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/125888
.; Mud-night motocross = = By Dick Wright 5lQ g '<:I" r-- O'l ..... INDIAN DUNES, CAL. , NOY. 10 The new owner of A.M.E. learned the hard way that you have to have your program together to run one of these racing promotions. It started bad with a long wait at the gate to get in (1 guess one of the girls taking the entries was late) and things got out of hand. The race was to start at nine a.m. and a lot of riders were still in line waiting to get in. It went from bad to worse. Because of a large entry (287) and being slow making the heats up, the races started over an hour late. It gets dark at 5 p.m, so now they had less than seven hours to run 19 classes on the Shadow Glen course with no ligh ts , When you win you forget the hardships, and Ray Lopez on a 125 Honda, Bill Payne on a 250 Maico and Dave Hough on a 400 Bultaco, won the Expert classes and 100 ked good doing it and had a good day. The 125 Experts had about 20 riders, Lopez grabbed the lead early and was really handling the bike with lots of English and not letting off in any of the turns. Jeff Black tried to set him up a couple of times but Lopez was having none of it and took the first 15·minute moto. Black was second and Haystack Whitlock third. All three were on C&H Hondas. It was almost a repeat in the second moto. Black tried but couldn't catch Lopez and took second, Glen Ewing ended up third for the day with a fifth and a fourth in the last moto . Haystack took a sixth in the last moto and ended up fourth for the day. The 250 Experts had a full line of over 20 riders, and Bill Payne (Mai) came in for the win and Russ McAfee (Bul) took a well-earned second. It was a real battle in the second moto, and this time Will Harper did not have any trouble and went on to win. Payne was second, taking the class win. There were a lot of fast young riders in the Novice and Beginners classes, such as Mike Harnacker (the 100cc Junior winner), J. Roberts Division I 250 Junior and J. Drummond Division II 250 Junior winners. And we can't forget the Old Timers, they had a ball. And the girls looked fast with Denise Duncan on a Honda taking the Powder Puff class. Also Jerry Shore looked fast taki ng the mini class. The Open Experts didn't get to their first moto u n til 2 p.m, Jeff Blix pushed his Bultaco into the lead in the early going with 15 people behind him, turning on those big torquers. Don Hicks, on a Penton pulled off his handle grip in the mud and lost ground, also , II: ~ ~ u s > III Ul o o I- -------~~ On t he line at the Shadow Glen cou rse, wit h the dreaded mudhole ahead. Yon Peterson on a Mid-Valley C.Z . had his throttle stick open in the mud. At 3:34 the ambulance had to leave and they still had not got off the second moto for the last four classes. Indian Dunes Park is supposed to have two The way through the muddy Dunes was, weight well back , up o n th e pegs and gassit! ambulances there, but there was only one, so the race shut down. We finally got going again at 4: 15. The 500 Experts were cu t down to five laps on their last moto and I couldn't see the number of the winner because of mud and darkness, but they say it was Dave Hough on a Bultaco, and that was a great ride in the dark, and he took the class win. Blix took second in class, but I don't know what he got in the last mota. We have to call this event the way it was. There were just too many people upset about it. It was too slow at sign up and scheduling races and there was too much mud. But Mr. and Mrs. Shore (the new A.M.E. owners) kept their cool and took their medicine and promise to get the program together better next time. • Results in Results Section. Curfew sounds Corona knell By Tom Blattler CORONA, CAL., NOY . 6 .... 34 I- J: e One of the biggest fields of riders this season at Corona Raceway was on hand, and the final half-mile race of the evening was without a doubt the best field of open bikes this year. However, due to the curfew imposed by Riverside County District Attorney Byron Morton, the final race could no t be run. Looking over th e field in the final race of the night, it included Ascot Park Point Champion Rob Morr ison, Mike Clarke, a top Junior rider in the AMA pro ran ks, and many top AMA Novices, such as Brian Garcia, Jim Wright and Jim Crowley. All of these and a few more had big 750cc mach ines ready to do combat on the half-mile dirt oval when the magic 10:30 p .m. curfew turned them into pumpkins. Corona Raceway apologizes to the fans and riders for what happened, but there is really nothing that they can do about the situation. The 125 Expert short track main event was a thriller, as five riders battled wheel-to-wheel for the entire five-lap distance. Monterey Park's Gordie Kidd, riding a Yamaha, grabbed the lead at the start, and Gordie was really cooking, as he was holding off Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Mike Minnig and Steve Lyons. Rainey then went to the number one position on the second lap with Kidd holding down second with Lawson also right in the thick of the fight. On the four lap, Lawson moved into second and started challenging Rainey for the lead . On the final lap, Rainey and Lawson were side-by-side with Lawson trying the inside then the outside to get by the high-fly ing Rainey. The two went into turns three and four with Rainey low and Lawson on the high groove. Out of turn four they gassed it hard and Lawson slingshotted past Rainey at the finish line to take the win by, at most, the width of a wheel. Kidd finished in the third spot followed by Minnig and Lyons. Rainev came back to blow the rest of the field'in the ~eeds in .t? e ,125 Expe~ .