Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

m at ch ed co nsiste ncy-w ise by T ripes ' 2-2 score. Howerto n too k thi rd ove rall with an 8-3 combo ah ead o f Tho rwaldso n's 6-5 and J on es ' 4-8. Two Jimmys • jammin' ... again: =... Highland ... HillsMX National en C'I1 51 rlI1:I Open rlI1:I ...::I ~ ....... C'l c<; :-.' u ..0 c u ..... C. ~ By Char les Morey HILLSBORO, OHIO, AUG . 25 Can-Am 'sJim Ellis and Kaw asaki's J im Weinert each scored another Nat ional win as the MX circuit returned to Ohio for th e Highland Hills round. Ellis, in a race unt ouch ed by the unlucky shadow th at's been Following him lately, do minated both forty -m inu te-plus-two-lap rnot os. When Ji mmy's n u mber co m es up fo r a ride uninterrupted by me chanical bothers, no one can ca t c h him. Only th e topmo st finishers in the motos managed t o stay o n the sa m e lap . For Weinert, the victo ry mad e it f o u r-in-a-row on the Na tio nal tr ail. Jimmy m ade a 2-2 co m bina tion wo rk for h im to day as he followed T ony DiS tefano and Gary Semics in the tw o m oto s. Jim my Elli s is o ne fast d ud e in the 250 class when no thing goes wrong. J im Wei nert wo n t he O pe n cla ss even tho ugh he fe ll down after another hand lebarba sh in wi th T ony DiS t efano (see cov er ). because he got up quickly . .. 250 6 Jimm y Ellis ch ose th e h igh and wid e line through turn o ne, ta king the lead within secon ds after th e ga te dr opped and holding it through out the entire ra ce . Mike Kessler (Ya m) and Rich Eier stedt (Ha n ) tailed the Connecticut Can -Am ride r with Eierstedt taking o ver second within the first ten minutes. Working up fro m a mid-pack st ar t were Pierre Karsrnakers, Rich Thorwaldson , Marty T ripes, and Kent Howerton. Gary J ones was hustling t o overco me a seventeenth pl ace handicap. By the time the crossed hal fw ay flags were displayed, Ellis had established a fo rty -fi ve se cond cushion over Eierstedt. T ripes h a d Husky'd thro ugh t he ta lented field into third, a head o f T h orwa ldson , Karsmakers, Jones, Howerton and Ron Po me roy. Mart y , on ce clear of traffic, continued his breakneck pace, closing steadily on Eier stedt. Five m inutes later Tripes cau ght and pas sed the Team Honda rider claiming hi s finishing position of se co nd. In the remaining 15-20 minutes Karsmakers moved into third foll owed by Jones, Jim Turner, and Thorwaldso n. Kent Howerton made a last chance charge to try to catch Eierstedt in the last ten feet of the mota over the giant mo unds at t he finish line. It ap peared that Howerton caught Eierstedt in m id -air after the second jump , but final scoring pro ved the observation inaccu ra te . From t he winner 's po ints of view, round two was a di rect copy of th e firs t. T he Connecticut Kid retrace d his aro und-t he-o utside fir st tur n pattern a n d lef t sec ond pl ace holder J o hn Savi tski (Bul) ten seconds beh ind on t he first la p. Ji m 's d ad , obviously co nc e rned fo r his so n '5 well-b ei ng , m ad e a move t o sign al the flying lea der to coo l it 'a bit. "Let him go ," suggested a femi nin e member of t he Ellis en to urage as Mr. Ellis loo ked fo r her rea ction to J im's bo rd erl in e-co n tr olled riding, " He