Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

October 2, 1973 Roberts • • • Continued from page 31 'cause he was gonna win it and it threw him off. That's so stupid I can't believe they even let them on the track with no helmets. The race track was as good as it could get today, and I knew it was going to be rough. But they to'ok care of it after every heat, which was far better than any National I've been to this year. Because Colorado was the same kind of track, same base, and it just got so bad you couldn't believe it. CN: How do you think the problems can be solved? K R: Well, better organization and somebody who can control more of the people. You go here and there's somebody different, then you go there and someone else is running it. They should have a guy to say, "Okay, where's your track supervisor? Is he going to have the track ready?" Yeah, he's going to have it ready; then you show up Sunday and nothing's happened. They should have a guy there to inspect all that. CN: You'd like to see mbre professionalism all the way around. KR: Right. They can race mini bikes in their back yard. It's a motorcycle race, not a circus. And another joke is that these guys get these rent-a-cops to run everybody out of the pits; and everybody has different passes and nobody 'knows what the hell they're doing. At Louisville there was almost a riot, with the rent-a-cops chasing people off. You couldn't look at one sideways without him pulling out a gun on you. It's just an unprofessional way to do things. It's like me saying I'm going to hold a race, and hire some guys to watch the gate and then soon as all the people come in, grab the money and leave. CN: The AMA is trying to screen applications for Nationals more carefully. KR: The AMA is doing a good job, don't get me wrong, bitt I think that some improvements have to be made. CN: How does it feel to be National Number One? KR: I don't know. Haven't got a chance to put the number on yet. CN: When you do, how do you think you'll feel? KR: Ahout the same as I did with numher 80. More people' will be watching me, and there's always more pressure on the top guy to do well. I'll do the best I can. CN: Congratulations, Ken. KR: Thanks. • CMC at Ascot By John Bethea GARDENA, CAL., SEPT. 19 Bob Messer has returned to racing after a long period of forced spectatoTship allowing a broken foot to heal, and he did it in a surprising 500cc Expert class tonight at Ascot Park. It 100 ked like Bill Rubly W;lS finally going to insert a Boyd & Stellings into the win circle after he scored a flISt and second in the first two motos. It was while winning the first round, though, that problems began to pop up. His fron t wheel nearly collapsed after the finish, and the second round apparently didn't help_ He never showed up to the line for the third and suddenly, Messer, with a second and third, had his opening and he won the finale to take the overall. Joe Scotland (Mai), winner the previous four weeks, overcame a flISt moto 10th and came back to score a second and first, easing him into second overall ahead of Rubly. It wasn't Bruce McDougal's nigh t, either, as both his 125 Penton and 250 Yamaha seemed to be lacking slightly on the power. Mark Tyer (Pen) swept the 125's in convincing fashion with Bruce a solid second. Bruce then drifted back into third OA in the 250's while Bob Hosford (Hon) and Dave Pessy (Hon) clashed for the victory., Bob, on the four-stroker, had it pretty well sewed up with wins in Page 37 the first two encounters with Dave, on the two-stroke, second in each. They reversed positions in the third and that was all Hosford needed to take the class and $60 first cash. Mike Bell may just have one more' Intennediate 125 ride left after his string of four wins was snapped tonight by'Dave Bush. Mike collected a second, by virtue of a mid-round non-start. In the other two he had a second and a first, but Bush had two wins and a fifth. It closed Mike to within three points of his transfer, and a first or second this week will be enough. Th'e 250 Intermediate was a very tight one on points. Dan Davis (Hon) won the first and third rounds, but barely won overall with his 10th in round two. His 830 points just nipped Ken Smith's 825 via two seconds and a third on his Ossa. Calvin Weber won the two-rider 500 lntennediate on the Boyd & Stellings. Pre-race favorites Tim Ochoa (Hon) and Greg Toyama (Ban) did not disappoint anYQne as they went out and swept the Mini and 100 Junior respectively. Joe Plante (Yam) tied Mike McDonald (Mai) overall on points with each running with a first, second and third. The final moto best fInish acted as the breaker and Plante's