Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

class the next two weeks by co m ple tely running aw ay with the lead in both his he at s an d final s, lea d ing as much as a quarter lap . In th e 125 J unior Main, Gary Pie truskiewics attem pted th ro ugho u t t he 10-lap fin al to pass leader Mik e Rad dell, bu t o n tha t las t lap Steve Bran dt passed Pie truskiewics fo r sec ond to Ridd ell. Mike Kan e led the 500-750 Expert Main on May 3 all th e way w in ning o n a 750 Norton , b ut Dua ne Yarrow (Yam) bro ke the 650 placings by finishing second. He closed up on Kane at one tim e, b u t had no h orsep ow er match d ow n the straights. Dave Young (Tri) was close: be hind Yarrow for third. • Resu lts in the Resu lt s Section. 590 ride San Jose Half-Mile By William Spe ncer z SAN JOS E, CAL ., APR IL 21l :< Sp ortsman half-mile isn 't new, but the 590 riders that signed up to ride on thi s warm and beautiful day mad e som e sort o f a rec ord for numbers alone. The numbers made for early del ay s in gett ing th ings go ing but th e program was run by 5 :30 p.m, wh ich also had to be some sort of record. C( s w Z Z I_ _ -==--==-~--""~ -"'::!:.._"'=- '...... Rocky Hardland (Mail got a third in the first Open moto during disputed qualifier. Th ere were 11 o ther races run, from min i bikes on up. 22 At the Pro riders' me eting th ey first announced the re would be two 20 minut e motos, bu t change d it wh en a rider rem inded th em o f th e AMA rule requiring three 20 or two 30 minute motos. A t that , they were short o r my wa tch took a co ffee break. In order to st ay within t he ligh ted area the track was cut much too short. The leaders were ea ting it up in th e 4 1 sec o nd n eightborh ood. Maybe it 's just as w ell th er e w eren't too many pros there. Danny Brown (Bul) led the 250s o u t of the first tum . Pete Crandall, Bo b Plumb (Mai ) and R ick Burgett (BuI) were right th ere with him. Bur gett started t aking th em o ne by one. By th e th ird lap he h ad the lead and by the fourth he started lapping the slo we r riders. Doug Raines (H us) worked up from sxith to finish second an d Brown held in for third. When th e results were post ed t here were eno ugh squawks t o indi cate som e scorin g problems. So, on the sec o nd moto yo urs truly kept a tap e and mental record o f the top 10 or so . Pe te Crandall led off th is time with Danny Brown and Burgett behind him . Bur gett grab be d an early lead and had enough t ime to cras h ou t of view yet still co me ar ound ahead. On ce aga i n th e sc o ring was quest ioned and acco rd ing to th e taped reco rd the re we re errors in th e top 10 fin ish ers. Riders wh o pro teste d wer e sho wn the sco ring shee t s which had dashes representing missed num bers in most of th e first 10 laps. No effort was mad e to determin e whose n umber had been mi ssed - if y o ur n u m ber w asn ' t wr i tten o u t on the sheet y ou m igh t as well have be en st reaki ng th e pits b e c aus e you w eren 't CO ll O te d . Fo rt un at ely the Op en class was small enough that scoring didn't see m to be suc h a problem . T he Open b ikes to ok off within 10 minutes of th e finis h of the 250 race which ga ve th o se riding both classes a workout. Bill Cook (Mai) led into the ' fir st comer, but it d idn't take long fo r Rick Burge tt (Bul) t o w o rk into a c om ma nding lead . Buck Murphy (Mai ) moved into sec o nd and sp ent much o f the race fighting to hold off Rock y Ha rd land o n ano ther Maico . Coo k led to th e co mer o n t he second race also but soon yielded to Murph y . Th is time Bur gett p u lled up to become part of Murp hy 's show. T hey dived into comers inches apart unt il Burgett slipped hy. Some o f the guys p ut in so me fantastic rides and Bu rge tt went home with a lot of loot but it was a bad scene. T hese guys deserved more for their mo ney and the ir effort man th ey got. • Resul ts in Res ults se.,tion . Back-to-back scrambles' By James Brammer VALLEJ O, CAL., APR. 26 - May 3 On a tack y wet scrambles track at Vallej o Ap ril 26, Marlin St ewar t (Bul) sto pped Phil Ande rso n's (Mon) long-time winning streak in the 250 Expert class. In thei r heat and again in th e final, Stew art follo wed beh ind And ers on unt il flag ma n F rank signaled the halfway mark. .T he n St ew ar t passed Ander son and co n tin ued on to w in with b oth riders well in fron t of the pack. Ande rson still won the 750 Expert final. Rus ty Da vis (Yam ) w as o ut f ro n t in th e 36 0·5 0 0 Junior class while J im Wel sh succe ssfu lly held seocnd pl ace from Lee Do lcini. On May 3, J ohn Gerhardt , a Calist oga high school junior, won his eigh t h 200 Junior Fin al in ni ne starts. Usually, he ge ts in fr on t from th e first co mer an d runs away. Len Vest al says that's enough; y ou're an Expert now in short tra ck. He is st ill a Juni or in scram b les. Du an e Yarrow led the 250 Expert class on May 3 until th e critical las t lap whe n his m otorcy cle di ed, m ovin g Renny Bru ns (Suz) up t o first foll ow ed by Bill Bisel an d Mar lin Stew ar t. J oel Hale returned three wee ks ago after eight mo n th s o ff wi th a mend ing broken leg. The fir st night, he fe ll while well in fron t. He won the 250 J u nio r C( ,,, Desp it e th e lack of stagi ng lanes for pr actice, th er e was lots of practice an d onl y a few sne aks go t away with e x tra. The tr ack stayed in great sha pe for the best part o f th e d ay wi th o nly one watering sessio n required. T he o nly spot whe re it go t bad w as th e fir st turn where th e gr oove go t a little narr ow in the middle. . Tom Page made it three for three by winni ng t he 25 0 "A" Divisio n and also got th e nod fr om sh o rt t rack steward Len Vest al that it was J un io r time. Guy Curtis took the second over old timer Walt Gardi ner, ano t her o ld ti mer, Do n Kirb y, and Steve Rami re z. Kirb y kept Sonny Kenyon up lat e Sat urday nigh t makin g his tired old Bultaco run right after Kirby seized it a t th e scr am bles Saturday night. Ma tt Carothers surprised n o o ne by winni ng the 125 Exp ert Main. Dicing with AI Wood and Ri cky Graham w as fantastic but Graham lost hi s engine toward th e end and Matt had it m ad e with Wood riding to second and Danny Castelh ano h oldin g o n t o t hird afte r lead in g the fir st lap. Nick Naz zisi is now ca lling th is trac k his after win ning th e 250 Expert Main ove r Mike Kun sman an d Steve Foster. Nick and h is Mt. View Aut o S te reo Bul taco came o ff th e star t d eep in the pack. T ucked in be hind Da nny Young, Dave Masse an d Mike Kunsman , th e winner o f th e Junior pro half-mile kep t the wick up and t o o k th e lead fro m Kun sman on th e sixth lap. T he 70 odd ent ries in 360 Expert mad e for enough riders to m ake tw o separate divi sion s and the rac ing was spectacular. Jim Odo m led off th e " A " Main but b lew h is 360 Yamah a trying t o Rick Hocking (12) and Steve Eklund (9) locked in classic Half Mile duel at San Jose. hold off Scott Pearson and the Sam Arena jet Kawasaki. Pearson stretched the lead over Randy Gibbs for the next few laps , but horsepowering through the maze w as Hanlon and th e super fast Yamaha that h as ca rried Scott Brelsford an d John Genn ai to so many wins. On th e last lap, he got by Pearson who only m ad e one mistake. R ic k Ho cking (Hon) had led th e second heat for t he di stance o ver S tev e Eklund and his Borsch framed Yamaha twi n , no small feat in itself. The problem was in the mu ffl er o r what many co ns ide red to b e th e lac k of one. When t he moto r came in fro m th e he at it was pr o nounced legal . The ragin g con tr o versy arose abo u t not havin g a so und m eter to ch eck all the bikes. Champion race frames put on this versio n a m egaphone with baffles, and is read y to match d ecibel for decibel with all th e o the r bikes. A t an y ra te , in the main, it was once again Ho cking and his Honda with a goo d race fo r secon d through fourth ragin g betwe en Manuel Datan , Eklund and Chuck Miller. Datan had almost as mu ch horsepow er as Ekl und but Eklund had hi s tr oubles, letting Miller by for o ne lap, th en comi ng back for third at the checke r. • Resul ts in Results section. Fremont night happenings By W,H, Spencer Hlebo Bros. bag scrambles brass FREMONT , CAL., MA Y 4 Jo hn Hleb o is off his ret irement and o n his own winn ing wa ys in the 500 Expert class at Fremont with th e tr ack drying out. While t he s pecia lty machines are dom inating the 1/4 mile oval, the 1/3rd mile steeplechase is gett ing better and within a week sho uld be the sa me fa st track th at m ade it the hit of District 36 last year. Hleb o, a forme r Blac k Plat e, go t hurt last year, an d is ou t t o rega in a sp ot on th e top 20 list and be at out the No . 14 holder tonight, Mike Allen . In th e ra ce fo r th e t op spo t for this year, Phil Anderson go t a super hole shot o ff of st arter Mik e VanLienden in th e 650 Expert Main and capitalized it into a good win over o ld man Duane Spe nc e and Hank Sa nc hez . Anderson is curre nt ly running thi rd on th e list and th e win will close him a bi t on second place holder Ted David son : while the t op m an , Duan e Yarro w con tin ues to slip. Bill Phillips co n ti n ues to d ominate the 65 0 J unior class on his supe r san o Triump h tha t is so smooth and easy to wat ch that one wo u ld th ink he reall y isn 't goi ng as fast as he does. He w en t fast eno ugh to beat J ohn Crljenko by a straight away and leave tw o bi kes in the first t urn ti res . Firs t Albert DeH o yos ski d de d in to t he b ank after locking handleb ar s on the firs t lap and then John Hern an dez got too hot and j o ine d hi m. Ti m Hleb o , the you nge r bro ther to Ex pert J oh n wo n his first ra ce t o night in 175 Novice aboard an ancient Honda T wi n that j ust see ms to last forever. He ap peared to be having t ro ub les in the middle of the Main when Rodger Slack an d Scott Whitaker st art ed to ca tch him . When aske d wh y al l the gr abb ing d own by his right foot peg, he rep lied th a t hi s sh oe lace had go tten stuck in th e kic k starte r and he co uld n' t get coord inate d un til he I:0t t he m essage • t hat he was being foll owed . Back to tr ackin' F R EMONT, CAL., MA Y 3 Jerry Kol e (Yam) won the 3 60 Exp ert l\lain af ter 30 riders rode in th ree' Hea ts to get to th e Main. J erry spe n t man y nigh ts follo wing Rick Ho ck ing to the checkered last year. Now, it lo oks lik e the Junior rated ; pro can w rite his own ticket. Mike Fruzen h ad his tr ou b les with Ric k Ryan again in the 60 J r./ Ex . b ut

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