Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

- -,, ,,.------- ------- - ." - ' ;: 0.. ~ Tony DiStefano both went fast and stayed together.. .it counted. lfier: mith, Thorwa dson, DiStefano win By John Ulrich .sANTA MARIA, CAL., APRIL 21 Beautiful weather, excellent traction, no dust, and a minor rider's revolt kicked off the Tnter-AlvlA Qualifier held today on the Spillway track built in a dry river bottom. A large crowd of people paid four dollars each to see a Marty Smith runaway, a Rich Th 0 rwaldson consistency /smoothness specia l, and a Tony DiStefano war-of-attrition endurance run. Ron Bass (Pen) and Ken Zahrt won the two 250 class q ualifiers to'.hy . Bass, - on a machine he reT>:;rredly had never _ J .. f b core P-C'CU, 'beat Team Hond a f~'iuriies Bill Grossi and Rex Staten doing it, with an ad ded advantage - the 250 Honda team was mounted on their practice bikes (stock Elsinores with Koni shocks added) to save their works machines for the National next week. By the time the day was over and the consequences of the decision to run stock bikes in the Honda effort were known, Rex Staten would be able to thankfully say, "At least we won't ever have to race the practice bikes again!" Marty Smith (Han) shot into the lead of both 125 motos and stayed there all the way to the finish in each. He won the first by 34 seconds over second place Bruce McDougal (Han) and lapped everyone up to fifth place in the second. Smith was mounted on his works 125 , since no 125 class National the next weekend made Team Honda want to "save" his bike. McDougal's bike was also works, carrying him to a third and a second. Bob Keese (Bul) nabbed second in the first mota with a five second margin, but McDougal stuffed him back in to third in the second. Overall it was Smith, McDougal, Keese, an d DeWayne Jones (Can-Am) with two fifths for fourth . T he start of the first 250 mota was laden with crashes. Weinert and Grossi were involved in a several bike collision in the first turn Weinert later blamed on "Some squid cutting in front of me." After stopping briefly on the trackside to bend his shift lever ba ck out from under the engine case, Weinert, now dead last, started a charge that would get him into third thirty minutes later. . Just about the time Weinert was re-entering the track, new Team Bultaco 12 rider Ken Zahrt was taking the lead away from Gaylon Mosier (Han), who ran up a track embankment in the first turn of the second lap and fell over. Zahrt's bi ke had a ~hoto from the eycie News Baymare Nation."" Cuverage taped to his tank ~, his mechanic to remind him of the caption and urge h im on: "Ken Zahrt (Bul) started fast, but tired quickly." Ron Pomeroy (Bul) tailed Zahrt with Rex Staten (Han) third, (up from seventh at the start) when Gary Jones (Can-Am), who also was moving up from a not-so-swell start, got bumped by Jon Derhammer (Yam) as Jones was passing in mid-air off a high-sailing jump. Both went down in a cloud of dust penetrated by flailing arms, legs, and motorcycles. Jones picked it up fast and got gassing i t again just in front of Weinert, who already had passed about seven guys. Even though the crash had him feeling a Ii ttle hazy for several laps and he was still feeling the effects of a Rich Thorwaldson hauled. bo ut wi th the flu th e week before, J on es wo uld work up into seve nth by the end of the mo ro, Meanw hile , without attracting a wh ole bunch of attention, R ich Thorwaldso n (S uz) was gaining positions at a rate unrivaled by anyone except Weinert. He soon held fourth behind Zahrt, a still advancing Staten, and Ron Pomeroy, Staten reeled in Zahrt, Thorwaldson closed up on Pomeroy, and Weinert seemed to close on and pass everybody and anybody in fron t of him. Staten whittled down Zahrt's lead and then took it for his own, and Th a rwaldson passed Pomeroy and started to knock off the 14 seconds between him and second place Zahrt. Lap after lap Thor gained, as did Weinert. Jim passed Pomeroy, Thorwaldson passed Zahrt, As Radical Richard chased Rocket Rex and his practice bike, Weinert slipped into third to stay. Pomeroy dropped out with giant blisters on his hands, Thor took the lead and pulled away a bit as the crowd oohed and aahed appropriately. That's how they fi nished, Thorwaldson, Staten, and Weinert in the first three slots, followed by Zahrt, Ron Bass pushed his Penton into the first tum first after the rubber band released on the second 25U mota, hounded by Jon Dallaire (Hon) and Staten. Weinert and Jones were running about fifteenth, both moving up fast . Staten wasn't sitting still, either, jumping into second after one lap and getting himself into a wheel-to-wheel back-and-forth dice with Bass in the process. Weinert was already in fourth by the third lap, J ones was in eleven th, and Thorwaldson was maintaining in sixth. Zahrt was way back after a bad start, destined to finish this mota in 21st place. Staten stole 'firs t, Weinert took third, and Thorwaldson slid into fifth is Jones reached