Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

i Evening In Perris l1. '" :;; PERRIS, CAL., Sept. 30, 1972 - ... A thousand people showed up to see the 0" Old Timers Race and to help provide u some extra cash to rebuild the burned o out club house at Perris. It turned out to be one of the most fun nights ever, ~ and showed some of the younger ~ generation what the golden days of w scramblin used to be like. d Times bave changed, as they must >- and the sporl changes with them. When U these men started racing, that's what they were, men. ~Iost of them came from;) generation \'~"heTe dad didn't have the money to put junior on a bike at a young age, these guys earned il Lhemselves. The machines were heavy honest-to-god motOrcycles and not to be handled by leeny-boppers, I know for a fact that two of the riders on tap arurday never rode a race un til they turned thirty! Now some of our number ones haven't :>een their twenueLh birthday yet! People remarked to both myself and C",'s scrambles reporter Ed Drechsler about Lhe aLmosphere in the pilS. There was lots of laugh leI' and shoulder punching after each heal in the three moto races and a. complete ab:>cnce of Lension or up-Light feeling. ome of the riders are sLil1 actively compe ting. causing a bit of consternation as to what to do with 'em when others hadn't raced in years, but the spirit was there and that's what counted. Some of the Perris regulars who rode and some of the riders still active had more Lhan lheir h'Ulds full with lhe "oldsters." During the course of the evening I lost my list of all the people involved. bu t many showed up just to spectate and paraded around happily with their Dame tags on, vowing to show up again. The response was so great that an Old Timers Day is being planned for next year, in day Ijgh t hours as some of the gentlemen confessed their eyes aren't as good as they used to be! Two riders solved that problem by riding with their headlights lit, one fell off but Dale Landell make it all three times, and if you wan t a good laugh watch what it looks like to see a headlight bouncing around the uphill and then going up in the air as the rider pulls a whee lie down the straight! Riding apparel reflected tbe change in these few sh ort years_ The riders wore mostly black leathers, or levis and l' shirts. Only a few of the "young" old limers had lealhers in the ligbter colors just coming into popularily five years ago, a great contrast to the mod attire worn loday. Hair, (what there was of it some instances) was short. And the bikes, Oh Lord, the bikes! My beloved Goldstars were much in evidence and to hear those big beasts singing on the up-hill pull had the spectalors cheering. What a change from the usual lligh t of the bumble bees! You can't really say who beat who, but here's just a quick light impreSSIon of the Happenings.. .Jim Goldsmith on a Royal Enfield that had seen better days pulling his usual stun ts so that Jerry Burton had to put him on the back line facing backwards. Just whatJim wanted to show off his slidin~ ability ... Ronnie ... NOT SO OLD AFTER ALL! by Maureen Lee ~ ...... .. .. ..... t Knowles who used to appear in the National ads for BSA in the Prado days, taking out Darwin Ballard's front wheel On a start, with Darwin doing a spectacular amount of tank slappers before going down and all the California Gophers in the class going back for a restart without any flag signal to do so ... fashjon abounded in that club, most dug out their old jumpers to wear and could still get inlo them, although a couple were a little snug! ...Ken Maely, everyone's favorite "hot shoe" repairing one as well as riding with top pro Junior Scott Breisford giving him a push to get going...Charlie Hockie, a past desert number one who' paid for and wore out three bikes in one season lo get lhat n umber one plate ... Harold Albion lurking behind a smashing looking beard and mustache tinged with gray ... Roger White Ilying around on the vety bike he won Big Bear on (now thal was hislOry for you) the year he beal Bud Ekins, think he was djsapointed Bud didn't s how so he could have another ch an ce ... Fred ~Ioxley down from Pen Lon West in Sacramen lO riding (natch) a Penton and just fIying, and Monte Darling came all the way