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/125849
Easy, fast and fun Ste ve Staats smoked in for second Open Expert on a Honda 350 fou r valver. By Jim Stewart Phot os by Larry Langley Results by Sue Phillips RED MOUNTAIN . CAL. , FEB. 24 It was a p erfect weekend for racing with a warm 70 degrees , a ligh t breeze, a short, fast, and fu n course. Once out of the smog ridden city, it was easy enough to find gas, and most agreed that the hassle in finding gas to get out of the city was worth the t ro ub le. The o nly complain ts I heard about the race were from riders who found one of the unma rked bike-and-rider-eating holes and also about the fact t hat the banner was up all the ti me, (dropping only when the race started), thus not giving the starters any warning at all. At the bomb it was a fight between A.C., Brooks, Adent, and Dave Laprik for the lead. Several riders ended their day's racing a t the smoke bomb, hitting the paved ro ad crossing pegged in fifth. Into the pits on the first loop, it was Jim Wotring with a tremendous lead over fonner Baja teammates, Mark Adent and Tom Brooks, who were really battling it out. Mark was riding a borrowed 250 Penton because his new sponsor didn't get his new bike yet, (a Gringo), while Brooks seemed to have finally worked the bugs out of his Honda. But neither Brooks' Honda nor Wotring's Bul co uld keep away from hard charging Adent as he powered to the finish line for his second-in-a-row Overall win . Brooks' bike seemed to have gone a little sour on the second loo p , b u t he still finished second Overall and did the same in t he 250 class. The 250 Expert class this year has to be the most c o m p e t i tive class as proved this weekend, with fifteen o f the t o p twenty overal l riders being mounted on two and a halfs, Jim Wotring kept up his c onsisten cy record of finishing in the top fou r every weekend since the start of the '74 District-S? desert racing season by taking a third Overall and the same in his class. Cordis Brooks, trying the 250 class this weekend, and Wayne Cooke finished fourth and six th Overall, fourth and fifth 250s. Sandwiched between these two 250s was A.C. Bakken for fifth Overall and yet another 400 Expert win. A.C. was the only 400 in the top ten , wi th Steve Staats holding on to a 350 Honda for second in behind Bakken, way down at thirteen th Overall. Benny Padilla, Ron Marx, Dave Laprik, (now riding a Penton), Jeff Kirk, the returning Jimmy Brown, and Steve Holladay fille d in the overall positions between seventh and twe lfth. Mike Caudillo, after riding his 360 Pursang for the first time last weekend and getting a third Overall, decided he might try it again. Though following suit with the other 400 Experts and finishing b ack in the Overall positions a t eighteenth, he still got third Open Expert. Finishing just ahead of the third Open Expert was the fir st Amateur, Bill Becker on a 250 Elsinore. Bill has been having the same lu ck as Tom Brooks has been having since the beginning of the year on his Honda, put it all together on his birthday Sunday to take first overall Amateur, first 250 Amateur, and seven teen th Overall . He had such a lead that he had time after his finish to ride back to his pits and watch the next Amateur, Desert Knight J .B. Wise, finish for first Open Amateur. With Ballentine finally being kicked out of the' Amateur class for not riding like one, he gave the other O pen Amateurs a chance to m ove up a notch in their class finish ing positions. Allen May was leading the c ha rge through the first lo o p but le t Becker and Wise slip past him and had to settle fo r th ird Amateur, second Open. ,Fo llo win g closely was N. Nichols and K. Pierce . All three ride rs , May, Nichols, and Pierce, finished within one place of each o ther, with the only out-of-class rider in this hunch being another Amateur (only on a 250) Skip Bartha, who drafted the big 400 for second 250 Amateur. The first 175 didn't arrive at th e fin ish until twenty-third Overall. This was number 5 c Bill Friant, who looks to be riding for his old number one plate ba ck. Ten riders later Invader Ron Holst carne screaming across the finish for sec o nd. It w as a hot battle in this class as three Overall positions after Ron cam e Jeff Jeffries for a well earn ed third. Six places later it was Bob Romine for fourth . Romine has been trying his hand in this class the last cou ple of weeks and seems to do better in the Open class. Maybe he isn"t used