Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Bad omens for AFM: Crash or break special By Jim Lester ONTARIO, CAL.,JUNE 2 Sunday's AFM road race at Ontario Motor Speedway had some really weird things happen. By the law of averages, I guess you're just bound to have "one of those 'days" every now and then. Har:y Klinz m a n d id not b rea k and d id not crash . He ju st won . T he Sidecar race had to b e restarted whe n th e Star ter caught fo ur b ikes completely u naware the race was about to begin . After the restart tum 10, (the second horseshoe). seemed to harbor some sort of jinx for all no n-Hondas, Three of the eigh t starte.rs coasted to a halt there. One of them, the Bender/Weisberg Kawasaki. was holding down second at the time. All of the finishers had Honda engines. led by Jim Mc:-leal and Sky Kerley. Mike McAvoy blew off the rest of the 50·100 GP field. Jim Tank (I00 Yam) held second, but broke . Then Eddie Lawson grabbed second, only to disappear from the scorer's charts for the next two laps. Steve Zimmerman took over second on his CR·110 Honda 50 . .. and broke. Karen White (50 Ital) inherited second, but the gremlins went to work again, and she broke. Doug Stanton, the second place survivor, must lead a charmed life . Rudy Galindo's "jinx" in the 125 GP race was named Mike Baeder. Rudy was leading on the final lap, but Baeder (Rudy did the porting work _on his engine) and John Weed {ex-boncho of Boguscycle Weak ly ... Ed.) sneaked past him just before t he finish. Speaking of the past corning back to haunt Rudy (he was racing a converted enduro today) .. . h e hel p ed design those neat little TA·125·s (that beat him) when h e used to work for Yamaha International. Glenn Billings (Yarn) grabbed a sizable lead in the 250 Production race, while Willie Ha rdin a nd Wally Karpynec diced for second on a pair of Suzukis. Neither of the Suzukis bad been worked on since the grueling 300·Miler las t month. Glenn's a nice guy, and wben one Novice (No. it was not Team Toad . . . Ed.) bounced down the road just past tbe second borseshoe, he pulled off to see if the rider was OK. Willie grabbed the lead for good, but scared hims elf silly o nce by bitting a b ump. and overshooting the approach to the first h o rsesh o e be nd, nearly hitting the back straightaway wall of the Indy ca r oval. 00 ... Jon Miller gasses lip his l\1aico in the S.A.M. 500 Intermediate class at SaddlebackJune 2. Photo by Tom Corley. Tbe 350 Production ra ce saw one of its smallest turnouts in years (only II riders) get smaller and smaller, lap by lap . Rod Murufas led the first two laps, before . Scott Clough got by, tben Rod crash ed trying to return the favor. Dale McCreary and Bob Tigert were se cond and third, followed by the battling duo of Gary Saunders and Bill Henry. After running wheel-to-wheel the entire ra ce, their wheels touched in the final tum of the last lap, sending them both to the ground. Gary got up first and pushed across the finish for fourth. In one of. the day's more sane races, Mike Parriott won the Open Prod uc tio n race on his "300·Mile" Yoshimura Kawasaki, with Ed Unini snapping at his heels until his engine made a few strange noises. Jim Lipanovich , 500 class winner, w as third on a Ron Grant-prepared Suzuki. Parriott also won today 's short Superstreet ra ce. J o hn Talarico streaked to the Open GP win on a TZ·iOO. Second Overall, on a " half-displacement " water-cooled 350, was Harry Klinzmann (the 250 GP winner earlier). followed by Richard Seifried on another 350 Yamaha. Richard Williamson grabbed four th Overall from Rudy Galindo on the last lap. Next time, Rudy, we'll shorten the 125 and Open races by a lap , OK? • Results in the Results Section. manufactured and distributed by ALLIED iVlECHANICAL PRODUCTS DIVIS ION OF TOWER IND. • P,O. BOX 2967, SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA 90670 TEDDE'S SEA & LAND 2472 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena. CA 91107 TOWN & COUNTR Y 41 I So. Brookhurst 51. Fullerton, CA 714/871 ·2460 YAMAHA OF THOUSAND OAKS BARRIS SPORT CENTER 2388 Th ousand Oaks Blvd. Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 7 14/447·733 7 .805/597·3765 DUD LEY & SON Hanford . CA 93230 209/582 ·9370 EI Cajon, CA 92020 WESTERN POWER SPORTS. INC. Boise. Idaho 83704 208/376·383 1 31 .