hasn 't go t that m uch of a lead , yet. " Ellis contin ued t o s tre tc h out t he margin, slaloming th rough lap pe d riders for th ir ty-five m inutes o f the forty -five minu te round. Pierre Kar smakers left th e ra ce ea rly. At the end of la p one he cruised in t o th e pits af te r bein g knocked d o wn , bending hi s han dl ebars and reinju ri ng his fi nger. and D iSt ef ano ju st kind of fell ov er all by himself in the same turn a little later. " Kid" Marty T ripes doesn 't need a stad ium to go fast , Second overall 250 is smok ing a lot of m ight y q u ick guys. Maico 's Gary Ch aplin ri p pe d off t he ho lesh o t at th e start of th e O pen clas s mota . Ho t o n Chaplin's ta il was Tony DiStef an o , ridi ng an in sp ired rac e in an attem pt to regain the National points lea d th at he'd lost to J immy Weinert on th e pr e vio us weekend. St eve Stackable and Bryar Holcomb, both on Mai co s, led Weiner t 's Kawasa ki at the end of lap on e. In t he next two lap s DiStefan o , St ack a b l e , and Weinert closed on C h apl in , fo r ming a tightly-packed qu arte t '. D iS t e fan o stole the lead halfway through lap three as Weinert slash ed by Stackable fo r t h ird. More of Ga ry Ch ap lin's bad lu ck ca ught up with him on the next time aro u nd, as t he gas ta n k's pe tcoc k (believe it or not) bro ke , starving the 4 00cc mo to r. Gary sto pped for repai rs, b ut co uld o n ly m ake it back to twentieth. No matter . . . he was sch edul ed to DN F round two with a flat tir e t o t op off a perfect rotten lu ck d ay , O nce in seco nd pl ace Jimmy Weinert star ted t o cl ose t h e ga p on DiS tefano . He drew to within s tr iki ng d is tance, but shoo k his he a d to hi s pit c re w 's sign als of "go ". " Ma yb e s hocks," th e m ec han ic speculated wh en asked a bo ut Weinert's a p pa re nt ina bi lit y to ove rtake the ' leader, "they're to pp ing-o u t reall y bad ." J im m y didn ' t pl ace the bl am e on h is eq uip men t, however, o nly saying th at he was just saying no to thei r sign al to hus t le. Mea n w hile, Steve St ac kable held on to his sec ure third p lace ; Rex Stat e n maintaine d fo urth ; an d Bob Mar tind ale (Bul) hel d off Terry Clark (Hus) and Sonny Defeo [Mai}, DiStefano's first mo t a vic tory set the scen e for an exciting round two battle over the overall for the d ay as well as th e National points lead. It was Husky r id e r Gary Se mics, however, .who grabbed the lead co ming out of turn one and ran away with the entire m o t o . Unfortunately fo r Sernics, his firs t leg score of 17th brought him down to ei gh th ove ral l for the afternoon. The Husk y 's he ad bearings had loo sen ed, forci ng a pit stop in that m ota fo r a restora tion job o n the handling. As in roun d one, DiSt efan o led Wein ert ; an d a lso as in round o ne, J im my closed th e ga p to wit hin passing dis ta nce. N ine lap s in to th e mo to , Weinert ja m me d in to bang bars wit h Tony as they'd done ti m e and agai n in previ ous wee ks. This tim e, however, t he o ut come of t he co llisio n was differe nt. DiStefano s tayed up a nd flaying while T eam Kawasa ki ate di r t. Then, on the n ext lap , in the same tu m , Tony fell all by himself! Wein ert had los t a