to riding in the dust as most 175 Experts have to, even if they 're one of the top riders in their class. There was plenty o f vision hindering dust again this weekend . Tim Bowman was the first Division II Amateur through the pits on the first loop, but lost the lead to Mark Barnes on the second loop . Bowman still got a second, while Jeff Kaplan of the Sand Sailors, a regular top finisher in this class , got third . Gary Conner was top rider in the Trail Expert class, which this year has yet to be dominated by anyone single rider. Dennis Carnrnell rode in the dust for second, while Four. Aces president Terry Raye took the third spot. Robbie Zamora got himself another first Trail A mateur, ahead of his fellow Trail Amateur rider Mar c Cartwrigh t , Zamora and Cartwright have had several class battles together, and while they were riding it out Mark Miller and Rusty Sanderson were doing the same for third and fourth with Miller co mi n g o u t on top for third, forcing Rusty to settle for fourth . Dwayne Carter, who won the Novice class Overall in the Moose Run, carne back to the desert and did it again this weekend. 35 0 Hondas are becoming ever more present in the desert, as Dwayne was riding one, as was Evert . Kemrenaar, who got fourth Open No vice. Bob Holder , better known as Meatball, finally got' his stuff together and ran a strong second behind Carter the whole race . Other riders who kept the throttle open a little longer than their fellow 400 Novices included William Travis for t hird, Gary Spencer (who looked like he was out fo r a t rail ride for fifth) and Jaime Stormes who rode most of the race with a fron t flat ' which caused him to drop from fourth to sixth Open Novice. Dave Hinson just started riding District races this year and looks be be' Amateur material as he beat out all of the other 250 Novices for first. This is only Dave's second finish, (as before he didn't have a big tank on his Elsinore and was constantly running out of gas), and his other finish was so far back he didn't even get a point. This is just the , lC'l .c u ...... - ~ Mark Adent dus ted t he 250 Expe rts on a bo rrowed Pento n. opposite w ith Ronnie Donahue, who has gotten a first before, but this week go t out ridden by a new comer and was forced to settle for second. Ronnie Markegard , Ken Jordan, and Larry Conner were the next three 250 green stripes to reach the checkered. Number 166c Andy Klein seems to have gotten first Lightweight II Novice ahead of Mike Larier, while in the Trial class Dino Leon got his third win this ye ar and finished an incredible twen tieth Overall Novice, which would be a good finish for a 250. David Bowman again followed in Dino's Penton tracks for second, while Jeroma Patridge did the same to Bowman. All in all, every one who finished the Sandblaster's ra ce thought it was th e easiest ra ce so far this ye ar . Compared t o the long ones they 've been throwing a t us lately, just the fact that the loops were only 32 miles long was welcome in itself. If anyone club would agree it would be the Rove rs, who had three class wins this weekend and several top five finishers . Remember to get your gas early during the week for the nex t District race. It's worth the hassle. • Results 400 E x : 1. A.C. Bakken : 2. Steve Staats; 3. M ike Caudillo; 4 . Jim Sumners: 5 . Steve Kirk . 400 Am : 1. J.B. Wise; 2 . A . May; 3 . "'. NiChols; 4. K. Pie r c e ; 5. S. Knapp. 4 00 Nov: 1. Dwa yne Carter; 2 . B o b Hol der; 3. W. Travis; 4. Evert Kemrnaar: 5 . Gary Spencer; 6 . Ja ime Stormes. 250 Ex: 1. Mark Aden t; 2. Tom Br o o k s; 3 . Jim Wotring; 4 , Cordis Brooks: S. Wa yne Cook: 56. Ben ny Padilla: 7 . Ron M ar x : 8 . Dave Laprlk ; 9. Jeff K irk; 10. Jim m y B r ow n . 250 A m : 1. B i ll Bec k er : 2. Ski p Bar th a; 3 . Tim Ral p h; 4 . 987x: 5 . Ro n Pi nion . 250 Nov : 1. Dave Hinson ; 2 . Ronnie Dona hue ; 3 . Ronnie Markegar d : 4 , K e n Jor dan: 5. Lar ry Conner. 175 E x : 1. B i ll Fr iant; 2. Ron HO ist: 3. Jeff Jeffries; 4 . Bob Romine; 5 . Wayne Lee . 175 Am : 1. Mark Barnes: 2. Tim Bowman: 3. Jeff Kaplan; 4 . RandY Devonsh ire: 5. Doug Bridges. 175 N o v : 1. A n d y Klein: 2 . Mike Larler. 100 E x : 1. Gary Conner: 2. De nnis Scammell ; 3 . Terry Raye . 100 Am: 1. Robbie Zamora: 2 . Mark Cartwright ; 3 . Mark M iller ; 4 . Rusty sanderson ; 5 . Curt Randall . 100 Nov: 1. Dina Leon ; 2 . Dav id Bowman; 3 . Jerome Pat ridge. 250 Novice winner Dave Hinson sta rts to dodge a big rock on the secon d loo p. 7