Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

and raced wh eel to wheel wit h the Junior rider fo r the last three laps, to ho ld hi m off. At th e finish it was Steve Zubietta in first and Ronn ie Troye second, shutting out the Junior riders. The 8 0 cc Novice Main consisted of 10 riders and was an easy win fo r Co ty Stinnett on h is Ho nda flat tracker, after falling in the he at and c o ming back to take the Semi. Co ty started on the outside, dove down to the inside and was never threatened. The 80cc Am ateur Main was hotly con tested with five riders going to the line . Off t he line it was Mike Cryer through the co rn er in his first ride as a J unior . Right behind him was Frankie Zubietta, Whe n Cryer went wide coming off the tum, Frankie slippe d under him to take the lead . Back in the pack Tommy Hadlock was picking them off one at a time, but lady lu c k wa sn't riding with him tonight. With tw o laps to go in an attempt to take ove r the nu mb er two spot he lost it and went down in the front ch u te . The 100cc Combined class h ad a new Expert for the first time this ye ar : C.B. Hodges. On th e line were two Novi ces and on the handicap lin e were one Amateur and two Ex pert s. It wa s a fas t race with th e two Nov ices lcad ing for the fir st five laps, then hard chargin g C.B. Hodges to ok th em both o n the inside goi ng into the th ird tum with Sh ane Hybarger right behind him. • Yreka reopens YREK A, CAL. , MAY 25 The Yreka track reopened today a fter being closed for several months. Th e sun was o u t in full force drinking up all the moisture in sight, so the th ick Yr eka dust h ad to be drowned ou t by the bi g Ro chlitz water truck wh ich had been donated to the cl ub for the races. It was more than apprec iated by all! Chris Sargent (Hon) gra bbed the hole shot in the fir st 125 Junior rnoto and was running away from the pack un til his bike st alled . Mike Young (Hon) then overtook to win the m oto an d the overall. Close behind came Dave Wysong (lI o n ) and Dee Hanscom (C.A) -' only lad y in this class. T he 25 0 Expert motos were really exciti ng with Bill Breedl ove (Ya m) and Lon Manning (Hus) battling it o u t, exc h anging the lead several times. Both were reall y charging in to th e Co m ers and flying down the straights. Manning ende d up th e o verall winner followed ver y closely by Bre edlove. • Jorgy commands 0-36 scramblers By W. H. Spencer FREM ONT, CA L., J UNE 14 Despi te o nly taking second pl aces in bo th th e 25 0 a nd 500 cl asses to nigh t, Kim J orgen sen has taken a slim point lead o ver Dave Burton and Duane Sp en ce in the quest for top blac k plate in D· 36 . Burton held him in the 25 0 class wh ile John Hlebo took the win in the 5 00 . Two youngste rs putting o n a good show are T ony Alves and Rich Luhdo rff in the 650 J unior with lo t s of pass in g and sliding. Luhdorff slipped past Alve s and was eggin g Alves o n at the chec ke red . Alves b ea t him last we ek and a good rivalry ex ists. Th e 250 Expert Main had Eric En gen leading out the 12·man field . Eri c hadn't led any thing in quite a wh ile and was rea lly jaz zed. Holding second on back in a freight tr ain sty le wer e Ted Bailey (Bul ], Burton (Gr i), Jorgy and Jeff Eide slipping aro und in front o f Dan Castelhan o , On th e infield of the second lap Burton slipped past Baile y as did Eide in front of J orgy. En gen held Burton until the last two laps when Dave go t a drive off th e fro n t straigh t co rner fo r t he pass and th en on th e last- lap , J orgy ou tbrak ed to take second with no • chanc e to catch Burt on . Marathon madness By W. H. Spencer FREMONT , CAL .,JU NE 15 A cool overcast m orning gree te d 13 kids and th ei r mini -hour marath on and a dogfight devel oped righ t from th e go. l\like Sprenger and Rick Delong dueled for 45 minutes of th e hour with Delong leading mos t o f the time. Mik e an d his Honda held o ff th e Yamaha for t he first lap s and t ook back first o n laps elght- l O when Ri ck pitted and fell. Delong grabbed th e lead o n th e II th lap. It would have been a runaway fro m t he re whe n Mike fe ll o nc e, but four lap s fro m th e end Delong lost a chain . . Craig Clar k won his fir st marath on wi th a little help fro m a frien d. li e led all but six lap s in a 53 lap race and those wer e standa rd pi t st ops. T he second pl ace team of Sco tt Web ste r and Te rry Ru b y held secon d fo r t he d ura tio n except for t ho se five lap s th at t hey led . Donny Anderson came up wi t h o ne lap in th e lead at No . 