Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

o ~ w Z W ...J U > U By Mike Slaugh ter IRVINE, CAL., July 16, 1972 - The bad luck Gremlins were out in full force at the Tastee Freeze Pro-Am Classic Sunday at Orange County Raceway. It seemed safer to be in second than in first as the leaders had more than their share of mechanical ills. This race marked the first real joint venture between the AFM and AMA since the AFM became a part of the AMA. The fine ice cream folks at Tastee Freez.e sponsored the race and paid real money in the two pro events, a 250 Junior-Expert race and an Expert only open race. Daytona winner Don Emde seemed to serve notice he'd be the man to beat by handily winning the Open heat race. And he did run away with the 250 money race on the Dinesen Yamaha, while Howard Lyngard was a distant second. But in the Open Pro race Don found himself in some very - tigh t company in the likes of Jim Chen, Rudy Galindo, and Ron Pierce. Ron and Jim both got by on occasion but Emde could usually get the lead back with his superior horsepower. But Don went off and detuned his bike early in the race and Chen did likewise. Meanwhile, a low flying Steve McLaughlin, who had started last due to an oil line failure in the heat race, caugh t the leaders and there was a new trio swapping places. Galindo DNF'd and on the final laps it seemed to be Steve's race as the powerful Honda would pull away from Pierce on the straights while Ron would pull up in the twisties. Only yards from the checker some unknown malfunction caused Steve to lose power and Pierce won it. But Steve's second was very popular and the crowd gave him a jtood round of RON PIERCE, DON EMD bt COUNTY INT R Steve Mclaughlin almost got it. John Lassak (149) and Kevin Burke dispute the 500 class. Ron Pierce won the big bike pro race. Here he leads Jimmv C-hp.n applause as he returned to the pits. Another person who lost his first place on the last lap was Reg Pridmore. In the 350-Open Production race Reg forged an early lead and continued to build it up on his Wenn tuned BMW. But problems on the last lap gave Rudy Ramos the victory on his Mach 4. Back in third was the first 350 of Dick Fuller. Dick just ran away from all the other 350's as well as all the 500's and some 750's. Fourth was one of those beautiful producti"on racing Nortons in the hands of Bob Bender. Pridmo~, due to some confusion in the rules for this race, was not allowed to run his Norton in the pro races, so some fast mods were done on his BMW and he ran two more times. On neither occasion was he to be denied. In the Open GP he took an easy first ahead of a pair of, 350 Yamahas ridden by Kevin Stafford and Tsutoma Wada. This time Rudy Ramos had the last lap gremlins strike but he was able to push it across as first 500. The super street-thumper race was Pridmore's second victory as well as Jody Nicholas was somewha~less than successful. another display of the talent of Dick Fuller who took second overall on his 350 beating a whole crowd of bigger bikes. The pro races made no provision for AMA Novices so Mike Devlin rode his Vesco Yamaha to victory in the AFM 250 GP. Ken Edmonson took a close second and was in tum shadowed by Toshie Ozhicki. Perhaps Kevin Stafford had the righ t idea in the lightweight GP. After 'initially taking the lead he promptly blew up on the first lap instead of the last. The victory went to that fast grand old man of the 125's, Collin Jones, while this writer took second. Another Emde, Don's brother Dave, took first 100. Another victory this season came for flying Fred Walti in the 250 production class. Bob Crossman took second and Don Haagstad came across as the first 125. The sidecars did their thing but there was only four of them and they spread out quickly. Bob Braverman, where are you?

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