Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Opin ion (Continued from page 3 7) Rid gew ay and Greg Sassaman . Ridgew ay made hi s mark two years ago as a ligh t we igh t rider and Sassaman appears to be the new factory favorite of Milw aukee. Of t he two , Sassaman ap pears to be the better on th e b ig 75 0s . Bu t the . big gest threat of all c omes west for th e first time as an Ex pert. It 's J ay Springs tee n from Mich igan . J ay came close twice to winning t h e Junior final at Ascot last year, but didn 't quite mak e it. He was king o f th e yell ow plates o ut side of Cali fornia in ' 74 and has b een ripping up the t roops in the few races ...... numbe rle ss o th er people sen ds th e sensitive mind reeling, sooner or later, an d the wise ci ty-person kno ws th at is the sign to get away from it all - re-crea tion time, a th at have n ot been rain ed o r snowed o ut "Big" weekends In racing are becoming more common in recent years. It means Saturday and Sunday at Daytona, Friday and Saturd ay at the Astrodom e in Houston, or a couple of times a year at Ascot. The first b ig weekend in the ,\ ., 42 West happens on Friday , May 16, and Sunday, May 18, the only big weekend that has a day in between for intermission. It starts with Ascot an d the half-m ile on Friday night, the 16th. It's an AMA regional race with $3 ,OOO-plus on the line. What makes it even bigger is that it is the last regular wee kly half-mile of the season. Then comes a one day breather and it's on to San Jose for the first mile track National on the 18th. Well over $25 ,000 is on the line at San Jose with purse, contingency money and Camel Pro series dollars, plus National points that pay additional money a t the end of the season. , While Ascot has always been the "In," or glamor half-mile, the San J ose mile has earned a unique reputation the past two or three years as a place where legends are made. Both t racks have become somewhat of a legend in the annals of AMA racing. Ascot has been a challen ge to all but a few non-California riders and, in recent ye ars, quite a few that live ne arby and act ually st arted their racing ca re er on the Gardena oval. It seems as though proven Expe rt s can find more excuses not to ride Asco t than they can find good reasons to rid e the fast one for dollars an d fame. Ho usehold nam es in curren t racing have been seen wee k in and wee k out in th e pits at Ascot, but not o n the track. Th e excuses would m ake goo d one-liners on the Dean Martin TV "Roast" sh ows. San J ose gained fam e due to it s smooth surface that will be even wider an d sm oother this ye ar . It gain ed fame for its close races. It's a horsepower track th at tak es lots of bra ve to hold it on going into t he comers - and be ab le to m ake it. So now the riders that ride fo r the do llars have two races less than 4 8 hours apart to race. At least five good riders could put two good races together an d wat ch the sun go down on Sunday wi th from $2,0 00 to $6 ,000 in their pockets. It does seem odd though that at this time only Corky Keener, th e Michigan ace that was th e nat ion 's top half miler last season , is the o nly rider to file an advan ce entry from the East for bo t h events. Corky j oi n ed the ranks of th e raci ng immortals last year whe n he became only the fifth rider in 18 years to ever win a Main Event at Ascot - and not call California home. Unfort un ately, he returned a couple of we eks later and tri ed to be come the first o u tside r to ever win the Ascot Nat ional and was the only rider to fall off d uri ng t he en t ire program . San J ose bo asts an advance entry of nearly 90 Experts. You can expect a t least another 20 on race day as the IT lads from Washington and Oregon are notorious for not ge tt ing the word and entering on the day of the race to fatten the Nat ion al point fund with the penalty dollars . The five National mi le events in ' 74 produced five different winners in Gary Scott , Hank Scott, Kenny Roberts, Gene Romero and Rick Hocking. All are entered. Kenny nipped Gary in the first of two San Jose milers last year and then had to ride for his life ju st to finish fo urt h in the sec o nd one last July. Romero saved his reputation last year with a come from behin d nip win at Indianapolis over Doug Sehl , Keener and Gary. Hank Scott surprised them all in the mile at Syracuse and dusted Rex Beauchamp and Sehl, plus Rob erts. Who was the top mil er in mile tr ack p oin ts last y ear? Gary Sco tt, and he was o ut with an injury and never ro de the Syracuse affair. First, third, fourth , an d let y o ur kid brother win t he last one. That was the Scott formula. Mert Lawwill didn 't come close to winnin g a mile last year. His best finish was a six th . Mert has shown up at Asco t claiming t hat he is .using his IT moto r and saving h is " Good One " for t he 16 and 18. Mert was last seen at San J ose trying to climb the far tum wall, wit ho ut his m achine. He has a new tric k fram e th at he is now marke t ing and is o ut to prove th at with the right fr ame race rs well p ast t he 30 m ark in age can st ill get the jo b done. Don 't bet that he can't if he can get through time tri als an d t he early lap s of the fin al still on the wheels . Some fa m iliar faces will be m issing. Mar k Brelsford h as retired due to injury. J im Rice has retired. Dann y Hoc kie is o ut with b ro ken ribs . No w comes th e roo kies. They have been tearing up Asco t from week to week and building quick reputations. John Allison and Alex Jorgensen led t he list of western hopefuls with Skip Aksland in their shadow. Geo rgia sh o ul d be sending ro okies J ay 0 in th e Eas t thi s sea son. The best a roo kie co