Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ Fremont Scrambles - - - - - Hangtown MX - - - - - - - By Bill Spencer FREMONT, CAL., July 28, 1972 '" Duane Spence, one of the over the hill ~. set, proved that age can still endure the go rigon of the young man's sport and won « the 250 Expert Mai.n over rookie pro en Rick Hocking and then splattered the track with oil in the 650 Expert Main to /~ have it shortened when no less than five Z W riders slipped through the gooey mess. ...J The 250 Main had Spence lead all but U >- one lap, the fifth, and then take the U checkered in me six after Hocking did a super fan tastic spin-ou t coming off the last comer. Hocking had taken the lead from the 38-year old father of two other Experts, including Black Plate 18, Dennis, going into the first tum on the fourth lap but was knocked off the groove by Spence when he got just a sligh t bit wide on the infield tum. Hocking then waited until the last lap to make his move only to lose it all in the last comer. Spence had a wide margin over Rocky Malynn and Mike VanLinden for me first and was all smiles. Trouble was on its way, though, as the. 650 Expert Mai.n was just around the comer. Hocking had signed to ride this one on a 650 Triumph but sponsor Arnold Castelhano had second thoughts about it when the time came to race and so Hock had to be content with just one ride. So fhe scheduled ten-Iapper got under way with Walker in the lead but just slightly ahead of old man Spence, Jack Bonamarte and Dan Hushes. After three laps the only big change had been the forward movement of Landsborough who had moved into fourth ahead of Thorton Smith. At the halfway point the bottom end of Spence's Triumph let loose a fme spray of oil and the third through sixth place men started doing some wild sliding with the four crashing in a large heap in the middle of the flfSt tum. At this poin t the red flag was thrown and since the track was so slippery, the race was called. Luckily no one was hurt although there were moments of apprehension for Bill Flett and Phil Andenon. After -aU the bones were counted and found to be in the righ t places, trophies were awarded with Walker first, Bonamarte second and then because of the attrition, rookie Henry Sanchez and Rich Beers got the next two spots. Spence will hopefuUy have another motor for next Saturday. By Reese Ultz ,PLACERVILLE, CAL., Aug. 4,1972Friday nigh t motocross has returned to Hangtown Speedway via the Sacramento Racing Association. Kim Reeg continued his winning ways under the ligh ts by total domination of the 100 Novice class with back·to-back wins. Two hometown favorites, brothers Brian and Doug Veerkamp, kept their fans on their feet with Brian placing second in the 100 ovice class and Doug grabbing the 125 Novice honors. David Baker shared similar honors by walking off wiu, the top brass for his Division II win in the 125 Novice bash. In the combined Amateur/Expert category, Kevin Henry stole me 125 show, wiu, a first and third combination win in the Expert class, but not without a lot of pressure from Amateurs Jack Melugin and Jeff Dumm who placed first and second respectively. Paul Norman and Doug Harrison shared honors by respectively winning nrst and second divisions of the 250 Novice class. Steve Marsh and Chris Carter packed home the big brass for 250 Amateur and 250 Expert. J .C. Shirshac, a very promising Sacramento lad, picked off the big one in the Open Novice even t and Lonnie Murphy grabbed top honors for Open Amateur. In what had to be the "big race" of me evening, Ron Self who dominated the Open Expert class, let Charlie Marshall squeeze by hinl in the last ten feet of me race to the finish line. That last-second spurt by Charlie landed him the big one that almost got away. SRA-promoted night motocross will return to Hangtow.n Speedway on August 25. . i!Io l>- ... N ~ NEW PHONE. ADDRESS FOR AMA Concurrent with the move to new offices in Westerville, Ohio, the American Motorcycle Association's new telephone number will be (614) 891-2425. Effective August 21, 1972, the entire AMA headquarters and the AMA News staff will be located at 33 CoUegeview Road, Westerville, Ohio 4381. Argyll Park Motocross - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Reese Ultz DIXON, CAL., Aug. 4, 1972 - The S acramen to Racing Association returned to Argy U Park for the balance of the 1972 Sunday motocross season. The return warmly welcomed (105 degrees in the shade) by 411 of the area's finest motocrossers and several hundred enthusiastic fans. Kim Reeg again dominated the 100 Novice class and moved several poin ts closer to Amateur standing. Eddie Riggs shared similar honon in Division II of the 100 N"ovice class. Kirk Godfrey, Kevin Norman, Craig Scholz and R!'n )unkert packed home the big trophies for me respective divisions of 125 Novice. In the combined 125 Amateur/Expert bash, Mike Hart and Mike Jennings wrapped up the big brass wim back-to-back wins. The four divisions of 250 Novice were topped by Daniel Lane, Paul Norman, Jack Combs, and James Barton. The 250 Amateur and Expert classes were wrapped up handily by Robert Willis and Frank Snow of Honolulu. respectively. The SRA will stage another of its Novice Only events at Argyll Park on August 20. COLISEUM CYCLE MAIL E. t. CYCLE SALES ORDER ~KAWASAKI ~ MOTORCYCLes 3958 e. 14th ST., OAKLAND, CAL. (41 5J 534·5461 94601 1415196'-6622 v..... Ca. IJ«MO 'AY AREA DIRT BillE HEAD Mt. _.~~~ .. • • : and ACCESSORY CO. '.r Co. Tla a ElDUIO SPIOCIETS 2 TOOTH CZCounter Sprockets $9.25 OF FREMONT 37318 FREMONT BOULl!:VARD FREMONT. CALIFORNIA 841138 Cal. res. add 5% sales tax. : BULTACOSl?eCIALlSTS •••••••.....•.....•....•••...•.....• , C&M SPECIALTIES-P.O. BOX 717 MOUNTAIN VIEW CALIF. 94040 A curious rider attempts to determine what his front wheel is really doing on the quick Chowchilla track. Chowchilla Scrambles - - - . . . , . . . - - - - - - - - - - - - - by Sportphoto CHOWCHILLA, CAL. Aug. 4, 1972 The word is all over the district that the Chowchilla track has improved abou t a hundredfold! This information has spread and the rider turnout shows it with about 250 eager competitors on hand tonight. Without any doubt, race of the night, possibly of the season, was the 250 Expert, which was a very new white plater show the vets me quick way to the gold. What makes this win even more interesting is the fact the he was astride a 200cc machine, giving away 50cc in a class where you don't want to give anything away. Young Bob McClure read the starter to perfection and got a near ideal start to grab the lead and never looked back clear to the checker. Bob was chased in to the first tum by Ric Armitage and Tommy Francisco. On lap tw 0, Fran cisco slipped under Armitage to grab second. Francisco could close in on McClure, but what really turned his head was the way Bob was getting the drive out of the last tum to pull him about a bike length down the front straight. At the checkered flag, McClure held about a two bike lead over Francisco who was chased by Reed. Larry Pereira took the lead of the 500 Novice right off the start, chased by John Grauer and Ken McFarland, an order they held to the fmish. Robbie Collins took fuU advantage of Brush Barons Scrambles-----.....~~.......__~--.o;--~- By Andre Ney CARLSBAD, CAL., July 30, 1972 The Brush Barons Team Scrambles was for Dist. 38 desert poin ts, but ou t came some of Dist. 38's best moto-xers, along with riden from L.A. The Brush Barons took over the whole race area - both motocross counes and the drag strip to create an extremely demanding course, starting on the strip going east in a wave start. The Open Experts, foUowed by 250 Experts, 125 Experts and Powder Puffs. They raced about a third of the way down and turned into the pits. From there, down the car return road at wide open speeds and aU that was lacking at this poin t were fairings. A righ t tum led you out ontQ the east course, a series of straights with hairpins ending with curves, a valley, an uphill, a gentle slope, left tum, another slope brought you to the water hole. (It dried up in the afternoon.) The in teresting part of the water hole was that just as soon as you got the front end up to clear the water you had to climb a hill. Needless to say, this produced very in teresting riding techniques. One rider decided to give his bike a ride and many bikes lost their nre. Several straights and turns more LESS SOUND _ ACK PRODUCTS. 