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/125997
Local hotline, cont'd. Lance Weil (Lav 10001 was leading Open Production and was th e fi rst t o c rash when 11 bikes went down on oi l. Earl ier , he had taken seco nd place in the Super Cafe class. Kolbe got the hole shot in the second mota, with Tom Zahnter second. Next came Blix wi th Hale righ t in there ; Blix moved into the first spot at the halfway mark and was able to hold it all the way to the flag. Hale tried to move up, but couldn 't make it and took a second. Blix got the overall with a first and third. Hale was second and Ken Zahrt was third with a first and third. • Weil ' s bike went from flash to t ra sh when another racer dropped three quarts of oil on the course. Oil crashes 11 bikes at once By John Ulrich ROSAMOND, CALIF.,JUNE 29 "I've never been so happy I had a mechanical failure in my life," said Jeff Steele as he surveyed the carnage. "I was lucky it happened 18 on the first lap." Eleven bikes lay crashed in assorted pl aces around Turns Two through Four, varying in degree of damages from minor to total. The riders we re scattered aroun d in disarray, some using their fallen and crushed mo unts for chairs, others wandering around in a daze, still others examin in g their wounds. What had started to be a normal co mbined 500-750-Open Production race turned into a $20,000 nightmare of twisted machinery and injured riders. Lance Weil (Lav 1000) led at the time, ex-leader Mike Parriott having ground his mag cover, lifted the front wheel off the ground, and run off the track on his Dale-Starr Kawasaki the previous lap. Lee fleming (Han 8 12 ) was not far behind Lance. chased by Pat Beacom (Ka w 900), John MacDonald (Kaw 900), and Parriott. Half a lap before the leaders ca me aro un d for the fifth t im e in to the crash area, ba ckmarker Frank D avis los t the inside main oil line between the oil tank and the crankcase o f his built Honda. Spreading three quarts o f 20w-50 oil on the best line through one hundred yards of a tum series, Davis retired without cras h in g. Riders following Davis were not so lu cky. Of the first thirteen riders in th e race, only two did not crash, and most of t h e machines incurred major damages. " I couldn 't figure out what happened," Lee flem ing related as friends checked him for d amage. " I thought maybe I jerked or something when I saw Lan ce fall, be cause I was crashing, too . "Two things went through my mind - don't get hit by another motorcycle ; and, my motorcycle is totalled." Wide open in fourth gear when he and Lance Weil crashed, Fle ming's bike was indeed totalled. The fo rk tubes were no longer in the triple clamps, the carbs no longer on . the engine, the wheels no longer round, and all the external bits and pieces of the bike trashed. Weil 's Laverda, meanwhile, had landed on the opposite side of a four-foot dirt embankment outside the turn, the gas tank twenty feet away. So me witnesses said t he 1000 flew fifty feet in to the air when it hit t he bank. Am b u l a n c e attendants worked feverishly on Weil, who couldn't re member what happened when he came to . Friends took hi m to the hosp ital with unknown injuries. Pat Beacom was the first to make it through. "When Lee fell off, I saw it happen. So I let off the po wer and wasn't driving when I hit the oil. I was able to save it ." John MacDonald couldn't save his big Kawasaki from tumbling down the track, but Mike Parriott did. "I saw a big puff of smoke," Parriott said later, " so I slowed down. It started slipping and sliding, but I made it ." When Parriott pulled into the pits, one tire went co mp let ely flat. Seeing, as Parriott did. the "big puff of smoke," (ac t ually dust). Pat Manning ordered starter Bob Oman to red flag the race. Scrambling to display both the red flag and the ambulance flag (an ambulance was already driving down the co u rse ), Oman could not put out the flags fast enough to catc h a group of six riders co m ing down the st raigh t as others were still crashing up the track. All six fell off. damaging or to tailing their bikes. Eleven m otorc ycl es were co un t ed down at the scene. A rider committee appointed by promoter Pat Manning went out on th e co urse after a sweep crew had tried their best to shape up the tra ck. Coming back in, Whitney Blakeslee, one of the group, rep ort ed , "It was hell on wheels. I went into Turn Three two-gears lo