Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

l!'l l"- en ,...., ~ C'J ,...., ..... til ;:l bO ;:l <; '" class. The little guy had form , except his legs weren't yet long enough to re ach the track! The first heat of 125s, riders got set, engines wound out and as clu tches were popped, Wayne Williams lost it over backward. Kirk Howard held the lead most of the wa y then went too high in tum one, allowing Tony Speck and Kerry Himmelwright to continue t he fight for first. Robert Speck's bike was out with Steve Risley on it; