Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

..,. CMC Twisty Tarmac: Klinzman wins a lot and Baeder gets a workout Story & ph otos by Lane Campbell IRVIN E, CAL .,JUN E 9 c( a: Kevin Ha sten and h is fat tanked CZ were in the righ t p lace at the right t ime at ORA's Snake Chase. His biggest o pponent was not his fe llow riders, bu t his trusty old H usky that he had tric ked-up last week. You ' know, m ove the o ld shocks forward and all yo ur t rou bles are over, so they say. Well the troub les were not over and the o ld Husky jus t wasn't going for the change but Gus was putting it through its paces and moving up despite the difference of opinion between b ik e an d rider. Coming in to the last leg of the first loop, Padilla and Gringo bike got into a little misunderstanding a nd the Gri ngo threw its chain . The lead at that point was not gre at en ough to hold b ack Hastens who took over a nd led into the pits at the end o f lo op on e. Following Hastens' Husky w as Padilla (wh o managed to replace his chain quickly) , John Steen (n ow running first 250 Amateur), and Bill Saltzman on his self-tuned Husky. Foll owing Saltzman it was McCasland, lrby a nd Jim Francis. The c o urse w as turned 3 0 .4 the first 250 Novice on a 25 0 Husky. S t eve Mart in pulled in eigh t h Ove rall and first 0-20 0 along with $25 on a 175 K aw a s aki riding out of Draco's Kawasaki. R ound in g o ut t he top 10 was Dean Hammond riding a 250 KTM today picking up second 250 Expert followed in by Paul Greenwood on a 400 Husky . " D on Rotundo turned in a good ride today taking first place Open Novice on a 500 Yamaha. Don's had a string of bad luck la tely but things are looking better. Patrick Jones got it together and scooped up first 175 Novice, an d fast as the leaders mile loop in 34 m inutes. The Beginners were well under way and taking an e arly lead was Gary Kerns riding a 400 Suzuki . Following Gary very closely was Dav id Praiswater o n a 250 Ho nda an d Jerry Lea th aboard a 500 Ya maha. Gary was unable to hold his lead and ha rd riding David t oo k ad vantage of t he situation to stick h is 250 Ho nda o ut front. Jerry Le ath was n ow holdi ng dow n a comfortable second Overall, firs t Open bike as th ey cam e through the pits, en ding loop one. The se cond loop was not going to have . a big effect o n the fin ishing posit ion s of o ur Amateur/Expert leaders. The dust was really starting to linger and with the exception of our two b attling Amateurs the winners had already been determined; the Experts held their own all t he w ay ar o u nd. . Corning into the p its for t he checker flag was Kevin Hast en s on a 400 CZ . Kevin had st ated o n Sa tu rday t hat hi s bike felt go od. he was ready and going to make more than just the " usual " effort to p ick up the win o n S unday. Sometimes gut feeling is rewardin g if the en ergy to c ult iva te it is t ak en . Hastens' reward was $ [00 fo r firs t Overall. Benny Padilla to ok t he flag seco nd Overall, pick ed up fi rst 25 0 Expe r t and $ 25 o n his Gr ingo. T hi s wa s Benny's fir st DRA rac e sin ce April '71 and he stat ed that he enjoyed the co u rse . and had one good ra ce go ing wi th Hastens until h is c hain ate it. Fo llowing right in was Bill Saltzman o n his 400 Husky for third Overall and seco nd Open Expert. Jim Ir by won out in the battle for first Amateur an d $50, rid ing a She ll Mo tors tuned 360 Ya maha. Fifth Ove ra ll and third Open Ex pert we nt to J im Fran cis rid ing for Crown Cycle on a 36 0 Ya maha wi th Bill Co nroy rid ing his first d eser t event o n a 4 00 Husky picking up sixt h Overall and second Open Ama teur. Conroy is a m o ro crosser and made a good show in the desert coming up from 32nd hal fway aro und lo o p one. Bo b Co le man picked up the Novice m one y finishi ng seven th Overall and Do ug Grafius sm okes his way int o the ORA p its. He rman Soos pulled in first 125 Novi ce o n a Pen ton. The De n n is guys p ic ked up t he 100 and 125 Am ateur wins todav ; Denn is Green e on a 100 Harley and Dennis :\lcLaughlin ab o ar d a 125 Honda and finished in th at ord er . Heading up the Beginner ra ce and first Overall was Jerry Le ath who m oved up from second on lo op o ne to the win riding a 500 Yamaha. Ken Mann abo ar d a 250 Bul taco managed to p ick it up a bit o n the second lo op fo r a respec tful second Overall, firs t 250. Fo llo wing in Ken was Dan Bernardino on a 125 Ho nda, David Praisewater riding a 250 Ho nda a nd Gino Prudholm aboard a 175 Ya maha. Tim Plan t too k first 10 0 honors o n a Hodaka, acing o ut Bill Bruce riding a 100 Yamaha to second place. Pat Dew showed t he lad ies the way around to day taking first Powder Puff an d Little Ti m Jones rea lly p ut his XR -75 through the paces, grabbing fi rst p lace in