Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Michigan beats Califo Skip showed up on Kenn y Ro ber ts ' brand n ew factory Yamaha that will be ridden by the Champ this coming Sat urda y. In the final Springsteen, Jay tha t is, shot from fourth to firs t after th e first lap and was on his way to the win and a new tra ck record when his rear tire wen t flat at the end of lap six. Then Aksland an d Allison nosed to nosed it to the finish with Aksland picking up h is fifth straigh t win. Springsteen marked up a 22:25 lap on the fifth round, the fastest ever turned by a J unio r t his year and the second fastest since the track was built in 195 7. The Novice show was a Steve Ekl und run this week. Steve ca me as n ear to getting off as anybody could, as he laid his Bo rc h-frame d Yamaha right do wn in a heat, had presen ce of mind to pull the clutch as he hu ng with the b ike, stayed on th e cush ion's edge as h e slid, rig h te d • it, an d kept goi ng. Ascot By Bob F. Read GARDENA, CAL., OCT. 4 Michigan and Iowa teamed up agains t the Californian s last Friday nigh t to sco re a historic one-two finish in the Exp ert final . It was the first tim e the Ascot rid ers failed to take at least one o f the first two positio ns in the feature race. Michigan 's Co rky Keener, making his second Ascot appearance, became only the fifth Expert from o ut o f stat e to ever win the main event. He did it with a come-from-behind ride th at to ok on the appear an ce of a tune-up for th is coming Saturday night's Natio nal. The onslaugh t st ar ted in time trials where eight Exper ts and seve n Juniors all broke in t o the twenty-two sec o nd bracket. Michigan 's Re x Bea uc h am p was second fastest behind Mert Lawwill. Iowa's Steve Droste also turned a twenty-two for six th, wh ich su rp ris ed a few. Beauchamp wen t up agai nst three Californians, all Harl ey mo unted, sc ored a Trophy Dash vict ory over Lawwill, Wirth and John Gennai - an d set a n ew track record! The Mai n event was billed as a preview o f th e Natio nal co ming u p (no o ut of stater has ever won the Ascot National) . Droste, rated as the most im pro ved Expert on the National di rt circuit th is year, jum pe d into the lea d and lo o ked like a win ner. LawwiII sti'yed right wi th him the first seven lap s but started to tire and drop off the pa ce. Beau champ closed Mert an d th e two battled fo r second on laps four through eight. Keener , wh o was ru nning fifth most of th e way in th e early laps, then made his m ove. Corky got by Re x on lap t en and then nail ed Lawwill o n lap eleven, bu t Dros t e was sti ll in command and time was running o ut. With less than tw o laps to go, Keen er aga in ma de a bid . With lit tl e over a lap r emaining , Keener pulled alon gsid e a nd Mich igan and Iowa • Racin' around Red Mountain By J im and Bill Stewart RED MOUNTAIN, CAL., OCT. 6 Is this picture sideways. or is Steve Eklu nd ? Would you believe he saved it ? took it do wn to the last la p with Keener co m ing up the wi nn er. The double upset was just part of the big ni g h t. Mich igan 's Springsteen brothers, Jay an d Ken , rated the top two Junior ri ders in the eas t this season, were also on hand for the first time. Ken became th e first ou t of state J unior to ever record a twenty -two in time trials in his first try. A few min utes later his bro ther Jay di d th e same thi ng . But Ken , the east 's third ranked yellow pl at er , ' got beat in the first heat by fast q ualifi er R on Tobey and Dennis Briggs in a'wild three rid er affair. T hen J ohn Allison ca me o ut an d upset Skip Aksland in th e seco nd heat with a time th a t t ied the o ld Ex pert tr ack record . Iowa vs. Michigan. Is this a motorcycle race. or the Big Ten? Michigan won. After the club which scheduled the date gave it up, the Cali fo rn ia Racing Club (CRC) asked for an d got the opportu nity to put on a District 37 AMA po ints run Sunday . At the bomb, it was Cordis Brooks with the lead a1wl A.C. Bakken, who did a number on the wa y to the bomb last w ee k, was in h o t pursuit. This is the way these two stayed the whole race. Cordis Brooks added yet another to his string of overall wins aboard the 250 Bul, with A.C. (H us) finish ing second aga in , and first 400 Expert. J im Fishback (still dizzy from racing speedway) came back out to the desert ' this weekend, to ge t ready for next week's Check Ch ase , wh ich h e won last year. Fish back picked u p the thi rd o vera ll posit ion , second h ea vyweigh t, j us t ah ea d o f 1 75 class