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/125881
... CJ ...0 o ... u o Mitch Mayes (Hus) was the early leader. A lap later , Jim Weinert (background) was thi s far in front of Mayes . AI Baker (right) was one of the vict ims of Tim Hart's dr ive to th ird overall . Weinert s shome and S.C.O.R.E tay .s By Dale Brown R IVERS IDE. CAL., SEPT. 28-29 Jim Weinert was the overall motorcy cle 'W l n n ~ r at th e S.C.O.R.E. / A.C.-Delco big-b ucks " World Championship" of OffRoad Ra cing, aver ng 50.38 agi miles-per-hour in th e o ne-ho ur main event. Ken Zah rt was th e 250 victor, finishing fifth overa ll. 22 Bruc e McDougal topped th e 125s, running in ninth. The site of this ex tra vaga n za was Riverside International Race way , scene o f many a sports car or stock car race. Mickey T hompso n's S.C .O.R.E. crews had been busy fo r weeks before the event, carving and gouging the land around the track, creating a 3.6 mi le co urse, tucked in very well so the spectators could see. Although it was rough for the cars, with n umerous ma n ufactured bum ps and jumps, there were usually one o r two smoot h lines fo r the bikes. Saturday was the sce ne of a half-ho ur prel iminary run for o ne-thi rd o f th e pu rse a nd th e choice starting po siti ons on Su nday. Weinert [Ka w] wo n th at . one, t oo. Working his way th rough th e pack , he ate away a t Bill Clements' (Bus ) earl y lead, passed shor tly before the midway point and 'p ulled out a four second lead. Mitch Mayes (Bus) finished one second be hind Clements. Zabrt was ,first 250, McDougal was ~ first 125. Weinert's 51.29 MPH average was nearly four MPH faster t han any of the cars. Weinert. Zabrt and McDougal we re the es tablished favorites for the Sunday Main. If they faltered fo r even a moment , there was a m ighty fast field behind them: Mayes, the Baja winner; AI Baker, last year's wi n ne r o n a factory 250 Ho nda, Tim Hart o n a factory 400 None of the riders or spectators wou ld have guessed th at Weinert 's mechanic had detuned the big Kaw for reliability. Weinert on tarmac: " Don't use th e brakes." Yamaha (not a YZ, th o ugh }, an d Bryar Ho lco m b (~Iai) who had finished n inth on Saturday, despite seized rear shocks. Sunday at t w o 0 'clock , 37 heavy-d uty racers lined up in front of the grandstand. They were staring at the down hill left-hander, which led off the pavement to a high-speed "S" sweeper. Though Weinert was on the pole, it was ~Iayes who led the troops from the git-go. Most everybody seemed to be taking it easy o n the freshly-watered, still slippery course. Everybody excep t ~layes . As they came around in view of the grandstands, l\layes had it tapped in fift h, the rear end of his hike bozoing around in protes t of th e hi gh speed . He stabbed at the brakes an d exi ted the off-camber co rner with a 200-yard lead over Mar k Mason (Yam). Clemen ts an d Bake r. Weinert ca me by in 14 th. At th e end of th e first lap, ~I;y es was sti ll in fron t and Wein ert ha d wo rked his way up to fourth. Clem en ts, ru nning in second, did a b ig end o th at put him o ut for the day , though he was seen later in an official's jeep, with a severely bent bike o n back. Mason dropped out and at the two lap mark Weinert was in second , followed by Ho lcomb , Zahr t , Hart , Baker, Jack Johnson (250 Yam), Ric k Lee (Mai) and McDougal. On the fou rth lap , Weinert edged pas t Mayes for first place. H art and Zahrt go t past Holcomb on the same lap , but Holcomb repassed Zabrt two laps later . . Ha rt was in third now and he wan ted second. He m o ved u p o n Mayes, who wasn 't exactly loa fin g, and on the l Ztb lap. he go t past , only 10 lose his seat. and be ba n ishe d bac k to th ird. Back in the pac k, l\IcDouga l an d Mark Tyer (I'MI') we re battling ove r th e 125 lea d. They went back and for th un t il Tyer was involuntarily removed from his machine in an endo that left his ~l X _ bars lo o king like cl ip-o ns, ~ Ic D ou ga hlrdS home free from then on , because DeWayne Jones (C-A) b usy clipping through the pack at a steady rate , was to o far hehind j.o mo u nt a n effec t ive chal le nge. During the latter stages of the race, things had settled down. Weinert had a te n-second le ad over May es. wh o in turn was nearly a m in ute ah ea d of Hart. 1I01c0mb was closing o n Bart , b ut the re was an awful lo t of te rri to ry to be made up in what li ttle tim e rem ained. Zahrt had a fir m hold o n t he 250 class, runnin g about 40 seconds a head of Ba ke r. J ohnson was o n Baker 's tai l, bu t failed t o cl ose th e ga p. Ray Topham (Mai ) was by next, in eighth, just ahead o f McD ougal. Then th e ch ec ke red flag was out and it was over . Johnson was th e last one to co mplete fifteen laps, everybody else was la pp ed at leas t once. After t he race was over , \Vein er t lean ed up against a c hain-lin k fence, gul ped down a roo t be er a nd sa id he 'd had a lot of fun (you al ways d o when you win) and wished he'd been geared taller. The big Kaw was completely tapped in fi fth in m a n y spots o n the co urse. •