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/125875
Bast barely makes the cut By Dennis Greene Ventura, Californ ia August 20, ., 974 Home town fans gave their own Andy Cadotte and Dean York a standing ovation for finishing first and second in the Division Two Main Tuesday night at the Fairgrounds at Ventura. , Cadotte is a former icc-track champion in Canada and has made the transition to the dirt very quickly. The big race of the night on any track is t he Scratch Main Event, with four riders starting on the same mark. Big Mike Konle was the only rider who would not give way to Dan Becker at the starting tapes when Becker cut down from the outside. In front of the fie ld, Konle stayed with Dan for two laps but it was "The Berzerko One" getting in first for the checkered flag. Konle was second with Mike Curoso and Rick Woods following. At present there is a terrible shortage of tires and all the riders are trying different subst itutes: 'Raci ng five n igh ts a week will eat up at least one tire a week a t the average cost to each rider of $40 . Many are going ba ck and picking out tires that are not as worn as others and remounting them for use. Others are going bac k to the I9-inch wheel rather than the 22- in ch currently being used. Jeff Sexton has reached a working medium with a 21·inch motocross wheel that he had recast to fit his speedway bike. , Dubb Ferrell, Tuesday night 's winner of the Handicap Main Event, did it on a Sears and Roebuck class C tire cut by ha nd to his own design. Bakersfield, California August 21, 1974 Dubb, Ferrell's steady riding T uesday night was overshadowed Wednesday at Bakersfield by a ride in the ambulance. After h urtling some eig ht feet in th e air and hitting a concrete wall, Dubb was hit from behind in a no-fault ra ce accident. Mark Cherf caught a rut and did a wheel stand, colliding with Ferrell's rear wheel , sending him ne arly over the ten-foot wall that holds up the front o f the grandstands. I,t was though t a t the time that Ferrell had broken no less th an h is back, both h ips and legs, but I a m happy to report that he was at Co st a Mesa Fr iday night in the stands as a fan with just a lot of bruises . The a mb ulan ce just cam e ba ck from delivering Ferrell when it was cal led in again to ass ist Scott Sivadge in a very similar type of crash. This time it was Steve Gresham getting into the side of Scott af ter hitting the same spot on the track, getting too much traction and doing a wheelie over Scott. Scott cut his left hand a n d twisted an ankle but did ride the next night. In -between all the bum ps and grinds there was some outstanding riding turned in. Ric k Smith has been ca rryin g a go od lu ck ci gar but never got the c hance t o light up until Wednesday when he won the Handi cap Main Event. ' If Mike Bast lit up a cigar after every win he has had this ye ar he would be a major pollution source. Mike racked up his 39 th win of the seas on and this was the 37 th tim e it was in a Scratch Main Eve n t. The o the r tw o w ins wer e in Handicap Main Events. Orange County Int'l. Raceway . Wednesday, August 21, 1974 10 T his Wed nesday night, August 2 8th, will end th e 1974 sp _eed way racin g Two-t ime U.S. S pe ed wa y Champion Mike Bast twice defeated two-time World Cha m pio n Ronnie Moore on the shor t American tracks. Part of the m ob at the first check . season at DClR. The promoter called me wi t h this sa d information. There are several reaso ns for the short season (all of course concern money) but nevertheless Division Two and Three tracks are the backbone of the sport. OCIR has been directly responsible for many of the top guns now racing in Division One. Small crowds and a big overhead are the number one and two reasons for the early track closure, but some of the blame lies with the riders themselves . Most ride five nights a wee k and they sign up one full week in advance to ride so that the promoter can make up his program. During the week he may find it necessary to replace one or more riders due to injuries. This is to be expected. But the real problem is the rider who does not show up for no good reason , after he has signed a contract with the promoter promising to ride. There is a fine laid on by the SRA for such actions, bu t it has not been much of a de t er re n t, This past Wednesday night saw fine racing, with Tom Sawyer winning the Scratch Main Event over Bill Firn habe r, Handicap Main ho n ors went to St u Eng ul. Irwindale, California August 22, 1974 Dan Becker got his second Scratch Main Event wi n o f the wee k Thursday night when he held off the charges of Sonny Nutter, Steve Bast and Bill Gray on a very deep track that had sever al truck-loads of new earth laid down on it. Early in the evening it looked as if the injury flag had been carried from Bakersfield to Irwindale when Rick Woods slid out