Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Local hotline, cont'd. Rocket's revenge By Mike Klinger IR\'I:" E. C,\ Ll F.• j UI.Y 6 Til e o nly tw o scars left" with " Roc ke t ' Rex" Sl at en a fter last . weeks pit ski rmish. is a slight b a n d aue d nose and a Iairit m emory of n o t b ein g ab le to resu me compctition for the day . Well . th e " Roc ke t" m ad e up for th e unlucky ordeal wi th 25 0 a nd 50 0 Pro o vera ll wins . Th e 50 0 Pro s wer e the fir st class o n the newly prepared cou rse. Fiv e n ew ins ane j u m ps wer e co ns t ruc te d and the tr ack was watered at the h alf w ay point which p roduced ex cellent tr action. Gaylon Mosi er (:\la i) was the first rider to test th e cou rse and did so in A-I style. Mos ier left th e gate and within 15 minutes re ceived the ch ec ke re d flag . The ra ce for second involved Rex Staten (CZ). Gary ' Ogde n (Yam ) and Bill Clements [Hus], " Staten cruised in with the deuce and Clements th ird. Going into moto two, Mosier had one point and Staten two. .Mos ier led the first lap until Staten sh ot past b ut did not get far. Mosier and Staten were wheel to wheel for the en tire 15 minute clash. Staten took the win and th e overall with Mo sier placing second. Mike Yo rba (1\Iai) and Gary Serni cs (Kaw) were t he bailie for the th ird spot with Yorba co m ing in for third overall . With ' s u ch motocross stars as T'arniet ti, Jennings. Rub ly, Staten, Clements, Vidic, Ogden, and LaPorte, th e 250 Pr os were hound to b e gro u nd sha king . Val T amietti (:\Iai) to ok the holcsh ot in m oto o ne a nd the lead for three laps when J eff Vid ic (1\ Iai) o u t gassed Tamietti o n the Webco uphill. Gary Ogden (Ya m). in t he third p o sit io n. was c hase d vio le n tly hy Bill Clements ill us) an d Da ve Carl son (I\la i). Ca r lso n dropped o u t of the race leaving Sta ten and Jeff J ennin~ (lIul ) really in motion fo r th at fou rth spot. For the record: Vidic, Ogden. Clements a nd St aten . Off th e s tart and up the ch u te. Clci -u ts had the lead in rnoto two. St: IICIi Came from eighth place to challe nge Clements for the lead and took ov er for the rest of th e moto , Tamietti had a solid third place while Ogden and \ 'idi c fou gh t for fourth in the sta nd ings . For the day. St at en go t reve nge. Clements was very co n sis te n t and Ogden rode two fine motos. \Vhe n a ra cer finishes one-one on the day, the o ve ra ll victory is surely in his hot little hands . Bob lIannah (Yam), an ex ·2 50 rider turned 125, did just so in the 125 Pro competition. llannah took the lead in moto one after following David Ta ylor (lio n) for the lo ngest time . Third in the moto went to David Williams (Yam) after Allen Smith (lion) -I fell, causing Chuck Lunde (I'CII) to stall . Pat lIubbs (lion) saw 25 other 125 buzz-saws chasing him in the opening moments of moto two. Hubbs led with Williams in pursuit and Dan LaPorte [Fra] ch asing both lead e rs. Ha n nah , now on the gas , came from fifth spot to battle with his fellow DG Performance rider, Williams. TI,e DG riders ran away with the moto and the fi rst and second positions in the overall standings. LaPorte cam e from dead last off the start to finish third and third overall. • Res ults in Results Section. . ~ . • Dialed on and flying past the ti res . . ._- -. - ... . .. _ -- _ __ David Williams does a very stylish cross-up for the crowd. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rocket Rex a nd a pal on a Maico kick up a little dust on the Saddleback course. Mark Fitzgerald (Tril and Albert Renz gas it off the line at the start of the 500 Novice TT. Sweet success By Mike Klinger GARDENA, CALI F., JULY 2 If anyone m issed Cl\IC motocross at Ascot Park the wee k befo re, Wednesday'S contest was a repeat performance. The only change in t he program was that J e ff Bunn (Hon) took m o t o one of the 125 Pros and Luke Messer (I\iai) took moto one of the 500 Pros. The ove ra ll win wen t to Chuck Lu n de (PCH) in the 125 Pros for the third straight week. For two consecutive wee ks n o w, the 250 Pro winner has been J eff Jennings ( Bul) and the bi g bore 500 Pro class overall went to Bill Rubly (1\ Iai). Bunn led moto one of the 125 Pros with Lunde ba ck in the pack b u t wo rk ing his way to a close second. Lunde walked aw ay with moto two fro m the gate to the flag with Don Bongiorno (lion) a chasing second . It was eight of the last nine moto wins for Lunde after co llecting th e win in moto t hree. Second overall went to Jeff Bunr; (Hon) a nd third Eddie Clar k (lion). TI,e "Bult!lc(! Bullet" jeff Jennings _ wa.