Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.- Williams would have probably taken first overall today if it wasn't for o n e smal l fac t. You see , Donny Em ler's Flyi ng l\lachine Factory cam e o u t in fu ll fo rce today to m ake t heir b id for th e hu ge purse be ing offered in th e 125 E xp er t class. Em le r 's m o st re ce nt ad d it ion to his cla n. Dave Miller, succee ded in pi loting his flam e red Pen IOn past Williams in each one o f the th ree m o to s with o ut fail. That in itself is e no ug h to ti ck any self-righteous person o ff , but th en William s had to di ce it o u t for sec o n d with another o ne o f Emler's racers, Mar k Tyer, also Penton m ou nted . Tyer d id manage to even ut ally get arou nd Willi am s and ho ld down a ver y so lid seco nd place righ t be hi nd hi s teammat e Miller, T ha t 's exactly how it cam e o u t a t th e en d of t he day. • AMC action ! Out of the desert and int o the desert. ORA St. Pat's hare scrambles In the Beginner ra ce, third was th e po sition in quest ion, sin ce Dennis Tipton and B. Oxley had first and second sewe d up from the bomb th rough two laps and righ t t o th e finish. By Terry Rezek Results HAWE S, CAL., MA R. 17 250 0 E x : 1 . Ramon Lowe ( Yam) : 2 . Ji m Fran ci s (Hon ) ; 3 . D . Turn rc zr . Open Am : 1. Ji m Irb y ( Ya m) ; 2 . R . Sand s t he win w as not all th at ea sy for Scot, as he had to win the fin al moto t o grab the overall . Mik e Knupp (Ho n) won the first two mo t o s, but his m a chin e co u ld not mak e it throu gh th e last five-Iapper , giving T ip to n the win . Knu pp t o ok second ove ra ll foll owed by Jo hn Ro gers and Mark Du nn, bo th o n Hondas. In the 125 Se nio r class, Dave Willia m s rode hi s usu al sup erb race. an d ra n away wi th th e overall class w in . William s, who pil ot s a Pen t on. ca p tu red all three motos o n the new Corona co urse with T roy Breker and AI Ca ncino following in the cla ss hono rs. In the 25 0 Seniors, a very close two ride r battle developed, as De n nis Hazlett (Yam) and Brad Ly nch (Mai) re all y had a go at each o ther . Mai co -m ount ed Ra y T op ha m, suffered m ech an ical tr oubles early in t he evening, a nd w a s n o t a factor in the co m p e t itio n. . In the openi ng m oto, Lynch gra bbed t he win from Ha zlett in a good close ra ce . But the fina l tw o mot o s saw Ha zlett hold off Lyn ch to tak e the wins and the overall class honors. It was Ha zlett's third class win of the year at Co rona. ~ Mike McMichael ca m e up with an exci t in g win in the 125 J unio r class, as he rode h is Su zu ki to the wi n in the first two motos and a second in the fin al moto, Another Su zuki rider, Rick Rogers, re ally gave McMichael a run for hi s m oney in the last two r aces with Rick taking th e last moto. Mike L una rounded o ut th e top three spots in the division . • O pen E x : 1. G us Paull (H us) . T he swa llows to Capistrano had to cross I' m bett ing gotten lost in "32 wer e due to return Tuesday, but if they the Mojave Desert , they wo uld have th e du st. T he old hands at t his game were easily sp otted by th eir fo am p lastic Frit o Bandi to Replica m asks. T he tr aditional ist s pref'er ed m oi st banda nas and so me hype r ty pes even taped th e ven t in th eir goggles. T he real tri ck however . was just ge tting a good s ta rt. A few mil es o f virgin run p u t yo u o n a wide, hard road which allowed th e p orting fan atics to t est th e fru it s o f th eir grind ing . The road turned in t o a n even wider grad