lot o f gro und in his fall, b ut he regained almos t every foot of it back when DiStefan o crashed. On the n ext lap he passed an d hel d t he posit io n for the remainder of th e moto . O nce agai n , U . S . Sports rid er St ackabl e followed t he pair; this time in fo urth . Br y ar Holcomb and Mike Runyard, bo th who had finished down in th e firs t m ota res ults , to ok fifth .an d sixt h ahead of Terry Clark an d Re x St aten. W e in e rt' s 2-2 b a re ly edg ed DiS tefan o 's 1·3 sco re, as S tackable fell into third with 'a 3 -4 t o ta l. Fourth was Rex Staten 's 4·8, foll owed by Clar k' s 6-7 • Results J o h n Fr an klin (Pe n) took over second as Savitski dr opped bac k; but Mar t y Tripes h ad started bet t er in t his mota and quickly t ook over Fra n klin's pos it io n. Jim T urner, wh o's beginn ing to make a name fo r h im sel f on the Nati onal ci rcu it t hi s su m m e r, ran cl ose beh ind Tr i pe s u ntil the Bultaco 's gear box bro ke. At th e fifteen m in ute mar k, Ellis ran twen ty seconds a he ad of T ri pe s, a nd Peter Lam pp u held off Howerton for third. Lamppu had fouled a plug in the first mota, losing th irty places on the first lap. He 'd o nly be en ab le to regain eigh tee n o f those to finis h tw elfth in that rou nd , but lu ck was wi t h him now a nd too k fo urth in t he se co nd race. Howerton passe d h im at the thirt y min ut e mark. Rich Thorwald s on an d Gary J ones we re ru nning a good race tha t carri ed t he m in to t he t o p five p ositi on s. J ones the n ra n in to a probl em whe n o ne of the C a n -Am's for k legs ca me ad rift' ca using t he wheel to tw ist and th e fro nt b rake ca b le t o tig h te n whe never t he wheel ca m e o ff th e groun d. Gary slo wed to finish a co nserva t ive eighth. Ellis 'im pressive 1-1 ru naway win was 2 5 0 : 1. Ji m E ll is ( C-A l 1- 1. 2 . Ma rty T ri p es ( H us) 2-2 . 3. K en t H owe rton (Hus) 8 -3 . 4 . R i ch 'r nc -wa tc son (S u z) 6 -5. 5. G ary J ones (C- A) 4 -8 . 6 . Pet er Lampp u (M o n ) 124 . 1 . F ra n k Stacy ccz) 1 0-6 . 8. R ich E ier sted t (Hon ) 7-10. 9 . Mik e Kessl er ( V am) 9-9 . 10 . T i m H art ( Vam) 11 ·12. 11. J im Wick s (Mai) 16-11. 12. John Sav l ts k l (B Ull 2 7· 7. 13 . B ruce Ba ron (Yam) 18·1 6 . 14. Johnny James (Bu l) 19-18. 15 . Sam Davton (Ya m) 23-1 5. 16. Joel N icholson (Yam) 21 -1 '1. 17. Chri s Douthit t (Mon) 2-10. 1 8. Mik e G illm an (Yam) 29·14. 19. Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) 3-40 . 20. Ron Huffman (Pen) 3 2-1 3 . OPEN: 1. J i m Weiner t (Kaw) 2· 2. 2. T o n y DISt efano (C Z) 1·3. 3. Steve sraexaor e (Ma i) 3-4 . 4. R e x State n (Hon) 4 -8. 5. Terr y Clark (Hus) 6 -7 . 6. Bob Mar tindal e (B Ull 5 ·9. 7. Sonny Defeo (Ma l) 7 ·10. 8. G ary gem jcs (~us) 17 · 1. 9. Mar k H ar m o n (Bul) 10-11. 10 . R Ic k G razzl ( Mal ) 1 2 - 1 2 . 11. Scott Hames (B ul) 13-1 4 . 12. M ik e Runyard ( Suz) 22-6 . 13 . Jerry Mayers ( M ai ) 1 6·15. 1 4. Gea ry Pr l shs (Hus) 19· 13. 15 . John Pr ic ke tt (HOn ) 21-16 . 16. Mike Laut e rborn (6ul) 18-1 9. 17 . Jack Siegr ist (Ma l) 2 3-17 . 18. B rya r Ho~omb ( M ai) 40-5. 19. John Ayers (Hus) 8-40 . 2 0 . Stua rt Lawr en c e (Mal) 9 -4 0 .

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