Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Drag climbs: Something for everybody? New and Def i nite ly D lffer ent l For 2 str ok e and some 4 str oke . lorqu~ ~ f"l oster Spark Plugs 'P ut the Spark where the action is By An n A . Powell SUNNYMEAD, CAL., AUG . II Moto rcycle hillclimbing ma y not be everyon e's bag, but d rag climbs attract a wide r'!Ilge 0 f riders. One' need only watch fo ur-yea r-o ld Kenny Thompson o n his little Indian, a n d th en look at "Grampa " Bob Day to see the wide age spread. Fortunately, " Gramp " Day doesn 't pit his big 500cc BSA against little Kenny, but both put the same amount of effort into their r u ns. Wit hout a d oubt, th e fans seem to be mo s t d ra wn to th e big b ike r aces, the 750 .0pen clas s. T he newest bike in th is rac e tod ay was a m on ster Honda 83 6cc, ridden by Ron Stan deven , As t hat machine caug h t fire and roared aw ay fro m the line , the vibr ations shoo k the scoring tower and sho wer ed dirt on sp e cta to rs m an y ya r ds in the bac kgro un d. It was p itted agains t th e 800 Trium ph of N e a l Mackel , traditionally t he " bi ke to beat." Mac kel too k th at r ace win. His fuel b urner, unbelievab ly ligh t , can get off a starting line like nothing eve r seen. But Ma ckel fell victim to Lad y Lu c k an d los t th e class win to Tom LaRue on an other 800 Tri ump h when his bike di ed o n the lin e. In the ba ttle fo r top elim ina to r , a battle that runs the class win ners against each ot he r, Lady Lu ck struck again. As if to sh o w La Rue that he coul dn't take any th ing for granted, the race ended when he again faced Mackel. This time Mac was ridi ng his 400 Husky, also highly m od ified. But, a 400, eve n a ho t o ne, against an 800, didn't look too good. T hen Lady Lu ck showed how fickl e sh e could be . LaRue go t off the line fas t , but so di d Mackel. (He was goi ng to give the rac e his a ll!) About 20 ya rds fr om, the start, LaRue's bi ke went wi ld. He jumped b ack an d for th acro ss th e run, t hen was down, flippi ng an d flopp ing, fo llowed by his bike , finall y gri nding to a halt . In the meantime , Mackel was flyi ng o ver t he top o f th e hill. Mackel had won, not an unexpect ed even t. bu t he had wo n o n a 4 00 Hus ky, n ot his big Tri umph! (To d ay proved a race isn 't o ver until th e last bike makes its last run. T he most ski llful riders, t he bes t tu ned bi ke, can always fall. Just as k T om LaR ue! 1• Results in the Results Section. Pinnick and Rodman fly with CMC " o The 12 5 Pro race again was the h ighligh t of the da y 's C:vIC motocross pr ogram . Marty Smith on t he fac tory Hon da won. On pape r it looks exceedingly du ll wi th Smith taking it all with two firsts , Billy Urba n (Hon) second wit h t wo seconds, Mike Bell (Ha n) t hird wit h two thirds, David William s (!Ion) fourt h wit h two fo ur ths an d Bob Marino (lion) fif th with tw o fift hs. But, th er e was a battle between Smi th an d Urban th a t ca rr ied eve ryone's atten tion. In the first mota it looked like Billy wo uld run a way as Smith got a slo w 'start. Like last weekend, it to ok h im about si x lap s to get in th e gro o ve an d by lap nine he had fina lly ca ught and passed. The second ro un d found Bell in th e lead while Sm ith was hassling him from th e se cond spoj ..Th is .til'(le itdidn"t take as lo ng an d Urban. also on t he m o ve, soon took over second. __-=_......J . , To p Gear Buc k le HIgh Lace eVele ~ ...... ~=-"lL.. ,-,,~ ~ In the 25 0 Pros, Western Truck Eq uip men t 's rider Rich Pinnick survi ve d th e brea kd owns an d picked up th e Overall win. Western T ruck Equip ment is a new gr oup to th e motorcycl e spons o ring ga me. They h ave ab sol utely nothing to do with cycles, (they repai r trucks in San Diego ), but t hey are in te res te d in racing. Urban is ano ther of th eir sp onsored riders. J eff Vidic (Mai) had th e Over all victor y in h is rea r pocke t when his engi ne b lew, locking u p the gears. Rich Grafton (Yam) the n had his troubles an d had to retire. That left Pin nick (Ya m) wit h th e lead and t he Overall. First mo ta win ner, Gaylon Mosier (lion) had pulled out earlier, too , with a flat ti re. Ray Topham (Mai) also too k ad van ta ge of the si t ua ti o n, grabbed seco nd in th e final mot a for second Overall . Mark Rodman had his mon osho ck Yamaha reall y flying in both 500cc races and ended u,P with a clea n swee p over J im 1I00 ver (CZ), wh o ha d a pair of sec onds. Two weeks ago, Hoove r had a good chance at win ning when he bro ke. Th is ti m e o ut , Rodman was jus t to o m uc h . The Western T ruck Eq uipmen t en try in th is class was Bill She pa rd on a Whe elsmith prepared Maico. Bashi ng aro und the first turn a t t he star t of the firs t eve nt, Bill ba nge d together with Rodman an d knocked th e chain guard into th e rear 'tire. Fro m last, Shepard wor ked to t hird befo re th e ove rwo r ked en gin e sei zed. They rep aired t he' drag on t he rear ti re be tween m otos, b ut in the second o ut ing, the chai n fli ppe d o ff twice:. On hand to spec ta te was Bob Gr ossi, who is working out with Rolf Tibblin at th e lIusky T ra ining Center. He re por ts he11 be bac k racing ver y soon. And his brother Billy sho uld be bac k, also , in about a mon th . • Results in the Re sults Section. DeAnza MX: Mud and mixed classes By T im Mickey SUNNYMEAD. CAL., AU G . 