Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Charles Clayton TWIN FALLS, IDA., SEPT. 2-6 World's Richest Motocross! Onehundred-thousand dollars cash money. plus $25,000 worth of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles to the Amateur winners - down to fifth place! Groover City on the rim of Snake Canyon where Eve1 Knieve1's rocket ramp scandalizes the skyline, and there you are .. . It proves that if you make the reward big enough, men will risk a lot to be the best. Each pro moto paid $400 to first place and first overall was worth $8,000 cold cash, counted out by the AMA. Best racer of the meet was Yamaha's Pierre Karsmakers, winning enough motos in three classes to net about $13,000, followed by Marty Tripes (Can -Am}, who concentrated on winning both 45 -minu te motos in the 250cc class on Friday for a $9,025 payoff. What racing! Every pass meant many do llars a t the payoff, with the riders all giving it everything they had. Steve Stackable, who rarely shows more than ten percen t of his talent, did a come -from-behind on h i s TC Raci ng-tuned, U.S. Sports Maico to bli tzkrieg the first O pen mo t o an d was doing t he same in the second m oto un ti l the last lap wh en th e th rottle, unused to being twisted so hard , broke. T ha t was an $8,000 part, by the way. Steve still won over $ 1,000 - his highest earnings yet. As expected, in an event as unique as this (it was a ureal" mo t ocross , on a 1.3-mile, muddy, dusty maze) a few new names from out of the woodwork made stars of themselves. No Europeans showed up (Didn't anybody tell them?) so there was p len ty of glory to go around. Richard Grafton of EI Cajon, Calif. stayed with the 250 class front runners for a fifth overall Chuck Sun, from Oregon, shined in the 250 rnotos also. Young Ken Zahrt (B ul) held Tripes in his sights to the end when his chain broke, ro bb in g him of a sure second place an d a high o verall standing. Zahrt late r won th e jump contest, wo r th $500. To tell all that happened in each excit ing moto of the five-day spectacular wou ld n eed a newspape r almost as expensive as Evel 's ticket pri ce - $25. T he results tell so me of it, so me can b e seen in th e pic t ures. What [ reall y wa nt to write abo u t is so me thing Evel has been trying to tell us all along: "It only costs a little m ore to go first class. " Lik e m ost of Eve!'s schem es, it see ms unb elievabl e un til y o u add it up : A hundred-thousand-dollar-purse MX in T win Fa lls, Idaho - a h undred miels fro m any where (Boise) and 200 mil es from anyw here else. Bu t let's say you draw 2 00 riders at $20 0 en try fee , th a t's $40,00 0 toward th e purse , an d 4, 00 0 spe ctators at $25 eac h, th at's $1 40 ,000 so far. Let tha t be the break-even figure. Evel go t t he land free , by le tting th e far mer keep all th e camping fees (u p to $60 fo r a mo to rho me) and he paid Mik e Uhl 's Course Preparation Company to mak e t he course . Comer flagmen were paid $25 a day and o utfitted wi th red-a nd- yellow strip ed rugb y shirts and whi te pants. A few th ousand do llar s went to pay AMA expenses an d a .few thou t o Cycle News fo r ads. That, plus miscellaneous expenses, was about it. Har ley-D avidson gladly d o nated the prizes. On Friday, A MA ra n si x moto s in six hou rs. [t was firs t class all th e way. By the fifth day, about 5,000 spectators got their m on ey 's worth. So even wit h th e free beer and the fo u r-helicopter press shuttle. Evel