all by himself, only to be hit when Steve Gresham laid his bike down to avo id hitting Woods. Woods was just like a magnet and Gresham's bike smashed into him . It took three guys to get Woods out from under the pile of bikes. Woods limped off but did. ride the rest of the night. Then it was Big Mike KonTe hitting the outside front straightaway and ending up pinned against the wall by his own bi ke. If that was not bad enough, along cam e Rick Smith full tilt with no place to go but over the top and he did tearing into Kon le, ripping his leathers. Konle limped off. Dave Sims and Bruce Penhall were the other big hit of the night, literally , when Dave made contact with Bruce, te ar ing his pant s o f f (more embarrassment than hurt ). Neither Rick Woods or Mike Bast got into either main event and Wood s is running o ut o f tim e to earn a ride at the qualifying ro unds for th e upcoming U.S. Sp eedway Champi onship title sh o t o n the fir st of November. Main win of th e week a nd his second in a row at Costa Mesa . Agai n, neither Rick Woods n or Mike Bast made it in to the Scratch Main Event and Woods' chance to ea rn qualifying points has passed. It is no w up to the official score-keeper to come up with the totals fo r the season and as of presstime he r information shows that Rick Woods, th ree- ti me U.S . Speedway Cha m pion, has earned 87 points. That's enough to move him into the qualifying rounds for one of the top 26 slots that are now open for the title race in November. Woods bumped Dave Galvin , who had earned 86.5 points up to the time he broke his shoulder, so Woods is in by just half-a-point, It was crash and burn at Costa Mesa like all the other tracks this week but Bob Schwarts (No. I26) survived to do the deed in the Han d icap Main Event with Ed Williams right on him fo r one of the bes t races in a very close nigh t of raci ng. Next Friday nigh t Mike Bast will be turning o ver all his win nings to the Chi ld ren 's Ho sp it al in Orange County, an d here's ho ping th a t he ta kes first in both ma ins. ' . Results in Res ul ts Section . Becker got h is th ird Scr atch By Larry Langley SHADOW MTNS., CAL., AUG . 25 Arri ving at the pi t area for the Crack-of-Dawn Enduro we were greeted by hordes of screaming mo torcycles scurrying around at high rates of speed. By the end of the day it was ap parent that we were in pit racer heaven. It was pretty bad with no one trying to ' Speedway bike design hasn't changed much over the decades. Ancient J .A .P . (above ) resembles modern Eso"awa (below) more than they d iffer. A ll speed wa y b ikes have more power and quicker handling than a ny human be ing ca n use , thanks to m in imumrak e fo rks and nitro-methane fuel. Shortage of speedway b ikes and tires may hold back growth of sport. UJ Z UJ UJ a: c Costa Mesa, California Friday, August 23, 1974 Dan C rack-of-Dawn Enduro: Early in the m ornin' with S A R l/l Z Z L.._ _-:- ~ UJ Cl pu t a sto p to it. T he Crack-of-Dawn started jus t afte r wi t h the firs t rid ers o u t when it was just light en ough to see. Next to a ni gh t e nduro (which we ha d j ust co me fro m) ru n nin g at this t im e of m orning is t he way to go durin g the hot su m me r months. I T he first loo p headed up a sand was h for a couple of miles and t hen t urned left in to a ca nyon. Unfort u nately t here were n't any turn arrows here and many people went straight. About a half mil e up the trail they picked up the co urs e as it wo un d back around the h ills. If th e riders didn't backtrack they missed the three mile check and, more importantly, a check was located just 3.6 miles from the start. The canyon was challenging with a rocky hill to climb. Some of the smaller m otorcycles had a tough time getting up along with some very novice' riders but for good riders, it wasn't too awfully difficult. The first check was also a tiebreaker a nd the ch ec kers we re really working their tails off as the riders came in, in bunches ; they hadn' t had a chance to string out yet. This chec k was the only sec re t check on the first loop excluding the finish check which SRA does not classify as a "known" check - you have to come in on your minute, not early. T he lack of checks declassifies the run into mo re of a supervised trail ride than a true en duro. Is this bad? It depends on whether you're a serious enduro rider or not. T he majority of the ride rs entered did not ca rry a watch or speedome ter so it didn 't matter to them . T hey were out havi ng fun. For the enduro rider it is frustrating to ride a whole loop with just one c hec k. SRA did a good j o b laying out an enduro in the small a rea where the run was. 1\Iost rid ers had to flog it pretty good t ~ maintain the a verages but this meant it was too fast for the small fry . The fast er riders were constantly passing the slower. One father of a nine year old