Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

eLocal hotline -= ~ t Outta' shape and outta' sigh t , Rex Staten at IrwindaJe. !- > d: J: > C ""---!IIiI_.d: Z 'Nuff said. this year, be at Rex Staten in the first and third 500 Pro motes, CMC would appreciate if riders would not ride, but push their bikes to the starting gate. There was another pit racing ac ciden t in which two riders were: badly hurt. • Resul ts in Results Section. Croft conquers CMC for record Tom Watson sh ow ing w inning fo nn in th e 250 Novice class. By Andy Hayt CARLSBAD, CAL. , FEB. 23 Taki scores NRA By Mike Klinger ELS INO RE, CA L., FEB . 23 With almost perfect racing condition s, th e members o f NRA gathered at Rawhide Park. Th e day started with this reporter no ticin g a Ureal shoe " durin g the practice sessio n , Toby Ta ki (Mon) . Sure enough, at th e end of the da y Taki had ca ptu red th e 25 0 Expert di vision. After a restart of th e first mota in the 250 Experts, Taki led from wire: to wire . Real racing developed with th e combining of th e Open Experts an d th e 250 Experts , when Ta ki and Clay Muso lf (Ka w) , an Open Ex pert, thrilled the spe ctators with towering air borne leaps o ff the high spe ed stra!ghJ.away jump. Taki and Musolf diced-it-out th e entire day. With th e begi n ning of th e third moto, Taki led the way. Dan a Nelson (YZM), who was ti red of ta king a ba ck seat twice from Taki, too k the lead with half th e moto to go . Tak i crui sed in with a secon d place finish and a first overall. Other act io n saw R. Tuzi nsky (Hus) being cha llenge d for 250 Beginner honors in m oto one but wr apped up rnotos two an d three wi th hardly any effort, • Staten scores again . By Andy Hayt 10 IRWINDALE, CAL., FEB . 21 Rex Staten won all three 250 Pro motos on a very cold and dusty Irwindale track. Jeff Vidic (Mai) led o ff the first mota with Dave Pessy on a new Montesa second an d Staten th ird. On the next to last lap St aten took Pessy and went after Vidi c, who co uld not hold him back and Rex went on for his first win of th e nigh t. Second mota, Vidic led th e start, closely followed by Staten. Rex got Vidi c on the third lap , and m otored off to his second victory. The third 250 mota foun d Pessy leading with St aten cl ose be hi n d. Rex passed him o n the seco n d lap an d held off a de termined Dave Pessy fo r the win. Dave Tay lor rode with great style and beat Ray Lopez (CHI) an d lim Lunde for t he overall win in th e 125 Pro class. Luke Messer, back for the first nigh t Digging for traction, To by Taki. Tommy Croft dominated both the 125 and 250 Pro classes fo r the fourth time this year. Cro ft has now won the last six 125 Pro motos in a row. This is a new CMC daytime record. • In the first 125 Pro mota Tom Cro ft (Hon) led the stan, closely followed by Mike Bell, Jim Domann, and Terry Turner. On the second lap Marty Smith moved up from fifth to third pl ace , but Smith 's progress was soon halted by a seized motor. Tommy was nev er really challenged, and went on to take victory number one. At the start of th e second 12 5 mota , Croft agai n gra b bed th e lead . On lap number two a rider named Moates took the lead away fro m Croft. However, Moates soon cras hed in a tum and Croft again took the lead. Fighting his way up from sixth to second place was Danny Laf'orte (Fran ks). LaPorte passed Croft and the two raced ne ck and neck for two laps before Laf'orte broke his chain. Poor Marty Smith had moved into fo urth place when o nce again his Honda seized. Tommy Croft took the ch ec kered flag an d both 125 Pro motos. Croft con t inue d winning from the start of t he 250 Pros. Mik e Stearns (Yam ) follo wed in second place with Rich Grafton trailing closely behind. Grafton p assed St earns and went a fte r Croft. Grafton almost caugh t him at the finish line. Mike Yorba (Mon) got a good stan an d led Tom Croft, Gary Ogden (Yam), and Rich Grafton. Ogd en moved into secon d afte r passing Croft on lap two, then took th e lead away fro m Yorba. Croft turned on the gas on lap four and rode by Ogden on the uphill. Mike Steams took over third after Grafton fell at the bottom of the downhill. Steams passed Ogden and moved into second and almost caugh t Croft at th e finish. Way ne Boyer (CZ) won the first 500 Pro mota when h e passed Pierre Karsmak ers (Hon). Karsmakers was getting ready to pas s Boyer on th e downhill when his swingann broke. He went into a spectacular fall, but received no injuries. • Results in Results Section. Ascot pilot program By Mau rean Lee GARDENA , CAL., FEB . 21 More th an one rid er had problems Friday night at Ascot although th ey shouldn't have. Unlike the week before wh en wind dried out th e track, Friday was perfect and the increased traction caused interesting situations on th e starting line with riders who hadn 't much skill at keeping the front end down. The Minis started it as they lined up for their one heat. Starter Rockwood dropped th e fla g and four of them slid off th e back o f their bikes. Th e front straight looked a bit messy to say the least, strewn with bodies and machinery . Nothing was hurt b ut pride , bu t t he next start three of them got a real jump on the starter who didn' t pull them bac k for anothe r st art but let them have at it . Pat Richmond (Yam), who won last week, had to start on the "'Winner's Line," row three this week which is a rule that will keep things a bit more: ' even as the weeks go alo ng. It hurt Richmond who couldn't make it right up to the very front alth o ugh he certainly did a lot of passing. TUla~'s Mike Garrison (Yam) took the lead WIth Don Howard (Yam) and Pete Hanes (Ho n ) after h im . Howard took th e lead and never lost it but behind him Pete Hanes got himself all "tucked in o n his Honda going along the back straight and go t into second. The 250·360cc class is the big one of the night with the riders going " for transfer points if they're professionals and for trophies. The first heat didn't see the bigger riders doing any better than th e minis. At the first flag drop one of them had his bike rear and on th e restart two of them went down. When they finally did get a way it was Kenny Shropshire: (Yam) from Bakersfield who shot out of the pack to get a good lead. There: were eigh t heats compared to last week's six showing th e growing interest in th is pilot program and the ra cing in each o f th em was top notch. Rick Marquis (Han) had his gearing right on as h e grabbed the lead right off in the sec ond but almost d umped it . A lap or so later another rider lost it and in fallin g alm ost took Marquis with him . Rick hung on but lost valuable positions an d had "to go to the first of two semis . He won th at and Tom Avoian (Yam ) (Continued on page 15)

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