uld d o a t San J ose last year was a t hird by Hank Scott, a fifth (t he h ard way) by Rob Morrison and n in t h the easy way by Bobby Sanders. Sanders has put on at least : 20 p ounds sinc e his finish, Morrison went down hill under an avalanche o f fellow rider cri tici sm a fter his finish an d Hank Scott has b een watching in the pits weekly at Ascot. A side note is to wa tc h Oklahoma 's Ran dy Cleek. A name never b efo re heard of in western dirt trac k racing. Randy is th e best thing to come out of th e So on er st at e sin ce oil. But he 's a sh ort track and road racing sp ecialist. He's also two days late an d five dollars sho rt in m ile track ex perie nce . But he comes to California st an ding sec on d be hin d Roberts in the national point standings after two sh ort tr acks, a IT an d a road race. He 's th e only ri der that coul d stay with Kenny in .. "' "' "' VI VI c( CD ::c: a: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _---l i: the re cent Dall as National. He may get a real education on the 18th and th en again he may surprise and give a few less ons himself. Rick Hocking, the rookie last ye ar th at blew everyon e's doors off at Oakland and Ascot in the Nationals, has found the go ing rough this year at Asco t. Slow time tri als and second row sta rts in t he heats and finals have marked Hocking's season an d he is still looking for his first win o r second place finish . Rick will be in co n tent ion at Ascot an d San J ose an d m ay be , lik e Mert , he is saving h is best engine for the 'first big west ern we ek end o f the: season. Can any rider win them both ? The odds are abo ut 50 · 1 as it will take a perfect co m binat io n o f rid er , me chanic and machine every lap , plus a dash o f wha t is called racin g luck. Bob F. Read WRITIN~ AROUND California spacin' City life wears one down, it 's true. The ro ar, th e satisfac tio n and frus t ra tio n o f livin g, wo rk ing with tim e to dump the mental holding tanks, so to say . ' Some sail to sea in boats ; some hike up mountains ; som e more or less quietly get sto ne d ; an d so me o f us co wt rail motorcycl es. At such a tim e we loaded th e bikes o n th e cam per and trundled to the top o f Cajon Pass, wh ere Oak Hill Wheel World offers chea p cam pi n g and easy riding on 600 acres of hi gh desert dirt. By ch eap I mean $3 per famil y for two da ys an d a n ight o f h ookups, facilities and hassle- fre e riding. Across the street is Desertcycle , a Hodaka shop that looks like a TV movie set. After checking th e two-mile perimeter of Oak Hill, not findin g much , we m otored over th e freeway bridge on our semi-street legal dirt bikes to ask the bike shop where the good riding was around here . A busy co un te rman who lo oked like Brad Lackey sen t us to a pl ace he called Honda Valley, in nearby Hesp eria. Now, an y pl ace calle d " Ho n da Valley" y ou know wasn 't na m ed by bikers. That 's the kind of nam e townspe ople give th e plac e wh ere bi ke riding is a nuisance. Bikers give their plac es romantic n am es like " Trelleborg flats" o r " Ben t Forks. " So we weren ' t too surp rise d wh en th e hi ghway p at rol winked us to the side of th e road with its bl oodsh o t eye. We said we were on ou r way to Honda Valle y and he said it h as been illegal to rid e there for years. " Ma ke a you-t um, " he sai d, " til ' you co me to th e Ro ckin K Bar and th ey 11 show you where the go od ri din is. " This we agreed to do , af te r first relaying the information to the Desertcycle counterman that Honda Valley was n o more. He had been " out - of bikes " for th e past five years an d was inn oc en t of mal ice . Feeling blessed, we set out searching for th e Ro ckin K Bar, space, and recreation. So on the road be comes a graded sandwash. Wottagas ! We swoop up a trail on a canyon wall and behold the view of a gree n wash on the other side, a soft Bohemian valle y weaved with yell o w and brown motorcycle trails, in ha bite d by straigh t, lon g-shado wed Joshua trees and fat, berry-laden Junipers which impart a gin flavor to the air. "Paradise Enow," I said to my riding partner. Pic k a trail, any trail and follow it across the railroa d, in to the Angeles National Forest, overlooking Cajon Pass, where there is space and you gradually h ave m ind for nothing but the bike and the trail and the gin-flavored wind. You can see other riders a long way off, but you are ca reful and listen for on coming bikes at blind sp o ts al on g the trail. The object is to have fun without hurting anyone. At some po int we intersec t a recently used hare scrambles course (cleaned up , not a ribbon in sight, we note proudly) th at ambles at a safe but strenuous 30 to 50 mph over 20 miles of green hill and dale. This is a part of the desert 1 thought had cease d to exist, swallo wed by population years ag o , or closed by regul ati on b e c ause motorcycle rec reatio n h appens here. The race Co urse filters in to a ca p illa ry net of trai ls like door s' to co un tless destinies. We chose a well-definied p ath that led us to a fen cele ss, tw o-lane bl acktop road and across it stands a modest shac k, on whose roo f there stan ds a big letter K on a bro ken rim . The Rockin K Bar. Of co urse , home o f t he San Gabriel M.C. of Barstow-Vegas fam e. Memories o f old desert t rib es. Am I was ting my time writin g this stuff? We drink a Coors to the local economy . We are the onl y bikes around, the only people save the bar ten de r and two beery cus tom ers people. "Be ca reful," the good barte nder calls as we start o ur motors to ride another 40-miJe loop this fine mornin g. 0 Charles Clayton I 0, I

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