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/125860
The Arizona desert is a fine place to road race ... Story & Photos by Philip Briggs PHOENIX , ARIZ., APRIL 21 "Well, that was nice," my lad y said . We're headed home in our truck , go t the stere o and t he .air on, the baby's asleep, and we're sip pin ' a cool one. Nice? Funny way to describe a bike race. "Why nice?" "Well, the racing was excit mg, Whooeel Montesa VR rider Larry Bird finds a bed of dirty 'ma rb les to slide on. Puff Association hosts fast mothers at Perris By Rex Reese PERRIS , CAL. , MAY 12 The Powder Puff .Association held its -seventh annual Mother's Day Scrambles at Perris Raceway with a m ix of excitement, joy, pain and pathos. The scrambles course .was very fast and challenging , but it was responsible fo r many slide-o uts • 36 an d m in or get -offs, an d o ne bad endo an d tw o ho rrifically gawd-awf ul crashes that sent a few really sm ashed b odies to t he h osp ital . One spec tator had t o b e taken to th e hosp ital becaus e of app end icitis. But d esp ite these omens th e Powder Puffers ran the sh ow all th e way , d ispl a y i ng mu ch cour a ge ~nd determinat ion against odds tha t migh t have stopped an yone else . Diane Connally , Queen of th e Puffs , laid out the program so that the lightweights ran in the morning first , wi th each small-bore class doing the rounds until they were all run. T hen the he avyweights came in the afternoon and did their thing, likewise. T hi s w as a sure cure for b oredom at th e tra ck, and kep t everyb ody happy. I mean , how 'd yo u lik e to wai t all day j ust t o do on ly th ree mo t os o r h ea ts, or hang aroun d even lo nger for t he final ? What th e Powder Pu ffers di d today was quick an d painless for everybody . Mo re tr ack s should fo llow their ex ample. The t urnou t was fa ir, with on ly 175 riders, of which thir ty or so incl uded the Old Ti m er 's Ass ociati on , who were lured from their normal motocross sto m pi ng gro unds an d o n to the fas t sliding paths of Perri s. T heir first general reac tion was th at of ou tright terror, becau se hardly an y of them had ever ridden any sort of flat-t rack, TT o r scrambles before in their lives . But by the end o f the d ay all them ol d shoes were sm ilin' and slidin ' , and no d oubt w ould get go od if th ey spent mo re tim e at it. In th e 125 A rn/E x' rs, Mike Ti dwe ll (YZ) and Edd ie Lawson (YZ), bot h sp onso red by Yam aha of Mon tclair, carried on their con stant b attle with some of 'th e ho ttest small-b o re actio n o f the d ay . Eac h moto Mike wo uld have th e lead with either Eddi e or Ch ar les Summers (YZ) breathing down his n eck all the way aro und the track. In the sec ond m oto , on the scram bles sec tio n of t he co u rse preceedi ng the TT sec tion, Lawson was really cooking it in t he lead un t il he did an endo with his bik e spi tting him off the tr ack and down a ten-foot embankment into a sm all pond. It w as the same section that wo uld get a sidehacker later in the day , and a j um p after that would create the most spec t ac ular crash o f th e past five years at Perris. The 175 -200 co mbined went to Steve Bales (Bul) without too m uc h sweat. But, at the back of the pack, there were sh ad es of things to com e in the lovely shape of Dorothy Rowe (Yam ) who appeared t o be no th in g to wo rry ab ou t for the rest of the d ay as far as any body m ight be concerned. Su rp rise! in th e fi rst he at of the 250 Novicie s, Dorothy , now on a Bu~ , co mes back to t ake a very strong thud, and boy is everybody surp rised ! But th e scr am bles sect ion took its toll on Doroth y as he lost it in a com er an d wound up las t. The sidehac kers had o ne hell o f a t ime fo r most of the day eve n th ough only three o f th em sho we d up . All day lon g it was a b attle betw een Norb ert Mon ohan and Leo n Van Orsdale on their Yammie-Wasp , against t he t eam o f Charles and R obert Sanner o n a Honda and Wayne Presco tt and Thorn Harney on an other Yammie hack . T hings wer e goi ng their natural ways in the hack races so well that nobody was prep ar ed for any sort of tragedy. On ab ou t th e las t lap t he hack team o f Presco tt and Harney ove rshot the las t turn of the scrambles section and fell down t he ten-foot embankment, cras hing in t o the po nd. Before the big n umber came up, t he m on key managed to bailout, leaving the captain to go dow n with the shi p , literally. While the passenger was able to get away with only a cou ple of bruises, the pilot sus ta ine d a co mpou nd fractured ar m and had to be rushed to t he hosp ita l. This was the b o ttom bum mers for the day. . .until later. It w as d uring one heat of t he Old Timers class that the worst cras h t o o k place. Ap pa re ntly one ride r fla ttene d a tire before hitting the final jump of the scrambles course . The fla t mad e him lose control going over the j um p , an d the resulting e ffe cts sen t him cras hing full-fo rce into a lad y spectator. She ca ugh t th e bike sq uarely in the chest and he ad , thro wing her abo u t twe nty feet back. A man was also hit, and recei ved a bro ke n ankle. The lady had probab ly sustai ned a co nc ussion , a broken arm. numero us lacerations and poss ibl e i n t e rn a l injuri es. The unfortuna te rider br oke his ribs , co llar bone and shoulder. This was