Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

hed . The real wo r ld was back. But was it rea lly real ? Or hut anothe r dream? "Mar k," realit y it was . "Are yu u aw a ke ?" "Yeah. afrai d I am. Forgo t to tum on th e gas las t night; so I d ropped so m e -ar id inst ead. " " Very f un n y . You were rac ing agai n last" n ~ght ," .. \ ea h ... I kno w. Ad rian ne tur ned o n the wat er for Mark's whirlp o ol ba th. Sh e ca m e out o f the bathroom hriefl y to look in to her husb and's ro om wh ere he w as a lrea dy reading a mot orc ycl e magazin e. "H ow a re yo u?" He di d n' t look u p. Sh e went duwn th e hall , o pe ned th e close t door, and ro lled out ~I ar k ' s wh eel chair. Almost a year before, he had become stricken with a sp inal paralysis th at had left th e lower ha lf of his body useless. Before that, he used to race. Motocross, road racing, TT, an ything. He saw himsel f as a raci ng go urm e t as oppused to a competitor. To him. motocross wa s a fast dance while road rac ing would be a gra ceful ball et . Adrianne had kept the thoug-ht darkly in the back of her mind that someday Mark would kill himself in his wild affairs with motorcycles. Wh y co uld n ' t he c hea t on h is wife like most husbands ? Of a ll the hazards involved that had been fa ced, no though t had heen given t o th e destr uc tive p ower of a microscopic virus. "Ready for your bathy-poo P" She p layfully announced as she returned to the bedroom with the wheelchair. "Wait a sec until I'm finished with this article here." Mark didn 't ca re to be interrupted when reading ; it was his fix as dreaming was also . "I'll be b ack in a second , a nd you better be read y." "Oh, reall y?" "If you don't want to look lik e a . vegetable, you're going to have t o ge t some circulation in those legs. And sin ce you're not t otall y paralyzed be low the waist, I've gu t so m e special therap y for you aft er your whirlpool." She retreated into the bathroom and turned off the water in the bath tub. When she returned to Mark, he had obediently gotten o u t o f bed and was waiting for her, sitting in h is wheelchair , still reading, " Today, ,'e are going 10 half a little bath. " Adriann e ann oun ced. try ing to be c he er f ul. Mark began 10 play along a lin.le. "Va?" he replied. "Und after dot, ve is going 10 half a litt le m assage." In "Ya ?" "Und after dot," she then broke her cha ract er , "I'm going to get your mi nd off of mo to rcycles." Sh e helped him off wi th his pajamas, and t hen into t he tub . She tu rned on the whi rlpool. "How do you like that ? Feel okay?" "Yeah , okay. Where's my mag?" "Right here , Dumho. Do you think I can trust you for a minute while I 'm awa y? " "Sure, I'm not going to pl ay submarine , if that's wh at you're thin king . Where are you going?" "The Circle K d own the bloc k," she assured him with her words: thor's wh at he needed most , assuran ce. "I have to pick up a few things. Do you want anythi ng?" "Anything I haven 't re ad. There's supposed tu he a great article on Daytona in Cyclr Worl d." Adrianne win ced. "Anything else?" "Get me this wee k's Cy cle Ncui s. " HAre you sure you don't wan t Pla y b o y, Pen th ouse, or someth ing like that ? " " N u ," ·'1' 11 he ha ck the n," S he left him in t he wh ir lpo o l, a nd a few moments la ter, the front door shut. Mark set tied in to the buhbli ng noises of the whirlpo ol and resumed his racing. T hat's t he only thing he liked abo ut the whirlpoo l: It reminded him of the dist ant bu zzin g that he came to associate with a road ra cer 's engine heard from f ar awav, Gently a nd grad ual ly, the distortion of reality mixed wi th imaginatio n began to ta ke ho ld . R ace ! I want to race so m u ch , I can fe ci it. The speed and th e rushing air flowing. The inseparabl e spiri tual bo nd between man and m a chine, Re v. Shift. Lean it into th e turn . Come thro ugh a nd pu ll down th e st raight. T he swift b u He t be ga n t o play through his mind. Th e whirlp o ol soothed him o n as he dri ft ed betwee n th e real and u nreal , between o ne w orld and the ne x t. \Vas this realit y ? Was il th e en d of o ne rac e and th e he gin n ing o f an o ther. more in fin ite? At ti mes, he fe lt th at d ea t h was th e begi nn ing of the ulti m ate ra ce, one th at co uldn ' t be co mpre he n d ed or measured w it h only the stars to race against. In this life, he wo uld never race again: in the nex t. he could race on fo re ve r. lIe set tled himself ben eath th e flowing whirlpoool waters and prepared fo r th e lon ge st jo urney his so u l would ever experien ce. Some water spill ed o ver the tub's edge and onto the tile fl oor. IIc. was moving on ce again, this tim e he yond all m ateri al and physical boundaries. l Ie was feeling again the speed and I he fl owing wind as the race began, The stars faded awa y with th e old world and all its ol d realities : th e sun rose up and hrought with it th e new, Mark was raci ng aga in . This time, forever. • .... u ..0 E u ..... 