from Washington State with his CZ for the Gopher re-union ... Ben Fakkeldy on a beautiful 1'1' Triumph and nursing a face fuJi of stitches from a mugging ... Don Alfred on a 100 Kawasaki. just one of his collection of bikes ... Jack "immons causing consternation amongst the scorers for getting in and winning the wrong moto ... Larry Taylor riding Rich Kouns fast Bul and giving Don Spargur fits on Bob Hosford's 250 Honda until the Bul siezed and the pleasure of watching one of the greatest number ones of them all. "Spargoo" drift around the turns and through traffic, he impressed the young 'uns! ...District dubs represented were the Booze Figh ters, Nite Qwls, Snails, Gauchos, and the Gophers, California and Hawthorne branches ... Eb Zimmerman wandering aound with a busted hand, unable to' ride and quivering for the next chance, he used to bave halr glued to his helmet way back when ... and Harold Reynolds from the De Anza days making all kinds of excuses why he wasn't on a bike .. .Jim Hunte-r too! For shame! Most of these men can't compele full time now but the spirit is still there, and a yearly old-timers even t would be the highligh t of the season. Scrambles took a big step forward wirh this, hope one of the desert clubs throws a run with an old-timers loop in il so their old rats can have a go. When some of the guys at Perris were number one, you bad to ride desert and scrambles to get that plale, and no one even heard of motocross. It wasn't invented then! For a loosly organized evening it was a great success and remained pure fun, lbe way it was intended, a sport as Amateur scrambles are supp~sed to be. Only a couple of guys got a bit shook as to wbere they would rjde or thal they couldn't ride or didn't have the right size bike. The rest just had a ball, and said, like "Feets" MineTt. "When the next one. This is great'" • • ..... _ . . . .. :: . . . . . . BSA Rules! Right, Feets? Burton's Benefit Scrambles By Ed Dreschler PERRIS, CAL., ept. 30, 1972 - I spenl Saturday night with the llurtons, Grace, Jerry and about 1,000 others, not coun Ling the kids and a couple of stray dogs. Seems it was the largest crowd gathered together at. the famed Perris Raceway on a Saturday night in recent memory. The occasion:- a little get-together cooked up by Maureen Lee and -j im Hunter to help the Burlon's re-build their burnt out club hOllse. Most of you have already heard -how it was gu ttea ou t by a fire caused by a Molotov Cocktail thrown through an open window some months back. The idea was to invite aU the "old timers" to come back out to the track where they rode before they gravitated to more important things of life. It wasn't so importan t that they ride, but just be there. And show up they did. N ames like Don Sparger, Dan Kelley, Jack Simmons, Fred Moxley,Jim Goldsmith, Darwin Ballard, Charlie Hockie, Guy Louis, Chaires "Feets" Minert, C.H. Wheat and many more where to ride. Other great riders of a few years back came to renew aquain tances and do a heck of a lot of bench racing. There were so many there that I don't have room to list them. The program was to be splil between th e regular Perris Saturday nigh t program, and the "old timers". Turned out that the program was a full one. Jerry Burton felt that it was a sufficient success to warranl calling this one the "First Annual Old Timers Night"_ Only in the future the program will be restricted to "old timers". The Hold timers" were :;plit into five divisions. under 250cc, Open Novice, two classes of Open Experts and Active Open Experts. The active division being required because there are still qwte a few veteran riders currently challenging all comers. The machines in the pits were a sigh t lO behold. Sitting next to a $2500 spit and polish, honest to goodness, full out IT machine sets a cobby, well used CMRE TT and Half Mile ~ by Tom Blattler CHULA VISTA, CAL., Sept. 29, 1972 - Sal Peluso is the only rider this season to win three main even ts in· the California Motor Racing Enterprises Professional TT and Half-mile programs at Sou th Bay peedway, and once agaln Peluso achieved that feat as he captured the 125 TT, 250 1'1', and Open half-mile main events. Peluso grabbed the lead early in the 250 fiat track and looked like a sure winner. The would