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/125994
- Cycle News Nort . Sitting down on the job. AMA Pros play "Turkeys in the straw" Junior winner Nick Nazzisi (881 holds off Dan McWhorter. By Bill Dell CALISTOG A, CALI F.,J UN E I No t since Edd ie Muld er won here six years ago, have the AMA professionals put on a sho w at th e Calistoga Fairgro unds . Pow er .. 36 track co nditions, ri ders no t fa miliar with the lo ng straightaways an d short ti gh t turns, m ad e fo r so m e ba d c ra shes early in th e d ay . Ex pe rienc e d race rs like nat ional 48 Pat McCa ul, (n earl y b re aking his Triumph in half) ex ploded ei gh t h ay bales wi th hi s body. No vice rid ers, cras hing fo u r at a tim e in to the fence , gave an indicati on ho w th e races would tum o u t. Fast time was set b y Dan McWhort er , a Junior, at 26.3 2. Following Dan by a few tic ks o f th e clock was an o t her Junior Steve Eklund. No vices had a hard road as the y ran qualifying hea ts and regular heats to see who would transfer to the Main. Resta rts happened in all th e Novice heats, with one or more riders going down in the first tum every time. Vince Mead, on his City Cycle Yamaha, eas ily won the first heat for Novices, with no pressure from anyone. A good ra ce was happening back in the p ack between Terry Griner and Don .Ro bert s, T h ey switched places going into and coming out of every tum for the five lap distance , with the de cision goin g to Roberts at the line. The sec o nd Novice he at was almost an in stant replay of the first one, with Chris Hudson taking the win followed cl osely b y (188y) Slake o n a Yamaha. T wo lap s into the heat Don Sn yder seiz ed go ing in to the th ird tum , crashe d, and was ne arl y run over by Cliff Serve tti, who then took ou t several hay bal es him sel f. Heat number t h ree sa w Don Ferry ta ke th e win over Don Waffle in the second fast es t Novice heat o f the day. Ted David son led the fin al heat all the way to win over TIm McWhorter. The Novi ce Main was all Vince Mead's, in a foll o w-the-leade r affai r. Mead was running on a set of borrowed fro n t forks, afte r becomin g one of th e first tum practice " hay-bailers". Te d Davidson followed Mead acro ss th e line ahead of Chris Hudson. Rick y Grah am ran second early in the ra ce, on ly to fade to sixth by the checkered flag. Nick Naz zisi, in one o f the best performances of his professional car eer, won the Junior Main, leading it fro m . wire to wire. Steve E klun d put in a go o d rid e for second, be ating Co ro na Raceway 's Jim Wright in the las t tu m before the finish. Harley-Dav idson riders domin ated the last even t of the day, the Expert final. Bruce Hanlon led the charge off the line into the first tum , with Dave Hansen second and Paul Bostrum pushing hard back in third. Behind this Harley wrecking cre w was a four-way battle for fourth place between Mike O 'Brien, Ron Powell, Terry Sage, and Chuck Joyner. Lap four saw Bostrum get his Goodyear to hook up co m in g off tum People IIW!re doing th is all day . Pat McCaul, still slightly dingy f rom his crash, watched th is sequence and rem arke d to pho tog Mahony, " Now it all comes back . I did that, This is not a crash, Th ere are th ree Hurd bo y s riding; Jeff, Harold and R on, and th eir mother has to be th e on e wh o goes h ome poope d ! Observe her so meti me whe n one of her speedy sons is o n th e track!) fo r summer racing in Southern Oregon. Due to lousy weather, track co nditio ns were far from perfect and the White City Oval was no exception. Despite continual watering and grading the track Steve Nason pulled a firs t in the 250 A Mai n b y holding Brian Peterson off the whole way and winning by abo u t o ne close foot. The 36 0-49 9 heats were a me ss. The flagman pulled a funn y, had half of he at two jumping, then . put 'e m all back. Curt Hu n te r went down with his leg twisted under the bike. He was, after what seemed like ages , assisted off the track and Dad 'Crock ' Hunter said it's tom ankle ligaments. Mark Matthiesen got a bum start but this speedy 15-year-o ld worked his way from last to second, finishing behind Butch Cochran who can be ex tre m ely hard to pass. The A Main was a thriller with Jeff Campbell's skill and stronger bike not only catching but passing and pulling Cochran. Next scheduled races will be June 8 and June 22 after which lights should be in and racing will switch to Saturday too !" two , movin g him in to first , Han lon to seco nd , an d Hansen to third for th e remainder o f th e ra ce. By the ch ec ke red flag, J o yner had moved fro m se venth into fourth. leaving O'Brien in fifth, Ramon Perez six th , a nd Powell se ve n th . Results in Results Se ction . • White City opener By Lynne Diltz WHITE CITY , 0 RE. , MAY 18 "Good morning ladie s and gen tlemen and welcome to opening day at White City's three-eighth mi le oval . The sun is au t, practice will ge t underway in five m inutes and we hope you have a good day !" Those words blaring out of the loudspeakers marked the third opener was rough and go t very dusty, ve ry quickly. There 's been one chan ge in the racing ro st er; instead of having a 5 0 0 and an Open class, it now re ads 360-499 , then a class fo r 500s and over. Confusing at first b u t it worked out very well . Another notable ite m for this track .. . the flyers said ra ces at 12 noon sharp and you had best believe, that 's wh en they m eant ! The 125 class sported the most entries as usual, and spelled so me super action. Bob Connors took the lea d spot in heat one but Ro n Hurd, Randy Jordan and Steve Risley had him eating dust be fore it was over. Rich .Word and Brian Pe te rson d ominated heat two by hanging side by side u n til Rich out-cornered Brian. Kirk Howard was really crossing up on the turns b ut cr ossed to o far an d went boom. (In the 250 class Kirk did himself in on th e ruts in tum one and was assisted off.) The 125 A Main brough t back Richard LaRue. Th is just-turned-14 Crescent City kid started two summers ago on an old 70c c in the Mini class. When he had to move up he went to a 125 Honda-Elsinore and has been flying ever sin ce. He flew into first and Rich Word an d Brian Peterson h ad to work most o f th at Main to catch hi m . There were only six 200cc machines and it was a running feud between Haro ld Hurd and T o dd Pu ett. (No te: -.