Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

- ----~- ---1 25 Beginner : 1. Ed Moore (Han); 2 . Ross Allbaugh (Han) . 100 Expert : 1. R. Young (HOd) . 100 Novi~e : 1. Dennis Greene ( H · D ) . 100 Beginner : 1 . To m Plan t (HOd ); 2 . R ichard Ba xte r ( HO d) . Powder Puff : 1. Leslie K lug ( Ha n ) . M in i : 1. Dua n e Mape s (H an ) . NRAMX By The Shadow VALENCIA, CAL. , J AN . 20 Under skies whi ch spent the day dropping co nsista n t rainfall, almost 100 riders wh o gave up the com fo rt of their coz y, warm homes dueled it o u t in moto cross war fare. Th e muddy festivi tie s were hosted by th~ Riversidebased Nati onal Racing Assoc- Dave Taylor made hi s Yamaha the f irst 125 Amateur bike . Soggy Saltzman zaps Knapp By Terrence W. Rezek SOGGY DRY LAKE, CA L. , yEB. 3 I've only been desert racing for four years, but I learned early: to avoid the Lucerne area whenever possible. This in spite of belonging to an exclusively deserttion club. It took an considerable magnitude did not say " appeal") co mpetievent o f (notice I like the Check Chase to get me o ut th er e. A narrative of disasters , large a nd small. that have beset me th ere would be too depressing for a fa mily newsp ap er. Therefore. it was wi th co nsi dera ble misgi vings th at I learned tha t the Desert Racing Associatio n 's race of Feb . 3 would start north of So ggy Dry Lake. I had already co m m itted m yself to cover the ra ce and couldn' t co me u p with an honorable excuse. Wha t's wo rse ; I c o u t dn tt e ve n come up wi th a dishonorable but plausible excuse. I was st uck. I needn't have worried. The o ld D RA magic was working an d Soggy Dry La ke enjoyed a day - of un accu stomed beautiful weather. As a mailer o f fac t, 111 bet it hasn 't been that ple asant in the Lucerne Valley sin ce th e d awn o f creation. Of co urse, from th e lo oks o f all the rocks ar ound there, crea tio n probably didn 't o ccur in Lu cerne until about 57 years ago . Watching the sta rt from the top of one o f those ro ck pil es, it was apparent that the return of good weather also meant th e return o f the dust. We could see the run to the bomb and several mil es beyond and th e dust formed like contrails behind a show-off jet jockey. We saw two riders step o u t s wartly r ight a t th e st art and immediately start picking up sp ac e on the pack even before the bomb. T hey were: Art Knapp and Bill Saltzman and by th e bomb had become well aware o f each other. A good duel was fo rmi ng. Unfortunately, it only lasted as long as the swing arm bolt on Art's bi ke an d • f"f" modem motorcvcles don' t h ave the structural integrity o f the goqd 01' hardtail models , Art Prudently d ecided to sit this o ne out. Saltzman, riding o ne o f th o se new six -sp eed, 400c c Hu skys o ut of hi s o wn sho p , Imperial Mo tor Spo rt s, p ro ceed ed to rapidl y in cr ease his lead over the res t of the world. Rumo r has it that this b i ke was d ev el op ed f rom re co m me nd ati o ns by Parnelli J on es a nd has a top speed o f 149 .74 :\l PH on pavem en t. O f course , his Bronco can go 175, bu I tha t ' s sho w biz ! Seriously , welcome back io the d esert, Bill, glad yo u got t ire d of go ing aro und in sm all circles. Fo llowing Bill a ro und was a p assle of 250 's, led by Chu ck Pe t tigre w, second acro ss the line o n a Cooper. Next we had a Honda , a CZ , a nd a Yam aha, ridden by Rud y Abele, Kevin Hasten , and R ich A ustin , res pectively. Fillin g ou t the to p te n of this ra ce were J im Su m ne rs , Gus Paull, Wes An d erson, Jr. , J o h n Fish er, and Albert Hull. Meanwhile, back at the bomb , th e ne xt ra ce was getting o n ! The beginner cla ssific a tio n is strictly a matter of tim e in the saddle , not of d etermination or even o f skill. There's pl en ty of both in this class and m any of th ese riders will so on be promoted to where th ey ca n b e giving the Novi ces, Am ateurs, and Exper ts some hard times. From th e lofty viewpoint of my ro ck perch, it certain ly seemed that th e Beginner s to ok as little time to re ach the bomb as did th e Ex perts and th er e was a fai r am ount of activity among th e first four. Dan McGugin got there firs t a nd held it tw ice aro u nd to be come th e firs t Beginner. There was mo re contentio n in th e ne xt three sp ots and, when th e dust cleared , Dennis Kerr was secon d wit h Dennis T ip to n and Craig Kinn ama n nex t across. Randy Wilson, C. Kerkhoven, Bill Dillman, Bob Huff, Bob Neal, David Sanchez were th e next six to finish and close out the top ten . Resu lts Open Expert : 1. Bill Saltzman (Hus); z .Jtm Sumners (Hus); 3 . Gus Pa u ll (Hus); 4 . Wes Anderson, J r. (CZ); 5 . Al bert Hull (Yam). Open Amateur : 1. Jim Irby (Yam ); 2 . Tom Martin (HuS) . Open Novice: 1. Chr is Kallen (Yam); 2 . Steve Kotsay (Yam) . Open Beginner : 1. Dennis K err (Yam I ; 2 . C ra ig K innaman (SU Z): 3 . C. Ke rkh oven ( Ya m ); 4 . Bob Neal (Yam) . 