Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

200 J unior class with the p revious week.] Mike Riddell fini shed second and among those tigers, Rick Shafer got a third in his first outing as a Junior. " Diana Williams (Yam) was all sm iles after her second place fini sh in the 100 Nov ice class. Sh e had led th e first eigh t laps of th e fin al befor e winner Lionel Rocha (Yam) wr an gled the lead from her. Larry Drew was keyed for double victory in the Ex pert clas ses. He to o k the lead earl y from Wad e Boyd in the twelve rider 250 cl ass and fini shed first followed at the fini sh by Dave Faria, Wade Boyd , and Marlin St ewart. Drew cam e from th ird in the 36 0 Expert !\lain, first pass ing Lee Dolcini. Then he followed Thomas Fleming to the three-quarter mark before sm oo th ly passing to lead. After som e rough opening nights. the promoters have th e infield sho rt tr ack sm ooth an d packed . With twelve rider heats, Saturday's program w as one o f the fine st sh ows ever. • Results in the Re sults Se ction. Reno speedway By Mike Conway a: "' ~ ~ ~ a: tIl Vl _lo:1IL- ~"___'__~l~ Mike Delacy rode his fact o ry works special 200'1' Noguchi Yamaha right past Lonn ie Ker ley (21G I w ho "only" had a regu lar zo nker U-fix -it Nog uchi. Mike Riddell (82) was second and he " only" ha d a Bu ltaco Ast ra. RENO, NEV .,l\lA Y 8 The second me eting of the Nevada speed way seaso n proved to be a cro wd ple aser for a bo ut 800 p e ople p a ckin g th e R e n o fairgrounds. Rich Machlurray, wh o too k the Scrat ch Main last week , co uld o nly mak e it to th e Scratch " Co nsolation race t his week . Also Wind y Fo reman pro babl y wasn't too pleased as he firs t cras hed in his Han d icap hea t alo ng with Bar clay Treha ll an d Ron McG ill and lost it agai n in the Semi. To top o ff the night he led the Hand icap Con so lation until th e last lap o nly to lose it to Ron McGill. J ames Childress took a clean win in the Divisio n II Main . Dennis Robinson was in second and cl osing wh en he lost it in t he second lap. Curt Simpson, winner of one of the heats, took second and Steve Moore fin ished third. The Handicap Co nsolation action was as close as there was all night. After the restart when Smalley and T rehall wen t down Windy Foreman jumped in to the lead and seemed to have a co mfortable lead. Ro n McGill had other ideas and closed the distance every lap fo llowed by Pau l O rla ndi . Righ t on h is tail were Smalley and Treha ll. Smalley got it too sidewise and Barcl ay hi t hi m, and bot h we nt down . On the last lap McGill got by Foreman on a nice in sid e move and Orlandi finis hed t hird. Cliff Ball led the first two laps of the Handicap Main only to give it up to John Cunningham who really had to charge from the 40 yard marker. Alan Christian was right o n his tail but lost it on the th ird lap, went in to th e infield, and was black flagged. Ball hung o n to second and Dale Stetler fin ish ed third in front of J ay deB aubein. Th e Scra tch Main was a close o ne. Alan Christian could not be pressured into an er ro r and won the Scratch Main at Reno . Alan Christian w as as sm ooth as sil k as h e took th e lead fro m Pa ul Orl an di a fte r th e firs t tum. Right o n his back tire was John Cunningham, wh o wa nted th e lead b adl y. Cunn ingh am t he n p assed Orlandi also and pressured Alan till the checker b ut co uld not get aro und. A t th e en d Orlandi was closing again but had to se tt le for third. Ron Sm all ey was • fou rth . Resul ts in the Resul ts Section. Jim England who fought his way over loose, stee p climbs on a 125 Hon da. The J erich o area is the ho me of the Cherry Cree k race, fa mous for being so terrib ly difficult to finish. Bu t fame as an endurance test still posts a qu estion o f philosophy : should every race be a Cherry Creek? Is this why cross -country parti cipation is slo w ly declining, while m o to cro ss sets new atte nda nce records ? Cross-country is the most fun there is, if you plan it to be , Few clubs can mat ch the p olished sty le of the Firebirds in putting on a cross country. The start was dusty but fair, the checke rs were enthusiastic an d offered wa ter ? and the results cam e q uickly. The club p lan s a ha re and ho un d in the fall, and several members said p ress ure from th e BL ~ I wi ll push th em o u t of th e favored Jerich o coun try to th e west . Hope the y m ak e th at on e a fun o ne, becau se the Birds are a • mainstay o f Ut ah cros s-co un t ry . Results in the Results Se ction . Whither Utah Cross-country? By Terry Newfa rme r JERICIIO , UTA H, MAY 5 A dry spring, an old potho led co urse , and a zeal ous numb er o f loo ps made the Firebirds spring ha re scrambles the t oughest in their hist ory. All by itsel f, the race poses the question o f