the Mini class. The d ay end ed early and m o st of the riders were on their way ho me before t he heat was rea lly up . Quite a Snake Chase b ut no bod y ca ught a snake ! • Harry Klinzman had himself a day, and Mike Baeder had himself a race-long duel with French import Phillipe DeLespinay in 125 GP class th at about wore him ou t for the 25 0 race. The mon th ly CMC club race drew a mixed bag o f produc tion and GP roa d race rs, as well as 20 Cafe cla ss ride rs. Opera tions we re hamp ered wh en the ra dio crew , ca ug ht in a sch edulin g conflict, failed to show . The lack o f a ra dio net had promoter Pat Manning goi ng abo ut like a (q uote) "blue -arse d fly." but with a bit of help from the racers, the p rogram went off with minimum delay. Harry Klinzman, still a Junior (fo r how long ?) won two races outrigh t (Op en GP, 350 GP) and was second in another (250 GP ) 'b e h in d Senior Pat Evans. No breaks in the Yamaha stranglehold in any of these class es. Nor were there any breaks in 12 5 GP, but the inter-Yamaha skirmishing in tha t class made it the day's standout race . Mike Baeder o u t-d ragged a field of II T A · 125 's an d assorted spear carriers in to T urn One and held on most of the way around the end of the drag strip . Then DeLespinay nipped b y go ing behind the t ower and the cha se was o n, Baeder re-took the lead going in t o the sec o nd lap, then lost it ag ain . On th e third lap, Mike almost high-sided c h a s i n g DeLespinay through th e chica ne , but recovered to take the lead back on Lap Four. He held on until Lap Six when DeLespinay beat him into Turn One, then Mike re -passed co m in g out on Turn Fo ur. The fo llowing lap , DeLespinay nipped Baeder agai n com ing off the drags trip . b ut this t ime got w ide in Turn One, al lowing Baeder to c u t under h im to grab the lead ba ck . From that point on, Mike held his line and kept DeLespinay at bay, but the drama wasn 't quite over. Rudy Galindo began to make a move fr om hi s fourth position. af ter man y laps of watch ful waiting, On the las t lap . afte r putt ing J ohn Weed beh ind him (Ho orah !) , Galindo made an inc re di ble cha rge out o f Turn Four (sha vin g the ligh t sta nd ard b y a whisker ), passed DeL espina y , and closed w ith in a wheel 'o f Baeder before they hit th e c hic an e. Th en Rudy seemed to fade as the tri o head ed o u t fo r the esses, be cause at the chec ke r he was stuffed ba ck in to th ird to score as seco nd Senior. (DeLe spi nay was signed as a Junior.) 00 T he torrid 125 ra ce told o n m any of the ride rs who turned over im mediately to rid e th e 250 GP . At T urn One, keepin g track of those who w ent off d own t he escape chu te , ei the r o n t hei r own or with help, got to be a fu ll-t im e job . Among th e vic tims: Mike Baede r on Lap T hree, Al lan Eng le on Lap Fo ur, an d on the same lap Wally Karpy nec k with Kent Rockwell fo r co m pany. Roc kwell got back into the fray cle an , but Karpyneck's engine d ied , . fo rcing hina to d o some fast shuffling to ge t going again. Then on Lap Se ven Bob Hartley shunted Dick Fuller off d o wn the escape chute to end their back-and-forth d uel over seventh p lace. Seconds later Norman Fraijo locked everything up and shot across Baed er 's nose in his impromptu trip down the dragstrip. Amidst all this high drama mixed with low comedy, Pat Evans ran away and hid from everybody, followed at a respectable distance by Harry Klinzman after Harry finally put a feisty Rudy Galindo behind him for good. Among the Pr oduction troops, Wally Karpyneck had better lu ck, managing to insert his Suzuki in to the leading phalanx of Yamahas for first 250, while Rod Murufas ducked off and won the Overall. In the Cafe class, anything went, as lo ng as i t was (tec hn ically ) street lega l. This wee k 's hot set-up was -the combination of Keit h Code on a 500 Honda with a Kerk er exhaust sy stem and much re levant internal work . What a so u nd ! Code, usin g all the pavernen t and dragging an occasional peg; led the cl ass wi re -to-wire, then went on to wi n th e 500 GP class later in th e day. (Klin zm an ran his 35 0 in Open GP ). Doug Snavely had a horrifying c rash when he got his Cafe class Honda off in the dirt setting up for T urn Eigh t, The heavy machine flattened alm o st 100 feet of chai n-lin k fen ce before vaulting o ver and ending up in a t ree . Snavely sus tai ned multiple fra ctures; and wa s taken aw ay with fear s o f a broken neck. It was announced over the track PA after a ca ll to the hospital th at Doug's ne ck was not broken , which gave a t • least partial reli ef to everyone. Results in the Res ults Section. Pat Eva ns (11 ) en ded the fi rst lap of the 250 GP with Rudy Galindo (1 31) and Harry Klinzman (7 3) fo r company. 11

• Cover