed b y Tiger Distributing 653 W. Broadway, Gl endale, Ca . 91204 -.** ** ******* ****- : Yamaha & • : Triumph : of Fontana : • : : : Sales Parts Senice : • • • Maico, DKW, CZ, Hodaka, BMW • • 9008 Sier ra Ave. ~~. • • • Fontana, Calif. (714 ) 822-2252 ~'. . - -"~ ,. -****** .*** ******.- spot , so h e t o o k off while th e Harl ey was st ill wa rming u p . Th en Wood cracked the th ro ttle, an d, rear t ire smoking , h e caught Nick at th e three fu rlo ng p o in t. Somethin g was terribly wrong. The Harl ey was go ing much too fast, and its exhaust crackled an d popped as Lee sh ut it d own befo re th e ligh ts . T o o late. He had once aga in , as he so often d o es, b ro ken o ut, a nd th e win w ent t o the ever p ers istent Nick Moral. If racers like Wood and some o f the o th er bi g-fuel riders co uld get in t o some h eads up racing, there w o uld b e quite a sh ow of speed, but in this E.T . st yl e co m p etit io n , where consist ency alo ne wins the race, the fu el bike rider is a t a dis advantage ; o ne just can n ot control the speed of a fueler th at well. I previously reported an eve n t at Green Valley , in which Wo od's fueler was elim inated in th e final run by a stead y -ru n ning Yamaha street bike that had go tten in to the top eliminator class b y t he absence of en ough fast bikes a t th e course that day. The 250 turned 16.97, a nd the Harley turn ed 9.94, broke out, and was eliminated. SMRA ran anoth er kind of race t oday, als o ; combin ation ' dirt-aspha lt ra ces. It is r eall y a motocross with part o f the c ourse foll owin g the road race track. The event was run later on in the even in g. (R esults on p age 24) raw Valley Enduro Want.dl~ FOR sta y ed consistently in th e 75 0 's slip st ream and m ay have eve n headed it briefl y , b u t third was th e b est he could finis h . Gary Wilson won th e 200 hea t o n a citaked Yamaha over Duncan Paul's slee k Su zuki in a close r ac e, but in t he feature Gary was up a gainst th e 12 5 heat w inner , J ohnny Bry ant, als o Yamaha mount ed, and th e lead changed several times b efor e Gary co uld pull o ut th e w in . Ther e were drags, also, and a comedy of errors they were, too. It seemed th at every second elimination was set tle d b y a di squalification o f some sort. In o n e instance both competit ors in one run were eliminated when b oth broke o u t o f their qualifying times. On another oc casio n a guy on a Honda SL350 (yes, w ith grass hopper tires) eliminated himself. Get this. He was making a ~ - - 12400 Bened ict Ave. Downey . Ca. 90242 (2 13) 869-6616 a Busqval'Da Choice of ChlllllpioDS M ed- fn ter nanon al, 4790 Pal m Avenue . La Mesa. CalI forni a 9204 1 Stee n Han se n MOlo rs, 3619 109th Stree t .Ed monton 73, Areena - DISPLAY ADVERTISING DEADLINE WEDNESDAY, Dec. 8, Spm Holidays a 'co min ' Issue No. 49 om n, pn,cQn. S.ale : Dec.,l5. q" c: .>oM , by -run. His opponent for th e run was already eliminated and did n ot even show up on the grid. All this guy had to do w as to drive his motorcycle down the strip and through the Iigh ts to be advanced to the next round o f eliminations. You guess it . He broke out. The top eliminator wd settled in a run between Nic k Moral on a 500cc Kawasa ki kneeler and Lee Wood on a Harley fueler, The 500 was given a b ig By Lyle Fergus KAW VALL EY, KS ., Nov. 14, 19 71 Mo ther Nature must love th e Kaw Valley E nd uro because she p rovid ed th e Wh eelsport Mo t orcycle Club with a b eauti ful we e kend and so me of th e best end uro terrain in th is p ar t of th e co un ty . A lot of the rid ers and fam ilies ca m p ed at th e cl ubgrounds Saturday night. Sunday morning th e grounds was jammed fu ll of vans, cars , trucks and a few motorcycles, 360 t o b e exac t. T h e overall winner was Vern Street riding a 250cc Husky . He lost a t o ta l o f 10 points. Vern was presented with a Belstaff riding suit d onated b y the