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/125864
r Nichols smokes as ambulance burns Kawasaki SuperBike ntl. Laguna Seca , Monterey ' ,c ~ 00 ...... By Rex William Reese ELS INO RE, CAL.,J UN E 8 St eve Iichols (Yam) had to outride everybody else as he took the 500-0pen Expert Main tonight while Rick Marquis (Hon) and Mark Rei chert (Yam) foug ht desperatel y against each other in a battle for second pla ce with Rick coming out on top. All this Pric es at the Track~ Pract ice & Qual ify ing . . . Fri.$ 2 General Admission . . . . Sat. $ 4 Race DayGeneral Admission . $ 7 Paddock . . . ... $ 2 Grandstand . . . . . . . . . $ 2 TOTAL$t7 Available at all Tlcketron Outlets or use coupon below. Super Tickets THREE DAYIGENERALADMISSION. PADDOCK AND GRANDSTAND . 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Cost $5 .1 City ~ UY I 714-558-9543 _ I've enclosed I want you to ship C.O.D. 1.;; _ Papa Wea ley will ride the SUPERBOWL in his wheelchair 14 -----~ 1'11~ #fa ~ "to- ~ II ----~ '74 400 GP CZ's for $11 90. '74 25 0 GP CZ's for $1090. '74400 MX CZ's fo r 91 0 . '74 25 0 MX CZ 's for 880. (714) 645-8008 s s C~~ exci temen t was slightty o vershad owed earlier in the evening by o ne in credibl e crash in th e 250 Exp ert he at, and an une xpected "fireworks " show prior to Nich ol s' victorious pe rformance. The Gripsters MC put a lot o f effort in to set ting up the track for this District 3 7 point run at Elsin ore R aceway , and th e prep work paid off. The good track condi tions d idn 't st op quite a few RO YS from ge tting off all th rough th e nigh t. While th e b ig bo re ROYs grabbed a heavy amoun t of the thrills, a lot o f th e heavy ac ti o n too k p lace in th e sm aller bore r ank s, n o t a bl y th e .1 2 5 Amateur/E xpert line up . Even though it looked like t here were eno ugh 12 5 Amateur/Experts to warran t two hea ts , everybody was put into three regular m o t os in stead wi th a handicap lin e se t up wit h th e Amateurs u p fron t and th e Experts in back. All n ight lo ng , J eff Springm an (Yam) d idn' t see m to have m uch sw eat as he ke pt in front of th e pack . Bu t Mi ke T id well (YZ) co nsis ten tly rode like crazy to w ork th ro ugh th e traffic jam th at w as alwa ys in fro nt of him. Added to tha t was th e extra frustratio n of Sprin gm an giving Mik e sec o nd m ost o f th e time, making th is class battle reall y worth seeing. The m ost sp ect acul ar and inc red ible endo th at I guess any bod y has ever seen cam e abo ut in th e sec o nd he at of the 25 0 Amateur/ Ex pe r ts. Mike Ti d we ll (Ya m) and Ed di e La wson (Coo) were runnin g orre- two on the first lap o f th e he a t. As th ey ro unded the S-sweeper turn befor e th e sco ring booth, Eddie looked lik e he plowed his bike into th e insid e co rne r o f the t um, knock ing him off, but sending the bik e ear th weeling abo ut th irt y feet th r ough the ai r, o ver several other riders, and ove r th e other side of th e turn. Everybody was shoc ked and th ought tha t Eddi e had at e i t for good, but he lucked o u t wi th "only" a broken co llar bone an d th e wind kn o ck ed out of him . Mike held on to win th e he at, but th e sigh t of having hi s go od buddy do the wo rs t number that an ybod y co u ld hav e done, left him p sy ch ed for th e rest of the night and despite a go od ride, he co uldn ' t cash in on a top number. T he 500·Open E xpert Main looked like it wa s was shaping up for a re gular sh owd own as the baddest guys who won thei r heats rolled up to th e line to do some seriou s riding. Everybody was really touchy due to th e late hour and the heavy c ompe titio n, as starter Larry Bird had everybody light it off a bit pr ematurely, and made them all go ba ck for a restart. As everybody I(0t ba ck for th e re