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/125848
One of the most notable days of CMC motocross in years belonged to Rex Sta ten. He won both the 250 and 500 Expert class on his Maicos - but it wasn't easy. Money talks-$1500 got Staten interested By John Bethea ORANGE, CA L., FEB. 1 7 Marty Smith 's rec ord b id ended in com plet e frustration and Rex Staten made amen ds for last week's excusable loss. Su ch were the circumstances at the $15 00 biggie at Saddleback Park that drew more than 400 riders and 4000 spectators, the largest CMC event in about three years. 1t di dn't take long to see that this was not to be S mith's weekend. He was out to break a three-year-old standard established by Jimmy Beachamp and la ter tied by Billy Urban, a m ark of five consec utive day CMC victories, which he tie d only last week at Carlsb ad . The drop of the gate in the firs t moto, with a field of 28 pros off the lin e, saw Marty around sixth or seventh with Bob Messer (Pen) up front. Chuck Bower and Bruce McDougal, both Ho nda fa ctory team mates with Smith , began to w orm away at the lead with Mark Tyer on the Flying Machine Factory Penton also right in there. Messer faded quickly (so rry Bob, since it was your co meback) and just as S mit h began to hou nd the lea ders, he went down. In about four b links of an eye, he was back in 25th, as near as we can tell, but charging. McDougal emerged the early leader with Bower second. Ditto for the re mainder of the race, a tight battle until the very late stages, an d Tyer finished third, eig h t seconds behind the leader. Smith, riding in his usual (of late) fantastically fast style, was gaining every tou r and overtook Chuck Lunde for fourth near the end. Hell ava ride for the front three a nd especially for Sm ith . Whe n they broke off the lin e for the second and final star t, things we re Team Honda had their ups and downs. The downs predominated. 8. q uick ly dis rupted . McDougal held th e lea d with T om my Croft (Hon), who happily celebrated finishing a moto in round o ne, in solid second an d challenging. S m it h was in sixth an d again o n the m ov e, ta kin g se veral laps to m ove u p o n Cr of t to aim at seco nd. Off the j u mp leading toward th e gully section, Marty ch ose th e o utside while Tom my t he insi de. The velocity off the jump p u t the m nearly together an d in th e c ru nch that ensued, Sm ith got the . ax. T he chain feed w as sheared o ff th e swingarm wh ich, in tu m chewed th e chain up o n the rear sprocket. Marty came screeching to a halt (the streak died right there). From the pits came Marty's b ac kup machine. Havi ng already given up , he quickly re-glov ed his hands an d d onned his he lmet again, two laps down, ju m pe d on this mach ine and sped a way later to disq ualify himself with the CMC officials, turning himself in. "I just wanted to finish the ride. " Up fro nt, tho ug h, the Honda gra veyard continued to grow - the first time t hese m ach in es see med to so ur at all and now all at o nc e! McDougal, in th e same spot on the track where Smith was simultaneously kicking pebbles in disgust, lost his horses an d m isfir ed to a stop . Gas drooled d own , narrowly m issing t he engin e as it lay sid eways and Bruce, in total co m man d fo r the overall win, cursed un d er his J ofa. He ra n over to Smith 's d ead mach in e, quickly bart ered with Marty and solved his proble m in a bout two la ps, m akin g a q uick switch o f th e pe tco ck , and was o ff again. Bower , too, had his ills, as hi s ex pansion cham ber came off - no t all the way - and he went from second all th e way back to ten th. This left Billy Grossi (Hon), wh o ha d just signed up with th e factory less than two weeks earlier, in a t remendo us lead t o t he e nd . Ch uck L un de, rid in g ou t of Pacific Coast Honda, had a second with Tyer run ning third again. Mark 's third was good enough for the overall under the Olympic system and L un de he ld second. Davey Ca rlson (Hon) st u n ned a b unc h an d fin ishe d th ird ove ra ll with a seven th and a fo u rth ! Bower wo und up fo u rth, despite his tenth, and Grossi could only manage a fifth in this, his fir st ride for the Honda fa ctory sinc e parting ways with Kawasaki. As it sh ould be, the 250 Pros we re ripped apart by seve ral in d ivid uals. We've sai d in re cent weeks th a t this race or that race was a bout t he best in re cent CM C h ist o r y . S cra tch them ' a ll o UL..to day 's fir st moto, everyone wi ll ,a tte st , w-as o n e 0,£ th e finest pro m o t ocrosses in A merican history with the big names involved. Saying the lead changed five t imes in 12 laps m ean s nothing, but when yo u say five different riders led in 12 la ps, well th at means far-ou tracing. Fir st lap, Billy Payne gobbled up the yardage on his MaicojCooper with, in order, Randy Myers , Jim West, J im Weinert and Rex Staten fo llow ing . Within several laps, Payne' s tra ns went a lit tl e berserk and it cost him a spill as he hit a neutral head ing into a tu m. Myers took over while his next th ree foes we re right on his tail and closing. Fantastic racing! Down Ban zai Hill , the handle bar s suddenly wen t pointed -ground a nd just like th at he zip ped back to fo urth .. .up front was n ow West. Several laps later, while trying to save a washout, Randy wen t h ead over heels an d finished a lap down in 2 1st. Meanwhile, Payne wa s trying to m ain tain but couldn't d o it , either. Several laps from th e end, West just could not m aintain the o nsla ugh t an d dri f ted back to third in perhap s h is only error of t he entire race. Weinert slip ped by a nd was soon fo llowed b y State n. " I'v e got a stock Maico ,' said State n la ter. "I just got it T hursd ay and we haven't d on e a thing to it . All I di d in the first m o t o was just hang in there at the start and keep on p lugging away a nd hoping they would tire." They did , including Weinert wh o is still feeling the effects sligh t1y fro m his broken colla rb o ne suffere d in th e las t T ran s-AlvtA seri es. On th e fi al lap, n abo ut half a lap to go, R ex m ad e his m ove, pulled alongside Jimmy, gassed it, and p assed. A stun ning victory in a very exciting race. G a y l on Mosi er ( H o n), w ho even tu alJy scor ed w ith a fourth in round one, j umpe d q uic kly to th e lead in the final an d held it al l t he way to the chec kered w ith Staten o n h is tail all the way , too. Rex trie d a fin al lap pass b u t was messed u p b y a slo wer rider wh o was attem pting to keep pace even though a lap d own. In d isgust, all he had to say was, "I ha te gu ys - sq uids - like th at. T hey are ri di ng ove r t heir head an d if they crash they take me an d everyone Sole Kawasaki teams ter Ji m Weinert challenged but is apparently st ill recuperat ing. else aro und th e m with them." He cri nged and shoo k his head. It was eno ugh to give him th e overall wi n ; had he b een ed ged out of the victory because of the maneuver, w e're not su re wh at ac tio n Rex would have taken ; he was ob vio us ly POed at the ind ivid ual. T empers co oled for th e 5 0 0s an d so did Re x , ever so sligh t1y as he ra n away and won both ends. Lo o king at it ove ral l it seem ed borin g: S taten I West 2 ·2 and Billy Clements (Hus) 3 I t was n 't that, b u t close. Rex dominated, ending u p o ne of his fine days in CMC co mpetition. Today 's biggie was very suc cessful, a the rider and spectator tu rn o u indicates. So much so that next month March I 7, th e CMC has planned rem at ch : S 1500 guaranteed purse fo the Pr os a nd four foot trophies for th Am ate u rs. It was th e biggest ride turnou t sin ce 1971 , so why n ot try i again ? There talk of an even big purse nex t time:! :f~~ .~I. . _.. : ... _ '.