ed ditch which loo ked lik e an embryonic aq ued uct. If no t for the pressure o f th e ra ce, it w ould have been great fun to "sh oo t the walls. " This ended all too soon and a sho rt cross-country trip p ut you o n Iron Mountain Road. T here was a brief exchange o f rocky ridges and shallow can y on s in th e Iron Mountain ran ge, th en over a ver y small d ownhill to so me more little-used terrain. Little-u sed ex cept for th e reside n ts of th e ar ea wh o apparently fed th a t th e de sert is th eir personal garbage dump. Passing quickly thr ou gh th i s f ine e xa m p le o f " American a," the trai l led to a re ally neat giant jump, whe re so me riders d em onstrated a n astou ndi ng ab ility to make a m ountain out of a m o leh ill . Gettin g close t o th e finis h , the n ex t m ile was a great susp en sion te ster. Lots of small , sharp jumps, drop o ffs, and notch d it ches whi ch all de teri o ra ted b y t he second lap in to powder -filled bike ea ters. Getting off the co u rse here was su re to drop handlebars. J im Irby moved in to th e n umber o ne position and fin ished th at wa y b u t w ith Ram on Lowe co ntesting th at all th e wa y t o th e en d . This is J im's " First" afte r man y seconds. J ohn S teen end ure d some earl y troubles and put in a re al ly good rid e to fin ish th ird Over all a nd first Novi ce. Also playing a survival gam e was Gus Paull wh o pi ck ed one of th e roc ky ridges to perform one o f hi s very rar e ge to ffs. He pu t it a ll back tog ethe r howev er , and managed t o hold abo ut th e sam e po sition all th e wa y aro und to finish in fourth . Bill Carr go t o ff to o, righ t a t th e st art, but recover ed rap id ly and ca m e by th e bomb close to Rich . The bent handlebar s susta ine d in the early crash ca used some d if fi cul ties and , despite some hard riding, Bill fin ish ed fifth. Gus and Bill had a close c o m panion at the bomb, Dennis McLaughl in, wh o ap paren t ly like d th eir com pan y so m uch he stuck with th em for the entire race a nd took a friend ly sixth and fir st 125. Hot Springs MX ( H us ). 2 5 0 A m : 1. B ill Carr ( Yam) : 2 . K . B r o w n (Han) . 125 Am : 1. D enn i s MCLaugh lin (H on ) . Open Nov: 1. C ra ig Kinn am an ( SU Z) ; 2 . G . H arvy I II ( H us); 3 . D . Kle i n ( Hus) . 2 5 0 N o v : 1. Joh n St een (Han ) ; 2. W illia m Church (Bu l ) ; 3 . Jam ie Ave ls (Yam} , 1 7 5 N ov : 1. F. Co lli n s ( Y am) . 1 0 0 Nov : 1. O . G r ee n e (H ~ D). Open Beg : 1. Ed Mu n dy (SUl) : 2. S . O tre n (Vam) : 3 . Robert B ur t scn er ( Hus) . 250 Beg : 1. D . T i Pt on (Hon) ; 2. B . O x le y (Vam ); 3 . George Er l ( v am ). 175 8 eg : 1. B r ia n W eb b (SU l ) ; 2 . J o n n Marlin ( Pen) . 1 25 Beg : 1. Ji m Scott (SUl) : 2. Pa t Lyo n . (S Ul) . 100 Beg : 1. Joe Lo c khart ( Pe n) ; 2 . a. u Br u ce ( Y a m ) . Pow der Pu ff : 1. Le slie K l ug (Han); 2 . Li n da Sha tka ( Ric) . Mini: 1 . Ste ve Po st ( Han ): 2 . Ja y H ig ht ower ( H o n ) . AMCMX By Thew Asp ORANGE , CAL., MARCH 24 Probably the mos t exciting class of the entire day here at Saddleback was the 125 Experts. I've never seen a bigger bunch o r wild eye d, kill crazy, and mon ey hun gry gro up of fellows go a t it before in my ent ire life. In every o ne of th e three motos it was David William s (Pe n) who go t t he h ol e sh o t after the ga te. droppe d. He proceeded to t ak e an ea rly, b u t temporar y, lead ove r th e res t of hi s hard cha rgi ng co m petit o rs. By Terry Newfarmer HOT S PR INGS, UTA H, MA R . 