16 . He to o k th ird o ver Bob Perry, and a mi ghty six th to Ricky Delong an d Bill Co ol ey on a su pe r Suzy - and first 100. It was J ohn Silva day agai n and despite a bad chest co ld , the Malcolm Smith sale sman rode to vict ory with help fro m Al Wood. Be tw een he and second place fin ish er J ack Simmons, t he tw o lapped th e fiel d. Bob Vick ery led out the sta rt but by th e sco ring tabl e Silva was in co n t ro l and by the fourth lap Vickery was having gea rbox pro blems. T hi s let Terr y Fish and Jeff Col e in for second ridin g a n eat o 17 5 Honda that was super sm ooth , quiet and quite fast. They led for four laps, then went to seco nd when the Ph an to m X rider too k o ver for 14 laps. Then o n lap 26, Vickery te am ed with Frank Risner caught up and took over for tw o laps before retiring with o nly th ird gear oper ating. This put the Silva/Wo od team b ack in co ntro l for th e duration. When the MR 175 o f Fish /Cole retired with cran k d ifficul ties J ack Simmons took sec o nd, with a lap on the Lonnie Fly/llan k Allen team. The Open run was ano the r all Ken y on affa ir with some help from sponsor/o wner Cecil Yother . Allen lapped t he en t ire 26 ·man field twice. Haywire Haynes t oo k second with AI Wood helping o u t once aga in . Dave Frazier had th e secon d sew ed up b u t a m iscalcul ation in fuel cos t him . Vanderpool to ok o ver second on th e second lap but had another seizure in th e fir st 100 y ards o f th at lap . He was abo ut read y to h ang it all up wh en h e and Yoth er put in so me of Yother' s mi x. He wen t ba ck o u t to fin ish hi s firs t marath on in so me eight m onths, • CMC Rough Scrambles: The Worm had problems By Barb Wilson SACRAMENTO, CAL.,J UN E 27 As the evening of racing began at West Capital Raceway, the track was wetter than usu al , but with a slight wind and 70 degree we ather it dried o u t nicel y. All eyes were on Ron Combs (Worm) who is the curr en t point leader in the 250 Nov ice d ivision. Ron and h is pit crew from B & 'I' Kawasaki were hard at work on his bike in the p its a fte r it seized on him during practice. After a few minor adjustments, he was ready to try it again and hoped it would hold together. Ron made it through the heat c Z o C( l- V> UJ u ::l C( III That's "The Worm" - 13-ye a r·old (fast) Ron Co mbs at Sacramento. and qualified fo r the Main, but 50 yards from the finish lin e in the Main, it seized again and John Crocker went on to win h is third Main in a row. Ronny is only 13 years old and has recently moved up from the Mini class. Last year he was No . Two Blue Plate in the Mini Division for D-36 and took a third in the .Mini Nationals last year in Arizona . This is his first try at t he 250 division and he's leading this division with 22 points. Hot on Ronny's trail is John Crocker, with 16 points, who is on a new KX250A Kawasaki. • Cycleland Speedway By D. Fowler CHICO, CAL.,J UNE 28 Cycleland fan s were treated to a first when a riderl ess motorcycle mad e alm ost a half-lap before crashing into the pit wall. The whole fias co started with a downed rider attempting to p ush start his scooter with o ut knowin g th e throttle was stuck wide open. Before th e rider (or runner) could stop it, th e b ike started out across the infield flat out. The m otorcycle started from the south end o f th e tr ack , ran thc en t ire len gth of th e infield and cru nche d against the north p it wall. Th e crash wall came out unscathed, but it really did a job on the wheel and fork s of the bike. In the 100 Nov ice event, Ri ck McMorrow (Bul) and Lo nnie Fowler (Ka w ) diced for th e winning spo t and Rick took the win. T he 360cc Novice race was t urned aro un d this week when Bob Ryan (Yam) finally put it t o John Evans (Ho n ). John has been showing Bob the way all season, but Bob finally came through. . Jeff Fowler (Bul) domin ated the 20 0 J unior class by winning everything that he rode . J eff won both the 200 Scratch Main and the 200 Handicap Main. Jeff had the crowd gaping with his high groove, flat ou t power slides. Randy Freeman (Bul) followed Jeff around for second in bo th races. John Gardiner (Yam) and Mike Freeman (Bu l) cap ture d the 250c

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