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/125836
.. e= • . D-37 Points MX at De Anza liD .,;j t CZs provided the closest dices of the day and a photo .fmish in moto three. It is refreshing to see evenly matched, competitive racing. I never did understand why moto two was restarted because some riders killed their bikes on the line. Dianne Connolly and Dee Granger motored out to motor around the course with the 125 Am/Ex bearded riders. I dig on PP racers and look forward to next year when they will have a separate points scoring system for the ladies. The regular AMA points-ehasers seem to have this course wired. It will be nice to see a change of venue for the few remaining motocrosses of the season. • CRC Indian Dunes By The Shadow VALENCIA, CAL., NOV. 3 0-37 250 and 500 Am/Ex dass eyes the starter at De Anza. Troy Hollis (faFleftl took the 500 Ex win. By John Huetter SUNNYMEAD, CAL., NOV. 4 The season IS almost over for AMA D-37 motocross points chasers. The leaders In each class: 125., 250 and 500 don't feel pressed and nobody's looking back. But those to whom the quest for a low digit plate matters were at DeAnza's surprisingly good track engaged in hard-fought duels to the finish. AMA motocross in Southern California has dwindled in numbers as other promoters have sprung up over the last two years but, if anything, the competition has increased in intensity. The riders tent to be older, more savvy and unrelentingly quick in a controlled way. It is a welcome relief from the cherry-pickin.ll and squid maneuvers in many local motocrosses. Jim Connolly, the classy "old man" of Southern California track racing finally sorted out his jetting on the little Pursang to add to his points lead toward the 125cc No_ I plate. Quick Danny Sanchez (Mnk) had won the irrst two moto. by the time Jim got loosened up and running quick, to take the overall win amongst the small bore Experts. Lee Jouglard, an Amateur, kept his Penton between the two fast Experts at least part of each moto to win over that relatively small turnout. All of the 250 and 500 Amateurs and Experts were combined in a .time and labor-saving maneuver and, ironically, leading them all was 250 Amateur Frank Fitzgerald (Hus) who rides with an effortless speed that belies his recent move to the go-fast ranks. He pretty well dominated all three motos, sometimes stretching out impressive. leads over everybody including probable 500 Expert No. I plate, Troy Hollis, and No. 2 George Luther, both CZ pilots. Holli< w,," running with no clutch and a six-ply enduro tire on the rear of his 381 Czech while Luther gave the whole pack a start hill's lead before getting going. The unintentional handicapping did just that and kept them back in the pack all day. Hollis took the 500 Expert win stretching his points lead way out front of any con tender. Fred Griego motored consistently for the 250 Expert win ahead of Mark Cooke on a Bay Area Bultaco. The 125 and 250 Novice goes were surprisingly dominated by the eventual winners, John Radcliffe (Mnk) andJohn Kubat (CZ). Kubat is very quick and could probably give a good account of himself in the Amateur ranks. DeAnza's short but vertical motocross track held up wen throughout the day and the. generally tac ky traction resulted in some impressive racing amonst some evenly matched 500 Novices. Ray Robinson (CZ) won the irrst moto as Alan Thompson took the last two victories, even after his Arnacos split wide open in the last round, but the one-two finishers were continually pushed and often passed by out-of-stater Scott Schafer. The last moto duel for second between Robinson and Scbafter on very similar If he hadn't dragged his foot he might have won. 8 With a turnout of riders again falling below 100, the CRC has decided to discontinue its Saturday daylight motocross card at Indian Dunes Park in favor of two new programs. I Biggest and most important of the changes involves the fact the Riverside-based CRC will now be host for Friday night racing on' the International Course at Indian Dunes, offering 100 percent cash payback to all Expert divisions, plus 20 percent trophies to all other classes. On Saturday nights the CRC will host night racing at Orange County International Racew ay at East Irvine. As for this Saturday, number one Expert was Jim Bauer, mounted on a Maico, while Dave Krikac, a Bultaco joc key, was the winner at 250 Intermediate. • AM.E. Spillway Park By Mike Anderson SANTA MARIA, CAL., NOV. 4 All you women libbers will be happy to hear that there's a certain girl from Atascadero who not only competes with the men, but beats them at their own game. Ms. Cathy Dotson, on a Honda would have completely done in the 100 Junior class had it not been for a sparky young newcomer named Jimmy Kringlen (Yam). Both Kringlen and Dotson put on a show that brought the spectators to a standstin. Going in to the last moto, each with a 1-2 score, they ba.ttled to the last lap