~ h4ii(h:d yet a nother 250 Pro class victory but not until he battled with Bill Rub ly (C.A). R~~!y !::d beth mute tWG -- ;~::d three un til the o ne lap flag when Jenn ings and Rubly were side by side. Jen nings seemed to get m o re ponies to the ground and out ran the Can-Am. Va l Ta mietti (:\Iai) finished second o verall after taking ' a ba ck seat to Jennings twice. . Big Luke Messe r (1\Iai) p ulled off his first big m o to w in in the 500 Pro s. Bill Rubly (I\lai) was back in the pack of the co m b ined 500 's which gave Messer a slight edge. I\lo to tw o and th ree saw Messer get robbed when Rubly scooted past Messe r only 20 feet fro m t he flag in bo th th e m o to s, TI,e ov erall we nt to Rubly and second to Messer, • I Tidwell takes track record at 395 By Phil Carpenter ADELANTO, CA LlF.,JUNE 28 Reco rds arc made to be broken an d to ni ght they were - both in rider attendance and trac k time. Rip Sweaney, c o m p e t i t i on 20 co m m ittee me mber, screamed around th e 11' co urse on hi s 3 50 Kawasaki at 39.8 seconds to break the track re cord set b y Ron Powell last eve n t at 40.3 seconds. Then co m es II year o ld Mike Tidwe ll on a 25 0 Yam ah a to tak e the record from Rip at 3 9.7 seconds on the 5/8 mi le co u rse ! It would be irrelevant to add that he won both 250 Mai ns! TI,e 160 entries to ni gh t included the Trisports and the Motocrossers. Yep, for the firs t t im e , Motocrossers had thei r own classes o n the ir MX machines on the IT course. Fun is t he nam e of the game and they played it we ll. Tyrone Brown had no p ro ble m showing why he is the Hi-Point rider fo r t he winning team from Victorville IIi. Rialto Alsport to o k the Shop Participation Award wit h their entries in the six Tri-Sport classes. That m id n igh t serenade was t he two IT heats of .50 0 Novices ro ar in g " Ha p py Days ar e he re again" wit h Bret Willia mson of Simi do ing the h o nors ahead of Yamaha m oun ted Wayne Melanson of San ta Ana. In half-mile action, J o hn Wells of Redlands grabbed the lead in la p one from Wayne Melanson an d hel d it to th e finish with Bultaco m oun ted Gary Pettis pushing hard for th ird. Triumph mounted Mark. Fitzgera ld and Yamaha mo unted Albert Renz diced it out in the closest race of the nigh t for the 500 Open IT trophy with the Garden Grove lad edging o ut Ren z by a spoke. In the ha lf-mi le Main, Lon nie Martin's Triump h held off the 500/0pen Amateurs until Mark Fitzgerald's Triumph grabbed the lead on la p th ree fo r the b rass. ~V'vr!dng her way from fourt h to second in the 250 Novice Main, !\Is. Bobbie Hun te r earned he r trophy by edging o ut Dy lan Neihart to ta ke second behin d Stan Kemp of West ch est er. John De Bru y n proved he still had what it takes to take the t ro phy fr o m ha rd-driving Frank T umbiola of Anaheim in the 250 Novice half-m ile action. . Spectators delight tonight was the Open Experts Ch ris Smith a nd Rich Sweaney in half-m ile ac tion followed b y Eddie Lawson on a borrowed bike. Sweaney's 350 hel d off Smiths 750 Yamie until the wh ite flag with Lawson settling for t hird. In IT action, Lawson took the win ne rs ci rcle from Terry Wyrembe k of Anaheim and Ron Spillman of Cucam o nga. • Result s in Resul ts Sectio n. Matterhorn offers a first for Summer's last By Ann A. Powell ORANGE, CALIF., JUNE 29 Todav was th e last climb o f the su mmer al Saddle back Cy cle Park. The 'Hom looked uni mpressive, fair ly easy, and very dry .

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