Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I hate t o thi nk about pushin g o n u phills l Whose moose and why is it running? By Ji m Ste wart Photos by _Larry Langley and Stewart CA LI FORN IA CITY, CAL., FEB . 10 F or · twenty-eight years the Four Aces have b een lay in g out and holding th e classic Moose R un , and fo r- as m an y years as anyone can remember it has rained . But this year there was not a cloud in the sky and it was warm and sunny! The racers were welcomed, in fact the first time this '74 season, by th eir o ld friend, d ust. The sm o ke bomb run was three and a half miles long, fairl y fas t and choppy with a few rocks lo cated in precis e sp ots to cau se numerous unloads. Ask former Number One Heavyweight Art Knapp. Art reshaped his handlebars on t he wa y to th e bomb ca using him to d rop out. At the bomb it w as Mark Adent A.C. Bak ken had no trouble with d ust on his way to the overall win. ridi ng his new 250 Penton with a com mand in g lead . Next came Jim Fishback and Bob Romine who were not seen a fter that. Into the pits it was A .C. Bakken , back from his trip to Sweden for a little brush up from Husqvama. It mu st have paid o ff, as A.C . held the lead into the finish and had plen ty of spare time. Mark Adent wa s ab le to ge t by Amateur Bob Balentine and close the gap between himself and A.C . but still had to settle fo r second Overall, firs t 250 Expert. Adent was th e only rider t o get by Balentine th ough, as he held o n to his third overall p os ition and first Open Amateur to the checkered J im Wotring took advantage o f Steve Holl aday's bike 's engine go ing sour and moved up in to the fo ur th o veral l and second 250 Expert spot. T hi rd 25 0 Expert was Rover Jim Eveland wh o has work ed very hard th e past year to b rea k in to th e top five. Jim wa s running seven th in to the pi ts , but was able to ge t by Holladay and Wayn e Cook be fo re the chec kered flag fell. Dave Lapraik turned th e th rottle o n a little more during th e secon d lo op to move from fourteenth overa ll in to the sixth overall positio n by the finish . Just when everyone was beginning to think it was a big bike course, Bru ce Ogilvie h ad to go an d spoil the big bik e rider's fun, by winding out his little 100cc Harley to the limi t an d picking up the eighth overall position. Needless to say Bru ce was first T rail Expert. Maybe the fact th a t he was being foll owed by J im Sumners and th e old Desert Ace himself, Smokeb omb, (who knew they were running second and third Open Expert), helped to keep that Harley wound out a little tighte r so it wouldn't be used for tracti on. Allen Hull, second 400 Amateur and Christopher Au stin, first 250 Am ateur, battled it o ut to th e finis h with A lle n co ming out o n to p. I d o n ' t t hi n k Ch ris t oph er ca red too mu ch t ho ugh , as he go t his clas s win ov er th ird p lace Don Lyon wh o has been finishi ng up in th e , A mateur class a lmost every wee ken d. N u m be r I 035 x was second 250 Amate ur, b ut I was un able to get hi s nam e as h e was lite rally ca rr ied away in joy b y a bunch of Pack Rats. The Novice cla ss was won overall by Dw ayn e Carte r riding a pretty stoc k looking 35 0 Honda. Maybe the 35 0 Honda was th e hot setu p th is weekend as Evert Kemrenaar also rode one and got fourth in this clas s. Sandwiched between these two four strokes was Gary Spencer a nd R. Boggio for second and th ird . Gary Spencer, who lives o nly a few miles away in Ridgecre st, thought he'd try his hand a t Dis trict 3 7 de sert racing and did pretty we ll his first time out, especially for finishing w ith