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/125863
was about eighth a t th e end of the straigh t on lap o ne, second on lap three and con tin ue d to steadily b uild up h is lead to nearly a ha lf lap by the finish. He was turn ing I :4 0 laps on the mile -and-a-half tra ck at the end. Meanwhile, ba ck in the pack, amidst all the ringadings, Ron Cowles on a painfully stock 750 Ducati was steadily working up towards the t op. Ron had looked very ill a t eas e during practice , and hadn 't done well in hi s heat. Pe rhaps the heat-of-battle baptism rele ased him , perhaps he's a quic k learner. By th e last few lap s he was purposefully fli cking the big bike from side to side in the esse s and h ad worked his wa y up to th ird by the last lap. Firecracker FamOy EndUl'o July 6th Lucerne Valley M.O.R.E. Benefit 33 mi . of easy trails Stickies - Finisher Pins Contingency prizes $4.50 single, $12.50 whole family (incl 1 yr. membership in M.O.R .E.) Send name with 1 S.A.S .E. to CTR : 7859 Quimby Canoga Park, CA 9 1304 Let's see now, it's just like in motocros s, isn 't it? Dist.37 Firecracker EndUl'o July 7th Lucerne Valley M.O.R.E. Benefit By Philip Briggs 95 m iles; 4 riders per minute St icki es -Fi nisher pins - Trophies D-37 entry form - entry : $7.50 (3 man teams add $1 each) send-with 2 legal size S.A.S.E. to CTR : Bo x 147, Newbury Park, CA 91320 Eeeeeupeeeaaa. Two Yamaha 125 road racers a few feet apar t drag down the front straight, the riders tucked in as skinny as they can get, straining along with the bikes. Mike Baeder and Clif f Allison have been this close the wh ole heat, and this is Cliff's last chance to get Info fol' both events: 2 13 346-7168 714 639-2666 01' 805 497.2057 K ONI SHOCK COOLERS . MOVED YOUR SH OCKS FOWARD . AND NOW THEY BUBB LE AND OVERHE AT17171 HERE'S THE EASIEST SOL.UTION IN TOWN . AT THE EASIEST PR ICE . F"ITS • A L L. THIRTEEN AND THIRTEEN AND A HALF INCH KONI • SHOCKS. ON L Y $8.95 PER PAIR . BILL JONES MOTOSPORT , BO X Z4Z, N O R T H H OL LYWOOD , CALIF. Dodge those cowpies and watch the gas slick: Twisty Tarmac in Arizona PHOENIX, ARIZ.. ~lA Y 19 by Mik e. Off the straight and in to the first of 12 turns. Nose t o tail . bike and rid er closely match ed. Clif f waiti ng for th e ch ance - a better line , a missed shift . On tum 10 Cliff di ves under ~like . exits wide and ahead . Mik e div es under in II, pulls abreast, an d side hy side they enter I 2, Mike inside. They ex it , still side by side, and drag fo r the finish , bikes and riders st raining at every p or e - Mike gets there first , but barely . . Th e program called for three divis ions, Cafe. Product ion, an d Mod ified, with four eng ine classes in th e latter two. Several heat races in each divisio n so rt o ut the fas ter ride rs fo r the 15 lap feat ures . Most of th e cafe race rs opted to ride in the modified division , but because of the small entry they find themselves m ixing it up with Yamaha road racers . Elsinores and assorted home builts - your basic bad news-good news routine. Those little Yamahas are tru ly sharks am o ng the herrings in the mo dified class. The Open Modified heat found a truly mixed bag of 75 0 ca fes ; Hondas • Kawasakis, a Yamaha, and a 1000cc Sportster. Bob Lyons on the Harley h ad been scaring me all morning during practice. Accelerating out o f th e tighter turns the big Hawg w ould start to power slide , Bob would ch op th e throt tle, and induce a wobble th at would knoc k over a lesser man. With a fo ot o n the gr o und an d a wren ch of the st eerhorn bars, he'd st raigh te n it ou t, an d charge for th e nex t one. It lo o ked like it had a rubber top tube ! For sure he'd b e layi ng in th e weeds before the da y was o u t, Bob did well on the drag fr om th e sta rt. runni ng second at the first turn. Bu t by tu rn three he was ba ck t o fourth as tho se effe te litt le rac ers with th eir knees o ut sta rte d t o slip around him Hard sho ts of Hawg power o n th e st raig h ts weren 't en o ugh to keep up . So Bob s tar te d to learn co rn ers. By lap three he was bac k to th ird, and h is power-slide-ch op wobble co rne r sty le scared th e fourth plac e man , wh o was trying to pass, o ff the track. By lap four he was in second. and exiti ng the corners wit h po we r o n, front wheel in th e air and slid ing! S tan Johnson o n a Kaw asaki had been setting the pa ce , but on lap five Bob won the dr ag do wn the straigh t and stayed in the lead to the checkered - a bi zarre rid e . T he w ind w asn' t t he only thi ng blo wing as Do n To inton blew evervone away in the Product io n fea ture. 