Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125831
October 23, 1973 Page 22 01 The Booming Motorcycle Industry and have an exciting high-paying career doing what you dig most! Home study and residenc.e training avail- able on all types of motorcycles. For information send the coupon below to: ATLANTA MOTORCYCLE INSTITUTE P. O. Box 846 Smyrna, GeorgIe 30080 404/432-4279 Plene ~nd-;'V iT c-;7' .:r'i;;fo;;;-.tI~to: .. . NAME _ ADDRESS _ CITY CO UNTY ST ATE _ _ ZIP _ PHONE another run at the off-road stuff and what else needs be said. This Honda speciaJat is a wizard at the rough stuff and won easily with a two-lap margin despite tough competition from Mike Phillips on a Cycle Center Maico and Bill Hart and Dave Koss on a Yamaha. SUpping in for the second overall and first Novice brass was Bob Vickery and Steve Jaber on the veleran Vickery's Yamaha. The Phillips/Vermace Maico held down second Expert and a fifth overall in front of Hart/Koss who had some problems with course cu tlers. Leading the Open from A to Z was John Frey and Dave Rosenquist, again. They were never headed past the second lap and held a one lap advantage at the end over Howard Hendry who had to stop once for repairs. but still managed lO ride the distance by himself. Super hillclimber Ron True teamed wilh Keith Ruester to win the Novice portion and a third overall wilh Jeff MuUins riding his Kawasaki to a second Novice with Randy Nielsen. These lwO CMC'ers looked cool and quite at ease f or this distance and when the motocross isn't running, they bring a goodly crowd with them. A Fremont rider does the Marathon one handed. Solano Eagles Motocross By Reese Ultz OlXON, CAL., SEPT. 30 The Solano Eagles M.C. started off its fall racing season with a Blue Plate Special today. A field of 38 Expert riders turned out to make lheir bid for the cove led Blue Plates awarded each year to the top ten District 36 motocrossers. Overall, more than 300 riders, including 52 Amaleurs. turned out for the season opener. In a day lhat was filled with action, the truly big races were between lhe Expert contenders. with Jeffrey Loff (Hon) scoring back-to·back frists in the Open class. He had plenty of competition [rom Allen Yarrow and Steve Romano who scored second and third respectively. Danny Turner walked off with top honors in both the 125 and 250 Experl events, but not without a lot of competition from Charlie Marshall who placed second in the 250 and third in the 125 dasses. Kevin Henry placed second in the 125 bash and Floyd Davis captured third in the 250. Fourth place wen t to' Mike Hart in the 125 and to Brian Jodry in the 250. The Amateurs had their day, too, with Dennis Pyeau scoring a pair of back-to-back win in the 125 event. William Carnes scored best in a split-decision for the 250 Amaleurs, while Bryan Poulos regislered two big firsts for an overall win in the Open category. • BRIGGO ON SPEEDWAY By Barry Briggs Well, I'm back agaIn after a reasonably long absence through roaring around the Continent trying to make an honest few bob. FACTORY OUTLET FOR PREMIER HELMETS STREET-DESERT~X IIlIHJJIIE PRfMIER YAMAHA 19721 BEACH BLVD. HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA. (714) 536-7555 B.A.R.F. Motocross 515 N. Victory Blvd. BURBANK, CALIF' (2.13) 849-7295 By Reese Ultz DIXON, CAL., OCT. 7 FOR HODAKA·BllITY See your local HODAKA dealer Distributed by Tiger Distributing 653 W. Broadway, Glendale, Ca. 91204 jM fiSItbAck'S-~ 1IMIIIA~rolMi'j.\!N]j.\ @ -(714) 822-2252 9008 Sierra Ave., Fontana, Ca. , Rusqval'na Klocker's SALES & SERVICE 6624 Atlantic, Bell, Ca. (213) 581·3983 In spite of rain, mud, threatening skies, more than of Northern California's motocrossers turned out for and 300 top the Bay Area Racing federation's race loday. The track was slow but the competition was heavy with a field of 37 Expert riders. . Danny Turner got off to a fast lead in the first 125 mOlo, but a seized engine in the early laps knocked Turner ouf of contention in the 125 Expert event. Danny went on to wrap up SILO prize money in the 250 Expert even l with a pair of back-to-back firSls. Wimple Griffin cinched the top prize money in the Open Expert class with anolher pair of firsts, and Bob Rogers cinched the lOp berth in the 125 Expert bash afler Turner's misfortune. Jerry N usba urn continued his winning ways with an excellent showing in the Open Intermediate class, while Daggett copped top honors in the 250 Intermediate dice. SCOll McKay grabbed the laurels for his win over a field of nine 125 Intermediates. Roberl Gabbert placed first' in the Old Timers Expert category while his counterpart in the Old Timers Novice event was Frank Hicks. In the Minibike event Expert honors fell to