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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125807
'" ~ Fremont Marathon lL ,... N by Bill Spencer FREMONT, CAL., Oct. 21, 1972 John Hood, a TWA pilot, outlasted the rest of the 37 rider, 125 field with Rod Simas going out with electrical troubles early. Rod was tuning up for the next days enduro and was happy that he caught the problem. Finishing on the same lap, 46, and the only other one to do that was the team of Mike Chase and Dave Austin on a Suzuki. Bob Rickerts and teammate, Larry Dart, finished third and one lap down. Returning for his first effort in some months was Ron Womack with a sharp one lap win in the 250 run. His indestructable Honda, or should 1 say, Hood's, really set a torrid pace and with the course run in reverse, the speeds increased tremendously. The early rains had inundated many parts of the track necessitating some changes but for the most part, the rains only made for better traction and super racing. In the Open run, it was another runaway for Chris Willems and his CZ. He was followed for the entire distance by Bob New on another CZ, but, at the end, by some distance Willems had only one really great dice during the last two hour marathon and that was a former pro star of old. Jerry Griffith showed up with Gary TrammeLl and his 500 MX BSA and despite a failing afternoon, at one point Jerry and Chris got into a real race. Griffith did some fancy slipping and sliding in the early parts and wound up with some missing pieces, like no brakes, no clutch cable and a sticky throttle. Then when he took over the controls from 15 year old Gary, he wound up right behind Willems, only a lap or so back and it was race city. Willems didn't know it at the time, but Jerry wanted to give him a try, knowing that he was the leader. So, he wen t on by him with a nice slide and then up on the back berm and super fast. You remember when J said he didn't have any brakes? He forgot. Willems wen t by him easily as Griffith recovered from a case of the screaming mimmies. '" ~ Z ~ w Z W ...J U >- U His only competition came from ex·ace Jerry Griffith, on a brakeless c1utchless, etc., BSA. Start Up MX---------------------------~----------------- by Mike Weiland START UP, WASH., Oct. 8, 1972 Everybody's favorite track was blessed by some dynamite (replaces "far out") fall weather this Sunday. If you weren't getting off on the race action you could just lounge around in tne warm sun and gaze out at yonder mountains. The 125's and 250's ran eliminations, but the Senior classes were somewhat sparse. 250's ran their own motos but the Open A and 125 A ran with the Bs. The small bore machines provided some chuckles at the mudhoJe (there were some classics in the 250 and Open classes also). Tom Jesmer on a 125 Montesa breezed the mudhole and the class win. The 250 B saw some good action with a whole passle of Husky riders showing their stuff. Strangely the European bikes outnumbered the Japanese bikes this day.) Greg Curtis, overall winner, did some come from behind action putting forth some good level headed riding. The 250 A class provided some great assaults on the mudhole. A team of three riders had a group meeting at the mudhole during first lap action. When the meeting was over, each of the similar clad riders would spray down the next with great gobs of slop. Mike Weiland (me) on a Maico pulled out the win after playing gopher and repassing Greg Heitman (Yam) and Jei Jonsson (GS-CZ). All the while Jef and Greg were having a battle royal that lasted from start to finish. Jei won out at the flag. Dennis Merkle was on hand with his Carabela once again doing fine 'til it konked out each moto. Much close racing was going on between Heitman, Jonsson, Kinnear, and Buchanan (the latter on GS machines), and a lot of fun also. The combined Open class was total confusion. B riders were leading the A's and last week's winner Roger Pudwell (Bus) wallowed in the mud one moto then got run over the next. Stylish Bob Atkins (Hus) was looking good but wasn't in the lead. 1 can't overlook Fred Sessions, the only B rider with a 400 radial Maico. Fred says the biggest problem with his new mount is its ease at riding over one's head. Sure nuf, Fred bounced squarely on his nead. All in all it was a fun day of racing, a challenging course with enough mud to create a genuine spectator attraction (the gorey bastards). The new layout turned right sooner than previous layouts and more than one rider bonzaied down the wrong section. A honest.to.goodness downhill with a dropoff jump and some standard off-camber stuff (wet and slick all day) made everyone feeljust like the famous Preston Van Gerber on the Belgian circuit.