ber serker Dean Mod esett. Mod esett see ms to have so lved th e problems his Pento n had wh ich ke pt h im fro m finis hi ng th e last co up le of wee ks. It was An dy Kir ker 's turn, in t he race for the nu mber o ne plate in the 175 class, to DNF this weekend, breaking a swingarm. Cons istent Mike Ca udillo has probably finis hed mo r e times in th e top 10 overall this year than any other rider, and this Sunda y was one of h is better finishes at fifth overall, t hird O pen Expert. Following Caudillo was a ne wcomer to the Open Expert class. Bill Becker, who last weekend finished seven t h overall in his first O .E. ride and Sunday improved by one position to finish sixth overall, fourth O .E. Bob Rutten rode WFO if anvone did, holding on long enought to rid~ his trail b ike into the top 10 overall finishing positions, and needless to say, first 100 Expert. Jim Eveland and Art K nap p have seen eac h o ther frequently o ut o n th e desert this yea r, b at tl in g many lo ng and h a r d m il es, with Kn app 's desert ex p eri ence usuall y being the decider . But this we ek the tables were turned, as first year Ex pe rt Eveland led Kn app to th e finis h, at 1 1th ove rall, with Ar t 12 th. A fter Knapp came th e second 175 Expert, Ma x Eddy, who is one of th e top riders in his class, yet very few people know who he is. So to cu re this problem here is a descri ption of Max: His distric t n umb er is 50c, he rides a t75 Yamaha, an d bel o ngs to the fastest Divisio n II club in the district, the San d Sail ors MC. Third overal l Amateur was Joe Polujancewicz, who was also second 250. Po luj an cewicz has not been finishing lately like he was before in the class. May b e he has just abo ut enough transfers to become an Expert, and , doesn 't want to be one too soon. J ack Kaplan motored arou nd fo r first Open Amateur for the first time. Jack is Jeff Kaplan 's father, who finished fourth 175 Expert a ways ahead of his old man. Among t he Trail Amateurs it was Robert Myers, finishing way up at 45th overall for first, with David Bow man second. Another 175 rider took the overall win in the Novice class again like last week. Alan Decker was the one. Following Decker was t h e first 250 Novi ce , Mike Butler, then the first Open Novi ce, Steve Penrn, who finished with a flat tire, and a loose gas tank. WFO award of t he week has to go to Jerry Williams. who blitzed to fourth overall Novice on a tinker -toy tra il bike. Lynnette Zu ber of the Desert Daisys pulled off the big win in the gir ls ' div ision . Lynnette has never had her name in Cycle News, a fter racing and finishing seve ral times, but this was because she is so quick that I didn't know she was of the femme gender. So to make it up to her I'll put her name in twice this week: Lynnette Zuber. first powder puffer. For those of you who h ave any interesting Cycle News material you would like to see .included in these District 37 desert articles that I try to write after racing in most of them, please come over and talk to me after the race at the Rovers MC camp. Any added in fo would be greatly appreciated. If I happened to be OD'ed from the race or broken down out on the course some where, leave a note. See you at the river. • ... u ..0 o .... u o Results OVERALL : 1. Cordis B roo k s (250 Bur) Ex. 2 . A .C . B a k k en (4 0 0 H us ) E x. 3 . Jim Flsn ba ck (4 0 0 CZ) E x . 4.Dean Modessett (17 5 Pen ) E x . 5 . M i k e Caudillo ( 36 0 SuI) Ex. 6. B i ll Be c ke r (360 Ya m) E x. 1. Randy Flem ing (2 50 Y am) "Ex. 8. BOD Ma ssey ( 250 CZ) E x . 9 . St ev e SUb ith (400 Hus) Ex . 10. Bob Rutten (l OO HOd ) E x . 1 1 . J im Evel and (2 50 Yam) . Ex . 12. Art Knapp (400 HuS) E x. 1 3 . M a x Ed d Y (175 Yam) E x . . OV ERALL AM : 1. Robert Wadl ow (2 5 0 CZ) . 2. R Obbie Parma (1 75 Yam) . 3. Joe P o f u l a n c e w tc z (250 Y am). 4 . D ic k w ienbrand t (250 CZ). S. Jack Kaplan (400 HuS). " R AIL E X : 1. Bob Rutten (HOd) . 2 . Br u ce Og ll ive (H -D). 3 . Charles H amil l J r . (Pen) . 4 . D ou g M a rt i n (Hod ) . 5 . Sandy R Obe rtson (HOd) . • -r: ~ A IL AM : 1. Robert Myers (Pen ) . 2. DaVid Bow m an (H Od) . 1 75 E X : 1. bean Modesett (Pen ) . 2. Ma x Eddy ( V am ) . 3 . GarY Conner (OKW) . 4. J eff Kapl an (H u s) . 5 . Er ni e Mahoney (Puc) . OV ERA L L N OV : 1. Alan D ec ker (1 75 Pen) . 2 . M i k e Bu tl er (250 Y am ) . 3. M ike Bu tler ( 250 Yam) . 4 . Steve Penm (400 Hus). 5 . Je rry Willen s ( 100 Pen) . PO WDER PUFF : 1. Lynne tte Z ub er (Hus) . 21

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