start, all ey es were on Larry to give th e fla g. All of a sudden, the I(UYS on th e lin e ba cked off th eir throttles and poin ted past Larry, eve ry bo d y saw it - t he Ambulan ce h ad caugh t fi re ! Fortunately, it was on ly a sm all carbure to r fire. After th e brief pyroco medics, Larry got th e 500-Open Experts off to a goo d start. I'm sure t ha t a lot of peo p le th o ugh t tha t Rick Marquis (Ho n) was go ing to have it made tonigh t , b u t nobody bothered to tel l S teve Nich ols (Ya m) about it as he j ust put it on Marquis and everybody else for th e win in the main event. Back in the second spot, Rick had his hands full as Mar k Reichert was co ns tan tl y giving hi m trouble. Finally, on the final lap, Rick berserked his Honda in the stretch to put it over Mark and grab second, with Mark third. Everything wound up at th e ungodly hour of I :3 0 a.m., even th en, ROYS were tyring to get ready for the next morning. As I drifted off to dream land I heard two guys : "Looka my cylinder! Yechh ! Qui ck, gimme some san d paper. Gimme some oil l " • Results in the Resul ts Section. Mike Hannon roughs awin as ambulance doesn't burn: Elsinore cont. By Rex William Reese ELSINORE, CAL .,JUNE 9 Today was quite uneventful in comparison to the night before, but th e thrills kept coming as taday 's D-37 rough scrambles brought o u t a c o u p le of motocrossers in addition to the regul ar scrambles fan s. One I\IXer in particular was Mike Han non (Bul) as he put it t o th e 500 Experts on his Po m eroy Replica Bultaco while Rick Marquis (lion) played bridesmaid to the winner for the sec o nd time in a row in a class t hat he usu all y dominates. Everybody go t up this morning at th e " earl y " hour of 8 :00 a.m. for even m ore r acin g, as if an y b ody hadn't had e no u g h l a st night, The Elsinore Racew ay crew did a spiffo jo b of cha nging th e tr ack for ro ugh scrambles. And wh ile alm ost all the scramblers were mumbling and grumbling about how rough th e tr ack was, Mike Hannon Was smi ling to himself be cause he thought it was j ust right. Another ambulance wa s used today , thi s time on e that was less flammable! And whil e last night was almost t errifyi ng in nature. today w as even co m ic in many cases. The Min i class was an abso lut e bozo race as big guys D. Hannon (Hon) and J. Bearup (Ho n) ganged up on the kids, winning eac h moto despite being turned backwards at th e start lin e. then being made to start from the other side of the tr ack. But don't worry folks, in th e in te re st o f good sportsmanship, they disqualified themselves, so the kids could get the poin ts , In th e 250 Novicies, mo re co m ed y was added when th e lin eup had to go through three restarts! The star of this was J. Darissi ( B u l) due to his .. . uh . . . unique style, was never ab le to make it past the second turn, and after ne arl y busting a vital piece of his body, he d ecid ed to quit, much to the relief o f everyb o dy. The 5 0 0 Amateurs, not to be o u td o ne by mere Novi ces, d ecided to have eve ry bod y cr ash in the second moto of th eir clas s. But in the 5 0 0 Experts, everybody was serious. Scrambles freak s were turning blue in the fa ce after seeing one rnotocrosser wip e out the 125 Amateur Experts. Now, they were going nuts as Mike Hann on (Bul) was ab so lu tely demolishing t he 500s. Rick Marquis, who was having a hard time the night before. was going s tir crazy over th e fact that fo r som e weird reason. he jus t co u ldn ' t put it on the m otocrosser, and on ly in the second moto of th is class could he put it on Hannon . Wheth er o r not it was his devilishly go od lo oks, o r h is truly t rick plas ti c boo ts, Mik e Han no n had n o trou ble in cleaning it all up t od ay . • Results in the Results Section,