the absolute wors t accid ent tha t had ever happened at Perris. This incident sh ould point ou t wh at can happen to spe ct at or s when they ge t to o close to the act ion. but besides that we got to park right on the edge of the t rack so I co uld see and had all the comforts, the sound and the anno uncing we re good so I co u ld keep up with the ' action , and it was a beautiful day." "Yeah, yo u're right, it was nice. " We'd be en to see Arizo na's first mo torcycle ro ad race, a t least in rec en t ti mes, a t Mel Larso n's Ph?cni x R a c eway . T he Ra cew a y IS a multipurpose racing com p lex, with a 12 turn one and a half mile ro ad co urse usin g its drag strip as the fron t straight. Sp ectators can sit in bleachers or par k tr ackside but are co nfin ed to the fir st qu arter mile length of th e strip. Due to the de ad flat terrain the ent ire track is visibl e from thi s area. The semi-spacious pits are just across th e way, there ' 5 a nice two sto ry timing stand, sn ack bar, and flush t oilets! Practice, qualifying he ats , and the features ran off with m i l i t ar y pr e ci s ion. The flagrn enjcom errn en are members of. a semi -pro fessi onal gro up, th e Phoeni x Fire an d Safety Team who handle similar d ut ies for all the USA C and SCCA even ts plus the lo cal half mile/sprint car track. All co rner crew s are equipped for fir es, an d are linked via telepho ne to each other, and the tower. A professional operation thro ughou t. . On the other h and, the racers were strictly amateur. By the time practice started , only 3 I ha d signed up, and except for a ha lf dozen from California and Colo rad o, it was their first ti me o n a road co urse. T he program called fo r two divi sio ns, produc tion an d mod ifie d, with fo ur engi ne classes in each. Five lap heat races were to select th e en tr an ts fo r two 10 lap features. With the sm all ent ry everyone still running go t to rac e both th eir hea t, an d t he feat ure . Machin ery w as highly varie d, ran gin g fro m a 250 Du cati sin gle to Z·I 's , and a ratty X-6 Hustler t o a cle an, well prepared TDIC Yamah a. T here was eve n a 25 0 Elsino re in drag. Most o f the ride rs we re on ca fe racers, an d most of those were 750 Ho ndas o r Kaw asaki triples. T he p r o d u c tion feat u re was in teresting from its David an d Goliath scenario. Stan Johnso n on a 750 Kawasaki , and Do nal d Tointon on a 350 Yamaha du ked it out fo r most of the ra ce . Stan would run off down the straight, an d Don wo uld work up on him thro ugh the swervery. By turn six or so Do n would close, worry Stan When's the last t ime you saw an Ossa like this? through the twisties to tu m 12, and then get lef t down th e straight. T his went on fo r eight laps till Don d ropped it in t urn te n . On the next lap Stan's bi ke pulled up lame , and John Danley, who had been ri d ing a co nservative third, inh erited t he lead , and th e win . Kawasaki triples w er e ub iquit ous in thi s race, with 75 0s taking the top three Overall. Betwe en the features tw o m en on t hr e e wh e els (sa me bike , an ex-B raverman Kaw ., different cast ) put on an exhibition. Fir st the battery was de ad, 10 minutes lat er the rnetalflake monkey cage stu tte red out on the straigh t and died in front of the spectators. Push. Sweat. Swear. Tow with t he fir e team j eep . Break the rope. New rope. Tow. Retreat to the pits. Oh Bob, wherefore art th ou ? The m od ified feature was perhaps the best of the day. Sixteen riders dragged it off the line on the flag ; most on Honda cafes. By the time they'd so rted out Cliff Allison on a 250 Yamaha TDIC was in the lead, and Paul Johnson on a 5 0 0 Honda cafe was in ho t p ursuit. Cliff proceeded to run aw ay fro m all th ose hairy chested cafe racers and their f un ny seats and four in to one's. Un real. They could n't even ca tch up on the straight! Cliff built up "is lead thro ughout the race , an d was lap ping the pack by the checkered . Paul's 5 00 humbled many 750s , and damned if 4 8 year old Harry Wilcox on the Elsin or e didn't finish fourth. Harry has hi s bi ke setup fo r quarter miles wi th a fa t ni neteen up front, and was o ut for a lark. He was tu cking under the pain t on th e straight in t he best road racer style, b ut with those lo ng ho rn ba rs looked mor e like he was sta ked do wn on an an t h ill. The m a n a gem ent a t Ph oen ix Raceway fee ls the tim e is right to run in formal, frie nd ly road races, plans tw o more th is sp ring, May 19 and June 9 , an d a full series ne xt fall. They may be right - sure ly th e burgeon ing cafe fad can support events wh er e rid ers can get it o n like th eir mud slinging friends. T he pavement scen e is defin itely more gen tle , but the ego tr ip is sim ilar, and I kn ow fo r su re the pit tootsies ar e th e sam e. The equip men t costs more, th e get offs are worse, and the spectating is n ice. • See yo u there. Results PR O D U C T I O N : 1. Joh n D anl e y (750 Ka w). 2 . Ken Scott (75 0 Kaw) . 3 . Joel Johnson (750 Kaw) . MODIFED: 1. C l iff A llison (25 0 Y am ) . 2 . Pa u l JOhnson (500 Hon) . 3 . Jack D o ver sp ik e ( 7 5 0 Hon). Pau l Johnson (500 Honl is about to get zapped for the modified race lead by Cliff Allison (250 Yam). The guy in the background is riding an Elsinore with TT tires, and fin ished fourth in front of 2-15 and Honda 750s galore.