16 R.A.C.E. MX By Tom Blattler CORO NA, CAl. ., MARCH 28 The Thursday night R.A.C. E. motocross a t Coron a Raceway saw th e o ld regul ar s tak e most o f th e spoils, as th e 1.3 m ile course was in great condition and the racing clo se and t ight. The Quarterly Po int Leader, Ed die Clark (Hon) ca p t ured the 25 0 Junior as he to ok all three o f th e five -lap mot o s. Clark ha s d ominated th e 25 0 Junior throughout th e seas o n at Corona . Pla cing se cond, for th e second stra igh t week, w a s Kaw a sak i-m oun ted Sc ott Wallace, wh o go t o ff to a bad start in t he firs t m ot o, b u t finishe d second in the fin al two. Ano t he r Kaw asaki rider, Fre d Kn app , to o k thi rd overa ll. An other Corona Racewa y regul ar , l 3 -year-old Sco t Ti p to n, w ho is cu rr en t ly second in th e battle for th e Qu art erl y P o int Ch am pi on sh ip, cap t ured th e Mini Cycles div ision for the seven t h t im e this season . But taki ng Bob Plumb and Woody Lawhon int o the first Hot Spr ings turn. With two weeks o f decent we ather, a turnout o f 323 made th e O gd en C y cl e Ass oc iatio n mo tocro ss th e largest ever held in Utah. Hot Sp rings is just thi s side o f being a swa mp, and th e gro und dries slowly. The result was a dustless tr ack th at looked a little muddy and yet was not slic k. On e can ' t say much ab out th e up s an d downs, beca u se there a re no u p s a nd downs a t Hot Sprin gs, but th e tr ack made up for it wi th roughness a nd I wo or three berms through mo st o f-the turns. Last year, th e 25 0 cl ass was the gathering place for t he best riders, and race d escr iption co uld st art here. Bu t thi s season, it lo oks lik e th e 12 5 racing will be just as good . The last m om ent o f th e fir st 125 Ex pe rt heat sa w S te ve Burgess, Cr ai g Sno w and Peter Crandall fly down th e last st ra igh t elbow to -elbo w ,' y Z to Pursan g t o Six-da ys. Sn ow o vercoo ked th e last berm, went o n t he wrong side of a ti re an d banged bar s firs t ac ross th e lin e, b u t fo u nd hims el f sud d en ly a la p b ehi nd be cau se of th e ex c u rsio n aro und th e tir e. T he second hea t was alm os t an instant repl a y , wi t h Bu rgess battling th is tim e wi t h Rick Plumb, wh ile Cr andall fell down , passed ten guys, fe ll down , passed etc., etc., Burgess clai med first o veral l co ncl us ively, the n Plu m b, and the n a vast ly improved Kern En gland. T he 250s are i(oini( t o be a gas th is year. In th e fir st heat , Bob Plumb's lap ti mes were len pe rce n t fas te r than th o se of so me m ortal m en . a n d he r an away wi th only Wo ody Law hon keeping him in s i g h t af te r K en A rc hi ba ld di sappea red. In t he second heat. Plumb wa s d o in g it ag ain , bu t th e front wheel on hi s tr ic k Maico sud de n ly wen t sq uare , an d it se t tl ed d own to a Lawhon-Archibald batt le. In th e fir st O p en h eal , Pre ston Gerber fell o n hi s head , and jumped up in last place . Poetry in mo t ion followed a s he ca rve d new line s a ll o ve r th e track o n hi s wa y all the way back to second pla ce. In th e seco nd hea t. Kris :\lo rRan a nd G e rbe r pa ssed a n d un -pa sscd, until e xperience prevail ed ov er the w ildne ss of yo u t h a nd Gerb ca rrie d t he d ay . Even wi th t he gia n t tu rn out , o n ly six Exp erts ca rne on 100s. Dave Cra nd a ll d id so me of hi s usu al co me-fro m- beh ind charging, but Todd Harrison did him one be tter with a sec o nd heat blit z and • th e overall win.

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