have given Sal four feature wins in one evening, a first, then came a 17 -year-old flash named John A II ison. Allison challenged Peluso throughout the 10-lap feature and finally look the lead on the sixth lap. But Allison could not pull away from Peluso. But Alljson's Lucky Yamaha was able to hold off Peluso's Don Vesco Yamaha for the victory. The win was Allison's first pro victory of the season at South Bay after many second and third place finishes. Peluso took second with Collie, aboard a Kawasaki, grabbing third. In the 250 TT maln event, Peluso took the nwnber one position from the start and was challenged only once by Collie. Peluso, wbo took seventh in the AMA National Junior Class at Ascot Par.k, c.arne. ~ack i~. tJ1¥: .Q'lS1'!- half-mile •• th".C"JII"W~jl.tiOi>li,~l.lllJ.c.? ha~p3ni/1d;l·t!le" ............., Jill................';,'t;n.etV;~ti~a~~.~~~~~~~ 01 It "'{a1 ~ desert machine. But next to that sets a streel legal enduro bike with operating lights. Frlh"l) what they say, it looked like it used to look when they were young (would you believe five years ago) and aU you djd to be competitive was remove your Iigh ts from your street bike and get it on. From the evidence, motorcycle racing must be like swimming - once you learn it, you can never forget it. The track record is somewhere around 38 seconds and these guys were doing it righ t a t 41 seconds. The very competitive "actives" did not run away from them in any sense. Don Sparger relieved the old days by winning his class. Fred Moxley and Guy Louis gave chase but would bave probably felt more at home on 40 inchers. "The Shoe Man" Maely rode as an Open Novice (the cherry picker) but managed only a second place against Glen Hayes. Chet Foster finished third. Jack Simmons and Ben Faculity both won their expert events. The racing was fast and furious with a lot of close calls. The hard fough t battles ended with Larry Schnell, Harold Allison, Darwin Ballard and Deal Kelley placing in their events_ With so many experts, they had to be placed in two events. Who is the best? Guess we will have to leave it up to next time. Jim Connolly surprised everyone by finally ge tting his 'B u!taco to run. He really has not gotten a good ride out of it all season. But tonight it really cooked. Jim beat "Feets" Minert (riding an old round barrel Victor) and Grant Murry (on a radial finned Malco). He really had to work for it. Through out the evening, drawings were being held to determine who was to get the car load of goodies donated by supporters of the sport. Funny thing was that everyone was having so much fun that it became next to impossible to give the stuff away. Finally at the tropby presentations, Miss Perris circulated amongst the crowd and selected winners. Since most of the people left were "old timers" they reaped the lion's share of the goodies. •• I --.. oJ, • Trackmaster Triumph. Walt Foster, making his second appearance of the year at South Bay, got up for second with Allison finishing in the third position. The Open TT main event proved to be the most exciting race of the evening as Allison, Fosler and Roloff battled throughout the six-lap feature. Allison grabbed a fantastic start and was way ahead of Foster and Roloff after the first lap, but both Walt and Earl began to close the gap on young John. The race was a battle of Yamahas all the way as Alljson and Roloff were on 360's with Foster riding a big 650. On the final lap, Foster really shot up next to Allison as the two came over the jump, but Allison still held the advantage. Coming out of the sweeper towards the checkered flag, Foster's 650 was just too much Amson's 360 and Walt won the event by two feet over John. Roloff took the third position. Peluso's third Feature win of the evening came in the 125 TT as Sal moved through the pack to take the lead on the third lap of the five-Jap main for the victory. Richie Volk captured second wjth Bob Gregor taking third. California Motor Racing Enterprises will return to South Bay Speedway nexl Friday night, October 6th, for another professional TT and Half-mile program. Sjgn up begins at 5 p.m. with the first 'race at' 8 -p.m. Also on tap is a special race for side-hacks. .. J I I I ).,

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