100% Financing [}-=S:< * -- ~I --~ ef; SILBY MOTORS 346 EI Camino, Redwood City HIo51 W-4l1:l ........ ~ San Jose. Ca 95125. 408-293-5111 -, A good place to buy a great motorcycle . . . . . . L_ 676 Auzerais Ave., ~ NOISE: The sound that kills the sight. an early lap pileup to grab the lead of the 500 Junior and stroked his Honda through for the win ahead of Von Jentry and Dennis McEvoy. Gary Gallo moved right out in front of the Open Novice, chased by Ken Owen and Adrian Hackler. Owen tried mightily for four laps to find a way around Gallo, riding harder in the turns but giving away some horsepower down the chute. Entering the first tum of the last lap Owen reaUy drove -in deep to nnally move past GaUo and take the lead. Exiting the last turn, driving to the checker, Gallo used his extra hones well and got the drive on Owen to just nip him by about a half a wheel. Jack Rothstein grabbed the immediate lead of the Open Junior, chased by Rick Zimmerman and James Reed, but coming out of the flfSt tum Jack slipped out into the loose stuff and Rick put his 61 cubic inch H-D into the lead. Coming around the last turn,Jack was attempting to slip under Rick and found there wasn't quite enough room. Their machines got tangled up and aU this wild action put James Reed into a lead he held to the finish. Jim McCracken got another one of his patented starts in the 500-open Expert and wailed home to his second win of the night ahead of Earl Bachant, Rick Reed, Harvey Baker (who had faUen) and Lyle Moore (who was black flagged for a stray muffler). ...... and you were wrestling the west course. This was the roughest part of the whole race on the course that the CMC and Professionals run on. There were a few changes in it to make it even wone. When done with the west course you dropped down an off camber hill that had no berm and bushed that loved to grab at the bikes. At the bottom you had to climb up a steep hill that got a lot of bikes airborne: A short run and you were right back to where you started. Dust was a little bit of a problem, bu tit was a desert race, righ t? Mark Stevens and crew really did a great job of running this race. Mark doesn't need a P.A. at the riders meeting. Mark seemed a little tough at the riders meeting, but in no way was he -wrong. ._ The Team Scrambles ran three hours in the morning for the Experts, and three houn in the afternoon for the Novices. Each team had a max. of two riden. They had a choice of using either one or two bikes. The flag went down at 9: 15. There is always the talk that motocrossers can't ride desert because they don't have the endurance, or they're afraid of getting lost, ect. And desert riders aren't tough enough to ride motocross. Well, today some of these argumen ts were blown into the weeds. Mike Stephenson (CZ), Dist. 38's top AMA motocrosser, teamed up with Robbie Norgaard (CZ) to come off the line first and stretch out a big lead to come in first only to be disqualified. Mike Steams (Suz) and Don Martin (Suz) came through on their 250's behind Bill Urban (CZ) and Greg Allen (Bul) to finish very high up overaU abead of many Open Experts. With the Experts fmishing at 12:15, there was a short break and off wen t the Novices in a wave start. Their. racing was just as ferocious as always. There was a Yamaha that went down, bursting into flames. By this time an Ossa got into the act. No one was hurt and the Ossa escaped untouched. The individual . ba,ttles l~Qwed. w!lerec the Expe.~'$o·are ,;.,g>~frO;D1. q~'',)'nslt;IJ rt\J(t u Ott.v·j . rrj ~*ttJt:'I:"'')o.J J')~ •__ (,.,,~.. \'!\ -(c'.; I l-'~· ... l

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