25 0 E xpert : 1. Chu c k Pe tt i gr ew (C OP I; 2 . RUd y Aeere (Han); 3. K evin H asten (C Z) 4 . R ich Austin (Y am ) . 25 0 Amat e ur : 1. John F ishe r (Yam ); 2 . Robe t t sands (Yam ). 250 No vice : 1. Jam ie Ave ts (Yam ) ; 2. D av e Flei sh m an (CZ) . 250 Beg inner : 1. Dan ie l McG ugi n (S uz) ; 2 . D e n n is T tn t on , Han); 3 . R andy Wilson (Han) ; 4 . W i llia m D i ll m an ) S UZ ) : 5 . B o b H uf f (Ya m): 6 . Da v id Sa nc h ez (Yam) . 175 E xper t : 1. B. Po r t er ( Pu !) . 175 N ov ice : 1. G l en n F i nley (Pe n) . 175 B eg in n er : 1. Bria n W eb b ( S UZ) ; 2 . Tom H art ( Pe n ) . 1 25 E xper t : 1. B. Cavanage ( H u s) . 1 2 5 A m at e u r : 1. D av id Ta ylor ( Y am) . 125 Nov i ce : 1. W i ll ie Amara d lo (H an ); 2 . J im Ro berts ( s UZ) . If you keep your foot down in the desert, soone r o r later it will smash into a rock. Probably sooner. iation. The N RA offers a ll co me rs two 20·minute motes, which gave everyone plenty of t ime to fully enjoy the six inches of mud wh ich covered the Shadown Glen Course at Indian Dunes Park by the end of the day. A t times th e storm produced rainfall of downpour proportions, but most of the day featured a ready light rain; just enough to make things impossible. By the end of th e day, you co uld n ' t tell one rider from another; the same held true for motorcycles. One good thing about the deep mud : no one suffered major injury, a l th o ugh there were some super spectacular falls and spills. On the bad side of the co in , deep mud caused a big mess as far as motorcycles were co n ce rn ed , with more than one bike falling victim to the weather. There were even Experts on hand unday. (Wow ! Experts} ,.. Ed.) Vincent Clark [Suz}, grand-slammed his way to the top cash at 125 Expert. At the 250 Expert level, Bruce Jones (Hon), was the top cash winner, with ru nnerup honors going to Larry Watkins (Ric). Rounding out the Expert portion of the program, Terry VanBlaricom, riding a Maico, swept (now that's a su itable wo rd for today), his way to victory at Open Expert. The win didn 't come easy, as Van Blaricom and Mike Brown finished the day deadlocked at th ree points apiece. As Van Blaricom won the final moto of the day, he was declared the top cash winne r: As for In te rm ed ia te winners, Tom Barnett (Hon), and Dave Arnold (Hon), we re both grand-slam winners. Barnett won at 125 Intermediate , while the victory at 250 Intermediate went to Arnold. Novice winners were Rob \\'estbrook (Hon ), 125 cc ; Chet Hoover (Honl ' 25 0cc; and Simon E. Smith (H us, Open. Perhaps th e "gu ts o f th e d ay" award should go to th ose "darin g y o un g boys o n the ir fly in g minibikes," who ac tually dared th e mud an d co m pe te d. Jon Beckner, ridi ng an Indian, an d William Col e. riding a Hon d a. d eadl ocked at t hree poin ts a p iece a fte r a fu ll d ay of co m pe titio n at Min ib ik e Beginner. Thanks to his win o f th e last m oto , Beckner w as de cla re d t he overall winner. David G rah am, riding a Suzuki, to o k t he win a t Min ibi ke Advan ced . Last, but no t leas t , Beginner win s went to T im Ald rich (Yam), 100 Be g inner ; Lionel Isa (Hon), 125 Beginner (Daniel Rhoad es, Honda, and Mik e Len d t, CZ. h ad themselves quite a battle fo r seco nd place ); Bru ce Sundstrom (Ho n), 25 0 Beginners; and Kevin Muraoka (Yam ), Open Beginner. Resu lts Mm i Beginners : 1. Jon Beckern (lnd) : 2. William cole (Han) . Min i Advan ced : 1. David Graham (S UZ) . 100 Beginner : 1. T im Aldrich (Yam); 2. Matt Kosak (Had) ; 3 . Forrest Cole (In d). 1 25 Expert : 1. Vi ncent Clark (Suz); 2 . Fred Horlit (Pen). 250 Expert : 1. Br uce Jo nes (Han ) ; 2 . Larry watsctns (Ric) : 3 . Rod Cowell (Han). Open Expert : 1. Terry Van B lan c o m (Mai); 2 . M ike Brown (CZ); 3 . L y n n Stokey (Mall . 125 In t er m ed ia t e : 1. Tom Barnett (Han) ; 2. Stan Hartman (Han) . 2 5 0 Intermediate: 1. Dave Arnold (Hon) ; 2 . Bob Berry (Vam); 3 . BlII Barlow (Han). 1 25 Beginner : 1. Lionel lsa (Han); 2 . Daniel Rhoades (Hon); 3. Mik e Lendt (ez). 125 NOVice : 1. Rob We stbrook (Han); 2 . Mik e Barnett (Y Z) ; 3 . Bruce Bridgham (HOn ) . 250 Beginner : 1. Bru ce Sundstrom (Han) ; 2 . Joe Headley (Hon); 3 . Rusty Hunt (Yam) . Open Beginner : 1. Kev," Muraoka (Vam ) ; 2. Steve cuumer ( CZ) . Open Novi ce : 1. S imon E . Smith (Hus). 250 NOV ice : 1. Chet Hoover (H an); 2 . R ic k Han le y ( H on ) ; 3 . Joh n Mongill o (HOn ) .

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