Knieve!'s $ 100,000 motocross mad e a nice profit for the promot er. Evel always tried to m ak e us th ink a lit tl e bigger, try a little harder. aim a little hi gher . This was the first $ 10 0,000 mot ocr oss in histo ry, Wh o ca me to t h e $[00 ,000 mot oc ross ? T he smart racers certainly, for 20th place in a moto paid $ 2 40 (and we all think we can place better th an that) , the people who sho w up wher ever the best is happenin g - th ose wh o can afford it paid the fees glad ly , th ose who co uld not , became f1aggers or parked cars to earn up to $ [25 a week. T he re were cries of "rip-off!" at firs t, but once people dug what was ha ppening, they realized that the fare was cheap. A couple of flagman jobs we nt begging. What . did it accomplish, besides making a hundred racers richer? It certainly impressed the Press . They came to co ver Evel, some 200 reporters ' from every major (and a good many ' minor) news service; and most of them witnessed their first motorcycle race ; and it was one of the best. So Evel Kn ievel could face the canyon knowing that the world of motorcycling had been made a whole lot better by his example. The King of Stuntrnan is also the King of Motorcycle Pro moters, by any measure. This may have been t he first SlOO,OOO MX in the world, but [ suspect it will not be the last. Amateur races Harley-Davidson, in an inspired bid to get into motocross, gave 250cc models to the first an d second place wi nne rs o f t he three classes, and 175cc bikes to the third t hrough fifth. The wi nne rs can eith er se ll or campaign the new two-stroke H·D 's, and if they're sma rt, th ey 'll race them. O utstandi ng am ong th e Amateur cu rtain- ra isers were Ron Turner (Hon) an d David Newswanger (Pe n), who won th eir classes in pr ofessional style. Mike Stearns (CZ) an d Scott Fewel (Yam) sh ut out the 250 class, but not without so me close contending on the part of Eric Harvey (Yam) who p laced second in the first moto b ut almost disappeared down to 18th overall owing to a bad second moto finish. A total entry of eleven minibikers shared $2,000 worth of amateur prizes and the last place kid won $65 worth of motocross merchandise. These first placers won as m uch as 20th overall in the pro classes - $240 each. _ l\lore canyon cross next week. • Steve Stackable gassed it so h ard he broke h is throttle, losing o ut o n about sa,OOO. He still b rought home a grand, wh ich is better than " 200% payback " at local m otocrosses. New Open class National Champion J im Wei nert (Kaw) had problems in h is f irst moto, DNFing but ca me back in the second for third and 22nd overall . Evel 's erection lo oms overh ead as Bruce McDougal (Ho n ) blasts h is way by on the way to thi rd ove rall in that dass behind Marty Smith (Honl and Brad Lackey [Hus] , Results PR O F ESS I ONA LS O p en Class: 1. Pi erre K ar smakers (1-1) V a rn i 2. R e x State n (34) Han ; 3. J i m W est (5-9) H us. 4. M i ke R un y ard (7 -8) SU Zi 5. "ton y D IStefan o ( 6 -1 3) CZ i 6. Wyman Priddy ( 1 2 ,10) Kaw : 1 . Terr y Clar k (11 ,11) H us: 8. B ryar Holc omb (21-5) M al; 9. Pat R ich t er ll O·1 6) C Z : 10. Sal D eFeo ( 9'1 1) Ma l , II. Q ary Ch ap lin (1 5-12) M al i 13. Rob Norgaa rd ll 3· 1 8 ) Kaw , 14. Je f f Lo ff (18 ·20) M al , 15 . D ouglaS Nilson (17-21 ) Nog ; 16 . Tom R app (8 -30) Bul ; 17. Mitch Mayes (25 -1 4 ) Hus; 1 8 . M ark Blac kwell (1 6 -2 3) M a l; 19. Gary Sm ith (2 2 , 19) Bul, 2 0 . Brad La ckey (40-2) H u s. 2 