what is going t o be come of cross-country in Utah. The course was the sam e on e the Bird s used last fall, reportedly at th e ins istence of the BL~1. The usual spring moisture w as not there . and every landing spo t was a series of poth ol es. But th e real cha rac ter of th e co ur se lies in th e fact that there is nowhere to res t : th e road s are eit he r ro cky d ownhill turns o r " ch arge through th e d us t if yo u dar e. " T h e balance of th e co urse will sha ke you r kid ne y be lt off, even th ough i t incl ude d so me swoop ing trails through th e j un ipe rs, the most fun ty pe o f ridin g th ere is. T ro uble is, it's hard to have fun wh en yo u 're trying to save th e bod fo r a race tha t is about 25 % to o lon g. Am ate urs and Ex pe rts we n t four lap s. Esti ma tes of the dista nce varied aro und a mean of about 28 m iles, b ut it is fac t th at the wi nner was taking over an hour a lap . That's over fo ur hours o f pound ing in the sad dle if you are one of th e b est, and five or six if you 're no t. Burstin g o ut o f t he p ea so up dus t of th e start were Ken Arc h iba ld an d Prest on Gerbe r , who se t up a figh t for the lead . Archibald led until he inj ure d a fool and dropped out. Gerber rode alo ng unt il he beg an lapping rid er s on his 35 0 Bult aco, and th e Overall co n tes t was de cid ed . B l a ylo ck wa s in hi s D ave almost -usu al position of a d istant hut co ns is ten t second Overall , on a 250 Bul. Then the y rolled in pretty quick ly : Cotton Gu io, Ca l Croshv and Laddie King, all on Open class bikes. T hen cam e John Harrelson on a 200 Bul, and you'd have t o say it wa s a good day fo r Bultaco, The 125 Expert class we nt to Brad Wilson on a Suzuki, and Bill Te rry was first of t he few 100s. Top Amate ur was "' ~ Pioneer Arena scrambles By W. H. Spencer OAKDALIo:, CAL., MA Y 5 Mit chell Davidson (Suz) yo unges t o f th e well known racing David son 's, pu t it o n the 125 Expert s with a super ride in fro n t o f D an M i ll s (Hon) and S teve Il ollingswo rth [Suz]. Te d Davidson had been winning that class with some regul ar ity , but Danny Mills put the screw s to that with a terrifi c heat race betwe en he and Ted. In th e Main , Teddy got st uc k in traffi c and neve r mad e it past fourth sp ot. Mit ch took it all leading Mills ' Elsino re to the checke red . Te d did his usu al rou tine in th e 250 Ex pe rt Main a fte r a terri fic du el with Craig Scr oggin s (Co op ). In both the Heat an d the ~I a in, th e tw o fou gh t it o ut tooth and nai l . with only one mistake being mad e by Scroggin s in handling through th e co rner. The 125 Junior event is becoming quite the show race with much crashing and bas hing go ing o n. Jack Grenig (Suz] su rvived the bes t. Rod Murphy did th e usual o ut-of-co ntro l hot shoe, and Mike Bow ling did so m e spectacular cras h ing. Rick Ry an d id it agai n in bo th th e 60 an d 8 0cc mini classes. Ryan is st ill a Junio r, al tho ugh n o t for long. Just thin k : a t the age of seven and 5 0 pounds o n the we t side , afte r 25 ye ars mo re o f racin g, he w ill o n ly be 32 and • th at is still y oung. TRA flat track opener By Shirley Campbell JUNcnON CITY, ORL , MA Y 5 Territorial Racing Associat ion o pe ne d its season o f quarter m ile racing today, drawing ove r 20 0 riders. T he weather was very hot an d ma ny riders fou nd the ir tires spinning on the starting line . In the Minib ik e Beginn er class Ala n St ringer (Ho n ) came up with first p lace in the Trophy Dash and the A Main . Davi d Harless (Ho n) an d Brian Loesch (Ho n) were clo se be hind fo r second and third. Ther e were o nly tw o y o un g ladi es who had th e co u rage to race agains t all th e fello ws toda y and th ey ran away with first and seco nd pl ace in th e 100 C Main . Hat s off to Cheryl Ellis (Yarn ) and Kath y Sweet (Yam). In the 125 A Main it was Gary Davis (Ho n ) holding o ff the cha llenge o f Wayne Loe sch (Yam ) and Charles Andrews (Ho n) and picking up th e win. This ra ce is alw ays a spec ta to r thriller. Wayne Loesch won t he T ro phy Dash . Steve Sweet (Bul) co ntro lled the action all the way in th e 2 00 A Main. Sw ee t go t a very good scra tc h off the st arting line and there was no stopp ing him. Gary Davis (Bul) and Eddy Dun can (Pu c) cam e in for sec o nd and third. Gary McDowell (Bul) w on th e .Tro phy Dash . Rob Mu zzy (Bul) j um ped in to an ea rly lead in t he 25 0 A Main ac tjon. Lest er Huey (S uz) held seco nd p osition until Ric k Oliv er (Bul) turn ed it on . Ric k got p ast H uey and m oved up on Dan Mills (Ho n:9 I p ressured Mitch Da vidson (33 ) but the kid won th e 125 Expert anywa y. sho win g no respect for his elde rs. a: u "' Z "' Q. Vl .J .J tIl 1 --, 21

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