Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

BCAMX By Jo h n Grout VA LE;l:CI A , CA L., FEB . 3 Wit h 27 6 ride rs presen t for the warfare - 56 o f the number be ing Experts o r Pro fessionals - a full pro gram of BCA-sanctio ned mo tocross racing returned today to the twisty Shad ow Glen track at Indian Dunes Park. Newhall's - high-flying Larry Charge of the 250 Experts in CMC-sanctioned motocross. Venue: Carlsbad. CMC Carlsbad By Jo hn Bethea CARLSBAD , CA L ., F EB. 10 Desp ite the loss, Rex Staten still smiled. He wiped his face with a damp towel then hea ved a sign and shook his head. "Wasn't that a b itchin ' race?" he said as he walked ou t of his pit area. "I love racin' with (Mike) Hartwig even if I did lose." .. In their first moto, Rex, on paper, led all the way with Mike o n the fact ory Yamaha in second. Bu t a t least half-a-dozen ti m es in the race, they were side-by -side so m ew here on the co urse. T he pair rode twelve laps WFO, all the way . n o more than 15 yards apart, but more often j ust a few in ch es away. There had b een a little m ore relaxing in both pits after that o ne. Yam aha tea m man ager Pierre Karsm a kers, who was going to ride un til his mach in e broke down, mad e sure Mike's was n't abou t to. When co nvinced, he'd stro ll back out to the finish lin e, fol d his arm s and wat ch. Billy Clements (Hus) won the drag race to th e firs t t urn at th e start of the fin al. Well. alm os t. "W he n I saw first Rex and then Mike swoop by , I just said, 'Whoaaaooww. ' " By th e time . they had rea ched turn tw o , Rex had garnered the lead with Hartwig righ t smack dab on his tail. It appeared to be a repeat of the firs t as they maintained th eir positions fo r fo ur laps. Then, it h appened. Going up the long uphill o n Carlsbad's Intern ati onal course, Mike pulled up alongside-alas-again. But, thi s time his Yamaha was ge tting th e power to the ground a tad more th an Re x 's Maico. All of a sudden , like a mis sed shift, Mike galloped by cleanly and held it around the top tw o turns and the n began to stre tch it d own th e h ill. Mike held it t o the end with abo u t 10 yards to spar e w hen t he checkere d fle w. " Going up th at hill sid e-b y-side:' Rex Staten (Mail and Mike Hartwig (Yam) di ced fer ociusly and often thro ughout the day. ... ..a bitchin ' race ." is how Rex descri bed it. Rex grinned, " all I co uld th in k o f was, ' Hey , this is 'a bad place to cras h when we're ga in' this fast .' Then, th e n ext thing I knew Mike was pulling me. Eeeeoooh , that Yamaha has beans! I had it wide o pen but it was a little chop py and I j ust couldn't catc h him." By this t ime Rex had reached Mik e' s pit area and he found his foe inside a trailer chan ging clothes. Rex leaned in , gave a quick handshake. said a few words t o t he Yamaha me chanics and then slowly walked back to his pits. He st ill had that satisfied grin on hi s fac e, and he seld om has that after a loss by tha t close o f a margin. Th ere wer e two other pro events o n the CMC card, also , and they wer en ' t unpopular o nes eithe r. Mar ty Smith and Honda, full y aware th at a win t oday would tie him with a f our -y e ar CMC standard of five consecu tive day 125 w ins, d id what he wanted , and _h e did it with a sweep fo r the fif th co nsec utive Sunday. He has yet to lose an o vera ll, m u ch less a moto , in the year 1974 with the Cl\IC . In the first round Bru ce Mc Dougal (H a n) was runner -up , bu t he d ropped b ac k to th ir d in t he final when Ri ck She ren (Ha n) too k it . In two or three more laps Bruce may have been able to have overtaken Rick, b ut we'll n ever k no w. A t th e sta rt, Bru ce an d ano ther rider tangle d in tu rn tw o an d th e other rid er go t his foo t stuc k in McD ou gal 's shocks. When he re-entered he was in last and worked it to th ird. Rich Eierste dt (Ha n ) won b oth ends of the 250 Pro d ivision, but had a few charges from Gaylon Mosier (Han) in th e process. Gaylon had held the lead in th e fir st race for several laps when off one ju m p he suddenly lost control and went down. Eierstedt, who was right o n his tail , missed the fallen rider by less than six in ches. Richard Grafton (Ya m) went on to take second and Gaylon got b ack up in to third . In the n ex t round, Mosier gra bbed sec on d and with it secon d overall, even though he and Gra ft on were tie d with fiv e points eac h . If to day 's ra ces were any in d icat io n , this comi ng Sunday 's SI 5 00 race at Saddleback sh ould be a whoppe r. In ad d itio n to th e regulars lik e the Honda team in bo th th e 125 and 250s, the Hus ky team of Cle me nts an d West in the 250s an d 50 0s, and Staten. the re will be the Yamaha tea m of Hartwig. Karsm aker s and Ti m Ha rt (wh o had the flu th is weekend). And wh o k nows who else? • Results .... .. 