Don Cantaloupi while John Dossey was top Novice. Powder Puff honors went to Vicki Hubbs. Winners of the two divisions of 100 Novice were Casey Brooks and Wayne Seeberg. Art EUioll, Robin McKinney, and Bob Christman came out winners in the three 125 Novice events while the same honors in the 250 Novice divisions went to Joe Excobar and Russ Bowles, and to Mike AviUa and Melvin Tremain in the Open Novice. The main talking point lately has obviously been the winning of the World Championship in Poland, in front of 100,000 wildly enthusiaslic Poles, by the little fancied Jerzy Szczakiel. zczakiel only came in al the last momen t as the last Polish qualifier for lhe final and the Poles fully expecled their number one rider, Zenon Piech, to be the one to carry off the World Championship on home lerritory. Il seems common knowledge in Poland lhat Szczakiel is generaUy known as "The Rider Without a l'lead", allh.ough, over the years lhat I have bee n c o m pet i n g i n W o'r I d Championships, 1 have yel lo see a rider who has no head put logether five good rides as Szczakiel did, plus a. run-off with the much more experienced Ivan Mauger. Also he was calm enough to jump the start on Ivan and was bright enough, in the afternoon, to notice that Ivan was doing his passing on the oUlside. so in the run-off he always entered the corners wide to keep Ivan up the inside and then promptly closed the -gap! Personally, I iliink that if Ivan had cooled it for another lap, he would have beaten Szczakiel. In the World Team Cup final in Wembley, two weeks laler, there was talk that Szczakiel would not be competing, but in the practices on Thursday, sure enough, he was there. On the demanding circuit at Wembley he was experiencing trouble with the Light comeTS, the same as other Eastern riders, and he had an unfortunale crash with his teammale, Jan Mucha, which lefl Mucha with a barlly cut calf muscle and Szczakiel with a complelely wrillen off bike. The most amazing facl is thal, for years, the Polish S la te has poured thousands and thousands of dollars in to Speedway with the ullimate aim of producing their own World Champion and there was lheir World Champion, in his first western European race since being crowned Champion without a spare mOlorcycle and nobody appearing to worry too much. I finally gOl him sorled out wilh a frame for the Saturday night but, unforlunately, he failed to score in his three races. I do hope, for his own sake. lhal in the nexl year he slarts to live up lo the tille of World Champion. At the moment, heeven seems embarrassed Lo be known as the World Champion. I think there is a lot to be said for lbe way in which the American AMA Champion is arrived at. Speedway could do with a mini version of your scoring system. although lhis would cut out the greal speclacle of the World Championsh.ip where you can see the title decided in just one night. I cannot remember the exact year, but sometime in the thirties, Jack Milne of Caljfomia won all his races in the World Championship at Wembley but was still not crowned Champion because of a complicated bonus syslem before the final meeting. So Kenny Roberts is your new Americart National Champion. I am sure iliat he is the best all round racing motorcyclist anywhere in the world. He is equally at home in Madjson Square Garden, on a mile dirt track or the Daytona Speedway. It is a shame that it is not generally known, oUlside their own country, how good lhese top AMA boys really are. Unfortunately the only type of racing that is the same as anywhere dse in the world is your road racing, and they have proved in the Anglo-American Match Race series here in England that thcy can foot it with the best in Europe. Lasl week I raced in the Czechoslovakian Gold Helmet al Pardubice. IL was the first time in twelve years thal a Czech has won the fmal and, with SCOll Autrey in the field, it's the first time an American has compeled in the race. At the presentalion of the riders lo Lbe public al the beginning of the meeting, he had us in stitches of laughler with his comments on the bike the Czechs had loaned him for this meeting. Probably the best one being, "My racer is a real sleeper, man." On the small track in Prague, Scotl beat the best Czechoslovakian rider in a great race and, I am sure if he slays in Europe for lhe nex l couple of years he will be a real World Championship con lender. I am sure he enjoyed his lrip lo Czechoslovakia as the English in terpre ter was a good looking nineteen-year-old girl. I have never seen a rider with so many interpreting problems, he was conslantly by her side! Hoping to see you all if we are invited to California to race at Costa Mesa, etc. See you. All the best. •