Whe elsport Motorcycle Club of Lawrence, Kansas. The overall travel troph y was donated by Print and Pride Trophy o f Topeka. Vern gets to keep th e travel trophy for one year and hi s name is e ngraved on it. He will h ave t o win it three times before he gets to keep it . T he overall winner in eac h class were presented with a cham p io n pl aque and the next rider was given a first pl ace troph y an d th en on down dependin g o n h ow m an y finis hed . (R esu lts o n page 24) Gerber Gobbles Up Turkey Run By Terry Newfarmer CAMP WILLIAMS, UTAH , Nov. 22 , 1971 - The winners thought th is year's Turkey Run was t ough but good, while many o f th ose trailing b eh ind gave it up as a b ad show. Their cause fo r concern was th e section o f course th at began w ith a long, lo ng clim b up a grav el jeep tr ail to a ridget op , ran th e ridge thro ugh snowd rifts and mud, only t o d escend d own an untracked ridge covered wi th b asketb all-sized b oulder s. Th e descent w as a p addle-down affair for most of a mile, but it lo oked longer and lo nger during the eigh t-lap race . The show o f the d ay was provid ed b y ove ra ll w inner Preston Gerber and 250 winner Wo ody Lawhon, as they outdistanced the field in a d ay-long battle for the lead . The fir st couple of laps saw Gerber charging to o p en up a lead , with Lawhon hanging on 5 0 feet b ehind, as they quickly b egan t o lap slower riders. Then Gerber somehow managed t o bind up his fron t wheel with a bent fender, an d while h is pit cre w broke o ff the offend ing fender , Lawhon streaked over the first hill "in t o th e lead. By the b eginnin g of the seventh lap, Gerb er 's rel entl ess pursuit closed th e gap t o ab out 15 seconds, but Lawh orn was still in th e lead when he stop ped a t th e b eginning of lap eigh t, th inkin g h e needed gas. He d idn't, but b y th e time h e rushed b ack t o the cours e: Lawh on was just in time t o d rop in behind Gerber, and th e co ntest w as decided. Nat very far b eh ind was Peter Crandall , who ran away fro m th e 125 s, to remai~i ·\lnb .$M'Il>le; . i,D;< lclass. First trn: 200 was n one : o ther than Woody 's fa ther, Ll o yd Lawhon , who gra b bed th e class lead a fter K evin Cro ft re ti re d wi th br oken chain a nd WD-l a com m un ications wire wrap ped aro und h is rear hub. (O ne of th e hazar d s o f raci ng o n a mili tary c om poun d.) First 100 was Lamar Walker on his st retched-out Hodaka , b ut David Cra ndall is b ack racing, a nd h e is b eggin ing t o put some p ress ure on. T he course was n o t marked , and th er e wer e n o checkpoin ts excep t a t th e p it s, but the riders were tak en o n a guided lap , and "spotte rs" w ere pl aced t o detect course-cutting. Some six o r eigh t riders wer e thus disqualified, but after-race rumors sugges te d th at still more cu tting w ent undetected . Anoth er problem was th at two riders traded o ff o n th e same b ike, tan gling th e r esults one can go only so far in bl aming su ch behavior on the club th at puts on the race. But a three-hour w ait in the c o ld made one thing clear : The Salt Lake Mot or cycle Club needs t o devise a sy stem for more quickly arriving a t official results. T he club's nex t effort will be the Cherry Creek Hare an d H ound in th e sprin g, and Race Ch airman David Sp en cer promises a new and faster results sy st em, bui insists that some cross-check on h elmet stampin g must b e included. Sm aller th an ex pected en tr ies in Utab cross-co u ntries of late in d icate a trend toward motocross b y so me riders. Th e reaction t o Sunday 's course suggests th e need fo r a d ecision on wheth er races should be tough, h en ce a b etter te st of skill fo r th e serio us racer , o r easy, since . ~f>s~ 'I f,~q,,, ~P ~P!i*'?lS,ri4J;lf'?rJ!'9w , (R esu lts o n page 24) N " '" ", Q. ::;; ... . ~ ~ !Ji w c:3 >U

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