30 100 Jr : 1. Dean Ad k in s ( Y a m ) . 125 J r D iy I: 1. Jef f T o m l in (H a n) ; 2 . Bra d Sherri ll ( Han ): 3 . G ord on T a mm (Nog) . 125 Jr D iv II : 1. Denn is Be at (Han ) ; 2 . G ary B ezer ( V a m ) ; 3 . Terry Turner ( H o n) . 25 0 J r D iv I : 1. R i m R u t h ( Mal): 2. Dan a Slate r ; 3 . A aron Ba sse tt (eZ ) . 2 5 0 Jr Div II : 1. Kur k Ba ssett ( C Z) : 2 . Dave W ar e ( CZ ): 3 . Je ff D o r sett (V a m ) . 500 Jr : 1. Steve Cottrell (Hus) ; 2 . Judson Osh ier (HuS) : 3 . D a v i s M ueller ( SUZ) . 1 25 In t : 1. Scott M o n t go m e r y ( H a n ) ; 2 . Kevin W illis (Hon ): 3 . Joh n Fry (Han ) . 2 5 0 Int : 1. Rob Raymer ( C Z ); 2 . Char les R ichardson ( Han ) : 3. Craig .8 r e i h an . 500 In t : 1. cn uck DI cken son ( CZ) ; 2 . Ste ve Zouma ras (Ma l) : 3 . B ob Hollist er ( CZ) . 1 25 Ex : 1. M ike Bell ( H On): 2 . Albert Canci no ( H an): 3 . Norm Bigel OW (Hen ) , 2 5 0 E x : 1. Dale Anderson ( Bu l ) : 2 . Sc ott Doornbos ( H an) . 125 Pro : 1. Marty Smith ( Han): 2 . Bruce M cD ougal (Hon) : 3 . B ob Stem (Han) . 2 5 0 Pro : 1. R ich E ie rstedt (Hon) : 2. Ga y l on Mosi er (Hon): 3 . R ich a rd G r a fton ( Vam) . 5 0 0 Pro : 1. M i ke Hartw ig ( Va m): 2 . R e x St at en (Mal) . 3 . B i ll y Clements (Hu S) . Watkins, who was doing his slid in g a gains t two different d isp la cem en t divis ons of Experts, the 12 5 and 250 , end ed th e d ay by grand slamming bo th classes and tak ing h ome the cash fo r E.C. Birt an d Precisi on Cycle, He also made it perfectl y dear t ha t he 's go in g to try fo r a 1974 ch am p io nshi p gra nd slam at th e Dunes. Astride a sn arlin g T y ra n in his battl e with the 125s. "Wailin'" Watkins collected a pair of win s. Whil e riding a new Rickman t o the overall victory in the 250 Div ision he had to repulse con tin uous bids from Maico-mo un ted Matt Bilton, the you ng Woodland Hills gian t who does his racing for the Mo rtense n Cycle Shop in Saugus. During the fi nal hea t for the call , th ere was never more than a co uple of bike lengths separating the front-running pair. Mike Pu cklus, who w as herding a big Mai co aro un d the tight co urs e , provided so me of th e day's best ac ti on while defea ting a large bunch of Open Experts in two straight sets. Hamel, who closed a ton o f ground in the las t heat event, has served notice that he 's about ready to crack down on th e troop s in future com bat. He moved from near last to fas t-closing secon d at the wire. Mini cy cle an d Powder Puff winner s both by the gra nd slam rou te - were Ken t Bernstein (Suz) and Lynn Bro wn , also Suzuki m ounted . Followin g the two mot os fo r 100 J un io rs , a tied score had devel oped between J eff Anderson (Yam) and Sco tt Van A rsd ale (Pen ), both o f who m had ta ke n. first and a second pla ce fin ish. A n derso n, however, by virtue of win ning the last m ota , was d ecla red th e overall vic t o r. • NRAGP By Jo hn Hesso n MOORPARK, CAL., FE B. 3 Baym are Cycle Park hosted an N.R .A. Grand Prix this weekend, as riders were greeted by strong winds and ' lots o f good old dust. T he ' water truck got quite a workout, to say the least. First up for the day 's events were th e minis and Powder Puffs . Aft er 4 5 m inutes over the super fast three mil e co urse. Cherry Stockton o n a 125 Bullaco to ok first overall and first Powder Puff. Se cond Powder Puff went to Janene T urto n. also o n a 125 Bultaco . R ickey Simmons was first mini Expert o n a Ho nda 8 0. Next w ere the 100cc Beginners an d No vices. The to p gol d was ta ke n h ome by Tony Porto on a 100cc Ya maha in the Novice class and David Lagale, also on a 100cc Yam ah a, in the Beginners class. Fire road ride-runni ng re introduced. Afte r a restart of th e 12 5cc dass fo llowing a b ig pileup on the fast m oun tain road, Craig Clymore (YZ) led the Novices for th e wi n. Top Begin ner was Ri chard Rumble o n a Bultaco . Intermed iates an d Exp erts were up ne xt w ith Jeff Blix on a 250 YZ holding th e lead a t th e flag fir st for Ex pert. First Intermediate was Mark Mansfield (Han). The 250 Novices and Begin ners got off the lin e with no big problems as John Herrin (Yam) showed the guys the _ fast line on the co urse. First Beginner was James Wells (Bul ). Last ra ce o n the program was the Open Novi ces an d Beginners. Bru ce Slingerland (CZ) took first place in the Novice div ision and Doug Peterson (Ya m), first Beginner. Herb Townsend was the fir st over 3 5 racer t o finish . N.R.A. passed out 100 percent trophies to all who fin ished a s th ey headed out of the park just as the last gust of wind blew d own from the hills. Vo n Peterson (CZ) led t he combined Int/Ex. cla ss o nly t o get passed by Jeff Blix and relegated t o second.

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