wer than normal, got on the front brake, and the front wheel lo cked u p. The other guys can do what they want, but I'm not going to race. n Wally Karpynec felt differently. "It see med alright. They shoul d have le t the guys who wanted to race go ahead and race. and given the rest their mo ney back." Blakeslee surveyed the course on his 250 GP bike, Karpynec on his 250 Production m ach ine. Manning decided the slippery track would only cause more crashes. and cancelled the rest of the day's races in the interests of safety . Before the big crash, only the Cafe, Super Cafe, and 50-100 GP classes ran. Peter Tsumura won Cafe on a 350 Yamaha, while Mike Parriott beat Lan ce Weil in Super Cafe. Even before that. though, there had been trouble at Willow. During practice, David Emde came inside Art Friedman on the straight between Tums One and Two, pulled ahead until his GP bike's rear wheel was even with Art's front wheel, and then moved out to the edge of the track. Friedman tumbled end ove r end, destroying a Suz uki GT 750 o n loan to Cycle Guide m agazine for a road test. Friedman, th e Associate Editor of Cy cle Guide suffered severe pavement rash, ruined leathers, and a flattened wallet. He later poin ted out a black stripe on the front rim o f his m o un t , left by Ernde 's rear tire as the G P rider ra m me d th e journalist in a fine sho w of safe riding. • Rubly big winner By Mike Klinger IRVINE, CALIF., JUNE 29 Can-Am and Bill Rubly have finally gotten their acts together. Rubly tallied his first big daytime Number 78 Rex Staten wi n ner o f the coveted Wrench in the Face award given to hi m at the end of th e first moto. WIn in the 250 Pros mounted on his sponsored Can-Am a nd also grabbed a third overall in the big bore 500 Pros. Up t he ch u te , hook a left down Bansai junior, m ak e a right and you will find Bill Rubly (Mai ) in the lead in th e opening moments of both 500 Pro m otos. Moto o ne saw Rubly, Jim West ( ~Ia i) , Bill Clements [Hus ], J on Derhammer (Mai) and Rex Staten (CZ) axle to axle from one bender to another. West outgassed Rubly on the Webco uphill and took the lead with Staten now third aft er only one lap. Within two more laps. The Ro cket was passing West in radical ai rb o rne st yle with Derhammer now m akin g a move on West . Staten won go in g away, West held off Derhammer and Rub ly outlasted Clements for fourth. Staten was detained slightly at Chapman General after a post moto wrench in the face, this mean t t he 500 Pro overall winner would be decided in moto two, The moto two holeshot went to Rubly again with Derhammer hot-on-his-heels. Rub ly was pulling the other rid e rs until he misshifted three consecutive times and Derhammer went by like Rubly was standing still. Derhammer's co nsistent finishes of third in moto one: and first in moto two gave him a winning combination. The GP Hus'l,vama of Bill Cements and Bill Rubly (C-A) were grip to grip into the first tum with 20 other 250 Pros eating their dust. Clements took the lead and was never challenged. Bru ce Baron (Yam) had a solid second with Jeff Jennings (Bul) and Rubly really battling for the third spot. After crashing off the start, Rex Staten (CZ) moved his way up to fifth but pulled off with a seized engine. A fine win for Clements, Baron second, Rubly third and Jennings fourth. First overall of the day was to be decided in the second conflict of the 250 Pros. Rubly diced with Baron for a co u ple of laps, but Rubly could taste the first overall and scooted home for the win. Cements and Bob Elliott (Hus) were a race in their own with Elliott taking second over Cements and Baron fourth after falling while in second. Once into the 125 Pros clash, the standings hardly changed. Bob Stem (Ya m) concen tra ti ng o n the 125 class, beat t h e even tual overall winner Marty Moates (Hon) fro m the gate to the flag. Chuck Lu nde (Ho n) had a hard c hargi ng seco nd b ut Moates an d Dave Williams (Yam) charged right past to gathe r second and t hird. Mo to two saw Moates really on the gas . No other rider could possibly catch him until the checkered flag when Stem made a last minute surge on Moates and b u m ped tires at the flag . Lunde placed third overall but Bob Hannah (Suz) in mota two went for the bucks and placed higher than Lunde after passing him on a hairpin tum. Res ults in Results Section. • J im West (85) and Bill Rubly battle it out in the 500 Pro class.