0.. u CIJ CMC MX: Sudden seizures and broken bikes watch Smith win I- > « :r > c z « Tommy Croft flies his Hodaka at So uth Bay Spccdway's C:\IC mot o cro ss o n Augus t 2 1. When he races furth er no rth, his mount is a Franks-Ira rncd Honda, ot hcrwi se kn own as a "Franda." By Ala n Shepherd CARLSBAD, CAl.., A UG. 2 5 Te am Honda. ca me t h ro ugh th e vict or in the C\IC 125 and 25 0cc Pro classes at Carlsb ad Ra ceway today while a local I\laico pri vatccr ca rne throuzh with th e ace '" in the 500s, In fact, it was a clean swe cp fo r Hunda in th e 125 s, Mart y Smi th (Whu else?) made a great comeback in the first race to win and th en go t a better st art in the sec o nd a nd had lill ie tr ouhl e. In the first moto , both Smith and Billy Urban were di cin g it out for last as they rounded the first few turns with Mike !lell up front in the lead. It didn 't t a ke lo ng for Urban and Sm ith t o make t he mselves fel t in t he large pack as they started picking off riders right and left, On about the eighth la p , Smith to ok over the lead with !lell dropping b ack in t o second, a solid second, with Jeff Foland getting by Urban fo r third. Urban's bike was having problems a nd his early pa ce had slackened, With less than half a lap 10 go, Bell's m a chine suddenly seized and he eventually gOI credi ted with a ninth. The tru ck was cer ta inly laking its toll on the rid ers today, with broken frames, swingarms, hubs, a fis tfull o f bent spokes and rims, whi ch is the main reason Bell c o uld push across in nint h, Again with Bell in the lead a t th e start of the seco nd rno t o , Smith cl osed in for th e kill u n a bo u t lap seve n to o k o ver and built it to a:!:, · se cond a dvantage in the remai ning four laps . Bell, meanwhile, held seco nd with Urban third and Fol and fourth. That 9 th had done its d amage, though, and Foland earned second Overall while Urban was third . Be l l was fourt h o n points . Over in the 250s, there was lillie do u bt as to the outcome. Gay lon l\. losicr (lio n) led every inch of the way in bo th races. Fo r seco nd thro ug h sixth it was all up in the ai r and it set tled around t he b.u t le for third in the remaining few laps o f the final. R a y Topham ( ~ Iai) was h ulding down second wi th flab Ellioll (lI us) in third. Out of nowhere ca m e Mit ch ~ Iayes (lIus) and wi th just slightly m ore than a lap to go, he was right o n c Z 1IJ III III " ::; u 1IJ " I~ I Whcn rad io stat ion KFl\ IB decided to raise monev for Muscular Dystrophy char it ics in t he San Diego, California ~rea , th ey included in th eir plans a DJ s versus Experts I\IX at South Bay Speedway. Here th e "racers" lin e up - Bobb y Righ (DJ) , Clark Anthon y (DJ) , Chip Howell and I\like Stcphanson (ho ts ho es) , Don Wilson (o wner Chula Vista Suzuki }, Tomm y Hua st [Musc ular Dystrophy poster buy). and Skip Conover (DJ) . Elliot r's tail. lIut, Bob held h im off to th e chec ke red. ~ Iaye s go t sixth Ove ral l. Had he passed Ellio t t , t here wu uld ha ve been a five-way t ic for seco nd and he wuuld have had t hi rd Ove ra ll based on he s t final m oto finishes. And . in that case, Topham wo ul d have taken second, As it was, Elliott grabbed runnerup, Toph am third , Rob Raymer [Mai] fourth a nd Jim Cooke (Ka w ) fifth. Topham, Ra ymer and Co oke ea ch had eight points, Elliott seven and Ma ye s nin e. T ight racin g? Lo cal rid er Jeff lIo rden from Oceanside cashe d in o n his Maico with the !iOO c Pro Overall with Ron Blanton c (Bul) taking second altho ugh tied on points. Bill Shepha rd (Mai) won the firs t round fro m Mark Rodman (Ya m) , h ut ' bOlh were left o ut of t he Overall. Rodman's c hain ca rne off twice in the first race and he called it a day a nd 'Shepa rd had the spar k plug blowout on th e first la p o f the sec o n d moto . As he pu lled off the tr a ck, he got cen te rp unc hed b y Bill Booth ( Kaw). That left Borden an d Blanton to ba ilie it out and thev took one-two in the final. Rick Blo~ (H us) was th ird with a fifth a nd fourth. • 37

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