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/125793
.. l!l Back to Back Scrambles - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - : : - - - - . . . . . ; : : . . . - - - - - - go Q. ~ a> _. go « ~ ~ w d >- U By Bill Spencer FREMONT, CAL., July 14; HAYWARD, CAL., July 15, 1972 Bruce Hanlon put together a thfrd and a first in two nights of scrambles action to head the Bay Area racing scene for this week. On the A & A Bultaco, this speedster has really been setting the firey path to victory for this area of District 36. . Friday nigh t's action was a come from behind effort with Pat Brown doing the leading and Jerry Kole takinR second place to keep up his mammoth lead in that class. Brown has been coming on strong in the past few weeks on his Sonny Kenyon flyer and may well prove to be a dark horse. , . The 500 Expert had no surprises in store Friday nigh t although Rick Hocking was there, while Saturday saw Butch Davidson show up on a .couple of Ben Zakarian's Bultaco. The 350 Pursang proved to be the big gun for the point leader tonight and the win was all his in front of Mike V.anLienden who had won the 500 Expert at Fremont the nigh t before. The two heats Friday night set the pace for the Main as VanLienden had taken a se,cond in the first behind Ted Bailey and Hocking had run away with the second. For the Main, it looked like Santa Rosa Pro Short Track By Bill Spencer SANTA ROSA, CAL.,]uly 18,1972National Scrambles Champion and Ascot Novice point leader, John Gennai, seems to be getting it all together of late after a bout with an intestinal disorder. Tonight's Junior·Novice program belonged to him from start to finish climaxed by a wire to wire win in the. 15·lap fe"ture. Riding a Sonny Kenyon/Mt. View Auto Stereo Bultaco seems to agree wilih the rookie Novice who still rides the A & A Motors Yamaha twin at Ascot: Finishing second 'and being the only guy to give Gennai any competition was Mike Rensrow on the Champion·framed Yamaha that Hocking normally rides. Hocking is" sitting out a three week suspension by the AMA. Renslow came up with the fastest qualifying heat to be the only rider to put anything on ,Gennai the whole evening but came up second to John in the Semi and about a second behind in the Main. Mike was quite jubilant after the Main and went off to the fair that hosts this yearly' even t with a smile, some money and a couple of pit tootsies. Indoor ace Steve Hernandez made his first dirt track Main in some time tonight and he seems to be getting his ,act together. The Ossa ace took a lot of ribbing from the locals over the past few months since his big Madison Square Garden win but he seems to be coming out of that and back to the money.winning ways. Taking a second in his heat behind Steve Pestoni, he was the last man to the King of Fremon t would remain just that. The start went to Bailey and he held it for the first lap until Mike got the Selby Montesa around in fine style. This really put the pressure on Hocking, but both he and Jerry Kole got by Bailey and now Hocking was setting up Kole. Going into .the first tum, Kole took a rather wide line and Hock saw just enough light to give it a try, but about the time he got to the light, the infie:d tum was upon them and Kole closed the hole. In a horrendous crash, they both went down .. Neither was hurt but . VanLienden easily won over Bailey, Brian O'Hagan and Daryl Musto. Jack Bonamarte took home two trophies for the two nights with a win Friday' nigh t and.a third Saturday. Jack got a .terrific start Friday and led Dan Hughes and Mike Sarandria to the checkered. While his start Saturday night was just a~out as good, he had Alex Jorgensen to reckon with and it proved to be too much. Steve Burgess finally did his thing in the 500 Novice Main with a double win for the two nights. His Larry Smith BSA MX has had just about everything go wrong at least once and most. of the time it was while he was leading the Main. 't; Two 0·36 big guns. Butch Davidson (31 VI current point leader is being pressured by Alex .....__;;;Jo:::r~g:en::;se::.;n.;,;I::ea::;d:.:i:.;:ng::.:.:h·::;,m:::,at:.,H:.::,ay:.;w:;a:r;;:d..:'sc:;:r::a:.;:m:::b:;:le;:s;.' ..... _ make the Main and finished eighth. With an indoor National circuit on tap for th,e winter, his name may' well be put back Champion.framed Bultaco from the back to pass Terry Otton toward the end for the win. , ~ -.... ~' Dennis Brennan hung it up after his crash with Roger Brunch. who went on crashing through the semi.' Busy 0-36 Weekend--By Bill Spencer LODI, CAL., July 7; FREMONT, CAL., July 8; OAKDALE, CAL., July 9,1972 - Just past the halfway mark in the regular season, Butch Davidson is still ahead by a country mile, but his arch enemy, Alex Jorgensen, is still closing the gap. By the end of the season, it could be a thriller. 