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
-, • • By Terry Newfarr1,1er g DELLE, UTAH , MA Y 26 Preston Gerber wins 1 hare scrambles -80 fI.I IIG IIG ...:I ~ T his was the race that was to have been Cherry Creek. Bu t th e famous hare and hound was a casualty of the energy crisis, be cause when the decisions were bei ng made, it looked unlikely that there would be enough gas to get to the race and back, not to g -e- 1" O'l ..... ..... u c:: 250 Seniors Payned at AME MX By Dale Brown VALENCIA, CAL .. MA Y 31 "Hey, loo kee here Willard. Billy Payne 's racin ' in the 250 Senior class. So much for that race. Who do ya thin k will win t he 500 Senior?" Willard's frien d may not be psychic, but he did predict the future accurately enough. It was 42 Payne's night in the 250 Senior clash. The Maico-mounted speedster had little trouble in the first moto, taking first going away . Mike Todd (Coop) and Mark Hateley (CZ) followed . In the second moto, Payne had to chase Hateley for a lap before getting past, while Todd dumped it in traffic. Hateley, a new member of the Mid-Valley gang, gritted his teeth and kept second. Todd really hustled to get to third position. Some of the best wheel- to-w heel racing seen here or anywhere else was on tap for the third moto. Payne and Todd really got into a scrap. And I mean really . Todd would lead coming into a corner, Payne would edge ahead going thro ugh it, and Todd would get the lead back goi ng out. After abo ut fo ur la ps of that, Payne fina lly mo ved out to kee p his grand-slam tradition going , Ha teley finished third. The spectators knew they got their money's worth. Joel Shedden (Mai) also did a grand-slam number on the 500 Seniors. Nothing really flashy, he just took the lead at the start of each moto and won going away. Tom Claire took the runner-up spot every time for runner-up c a s h. The battle everybody was watching in the: first two rn ot os was for third place between Randy Berkeley and Don Hicks, both on Maicos, Berkeley, who was riding under the lights for the first time, ended up ahead. Hicks didn't show for the last m oto, so Dan Barnes (CZ) joi ned the battle and he took a thi rd in the last mo t o , winding up fourth in the overall standings, be hind Berkeley. • Results in the Results Section. Bill Payne Maicoed his way int o the money. men tion the gas the club would use running back and fo rth to lay it o ut. The result was the 1-80 hare scrambles of the Salt Lake Motorcycle Club , consisting of fo ur lap s aro und the same loop , held much closer to Sa lt Lake City. Much of the co urse variety of th e old Che rry Creek was t he re. With sections ran gin g fr om p ick-yo ur-way in fir st gear to d own-on -th e-tan k sixt h, every o ne agreed th e cou rse was a fun o ne, but th ere was some deb ate on whether-120 mil es (fo ur loops) was to o much of a good t hin g. T he start area was unequivocally th e best ever used in a cross-c ountry in Uta h. The run to the smo ke bomb (a figure of speech) led throu gh rolling hills of j une grass. The dust w as minimal, but more important than th at, t here were a half dozen di ff er ent rout es over the hills an d th ro ugh th e wash es, which made strategy as im portan t as th ro ttle. No o ne was con fined to pounded-in trails. Best of all, glidi ng thr ough the sea of j une grass had a beauty that we seldom sec: in a race. After the bomb, yo u skitter down a rocky trail to an o ld bulldozed road th a t is flat -out for about six m iles, un less you are in someone's dust. Then co mes a long wind up a jeep trail th rou gh sage so high it had to be cu t back wi th a machette to kee p it fro m snaggi ng throttle cables. This lea ds t o a lo ng rocky cli mb up a ridge to a checkp oin t. There t he trail begins it s ro ck y descent d own two ridges. One section is in the sh arp bottom of a canyo n , where the clu b hac ked a small trail fo r a hundred yards o ut of a m ount ain sid e so steep yo u can 't stand on it. Ad vance dow n this t ra il to th e be ginning of a fe w miles o f can yo n bottom that isn ' t steep, but i t 's so torn up with t rees an d boulders that a four-wheel drive ca n 't traverse it. More j une grass, and then a rode run to the dry mud fla ts. Mud flat s so ta cky that you can lean o ver till the footpeg drags witho u t sliding o ut. Fast fun and fouled plugs. An o ther jeep road and ro cky trail lead back to th e j une grass, and you're one lap into the race. Firs t Overall we nt to Pres to n Ge rber, who has now collected a series o f wins t his season that is in cre di ble even for him . He looked al most lazy o n his 35 0 Bullaco, slidi ng along o ut front, with a determined Dave Bla ylo ck rig ht beh ind hi m o n a 250 Bul, "Krazy" Kri s Morgan ke pt th em in sight, un til he found some way to break his Kawasak i for h is usual DNF. After those three, the dust settled and all got quiet until the rest started to come through, very strung out. The 200 Expert class wen t to Mike Wallers, who has become a strong ove rall runner since his switch to Bultaco, A couple of years ago, Tagg G uio was a spindly Novice kid w ho so mehow finished Cherry Creek - this time he was first 125 Expert, by a long lead. At the peak of its history , the Cherry Creek race saw na tio nal television coverage and nume ro us magazi ne writeups . The tu rnout approached 500 riders, incl uding one who flew in fro m Canada. At 97 riders, this event d idn' t b reak any records, and it los t money. Why so few? A rap sess ion of representatives of the state's AMA clubs revealed that cost and the long arduo us courses have become major problems. Gone are the dudes -who would probably ride enduros if we had them here - the kind of guy who doesn't go that fast, but likes to ride to finish, just for the hell of it. • Look for the pendulum to swing.