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/125792
... " . ... .... , ..... .. ... ~ .... ...- .... - .... ,.- .. THEY-HAD FUN AT CARLSBAD It> N > :; ..., ~ w Z W ..J U > U By A. M. Friedman & Dave Schoonmaker Photos by Schoonie CARLSBAD, CAL., July 16, 1972 Even though they knew the ACA had a race already scheduled at Carlsbad, Orange Coun ty Raceway pu t on a big pro-am event today. The people who lost out. of course, were the racers who lost an event from one or the other. In any event, there was a light turnout as only 77 riders (compared to 200 at last week's Riverside event) came to Carlsbad today. Those who did had a very good time, did some intensely involved racing, and were able to spectate for even some more. The ACA paid cash prizes to Juniors which may have been part of the reason for the hammer-and-tongs warfare on the track. There were over a dozen spills, but nobody was seriously. hurt. There were only four races run but the combining of classes added a good deal of interest to the proceedings. For example they ran all of the production classes together. This meant that for 20 laps the slowest tiddler was out there with the fastest Open bike. The latter was the Honda 750 'of Jim Dunham which pulled out a dominating lead after a short tussle with several other 750's, one of which fell trying to get around Dunham. The little 50 and 100cc machines may look as though they require very little skill to get around. Quite to the con trary they require some incredible concen tration and skill even if they aren't a spectator's delight. If you slow down a little too much on one of the tiddlers it takes a very long time to regain the lost speed. One also has to be very smooth and predictable (to say nothing of brave and trusting) since a bobble at the wrong time can put one righ t in the path of a faster machine. Today those faster machines were going over 100 which is 50 miles an hour faster than the tea cup racers. I t can shake you up pretty badly if you connect at that kind of speed differential. The Junior GP classes were getting money and there was a good turn-out and some surprising riding on the way to it. Chuck Strohmenger put his TD-3 Yamaha far in front of'the rest of the field in the 250 class. The Anza Cycle sponsored Kawasakis of Terry Stanart, Tom Ross, and Tom Kermon forced their way into the top positions in the 100, 175, and 500 classes respectively. Tom Ross was second overall in the ligh tweigh t even t. Bud Keeley (Hon) did a number on the 350 class for that Junior win after a long dice with Jon Ahlroth (Yam). Gerhard Klemm on a Norton Atlas was the day's fast Junior and took second overall behind the day's star, George Kerker (Hon). George spent quite a rew laps fooling with Jim Dunham who was half serious. They Jim Dunham chases 'a smiling (or maybe laughing) George Kerker. They had a good time until Jim fell. Bob Endicott usually rides Jim's bike. spen t a lot of time playing footsie on the straigh t, kicking at each other in the turns, and having a good time un til Dunham tried to get under George in the third turn and found that the rear tire didn't get sufficient traction when it wasn't on the ground. So Kerker had to amuse himself. At one point he decided to do a wheelie down wheelie hill leading to the last turn. The resulting tank slapper caused him to lose interest in that. Bob Nelson and Dale Alexander were the other two Open class Seniors, but Alexander's 812 Honda stopped running when it got overly cooled by the air coming in through the hole that the rod punched in the case. Nelson was given the official second although he was a ways back because he ran into some trouble when he tried to negotiate turn two on his righ t exhaust pipe and the. fron t wheel using the fence as a berm. It was a lot of fun if not super-pro even t, but that just added to the down-looseness of the day. There weren't too many spectators, but among them was Bob Endicott who had just gotten out of the hospital. It will be a while before he rides again, bu t he is pointed that way. ~UKI Don Unger won the 200 class. ... .. Close comPany among the tiddlefS.