second and McDonald's third was the result. Rich Zallar (Hon) was a transfer favorite from his heats in the 125 Final and he chalked up the win over Bruce Waters (Hon). The 250 Final, though, was a stunning upset as Jason Churchill (Yam), who barely made the Final with a ninth ',and f"tfth during the heats, , stunned them with the overall topping John Morrison (Hon). • CMC Irwindale IlY John 'Bethea IRWINDALE, CAL., SEPT. 21, 1973 Two ve~erans of CMC night motocross each won' their first ever at Irwindale tonight while the latest hotshoe of CMC racing won the other overall. Bob Messer (Mai) made a victorious return to CMC and made it two in a row with a clean sweep in the 500's again. However, it was not a clean sweep of the three motos. How? It was a combined affair with the 500 Inters and who else but Mike Gillman (Yam) showed his soon-pro efforts by acing the final race. The 125 Expert was Chuck Lunde's flISt win for the en tire year, a very surprising face when you consider how often you see his name in the results column. His overall was tarnished only in the final event when up-and-comer Nelson Whitehill (Hus) won, which 'pushed him into his second consecutive second here. The newcomer to the win streak game is Jeff Vidic (Mai), who topped his third overall 250 in four weeks. The only time he lost (last week) was when he won two motos and wound up second overall. Tom DeVore (Ric) rode with consistent style in the 125 Intennediate class, and wound up the overall winner without taking a moto. Dave Taylor (Yam) came up -'On the short end of the upset as he won two of the three races, but a ninth in the other left him 60 points shy of the win. Only one Junior event was decided on the three-moto system of scoring and in that, the 500's. Bart Taylor (Hus) whipped out a pair of firsts to take it over Bob Hewat (Mai), who won the other moto. In Final action, weekly shoes Vince Van Hook and Mark Lawrence, both Yamaha-mounted, topped the Mini's which included Miss Sue Fish (Hon), who notched her second third in a row. Rudy Sayers (Hod) and John Estes (Suz) topped a 100 Junior Final that went down to the wire after much place-swapping hetween the first six riders. Bobby Smith (¥am) outdistanced Rob Roper (Hon) in the 125's and Lance Gunn (Suz) headed off Mike Follmer (Mai) in the 250's. The action was increased with Valvoline giving away a bunch of goodies. Other groups also gave away prizes, including good 01' CN with hats and bike bags. • It was another big ORA day in the desert. DRA Gus Paull Makes It Two In a Row CALIFORNIA CITY, CAL., SEPT. 16 At the smoke it was a wide spread out group with Mike McElfresh at the point. Flanking Mike on both sides were Allen Gillum, John. Fisher, Woody Schamel, Paul Greenwood and Jim Francis. Heading around the first loop Gus Paull, who had not made a big show at the bomb; was doing his pass-em-where you-fmd-em thing. At the halfway point Mike McElfresh had his 450 Husky out front and Allen Gillum was in hot pursuit on his 250 Elsinore. Now it was the Beginners who were stonning the bomb and stonning is putting it mildly. As close as we could tell it was John Steen leading the troops on a 250 Elsinore with Pat McEvoy, Jeff Maughan, Greg Zamora, Mark Hollingsworth and Steve Jordan making up the guys in the fron t. With the front runners holding down their own, the leaders were pretty steady going around their first loop and at halfway was still leading, McEvoy was second, and Maughan was holding down third. Hollingsworth had zapped Zamora temporarily and Ron Williams had pushed his 250 Honda into the company of the leaders. The Beginners were now well under way and in the pits the Novice, Amateur and Experts were completing lap one. Mike McElfresh an Open Amateur was holding his lead through the pits followed closely by Gus Paull who had managed to slip into second place and not far behind was Allen Gillum, a recently transferred Novice who after three or four rides finally got it together and' was leading his class. McElfresh and Paull were really wearing their race faces as they passed the bomb on their way around loop two. The two riders pushed each other into a good lead over the rest of the pack and about eight miles out on the second loop Gus Paull put forth a no-holds barred attempt to take the lead and made it. Schamel was also on the move and was now running third with Fisher hanging right on his tail. Paul Greenwood showed us what desert riders are all about today and gave up his fifth overall to check on and stay with a rider who had got-off just in front of him. Helmets off to Paul, it's nice to know the l

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