5 0 Cla ss : 1. Marty Tripes (1 -1) C·Ai 2. Jim Ell is (4 -2) C-Ai 3 . P. K arsma kers ( 3-5) Ya m ; 4 . R iCh Eier stedt (7~) Han: 5 . R ichard G r afton (5~) HUS i 6 . Gar y Jones (l0-3) C.A: 7. Ron Pomeroy (8-7) SU i ; 8. Rich Thorwaldson (6-10) Suz ; 9. Jim Turner (9-8) Bu ; 10. John Desoto (1 1-11) ..055; 1 1. Chuc k Sun (17·9) BUI; 12. John Franklin (14-12) Pen: 13. Ron Self (15-13) Man , 14. J im Pomeroy (2-29) BUI; 15. James W ic k s (18-16) Ma l ; 16 . Arlo Englund (21-15) Han ; 1 7. John Ayres 120·19) Hus; 18. Bill Clements (26-14) Hus; 19. Dave Pessy (24-17) 055; 20. Ga yl o n Mosier (19-23) Han. 125 ClaSs: 1. Marty Smith (2 · 1) Han; 2 . Brad Lackey (5 -2) Hus;: 3. Bruce McDougal (6-3) Han; 4. ' j im Hart (3-9) Yam ; S. Mitch S immons (9~) Mon . 6 . T im Lu nde ( 7·13) Kaw ;: 7. Robert Doss (13-8) Han; 8. Je ff Foland (l0-11 ) Hon , 9 . Eddie Cole (1 5·7) Kaw ; 10. Chuck Bower (19·5) Han; 1 1 . Randall L imbeCk (12·12) Han ; 1 2. J im Po meroy (1 -26 ) Bul;: 1 3. G ary .J c n es (2 7-4) vA : 14. "teel Weeks ( 18-14) Hon , 15 . M ar k Tver ( 4-3 0 ) Kaw; 1 6 . John D alla ire ( 29-10) Hod : 17 . Mark Land ( 2 3- 1 6 ) Han : 18. Cl o y se Holland (22-17) Hus; 19. DeWa yne J ones (2 1 · 18) C·A, 20. Chas Coope r (20-19) K aw . AMATEURS 125cc: 1. Ron Tur ner ( H a n ); 2 . J o h n T essi t o re (Ban) ; 3 . B rae Gage ( V am); 4. RICky Gage (Ya m ) ; S. C linton Sparks (Ha n ); 6. D a vi d Emde (Kaw) ; 7 . John Spar ks ( H an); 8. Kenny G allegos (Hon); 9 . Edd ie D a vi s (Ho n/: 1 0. Bob L ick (Hon); 11. Mark M u r phy ( Hus ; 12. Br u ce Jon es (Puc); 1 3 . R iCh ThorTom ll n Tom li nson. Jr. (Hon); 14. Pete H an sen (Ha n); I S. K enn et h G Uilbert (Hus) ; 16. Dave Spauld ing (Hus) ; 1 7 . Wes Norton (Ho n); 18. G ar y R acca (Yam); 19. Donald D avi s (H o n); 2 0 . C ra ig Egerman (Pen) . . 2S OCc: 1. Mike St earns (CZ ) ; 2 . Scott Fewe l (Vam) ; 3. Preston J ac o bs o n (Bul) ; 4 . B rad Leck llder (C-A) ; S. James Mart in ( C Z ); 6 . Bob Krah (Hus) ; 7 . Eric N e lson ( M al); 8. Gregory sadb er ry ; 9 . Randy Bak:l wln ( Hon); 1 0. Tim ot h y H u ls (Mai); 1 1. G art h W illiams ( Han) : 1 2 . Ne ll Ch rst lman (Pen) ; 1 3 . T om Cru icks ha nk ( B u l) ; 14. Paul B lerwl th (Mai) ; 15. George Newha rt ( Y a m ); 16 . K evi n Tucker (SUi) ; 1 7 . T racy Mack in (H us) ; 18. E rt<: Ha r vey ( Vam) ; 19. Bob Se ar i ng ( Hus) ; 20. W illiam Kaufm an (Yam) . Open : 1. David Newswange r . Jr. (P en) ; 2. Rocky H ard land (Ma l); 3 . M ic hael St an le y ( M al ): 4. Mar k Dlt chfleld (Mal) ; S. Chr i s Mor i tz (Sui) ; 6 . Bill Joyce (Bul); 1 . K en F rost (Suz); 8 . Raymond Geist. Jr. (M al); 9 . Gary Ha skell (CZ ); 1 0. Jack McCormic k (Vam ); 11. And y Bolande r (Mal ) ; 12. R icn ard B u n gay (M ail; 1 3 . ihomas Eastham (H u s) ; 1 4. Gary Marti ni (Hus) ; 1 5 . M iChael M ell inger (Vam); 16. D avid Morris (Hus); 17. Fran k McGuirk M ail . 18 . Ja mes Ellis (Suz). 19. Roger Hall Mal ; 2 0. Randy Klassen (Yam). 6 6-7 5 M ln icycle : 1. Jim H olley; 2. W estley Pr out y . 3 . Loren Shocke y . 4 . Terry M o rr ison ; 5. Scott Prouty ; 6. R ick Tegan ; 7 . M ar k Sh umate. 76 ·85 M inicycl e: 1. Sobby Jon es ; 2 . Carroll Madsen. 3 . B ill y Homan. 86-105 M i n ic ycl e: 1 . Mike Lewi s. The course had some real MX stuff, known as mud. It got there ' ca use they opened irrigation ditches and flooded the course to control dust. T im Hart (Yaml was fourth 125. I 7

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