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/125999
" ... Greg Lersch was forced to throw it away at th is rock step ... Wah oo! Th ought they only d id thi s in m otocross, didn't you ? Martin Belair practicing his rear-e nd bouncing trick : - -- - - - -- - - • [Continued from page 23) and Ralph "the Comet " Cast or , with th e former winning handily in th e t wo -Iap pe r in wire -to-wire fashion . • . I Whaley takes the watermelon; helicopter rattles Nickelsen ,- J: I- ~ Phoenix Grand Prix III By Mark Smith OST EE N PARK, CA L. ,J UN E 29 Th is AT A trial was the second rou nd (of three) for the State Tri als Champi onship. Accordingly , th e host club , SCTA, made it a five loop even t with several to ugh section s. In addition, th e hot weather and smog test ed th e ride rs and checkers. The riders all made • 38 it, but one o f the checkers co llapsed and fain te d from h eat prostr at io n . :\Iarl and Whaley (lion) won th is tr ial an d is now ti ed with Bern ie Schreiber fo r th e St at e Trials Ch am p ionship with o ne more ro u nd to go . :\Iark Eggar (Han) passed Bernie Sch reiber (Bul) fo r sec o nd place in the fo u rth loop . J oe Gu glielmelli (lIon) fin ish ed a d ist ant fourth, 23 po ints behind Bernie and 1\like Griffitts (Mo n ) edged o u t :\lart in Bel air (Mon ] wit h m ore "cleans " to take fifth pl ace . Although th is was a Sta te Champi on sh ip me et . t he re we re no top ra te d Northern Cal iforriia riders ente red. At fir st gla nce, all of t he sections looked alike - very roc ky ! Secti o n 12 was referred to as "the one wi th a thousand m arke rs," The en tire sect ion was laid o u t in su ch a giant boulder pat ch th a t m an y ride rs had p ro blems figu ri n g out wh ich way to go. Acco rd ing to Eggar , sec tio n 12 was the harde st because o f the tig ht tu rns and section 15 was the easiest. Sect ion eight a nd nine (con t in uo us) wer e also difficult , sta rt in g with a lo ng u phill, a turn , a steep downhill with a sh arp tu rn and an exit. Section nine st arted here with a ste ep uphill cl imb over ro cks, an off-eamber turn in loo se d irt. over another ro ck p ile and then a tough uphill cl im b in loose d irt. This pai r was not cleaned until the fourth loop when Whaley put to gether a beautiful long cle an ride through both sections. The most spectacular eve n t of the da y occurred at a section ne ar the summit of a hill, wh ere George Smi th III was chec king Ex pert Greg Lers ch while .Bob Nickelsen stood totally engrossed watching th e young Bultaco whi z do hi s thing. AIl of a sudden , a police helicopter new o ver the su m mi t from the opposite side of the hill a pp roxi ma tely 20 feet above the g ro u n d . This practicall y kn ock ed i\'ickelsen o ff the h ill and " rattled " everyon e els e. A sha ke n i\'ickelsen had more th an a few ch oic e co m me nts (mos tly unprin table ) regarding this incid en t. Th e trial was.especially Lo ug h for the In th e s t'(' OI H I cvcn t , Ogd en e me rge d w ith the win over J ennings. Mal one, Turner a nd Bru ce Baron (Ya m ). T ha l left a w id e open sc ra mble for th e fin al in wh ich :\Ialo ne gru b bed th e victo ry Inn was st ill left in fift h overall. Ogd en . ,...it h a fourth. still won. T urner, despite a fi fth. W .IS ru n nerup in poin ts wit h ~ la rin e z th ird . • a ": ~ By A. H. Tellier/Sun " > al D E ER VA LL E Y, AR IZ.,J UNE 30 During a period in whi ch th e City of Phoen ix is highly con ccmed with the typical big-city problems, ie, mass tran sitesouri ng un employ- III o lo J: a. Marland Whaley getting a leg up on California's St ate Championship. . . . and Marland's not exactly dancing for joy in this frame, e ith e r. CMCMX By John Bethe a (,; AST IRVIi\' (,;. CALIF.,J ULY 4 Bill Ru bly's quest for th e C~IC 's 1975 Season Po int s Champion ship may have taken a tum for th e worst toni gh t at Oran ge Coun t y Amateurs who ro d e m an y of t he Expert sections in four loops. This class was wo n by Ra ymond Soffa ( Bul) wh o drop ped 97 points followed by Dennis Gilmor e (Bul) an d Mike Felte r (1\lo n). The No vice class was wo n by Gr eg Carter (agai n) on a Montesa. It see ms that Greg should be tr ansferred to Am a teur pretty soon. R. Spruell (Ha n) took seco nd followed by R. Thorton (Man). Pretty She rry Gre goi re (Ossa) had another go od rid e fin ish in g sixth Novice. There was also a Beginne r cla ss (sec o nd ATA Beginners trial this year) wh