seventh. One lap later the stage was set for a replay of the gian t Staten/Weinert dice seen at Hangtown two weeks earlier as Jimmy jammed Ron Bass's virgin Penton won his qualifier. into second. Another lap and, as Weinert took up from one to three seconds per lap on Staten's original nine seconds of slack, Thorwaldson moved up another notch for third. Weinert edged closer and closer to Staten, got into an axle-to-axle battle, ani! then, terribly suddenly, was first . Thorwaldson did the same thing to grab second, just flat hauling and loo king incredibly smooth. \Ve i n e r t won this one, but Thorwaldsorr's second gave hi m the Ove rall for Suzuki, with Weinert second an d Staten thi rd. Jones and his fifth gave hi m fo urth Overall. Bill Grossi gained eight places from a start in twelfth to finish the mota fourth, only good enough for seventh Overall, one notch above Arizona's Number One Chuck Lampe (Mai), who looked like he was getting dialed in during the first mota (taking a fifth), but falJing back to fourteenth in the second. Mike Runyard (Suz) took the first 500 class mota lead away from the gate with AMA 500 Number One Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) second, and Bryar, Ho lcom b (B u l) thi rd . An th ony DiS tefan o (CZ) was m oving right up there when he crashed on the third lap as Karsmakers blasted in to first an d proceeded to show both how he won his title and how he won a reputation fo r doing well on san dy tracks - he ran away with the lead and hid from everybody. Holcomb passed Runyard until his bike ate a piston (only the first for the day) and DiStefano charged into third after recovering quickly from his endo. Pierre built a 38 second cushion between himself and Runyard. Runyard crashed as DiStefano pressured for second, and while the Suzuki pilot got going again for another two laps, he soon pulled off the track to be sidelined with a shoulder injury. Karsmakers' transmission turned itself to junk as he took the checkered flag, followed by DiStefano and Mitch Mayes (Hus), newly returned from training in Sweden with Husky. Holcomb, his engine fitted with a new piston and barrel, jetted his new b lue Bultaco in to the lead with· R ichie Thorwaldson. • . DiStefano right behind in the second mota, one lap after Karsmakers' hole shot and first lap lead went away with the sick engine blues. It seems that Pierre had borrowed a complete engine from Mark Rodman and installed it between motos, only to have the engine blow a crankcase seal and tum itself in to a smoke bomb special. Karsrnakers was out after another two laps. DiStefano got past Holcomb, and the two leaders (having lapped everyone else), were soon hot on the tail of Doug Sherman (CZ) and Mitch Mayes running three-four. Holcomb's bike seized again (It's a drag when Bryar's bike bl ows, because while it runs, he is a jet.}, an d D iStefano lap ped everyone except second place . Sherman before the m o t a en ded. Overall it was DiStefano's day. Sherman was good for second, Mayes was third, Frank Steiner (Bul) was fourth ahead of Karsmakers, who had enough points for fifth in spite of breaking in the second m ot a . The much -anticipated Rex Staten/Pierre Karsmakers d uel never came off since Rex rode his practice 250 today instead of his wo rks 370, an d Pierre returned to the Open class, but maybe next time ... The rider's semi-revolt took place over the track charging $4 admission for everyone except racers, when the AMA rules clearly state that each racer shall get one free guest pass for so meone accompanying him. Karsmakers and Weinert were chief instigators, threatening to not ride unless the matter was cleared up. Finally, when the AMA referee was somewhat wishy-washy in deciding which side to back, Jim suggested the money be added to the purse, whi ch it was. But, as \\'einert said later, uWe've been screwed too man y "ti es. We work hard for our mo ney , m and they're not even paying appearance money." • Results 12~: 1. Mary Smith (HOn) 1-1. 2. B r u ce McDougal (Hon) 3-2. 3. B ob Keese C Bur) 2 ·3. 4. raewav ne Jones (Can·A m) 5 ·5 . 5 . C h uc k B ower (H o n) 4 -7 . 6 . John K ee se (Bul) 6-6. 7. Frederick Joenner (Bu l ) 94.8. J o hn Geosln"1 -8. No Va Vam) -10. lS UZ} 8:111. 9.Rich. 130, 7-9 . 10 . Robe r t 1·2.ro ttI 250 Thorwaldson (SUZ) 2~ Jim Wei nert (Kaw) 3-1. 3 . Rex State n (Hon) 2 -3 . 4 . Gary Jones (Can-Am) 7-5. 5 . Jon Derhammer (Vam) 6-8. 6. John Dallaire (Han) 9 ·7 .7 . Bill Grossi (Han) 134.8. Chuck Lampe (Mal) 5-14. 9. Rick Grafton (Yam) 11 -7. 10. Ronert Wnarton (Hus) 10-11. 11. Ken Zahr t (Bul) 4 -21. 12. Parry Klassen (Mon) 16-1 2 . 500 : i . Tony D iStefano (CZ) 2 ·1. 2 . Doug Snerrnan (CZ) 4 ~2 . 3 . Mitch Mayes (Hus) ,3·3 . 4 . F r an k Steiner (Bul) 7·5. 5 . Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) 1·14. 6 . Lars Larsson (Hus) 1 2-4. 7 . Jim O'Neal (Mal) 10-6. 8. Peters, 8·8 . 9 . Faucett 9 ·10.10. Rogers (Hus) 15·7.11. Andrew Baines (Mal) 14.9 -.

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