Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

BAKKE IS THE HEAVY ONE friant Clinches; Mayes Talces 'first Overall Win cable and yanked on it. But Art did fmish the race, wbicb indicates the kind of spirit separating the winners from the also-rans. o intent were we on the exciting race for Number Ones that we really missed a great deal. First Amateur was Charles Gates (360 Yam) who must have had a race every bit as exciting to him as A.C.'s and Friant's were to them. Same goes for Mark Steel (250 Bul) wbo was first 250 Amateur. Mike Johnston rode his 175 Puch in for first Div. II Amateur for the second week in a row. Chuck Cartledge (Hod) got the word that he won his last race for first Trail Amateur today. Cbuck, for the second (or more) week was first Trailbike, not just first Trail Amateur. At the start of next year be will be carrying an Expert plate. Proof that it was WFO country most of the way came with Brucc Ogilvie and Wayne Cook, bodt on Baja's, who usually fini'h very well up~ front, running a Iitlle behind today, as first and second Trail Expert. Somebody mentioned about this time that it was a (J) ~ w Z W ...J U >U The last line-up of the 1972 D-37 desert season. by Alice Khea LUCERNE VALLEY, CAL., Dec. 17. 1972 - The last race of the season usually draws a good-sized crowd and today was no exception. ~lany of us came out not to race but Lo observe the fmal battle in the war for the very hotly con tested number one paltes in both the 500 and Div. If Lightweight classes. .Jackrabbits ~l.C. used much of Lucerne Valley's WFO country for loday's race, interspersing it at unexpected intervals with the area's notorious rocks. a few sandwashes and a couple of bilis. Many people failed to recognize Mitch Mayes as he and Rich ~lark diced it out for the fast fifteen miles or so. Mitch was riding his 400 Husky and. carrying number 312. Rich (Hus), recently plagued with bad luck, got more of the same today when his rear wheel turned to scrap metal, leaving ~litch out in front all by himself. ~litch main tained a respectable lead through the pits, followed by Larry Pfutzenreuter. Pfutz's battle was decided last week and he Flas now reconciled himself to the number 2x plate and appearea to be throughly enjoying this final race of the season. A very intent Bill Friant (Puc) was third J.hrough the pits. Bill was taking no chances on ON Fing today and letting youn~ Tom Brooks have his number one plate in the 175 class. There were no crowd-pleasing wheelies or waving, just hard crouched-over-the-tank racing. Pie Plate number F charged by, puzzling everybody. lIe turned out to be Mark Aden t wbo is usually on a much smaller bike and is now trying out the 250 Yamahas. The battle for N umber One h as been in a five-way lie for several months. For a While, it looked like Art Knapp, but then Tom Smith (Yam) started getting hot. Jack Knebel (CZ) seemed to rally well from his broken shoulder and' road race. started racing hard, Jerry Jones just kept quielly gathering up the points and . dte youngster, A.C. Bakken. (lIus) setLied down and started finishing well. - Although ~litch ~fayes was first 500 Expert through the pits, he is not in the running for Number One so his fans cheered when-A.C. Bakken (1Ius), riding like he was carrying a basket of eggs, came through the pits ahead of his competition. Steve taats (Gre) and Tom Smith (Yam) were within striking distance, followed closely by Tom Brooks who was trying hard to get more out of his tiny 125 DKW. We waited to see if the first Novice was somebody we recognized, but it was (I think) number 391, destined to remain anonymous as he will have a new number !lex t year. We then dashed to the finish line. determined not to miss one second of the excitement as the two still-contested number one's were decided. Half of the people in the desert followed as fast as their pit duties would allow and an eager crowd waited. Mitch Mayes, very happy with his first overall win, rolled down the finish chute and sat patting his lJusky on the tank, saying, "This sure beats riding my little bike." For the last twenty miles of the race, Bill Friant (Puc) hung right on Larry Pfutzenreuter's rear fender. About twenty yards from the fir.ish line Bill decided to make his move, and although these two are in different classes, it looked like the race of the lifetime as they came roaring down the hill, overshot the finish, made a sweeping turn under full power and banzaied across the line, Friant ahead by a knobby. Both were laughing and congratulating each other on a really great race and the scattered spectators crowded back around to join in the ~ When it was all over, A.C. Bakken had earned the desert Heavyweight Number One plate. mirth. That was it for the Division II Lightweight (or 175 class if you prefer) ra e. Bill Friant will carry number lc on the front of his Puch next year. Jim Fishback, next year's lx pulled in behind Larry Pfutzenreuter. Although that title was cinched last week, Jim rode a fairly hard race "just in case" they had miscounted. No sense taking chances. Grinning, almost laughing with joy, A.C. Bakken rolled to a stop behind Fishback. Gary Charters (Hod) put off surgery for a slipped disc to race this last one of the season. He said his bike was handling a Iitlle funny and no wonder as the rear shock was hanging on by the lower bolt. Chris Fields (Yam) was first girl today. running a litlle farther back than usual as she stopped and sat with friend Sandy Termin until help arrived. Tbere was no Rescue 3 today and friends brow·beat the ambulance into going after Sandy. Sandy su[fered a broken collarbone and pelvis and is now resting comfortably at Martin Luther Hospital in Anaheim. '"'Vow, I just knew something was going to break," he said, "And [ was More beroics were performed when Harry, a Rimrunner, got off. lie was leading the Novices. In the dust, number really taking it easy." A.C. hroke his backing plate on a rock last week and he had to win today to be Number One. And that is what he is. "Wow," said was a Desert Baron who stopped and, two racer ran over Harry. Number three giving up his chance to win this one, flagged off the hard-charging pack until A.C., who's first 'Amateur ride was the fellow Rirnrunners arrived to take over. final race of last season, "I still haven't gotten used to tbe idea of being umber I wish we knew your name, fella, bu t congratulations to Desert Barons for having such a great guy in your club. Chuck Carr (Hus) and Gary Barber (Hus) one-twoed the Novice class, followed by Don Boyer (Yam) as first 250 Novice. Phil "Long Overdue" Haskell was fourth Novice and first Dinosaur (for the uninitated that is a 650 Triumph.) Phil says Triumph will dominate the desert again next year as it 58 Amateur." Malcolm Smith saw A.C. ride in September of this year and took him under his wing. A.C. worked very hard to justify Malcolm's faith and that Number One plate ough t to be good enough. However. we might point out that A.C. still has one glory to look forward to: he has never been first overall in a 0-37 desert race. Art Knapp, who will be Number Two. nex t year, was running pretty well up front when the world opened up and swallowed him and his' Husky. Art stayed near his hole and waved off some of the hoard behind him, while casting about for something to use to repair his broken handlebars. Art finally came up with a screwdriver, stuck it in the remaining stub of the left-side handlebars and rode the rest of the race (most of the fust loop and all of the second) like that. We never did figure out what he did when he needed the clu tch. I assume he grabbed the dangling did "In The Beginning." Bill Decker rode his 125 Yamaha in for the honors in the Oiv. II Novice class and finally, Chuck Loyd came in, the very first Trail Novice to make both loops. My apologies to all who were left out of results during the past year, or had your n

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