'Don The modified fe ature was a full house, with 24 riders tr ansferrin g. The drag to the first tum was hard fought, and close with Rudy Galindo on a 250 Yamah a road racer ge t ting th e nod. Bob Lyon was back a half a dozen or so, and on turn II fulfi lled my prophecy, losing it in a literal crash and burn, as the comer crew po pped an extinguisher un the Harley . On lap tw o Rudy came aro und w ith Paul Johnson on a 500 Honda in h ot p ursu it. R udy led until Iap six whe n Paul squeezed by in fro nt of my picture point at t urn four. Rud y chased Paul for several lap s, finally getting by o n lap I I as Paul 's Ho nd a ran out of gas. Rudy held the lead to th e checkered , turning a I :38 on th e last lap . T his was Paul's sec o nd road race; Rudy is o ne of those fabled Californians. This race was vir tually a replay of last month's, when Cliff Allison did th e sam e to Paul on another 250 Ya maha. Rud y 's duel with Paul carried them both a h alf a mile or more ahead of th ird an d fou rth place, and well into th e back markers. Gary Weisshaur on a 400 Kawasaki and Dave Higbee on a 125 Su zuki had their own duel for next to last, with Gary finall y winning it as the little Suzuki cam e up lame about midway . Back in the p ack, Cliff Allis on o n a 125 Yamaha was steadil y w orking his way u p , finall y finishing fif t h o n th e litt le screamer ahead o f a bunch o f big. bad Ho nda lours. an d Kaw asaki triples. T h is feat ure was m arred b y several ge t o ffs. On e of the riders immediately got back up, walked around in a small circle a few laps an d the n fell on his fac e. Th e ambulance car ried him off. Harry Wilcox on th e Elsinore dropped it , (p ro bably staggered around aw hile thinking this was a he ll of a wav for a 48 year old to spe nd a' Su nday afternoo n), re mo unted, an d ro de off. So me of those gray haired du des are to ugh. T hese in fo rmal road races are a good place to work o ut a cafe, and yo ur machismo trip . For racing, I'll st ick to the dirt; it' s softer For spectating, road racing is har d to beat. Nex t race is J une 16. There will be a 20 lap feature for the GP bikes, and a school and practice session on Sa turday . I understand so me real scra tchers from California will be racing - see you there. _ Results in the Res ults Section. CMCWeek By Alan Shepherd In the 500 Pro class at Ascot Bob Hosford (Hon) collec ted his first vict orv o f the season, without winning a single event. A fourth and two seconds stood up despite joe j ohnston's two aces on a Maico, j oe had trouble in the second round, crashed , and finished tenth . Luke Messer (Mai) snuck ove r with th e win in th at one and held second Overall be cause o f it . At Irwi ndale for the second week in a row, vet eran Jim West o n the pair of factory Huskies st o le th e show while taking' all six motos in th e 250 and 500 Pro races. His closest 250 foe was Val T amie tti (Hon) , who took a second and two thirds. Don Bongiorno (Ho n) had his bes t ever Pro sho w ing, taking seconds in each of the final two mot os , but a first event fifth cost him the run ner-up cash. Joe Jo hns to n was co nsistent this time o ut, but it was all seconds for him to th e fas t West. A zusa High Sc hoo l, goi ng in favo red by fo ur points in thei r Semi Final m at ch with Alh ambra High 's fast cre w headed by Jeff Sloan (Yam), did it the har d way in winning 37-29 to advance to the Finals in two weeks. Azusa h ad on ly five riders signing in as it was Prom night. Sloan, on a little 100, pulled o ut the Overall .win but it was n 't enough as h is closest teammate of the final tal ly sheet was Tom Mastros imo ne back in fifth . Danny Williams, Steve Tafoya an d Paul Fernande z did all the damage, however, taking second, third an d fourth respectively. Top see de d Arcadia meets untried Mark Keppel this Friday night in the other Semi Final round . Arcad ia won 4 2·24 in thei r first meet while Mark Keppel won via a forfeit in its initial contest . The C!\IC then headed south for a lazy Sunday a ft ern o o n at Carlsba d Raceway and the first round o f the Weekend Se ries for the Juniors an d Intermediates , t he best rider fro m th e two day s ge tting a West Wor ld bi k e trailer. (In that short contest, Ti m Burke of Las Vegas, Neva da ha d a 2· 1-(· 1 showing ove r the two day s and wen t home a happy wi nne r.) As it was only 24 ·hours before th e biggie $ 2 ,0 0 0 show at Sad d leback, not man y Pros took a chance o f bust ing up the ir eq uip ment. Bu t, of those wh o did mo re t ha n a few wis he d th ey hadn't, including Billy Urban, Tom my Croft an d Bob Maxwell. It took two crash es t o make Urban realize something was wro ng wi th his Ho nda, but he didn' t know what , so he kept plugging away . T he problem was his rear shoc k had co me un d on e . He tried again in the second moto with it partially re paired but fought it all the way to a third place finish in tha t one. The class was won by Ti m Lunde after a tight battle with Bruce Mark Hapser eats it while Gary Praster gasses it out front on 395's new trac k.