a front flat. Dw ayne C ar ter w a s s o me tw enty-three places ahead o f the next Novice, Tom Erickson, wh o was fir st 25 0. In fact, most of th e to p ten Novices were on 250's including Dan Vill egas , Ed Rodine, J oe Polvjance, and Ron Donahue. (My ap ol ogie s to Ro n Donahue, who was ac tually first Novi ce in th e Viking run but was no t given the credi t, but if h e keeps up riding like he has been I'll be writing about him as an Amate ur anyway.) Class winners in the Division II class we re Bob WalJin gsfo rd, first Exper t, Ti m Bow man, first A ma te ur a nd Gerald Cunnin gh am , first . ' ovice, Wallings fo rd, ' 74 's n u mber ge . is a very co nsistent rider (as you can tell by his n umber ), and now has the trophy t o prove he is a co nstan t threa t in the 175 class. Lu c ky Merri tt got lu cky , an d he ld on long enough for a class win in the Trail Amate ur ahead of several times winner Mar k Cartwright, But it surely co uldn't have been all luck as he also got fifty-first overall. Last di strict race 's second best T rail Novice ri der , Dino Leone im proved one p ositi on this w eek t o ta ke first on a very strong running Penton. But his win was not without a figh t, as he had the hot expansion chamber o f Doug Otten breathing down his jersey at every hill. And there were plen ty of hills, which helped to uphold the Four Aces tradition. Could Norton be thinking of going after t he number one plate in the deser t, as Dave Aldana was seen again coming through the first loop in thirteenth place? Dave never finished and was said to h ave hit a hay bale on the second loop. The only complaints heard at the finish lin e were those of riders who got lost or had to push up a hill. In fact the No vice who was leading p ast the bomb go t so lost he ended up ra cing and winning a European Scrambles held on the opposite side o f Randsburg. All in all it was a bi tchen race with a lo t o f virgin territory used, an d the co urse must not hav e been all that bad as more than 5 00 riders finished. Le t 's j ust hop e we will b e able to rid e the 29th annual Mo ose Run Har e and Hound ne xt ye ar. Results 4 00 E X : 1. A .C . Bak k en. 2 . Jim Sumners. 3. S mokebomb Gaetz. 4. St eve S taats . 5 . Rich ard aebo. 4 0 0 AM : 1. Bob Ba len t i ne. 2 . A. Hul l. 3 . B . 8 errnett . 4. R. Angli n. 5. D . M ye r. 400 NOV : 1. Dwayne Car t er . 2. Ga r y Spence.r . 3 . R . B09g io. 4 . Evert Ke m re naa r. 5. To m B i tn er . 2 5 0 E X : 1. Mark Aden t . 2. J im W ot ri n g. 3 . Ji m Eveland. 4 . David L ap ral k. 5. Je f f K ir k . 2 5 0 A M : 1. Chr istoph er Austin. 2. No. 10 3 S. x . 3. D on LYOn . 4. Ll oyd s u ekct. 5. Gary Best. 2 5 0 NOV: 1. Tom Er ic k so n. 2 . Dan V illegas. 3 . Ed Rod ine. 4. Joe Po rvla nce . 5. Ro n D onahue. 175 A M : 1. T im Bowman. 2. Jack Chestnut. 3 . B i ll D ec k er . 4 . Jeff Lambson. 5 . Do ug Sterl ing. 115 N O V : 1. Ge ra ld Cunningham. 2. Rick Wagner. 3 . J im Owens. 4. Dan Peneau. 5 . Mark McClella n . 100 EX : 1. Br uce Ogilv ie. 2. Ch ri s Weber . 3. Bob Rutten . 4. Denn is Scammell. 5 . Gary Conner . 100 AM: 1. Lucky Merr itt. 2. Mark Cartw r ight. 3. Ph il C owan . 4. Power J o h nso n. 5. M ark M iller. 1 0 0 NOV: 1. Dino Leone. 2 . Doug Otten . 3. Lloyd Ball. 4 . Steve Shook. 5. Jerome Pat r idge. 1 7 5 EX : 1. B. Wallingsford . 2. Ron Holst . 3. Wayne Lee. 4 . Monte L ee. 5 . Ron Hall. No w look Langley, you were supposed to send us pictures of the Moose run, no t these enduro pies. I mean, nobody runs a Hare and Hound o n this kind of stuff, r ight? No ? This is the Hare and Hound? 7

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