Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Hearts & flowers at the Dunes The start of t he NRA GP·style event sen t riden down Ind ian Du nes' long, bumpy sandwash. By Dick W ri g h t VALENCIA , CAL. , FEB. 17 Valentine's Grand Prix went off tod ay in tw o sections. Practice at eight for Open, 250 and Mini Begin ners and Novices; then they wo uld have their three races of 45 min u tes each. Then practice for the Expert and Intermediate races and the 125·} 75 Beginners and No vices and the last race of t he day; the Powder Puff and the 100 Beginners and Novices. The two practices were a good idea. Who likes to stand around after an 8 a. m. pra ctice for a 3 p.m, race? It was still co ld when th e Open Begin n ers and Novices got off at 9 a.rn. Allen Sti neb augh had done it to the boys o n his fas t Suzuki wh en it was o ver. Phil Gold i was next on a CZ , an d first Beginner was Fran ces Scott, followed by Dennis Keaton. In each of the Beginner and Novi ce rac es, NRA too k th e to p half and m ad e th em Novi ces , an d the bottom half were classed as Beginners. There w ere a co uple of co mplaints, but some pe ople complain abou t everything. The next gro up up was the 250. There was a big bunch of them, coming . th rough the water crossings (there were six) th ree abreast. Keith Tornie was able to kee p his Husky going strong all the way and took the win followed by Don lvey , also on a Husky. Third went to J im . Vaughan, o n a Honda. First Beginn er went to Mike Fishe r , fo llowed by Geo rge Szeremeta. After the no on pract ice, aU th e Expe rts an d In te rmedia tes came to the line and th ere was a big bunch of fast riders read y to go ! T he early lead er co m ing through the wa ter was Vin cen t Clark on a very fast 12 5 Su zuki. Jeff Wecker also got a goo d star t an d was running abo u t third and charging hard Janice Kline (Hon) rode fast enough to overcome two unplanned stops and be fin t Puffer to the f inish . on his 250 Pen ton. Our leader in the Open class was Rick Shirey, (of desert racing fame), back in to racing and loo kin g good on a Yamaha. Dave Arnold on a 250 Honda was also in the fast gro up as was Terry VanBlasecon on a 400 Maico. Jeff Wright got a bad start and had to move up fr om twelfth on th e first lap and now was sixth a t the half way mark on his "box stock" new 125 Puch . Cla rk kept his Suzu ki t urn ed all th e way o n an d pu t on a spectacular show lapping m ost of the fie ld on th e long course o f hills, sand, IT t urns an d water, and came in for the win taking first Expert. Jeff Wecker rode a fast race but could n't catch the leader, taking second overall and first 250 on the Penton. Rick Shirey took th ird overall and first Op en class. After the race he said, "I was afraid of that de ep water every time. I'm wet all th e way th rough, but the bike kep t running ." Jeff Wright was ab le to pass a coup le mo re riders and move in to fourth overall o n h is new Puch. Dave Arnold w as next, taking second 250 Ex pert o n h is Honda, followed by Te rry Van Blasecon, ta kin g secon d Open o n his Maico. The very sm ooth riding Craig Pen rod raced to th e fin ish lin e t o ta ke first In terrnedia te o n his 125 Penton. It looks like the 12 5 did a th ing on them today on this choppy rough co urse. Manny Dunber was next on h is 400 CZ taking first Intermediate Open class. Drohet Clement was next on a 400 Kawasaki, followed by Mike Hill on a 125 Honda, and Dan Dav is took first 250 Intermediate o n a Ho nda. T he fifth ra ce of the day was the 125 Beginners and Novices. Tom Luera (Hon) had the lead at the start, but Mike Callaway (Suz), was able to co me up and pass him after about two laps and go on to take the win . Luera was a solid second followed by Rich Seefried, on a Husky. First Beginner was Rudy Rey es, followed by Leon Beau chemin. The last race of the day was the Powder Puff/l00 co mb ined . Kevin Bates grabbed an early lead on h is hot DKW and held it all the way for the win . The Powder Puffers were having a real battle. Janice Kline, who is number one in the AME series, overcame