Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• elne jets o MX point lead By Charles Morey MEXICO, N.Y ., AUG. 18 Goo d times rolled at Mota-Masters Park for J immy Weinert as Kawasaki 's fai r-h aired boy won both Open class motos to overtake points leader Tony DiStefano in the National standings. Unlike previous weeks where the two riders settled their frien dly dispute by bumping bars ; ("J im m y had the good times whi le I did the rollin'" DiStefano.) Weinert went about the business of winning un hassled. Tony had other problems to solve and never got close. Consistency, or the lack t here o f, was a key factor in the outcome of today's 250cc race. Marty Tripes came out on top with a set of 1·5 finishes in the two forty-minute-pl us- two-lap motos , Gary Jon es and Tim Hart followed with 4 -3 and 2·6 scores, res pectively. Pierre Karsmakers lost out on a sure first moto victory when his bike succumbed to the in famous mudhole just two laps from the finish. Jimmy Ellis, w ho won the seco nd round ahead of Karsmakers, got stuck with a 23rd in the previous race when his ha nd lebars bro ke , Husky rider Kent Ho werton joined scores of others in moto number one as he too fell victim to the moto-stopping powers of the mudhole. Howerton sco red 25t h in that race and followed it up with a fourth in the second leg, after the course had been rerouted around t he q ua gmire. . Shortly after the Mexico High School Band brough t th o usan ds to t heir feet by playing the National Anthem, the gate dro p ped for th e first charge of th e 25 0s. Several ri de rs piled up in a first turn chain react ion , amo ng them Ric h Eiers tedt, Rich Thorwa ldson, and Bob Thompson. Of the three, only Thorwaldson was able to make a showing in t he final results. He re mounted to finish fifth in the moto, recovering fro m almost dead last. Meanwhile, Pierre had assumed his familiar position o ut in fro nt. Jim Tu rner followed at a respectful distance ahead of Bob Harris, John Savitski, and Jimmy Ellis . Marty Tripes was way back in 24th place beginning the long hard ride that would make him winner in that mo t o . On the third lap, Jimmy Ellis pulled off, his left-side ha ndlebar dangling from th e clutch cable. "I didn't fall, went through the mud hole and it just broke," Ellis shrugged in disappointmen t. At about t he thirty minute mark Bob Har ris bogged in t he mudhole, losing his chain in the p rocess, While lIar ris an d th e tra ck assista nts hust led to exhume t he Maico and re m oun t its chai n, T im Hart, t he n Marty Tripes, then J im Turner splashe d pas t. Bob's bummer dr opped him to an even tual twel ft h in th e m o t o, On t he next lap Mar ty caught and passed Ti m Hart for seco nd pl ace. Pierre was sa fel y in the lea d by alm os t hal f a mi nu t e as he received the two lap sign al, bu t as he approached the white flag next time around, t he mo nos hoc ker brea thed in so me water and qui t. Karsmakers kicked and kic ked un t il finally the m o to r cleared a nd fired up. By this time T ripes had taken over the rice foll ow ed by Hart, T urner, Jo nes, Th o rwal dson, and Lampp u, leavi ng Karsm akers seven th o In the "dry" ' seco nd round after a mudhole by-pass had been arranged, Pierre o nce again nabbed an early lead. J immy Ellis was right behind however; and before ten min u tes had passed, he'd gotten around Karsmakers and started to build a lead. Their one-two positions remained un changed during the re maining half hour. Third and fourth pl aces were held by Gary Jones and Kent Howerton right from lap one and they, too , held off all challengers to retain the same positions at the checkered flag. For the first fifteen minutes Hart, Thorwaldson and Tripes rode close together almost as a single six-wheeled unit, following Jim Turner's Bul, Then, one at a time they passed Turner and took turns being fifth. Eventually, Tripes got a permanent grip on fifth place, w ith H art in sixth, as Thorwaldson dropped to tenth by moto's end. Open It was generally ..g,.eed after the first 250cc moto that it might be a good idea to rer ou te the course around the mu dhole. Bu t since it wasn't extremely treacherous yet, and since the Open class guys hadn't sam pled it in co m p e tit ion ye t, the decisio n was made to lea ve it fo r one more m ota . What's really im pressive is the way Jimmy Weinert won that one m uddy moto, figh ti ng through the same ridi cu lo usly sloppy mi re tha t stopped almost every o ther co mpetitor at least once, Texan Steve Stackable took the lead com ing out of t urn one, followed by Tony Wynn, Rex Staten, and Scott Jordan. Weinert had , narrowly avoided the first co rner crash that took out Bryar Holcomb along with several others. Jimmy ran in eighth place as they went up the hill on the first lap. Holcomb restarted in twentieth. By the end of lap one Weinert had passed everyone but Stackable and, at the rate Jim was moving, Steve's lead didn't look very secure. On lap three, Weinert got by and he ld the lead for the remainder of the moto. Tony DiStefano , riding with a broken thumb and a shop-desig ne d "orthopedic throttle" (as Weinert called it), ha d a handful of little nuisances that dragged his score down to fifth in the day's Overall standings. A spark plug whiskered, killi ng the m o t o r at one po int ; and the chain gui de bent, derai ling t h e chain at another. Wit h Weinert riding so well and DiStefano trip ped up by bad luck. the change of Natio nal po in ts lead was inevi table. Mike Hart wig, th ird on t he National po in ts list , also ran into pr o b lem s. Mike cras hed t wice in the firs t rno t o , twisti ng and ret wisting his knee in th e fal ls. He d idn't con tes t the second round. A t th e e nd of the first mo t o , Stackable had re tain ed his seco nd place an d Rex Staten he ld down third. Mike Runyard m ad e his best showing of th e day in fo urth ahead of DiStefano and Gary Chaplin. In the sec ond Open rnoto , Stackable caught C hapl in o n th e first lap as Gary > a: "' o ::; III

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