10 Saturdays are general ly less than packe d at DeAnza, an d th is week was no exception. T hey even ra n the 125 J uniors wit h th e 25 0s o n the mudd y morni ng trac k, and no bod y (ex ce pt the slo w 125s) see med to mind. In fact, everyone rather like d the elbow roo m and preferred it over the ty pically ove r-crowded Sunday tracks. 125 Ju nior Ro n Cain ' (Suz) a te a lo t of 4 .00 x 18 mud from the 250s in th e first m ot a , but he slit hered underneath them and p ic ked up th e first mota win, mostly by virtue of st aying up on two wheels. Pete Peterson (lIon) fixed his spite:ful th rottle af ter it stuck ope:n an d 'spit him ' off in th e first mota , and p ulle:d out ah ead in t he se co nd on the Larges t Se lectio n $59 . \1181 ... 35 . value Acme Cowboy Durango Ha rness Danp05t Logger Engineer Oren Zippe", Work Sh oes Add $ 2 .00 Mall Kerry Peterso n shows t hat dr ag climbs are n 't alwa ys as sm ooth as the hill loo ks . By A lan Shepherd CARLS BAD, CAL. , A UG. II BOOTS ~ u no w tac ky track with Cain playi ng ch ase , holdi ng hi m off an d going on to pick up t he win . T he fina l m ota sa w a new lea der as Gary Cain (Han) j um ped int o a sho tg un lead, ma king up fo r some: earlier crashes, and neither brothe r Ron no r Peterson could ca tc h h im , even th ough Pet erson took off a fte r him an d ta il-gated all the way to finish. T his fin al finish gave ·Gary the bes t half o f th e tie for th e: Overa ll win be:tween himsel f and Ro n, with Pet erson a single: po in t o ut of first and second. A close race , as usu al. Results in th e: Resu lts Sect io n, 544 .95 26.95 25 .l18iueo 17.95 27 . wlue 19.95 60 . value 34.95 25 . value 17.95 25 . value 17 .95 25 . value 13.95 20 . wlue 12.95 Or d e r p lus tax Work Shoes Unlimited 1208 6 Brookhurst. Garde n Grove 7 14-53 7-653 5 177 2 No . Tustin Ave ., Oran ge 1252 2 West mi nster at 17t h Sr .. San ta Ana Distributor f or Vendramini Bo o ts CRC MX: Jump back, flash! By G.J . MOORPARK. CAL., AUG. I I All day August II I had been hearin g rum ors from see m ingly reliabl e so urces th at o ur new Ch ief Execu tive, Gerald Fo rd , is an avid mot o rcycle ent h usiast. Being th e hon est 'cit ize n that I am, I truc ke d home to chec k it o ut. Bein g t he bad dude t ha t I also a m, when I called the Whit e Ho use h is secretary imme diately put me thro ugh 10 t he Presid en t. Before I could t hink o f a reasonable question, I. b lurted o ut, "Wh a t do yo u th ink o f th e new Kaw asa ki. sir?" He pau sed for a moment , then said, "Gee, I d o n 't kn own m uch abou t foreign di shes but m y former maid was Chinese and her rece ipe, whi ch was hande:d down from her gre at grandmother, was j us t pe achy. Not too spicey, a few carrots . . . " End of conver sa tio n an d Tum or. But seriousl y folks , ac ti o n was fier ce: in all CRC clas ses with the 250 Intermedi ates a t the- t op of the list . At the star t of the: third mota . Rick Diedrick and Mark White: were tied with a first and a second ap iece. Mark took the lead with Rick running a close third behind 250 Expert , Jo hn Lanzarone, Mar k held down first for four laps whe:n he lost his pipe:. Bum me:r. Rick took the flag and the Overall victory while Mark pl aced seventh to finish second Overall, Skeets Holland looked great on his Yamaha and received a third fo r his efforts . The Veterans were dominated by Vidar Anderson bu t quite a duel existed between lohn L. Wilson and Norb Brown . J o nn would be righ t on Brown's ass, oops, I mean tai l, (Almost forgot this is a fa mily n ewspap er !) until late in the m ota when Jo hn would fin ally truck o n by . Norb was so disgusted t hat he missed the third mota . Too bad, but John ended his day nursing a so ur tr ansm ission. Hey John , thi s gearbo x lasted two weeks ! Oh well. j ust plu ck a few more greenbac ks from th e ' o le mone y tree I guess. Keith Petrangelo won the: Open 'Begin ner class on a BSA thumper . Jump back Flas h, the Io ur-bangers are b ac k! Results in the Re sul ts Section . ~ MAlCO ~ WHITTIER HONDA Mo to rcycle T tailers Bell Helmets F ull Bo re Prod ucts 14324-E. Whittier BIIId. 121 3f698.Q065 Complete st ock of parts and accessories for street an d d irt. DSS~ / (714) 894 -2623 Penton. Monark & Tyran . & Rupp Fun Machines Sa les Service Part s Accessories D&R Cycles 7181 Westmi nster Ave. Wes tm inster, CA 92683 23

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