Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

CMC Saddleback Hi-Performance ~ .. & N .... '" a . til ~ W Z W ...J U > U Scarifying night time stuff as the 250 Juniors fly over the Lions' iump. Wayne Johnson (97N) and Ken Kondas (F27) iead the pack. CMC L i o n s - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - By Buzz Baty WILMINGTON, CAL., Sept. 15, 1972 In the past few weeks, some gradual course changes have taken place here at the "Beach". Changes that improved the action for the riders, and since most of the changes are in the area of the finish line, greatly improved the spectators' enjoyment of the Lions' Fast Cats motocross action. With the new course, I started using a stop watth on the Experts in the first round motos for the three classes: 125, 250, and Open. Some very interesting times came to light. Charlie Bower, in winning the rust moto for the 125 Experts, turned in a fast lap of.5 7 seconds flat on his Mettco Penton. BIlly Payne brought his Maico out, leading the 250 Experts for their first moto and, in winning, turned a best lap of 56 seconds. Now that Tim Hart and Bill Payne are teammates, they ride as teammates should, doing all within their power to shut out tile opposition. In the first 500 Expert moto, they came out of the starting gate one, two, with Payne leading the way. I pu t the watch on Billy as he led past the finish line on the first lap, only to have Billy come to a dead stop on the approach to' the Lions Jump. Evidently, in doing a plug c/;leck after practice, the plug wasn't properly tightened, and it blew out of the head. Tim took over the lead on his Mako, and I started timing Hart his next time around. Tim's time on the fourth lap was 57 seconds. As Hart was getting the last lap flag from Stu Peters, I showed Ilim the stop watch as I started it. Tim, with no traffic in front of him, then turned a 54 second lap as he took the checker. Bruce Flanders was picking the times , .$15,700 ,.. CONTINGENCY AWARD MOI'.!EY Be AWINNER! " "BlendzaW' Corporation has posted a total Of~15.100 contingency award money for 1972 A.M.A. National winners that win with "Slendzall" and display the "Slendzall" stick:er. The awards to cover TT, short track. road race, and motocross nationaJ events. The fOllowing 1971 Trans A.M.A. winners received "Blendzall" awards totaling $3150: ---_-.Sylvain Geboers, Werner Schutz. Roger DeCoster. Joel Roberts, AdOlPh Weil, NONE BETTER FOR MOTO-CROSS, ROAD OR RACING AVAILABLE! NEW LINE SUPEil: '~te.a,aU --C~ I'€~ up from my hand signals, and was announcing them. Bruce then took over the timing chores during the second round' o.f moto.. Bower brought his Penton out fuming and snorting for the second round. It was really obvious to everyone that Charlie was really getting with the program. He won this one going away, and his last lap was, you guessed it, 54 seconds flat. It was Billy Payne's tum to try and get into the fast time act, but he had to do it the hard way. He got a really lousy start in the last 250 moto, next to last over the jump the first lap. In four laps, Payne had go.tten back up to second, chasing Husky-mounted Joe Johnston and, on that last lap, Bruce got Billy at 54 flat. So, we have Charlie Bower on a 125 Penton, first overall ahead of Mettco teammate Mike Garrett on another Penton, and Tim Lunde on a Bultaco for third; Charlie's best time, 54 seconds. Bill Payne, first overall in the 250 on his Maico over the Husky of Joe Johnston, and third place CZ·mounted Mark Hovater; Billy's best time, 54 seconds. Tim Hart first overall in the 500, with Maico teammate Billy Payne second and Ron McClellan, CZ·powered, getting third; Tim's best time, 54 seconds. Some very interesting speculations cropped up throughout the pits and stands: How would a match race between these three come out? I heard rumors that twenty five dollars has been offered to the winner of such a match race, but that was supposedly proposed to be a one lap affair. But that would put Charlie and his Penton at a real disadvantage out of the hole. But, what's wrong with a five lap match race? After all, it would only take five minutes. by Buzz Baty IRVINE, CAL., Sept. 17, 1972 Today's fourth event in the CMC's nine event Hi-Performance Motocross Series (that's going to result in the winner being proud owner of a Honda A600 sedan from Long Beach Honda) turned out to be a wild day of fortune, misfortune, and the usual victory, defeat, and frustration for over two hundred of the CMC's stalwarts. First of all, 1 would like to applaud the officials of Saddleback Park for cracking down on pit racerS. Competitors who were caught hot doggin' it out of the course area had their numbers taken down and were given backward starts. Charlie Bower is some th in ' else! There are a lot of riders who win the fast five and six-lap sprints at Ascot and Lions and Charlie, with that superbly prepared Mettco Penton, is one of them. He was first overall Wednesday at Ascot, first overall Friday at Lions, came out today and rode two twenty four·minute matos, won both and got first overall. Mike Garrett was second overall WIth Barry Porter (Bul) beating ou tRick Ruckman for third, and preventing a Penton sweep. Today was Mike Garrett's last race for awhile. Mike's gonna hit the books up at Cal Poly, beginning rns second year of engineering studies. Doug Sherman won the first 500 Expert mota with John Fackler getting second. When the list of pit racers' numbers taken down by Saddleback Park officials was turned over to Stu Peters, No. 73, Shennan's CZ number, was on the list twice, so Doug was slated for a backward start in the second round. As it turned out, Doug's CZ wouldn't fire, and he dido't start. The win went to John Fackler (CZ) as well as first overall'. while Sllennan's first moto win gave him enough pain ts for third. A few months back, I did a race report on Carlsbad. In writing about the 250 £'xperts, I said that Gaylon Mosier and another rid.er had physically run ou t of gas with Marty Tripes taking the win. The following week someone wrote a letter to Cycle News, anonymous as most letters of this type are, telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about. Gaylon and the other rider hadn't run out of gas and were in great shape. So today Gaylon took his Mako to a booming impressive win in the first moto for the 250 Experts, beating Jim Wilson by a pretty fair margin for about twenty·four minutes. In the second round, Gaylon led Wilson for half the distance and then Jim passed him and each lap pulled his CZ further and further ahead of Mosier going on to win and take first overall. Gaylon was in for second with Tommy Croft third on his Maico. Now, to me, it looked like Gaylon was tired, so this time I went over to Gaylon's pit, sat down with him, and asked him if he had had any bike problems or if Wilson had just flat beaten him. Mosier is talented, fast, aggressive, and an honest young man. He said that Jim had just flat zapped him; that he had physically run out of gas. Gaylon said he's going to have t6 quit smoking and train harder. RACING CASTOR I !!ACING CASTO' RACING CASTOR Can you afford any less than the best? IT PAYS TO USE '~~' Other Fine Products By .~~. include... ;4~ ~~ * Excelzall Motor Oil * Chain and Bearing Lube * Blendzall Gold Label * Transmission Lube The best thing.: ''''''::''' that ever: • happened ,,_ . to a chain ........ ~.? ~'" At«) & "Blendzall" distributors and dealers have the stickers dnd the "S"endzall" products. Don Bridges (Pen-733) is the current series leader in the run for the CMC's Honda car. Here he duels with Neil Petrillo. •.. Iii ..., ~ A

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