'These two riders and Jerry Kole are the hottest thing since firecrackers and ~hen they get together for 'a bash of racing it is bound to be a thriller. The total came out with Alex, 12 for the three' races, Jerry, 11, and Butch, 10. Sandwiched in between is the Terror of the Valley, Mark Asbill who got 11 with two very big wins at Lodi and Oakdale. Mark had slipped to fifth 'behind Mike VanLienden but will retake fourth spot as Mike only rode Fremont for the win. This will make a four-way battle for the number one plate but only if all four can keep up. The last half always seems to be the toughest on both machine and man, Butch's lead is still tremendous, bu t it would only take a few weeks to cut it down to size. Friday night's action.packed event came as a su,rprise to the Lodi M.e.. as they were getting used to seeing only about 200 riders but with Fremont running on Saturday night the place was packed. . It was in the 250 Expert Main that Mark Asbill dia:led them in with a real racy start that left him all alone in the lead. Jorgensen and his new Champion _ Kawasaki nearly caugh t up but it was checkered flag time and Asbill wen t home with an extra six points to his credit while Alex could only better point leader Davids()n by one. The kid VanNieuwenhuyzen is back winning this time in the 125 Junior class. Check that name out again. Imagine if he becomes a hero, the ' double truck just won't get it all in. His mom has helped the motorcycling world with displays of pictures and stuff in her local town library. Rich Anderson came up wi th his firs t . win in some time in the 500 Expert class. Rich and his new BSA MX were ready for it and he has vowed to do more of the same in the fu ture. Mr. 500 Expert VanLienden still dominates that class at Fremont. Mike ~ays he will return to the 250 class in the next week or so. Could be that his fifth place ranking isn't good enough. The two nights of 650 Expert battling belonged to Alex Jorgensen and his very fast BSA Lightning. It ,is almost the same machine that his father used to terrorize the class. While Alex is no feet·up stylist like John Gennai was, he is without a doubt, the fastest. kid running this class. The Saturday night show was its usual large self, with a turnout of 410 riders and a very large spectator crowd. It was Jerry_Kole all the way in the 250 Expert Main and he rolicked in splendor with a whopping eight points and an even bigger advan tage in the high point battle for the Blendzall trophy. It is Kole's turn to get with the program or be relegated to a battle for third and fourth as both Davidson and Jorgensen aren't going to wait for anyone. Jack Scroggins still controls the 650 Junior class here at Fremont but tonight's second place finisher, Adam Sabedra, is building up a new Trackmaster Triumph so we may have.a real battle shaping up here for: the high poin t trophy. Thor Oden won yet anqther 500 Novice Main and the four month rider has accumulated 26 points at Fremont alone. Dan Slack has been getting tired of getting the second place stuff and wants to graduate to the bigger brass. Surprise of the nigh t goes to Wayne DePriest, former referee of the Eastside M.C. turned back to rider with a very fIne third place finish. For a change in the 350 Novice bash, John Tavis, Jr. didn't win. On the first go-round, he got in the middle of the pack and found himself surrounded and when he tried to get out about three guys fell. Doug Bengtsson won it over Dave Murrell on the Murrell Sportcycle 350 Bultaco. A record 64 250 Novices signed up for two divisions of action with Al Mendoza winning the U A" and Dennis Souza the "B". Sunday's short track ,at Jerry Griffiths' Pioneer Rodeo Grounds was a surprise for some. Early in the year, the traction was open as the dirt here is almost all sand 'and just great for knobbies, but as the summer wears on, just about eve,ryone has switched to class "e" traction and so the en try was going down. Jerry being the pro that he is went 'out and mixed some sawdust and, chips in the sand and voila, class uC~' traction1 The slides were the gre,atest aild so was the racing. . With that also came the news, that J·eny has been given' permission to::'run Saturday nights. Starting July 29; the first of a bunch of night races will attract a very large audience to this deep dirt facility. The first guy to yell "Yippee" was the forty.one year old fast ·kid, Ray Huff, who only lives down the road a piece. . Huff really had it going in ihe heats, but couldn't hold it in the Main and one by one the kids got by with Asbill once again commandeering the lead position. Son Denliis Huff hung in for the second place spot and looked great. He just got back from a fishing trip and it must have agreed with hm. Manny Datan turned' in third for his first Expert trophy .. Once again the battle for first in the 125 Expert Main was with Mark Asbill and Ted Davidson. They finished in that order. Teddy better watch out or Mark will catch him in the black plate race. Teddy at 14 is seventh and Mark, same age, is 11 tho Speaking of Smiths, I almost forgot that SatUrday night, the littlest Smith racer, J ona got a second place trophy in front of a lot of boys. All that and good looking,. too.