a ground out in the water and a slide out at the top of the hiD to take second in the race ana first girl , on her 125 Honda. All the girls had water trouble, including Kim Hubert, third overall and second girl. Craig Cole was next , taking second 100 Novice. It was a good day for racing, maybe a little too much water, but that's racing; you have to take it the way it comes. The NRA peo ple did a good job. • (Desert Wheels at Edwards AFB By Rex W i llia m Reese EDWARDS, 22 CAL~ FEB. 10 A record 240 riders showed up at Edwards Air Force Base from as far north as Bakersfield, and as far. south as San Diego! The Desert Wheels are alw ays proud to point out th at they 're th e o nly club to ho ld an open-to -the-p ublic rnotocross o n an air force base. The re cord entries packed each an d every class from mini to mighty. Everybody had so me th ing to enter, because there was a cla ss for j us t about eve rything. On e guy tried to sneak a B·5 2 into th e Open Expe rt class, but was d isqualified fo r no t ha ving a proper silencer o r number pla te s. The firs t bunch off the line were the Old Timers. They blasted around lik e it was just a re gular Sunday drive. Crash of the day aw ard goes to the entire Old Timer Novi ce clas s when, at the bottom of one jump, ' the wh ole field piled up, j ust like dominoes. " Blacky" Lewis had the Old Timers Masters class won, but got disqualified for not having proper club colors. So, Bill Todd (Mai) inherited t he top spot, wit h second going to Spi ke Duncan (M~l' an d third to Bider Ande rso n (Mal . Butch Wade (Hon) cleaned it all up in th e 125 Senior, but not without a whole lot o f problems. J ust before practice , after givin g t he bike a little ride around, Butch 's swingarm bro ke . Some quick wrenching fixed that and he was read y to rip through the day. Late in the day, Butch ca me close to being set back a couple of places because an official thought that he had cut over a berm, but the decision fell in favor of Butch. This kid doesn't believe in sh u tti ng o ff for any thing! On his tail th ro ugho ut the day were the Fabre bro th ers , bo th on Yam ah as, taking up the second and th ird spots. The scorers had their trials an d tribulations, I had the wa lking plague, and at the same ti me had to yank out a couple of hapless crashers from being turned in to desert traction. So goes the day... • Results PO WDER P U F F : 1. L. Brown (SUZ) . 2 . P. Jones ( Yam) . 3. A . Yates ( V am ). M I N I "~ O V: 1. L. E ide (Hon). 2. C . T h omson . 3 . G. Kuammen ( Hon) . MI N I JR : 1. R . E ide (Ste ). 2. J . SDiers (r n d). 3 . Co nra d e ( Vam) . 10 0 NOV DIV I : 1. D . St ewa rt ( Ya m). 2. Rich (Ya m ). 3 . S. Walker (Yam) . 1 0 0 NOV DIV II: 1. J . Sen del b a c h . 2. P. R ue (V am) . 3 . M e n d en h all ( Y a m ). 125 NOV DIV I : 1. R . C r ad Y ( H o n). 2 . M . Nea l (Hon). 3 . M. W isdom (HOn ) . 125 NOV DIV II: 1. Cattern . 2 . P.. Marcon i (H o n ). 125 JR, 1. D. Bridges (Hon). 2. J . caven port (HOn) . 3 . J. Stevens (HOn) . 2 5 0 NOV D'V " 1 . 5 . Ball (Hon). 2. J. Bumgardner (Yam) . 3 . C . O sbo r n tavn . 2 5 0 NOV DIV II : 1. R. Crawford (Kaw) . 2 . M . Nelson (Yam) . 3. J . Carpenter (8ul). 250 J R : 1. P. Taylor (H o n ). 2. J . Winkel (CZ ). 3 . G . Wa de (Kaw). 2 5 0 J R: 1. B. Jones. 2 . G . W ln r el (Hon) . 3 . M . Dauber (Ho n ). O PEN NOV: 1. T. Lat hrop (CZ ) . 2. R. Garcia. 3. T . Thom pson (Ya m). OPEN JR , 1. B . Johnson (Va m). 2. 5. Raueh (V am ) . 3. R . Cole (M al). 125 SR : 1. B . W ad e (H a n ). 2. G. Fabre (Yam). 3. E. Fabre (Yam). OPEN SR : 1. R . Seott (Mal). 2 . R. K er h sau (Mal). 3. K y ne (CZ). OLD TIM ERS MASTERS, 1. B ill T Odd (Mal). 2. Spike Duncan IMa,) . 3. Bid er Anderson (Mai). EX : . Art McNamee (Gre ). 2. Orie Co le (Mai). 3. J.Jmes B u rge ss IMBI). AM : 1. Glenn Wi lis (V am). 2 . Ken Williams (Yam). 3. B ill B ird (Yam). NOV : 1. Larry Logan (H an). 2 . Jim Hayes (Ma l). 3. Larry Patterson tcz). It was Old Timen' day at Edwards so o ver 50 of the over-40 racen showed up.

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