with Kringlen coming out on top, Dotson in a close second, and David Fee (Yam) in third. Ken Zahrt brought out both his Bul tacos to win th e 125 and Open Expert classes. Vince Clark (Suz) seemed to be a potential threat to Zahrt, but a bothersome back held him to second place. Bob Griswold (Yam) also made a good bid against Zahrt in the Open class, but wound up second. The 250 Expert class was a "who's in first?" classic. Larry Greer (Hon) burst into the lead of every moto, but Joe Cushaway (Yam), working his way up from poor starts, took the lead to win the first two motos. The last moto put Cushaway out with bike troubles, and cut short Breit Yager's (Bul) lead when he fell, putting Larry Greer in first. So when the final points were tallied, Greer emerged as the victor, Joe Cushaway second, and Breit Yager third. Joe's brother Leroy Cushaway (CZ) came out of r~tirement to win the Open Intermediate class ahead of Harvey Wynn. Craig Comontofski (H,!s) took the trophy in Open Juniors, as did Greg Peck in the 125 Juniors. The 250 Intermediates were combined with the 250 Juniors, and to get a trophy they had to win overall Well, Jim Zwaduk (Hon), a very fast Junior, worked it so that no Intermediate got a trophy as he won the class overall, followed by Steve Hinton (Hon), Robert Calles (Suz), and Tom ("Thomas") Summerfield (Suz). By Maureen Lee Hopetown was its usual big blast this year, and as usual, I've got my version of some of the things that happened there, over and above the straight news reporting' on the race. One I got a kick out of happened Friday night. The tale was told me by some friends of mine in the Dirt Diggers and others I know, and it happened. A gal showed up at the ranch, got in and proceeded wandering around looking for a rider named Steve. She'd met this guy in Seattle,' was favorably impressed, by his tales of daring on race tracks and by him. When he said he was going to ride Hopetown and to come on down and see him, she did. Only problem was she couldn't remember his last name and so she hung "around asking everyone if they knew Steve. She spent the night under a tree and haunted sign-up Saturday still looking for her hero. None of us ever knew if she imally found him 'cause she finally vanished but if she didn't find Steve there were plenty of other willing racers wbo'd be happy to take a pretty bird along and show her the world of motorcycle racing. See the attraction bike riders have for girls? We saw several riders with a complete group of pit dollies, each as cute as the other who were helping shine bikes, hold goggles or just gaze in admiration. Bet the kids who have motocross in their schools end up with the pick of the crop when it comes to the ladies. Then -:vhile loading up Sunday with the pit area nearly empty we saw a strange sight. All weekend there had been no trash barrel. so you can imagine what a mess things were. Well, the bikers who get used to things like that in the desert had mostly bagged up their trash and left it in neat piles. Up comes this sedan, out piles a family and they proceed to go through the bags of garbage, completely scattering some of them and adding to the mess in the process. They stuffed the car trunk with beer bottles and a few aluminum cans and had the doubtful luck of finding a half-emptied bottle of rose wine and a full bottle of Red Mountain someone had left behind. If that had been in the sun all day it would be worse than ever, not that I haven't sampled it in my time! S till, going through garbage bags wouldn't be my idea of ending two full days of tremendous racing. People who don't belong to clubs and help throw events for their fellow riders to participate in don't know the half of it. It's work, especially on a GP the size of Hopetown and our helmet is off to the Diggers. They did a great job from the guys who manned a far out comer of the course with a flag to Bobbie and her team who worked in a trailer both days, missing all the fun just to get the results out to meet Monday deadlines. Riders were asked to put down what jacket size they wore on the sign-in sheet so the club could buy the right size should they be a class winner, and not one but several riders asked the sign-in crew, "What size jacket do I wear?" Sounds funny, even at six in the morning. If you don't know what size clothing you wear you must really be in trouble. Then one guy got ex tremely upset because he couldn't find his name on the sign-in sheet for his class and the class was already pushing to the starting line. It was carefully explained to him that it would be there when he signed it there, alongside his number. Then we were talking with Carl Cranke before one of his races about all kinds of interesting things. He's a neat a guy off the track as he is on it, and he looked past me at an Expert bike that was beautifully prepared, as was the rider_ Looked like a sponsored ride and as Carl said, they'd spent time on it;