ich was won by J . Co ward o n an unid entifi ed m ot or cycle. En d u ro specialist Dave Evans (Ossa) edged Rick Tillet on a Yam ah a 17 5 t o take th e Senior class. R. T oll eson o n a Hond a 12 5 ran awa y with th e Kid s A class, beat in g his nearest c o rnp e titor by 6 5 poin ts and Michael L auxell . riding a sup er m odified Honda S L 70 , t oo k th e Kid s B cla ss. After the mee t. all th e ride rs. chec ke rs , fri ends , e tc . e njoyed icc-cold watermel on (co u rt esy of Alp ha Bela) a pe rfe ct t rea t afte r a long ho t trials. • Res ults in Result s Sen io n . In te rn atio nal Raceway as th e vete ra n :\Iaico and Can -Am pri vat eer crashed whi le lead in g the fir st 5 00cc Pro m o lo and was forced to re tire fro m the eve n ings ac t io n with a badly br uised hip an d leg. Ru bl y was co m in g do wn to p ick up th e last lap nag in th e seve n lap first m o to when his fron t wheel washed out and he go t pi n ned under the b ike . Gary Ogden (Ya m) . wh o had been di cing all th e wa y with Ru bl y, had nowher e to go excep t in to th e back of t he sp rawled wi nner of :2 I Pro eve n ts this year. Jeff Jennings, who is c urr en tly sec ond to Ru bly in the p o in ts battle . needs at least a week an d" ha lf to cat c h up on Bill, who is ex pe cted to return to racing in abo u t seven da ys . By th e time the ace from Cars on, is back into full shape, J ennings m a y have had th e c ha nce he needs t o ca p ture the lead in po in ts. The ne xt two weeks sh o uld be highl y in teresti ng. Meanwhile, with Rubl y sidelined. Ogden took up wh atever slack there was and produced two o ver all vic to ries . He also wound up winning th e 25 0cc Pr o rounds aft er a thriller of a ni ght. A to tal o f 16 Pros had entered th e 250s and everyone wa s a ca pa ble winner. In the first race alone. the lead c ha nged five times a nd with less than a lap remaining. th ere were still seven riders in co n te n t io n for the win. Ron Turner (C-A) won the first mo to with J ennings ( Bu!) la k ing second fo llo wed by Ogde n, J eff Vid ic (:-la i). :-Iark 1\larinez (:-Iai). Randy Bum s (Ya m) and Jo h n :-k:-Ian aw a y (:-Ia i). Earl y lead er Mo rr is ~I al on e ( ~ Ia i ) was out o f ac tio n d ue to a crash. ment. risin g cri me. increasing air pollution. etc., it is somewhat surprising an d rewarding t o fin d that the City has provided th e land. m anpower and funds with whi ch to provide th e lo cal motorcyclists with a desert-terrain park. Lo cated north of th e City o f Phoenix (7th Street an d Deer Vall ey Drive), the 25 0 ac re State-owned (City-leased) p ark con tains so me rid in g geology : impo sin g vertically-foli ated schistose ridges a nd hills, ro cky a ll u v ia l fa ns with c ro ss-cu tti ng washouts. and deep silt basins. The running of the Phoenix GP took the riders on seven five -mile loops which utilized the aforementioned natural terrain and portions of a ti ght :\IX co u rse and abou t half of a pa vem ent-sm ooth IT track . Something for everybody. A wat er truck deposited sufficient water in on e location to provide a mudhole . Admittedly a "fun even t," Keith Talley , Motorcycle Park Co ordinator and his st aff provided a well thought-out event. Riders were sen t off in waves acco rd ing to bik e displacement : b ig bo re s first (sidecars last. of course). The start , a LeMans st yl e sprint, led onto the TT c o u r s e, where madman tendencies were ea sily visible. V. Corcoran was the first ge to ff , right at the st art, T oo much throttle and not enou gh dis cretion. John Riggle dominated the sm all -bores, putting away a move by Wally lIeubel (Yam) . The tigh t sections of the course acc en tuated the quick handling of the small :\IXers, enabling them to cut b y big bore lIuskys and the like. Several spectator vantage points overlooked some hi gh -lofting jumps, so everyone had th eir opportunity to show off. Unfortunately , the IT jump was too attractive for two racers who tangled bars, ending up am o n g their bikes. R esults: one broken leg for an unidentified young man. So rry J missed his big moment in sports. What with it being 110 in Gila Bend and in Iluckeye a 10 2, the he at quick ly took its toll of the ra ce rs who were not sufficiently ac cli ma ted . Even th ough the ra ce was sta rte d at eight an d wa s over by noon. Last but ce rta in ly nOI least was th e sidecar victory of Great Bear winner Slim Ska te ke y a nd h is pilot. No easy