Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

c<'l ... Q) ..c E Q) u Q) c One who did good : Kent Howerton, with a pair of seconds, put th e Christmas ribbon on his 1974 Trans-AMA season. Two who didn't: Rex (36) Staten ret ired abruptly in the second moto (wasting a good firs and Tony (17) DiSt efano never quite got wo rkin g on this powdery stuff. Livermore Trans-AMA De'Coster and Howerton sew it up smoothly By Lane Campbell UVERMORE, CAL., NOV. 24 Roger DeCoster (Suz) and Kent Howerton (Hus) locked up their respective class championships In this next-to-last Trans-AMA on a fast, smooth, dusty course. The Carnegie Cycle park course nestles in a natural cleft between several high foothills, and its powdery 20 surface soil figured heavily in the final results, as volumes of thick, hanging dust got into eyes, air cleaners and engines. The track itself rated as very fast and smooth, featuring several offcamber turns, plus two steep uphill ! downhill hairpins and a fast swooping downhill on a slight curve past the start area. All the riders seemed to like the general layout of the track as they came in from practice, but were looking at the dust, shaking their heads and generally getting ready for a rough afternoon. The pressure would be on to gate well, get up the start hill and loop back toward the high-speed jump, hopefully to be riding IIi clear air. Rich Eierstedt got his first 01 fantastic starts with Steve Stackabte (Mai) trying to d uck inside him on the way up the hill. The lead group into the hollow was Eierstedt, Stackable, Bengt Aberg (Bul) and Rex Staten (Han) with Jim Pomeroy (Bul) bottled up in the middle of the worst dust and Roger DeCoster hanging back after a slow start. Roger ca n tinued to play it cool un til people had strung out and the dust thinned. By the third lap , Eierstedt, Stackable and Aberg were running in a tight string five seconds ahead of Rex Staten, then another gap, then Willi Bauer, Adolf Weil, Harry Everts, Jim Wienert, Jim Pomeroy uncorked, Bryar Holcomb (Mai), Rich Thorwaldson, Arne Kring, Marty Tripes looking very light-muscled, Vic Allan, Boven, Hans Maisch and finally DeC oster. By the seventh lap, the whole circuit _ was veiled by thin skeins of hanging dust as the riders in ones and twos kept it stirred up. Eiersted t, beginning to lap back-markers, still held th e lead , though Bengt Aberg had gotten by Stackahle and would soon begin pressing for first. Jim Weinert was moving up conspicuously, and DeCoster, having settled in behind Vic Allan at 16th, was still biding his time. Roger and many of the other Europeans seemed to be deliberate! y taking a rough line down the inside of the sweeping downhill before the high-speed jump, but it seemed to payoff by spitting . them across the jump on a faster, smoother line into the succeeding comer, a quick-flick left over the brow of a hill, Shortly before mid-race, Aberg had taken over from Eierstedt and Weil had passed a slowing Stackable for third. Steve's air cleaner was progressively packing up with dust, to the point that it would barely run by mota 's end. Demon dust would strike him again in the next mota. Weil got cross-threaded somewhere in the hollow long enough to let Staten, Bauer, and Pomeroy by, while DeCoster, deciding it was time to unwind, began to move up. Then more disaster for Weil. Canadian Bill McLean (Yam) fell in the high downhill right-hander near the start and appeared to be pinned under the machine. Two rescue workers bolted across the track to aid him , and Weil laid his Maico down to avoid nailing one of them. Both McLean and Weil got up and got going together but Adolf had lost sufficient position and momentum tha t he would finish this mota 16th. Meanwhile, Rich Eierstedt had also fallen in the lower part of the course. "It cost me two places and a lo t of rhythm," he said later, rubbing a tweaked wrist that had been treated with Novocaine for the second mota. Pomeroy's Bultaco started sounding ratty just before the two lap board came out and it finally loaded up on him, apparently succumbing to a dust-clogged fil ter also. Eierstedt, apparently feeling no pain, got another tremendous start, leading Weil, Stackable and DeCoster down the hill. All were trea ting the mud from an earlier watering with considerable caution, especially coming down from one off-camber chicane opposite the high-speed jump. As things settled out the lead group remained unchanged, with Aberg, Mike Runyard (Suz), Jim West (Hus), Everts, Allan, Maisch, Lackey t Sugio, Weinert, Boven, Bauer, Thorwaldson, Wolsink and Kring strung out behind in the dust. Pomeroy was bOttled up again, and Rex Staten running near dead last. Holcomb crashed in the muddy chicane early on and packed it up for the day. Weil and DeCoster pulled clear of Stackable, while Rich Eierstedt kept gaining ground by a half-second a lap , until about the fifth lap when he began to ease: off. The lead trio came around again in a group, Weil passed Eierstedt in fligh t across the jump and DeCoster ditto later in the same lap. Rich was definitely slowing, as his front whee! was beginning to disintegrate. One lap later his crew flagged him in. They had a new wheel on his bike in 30 seconds and was

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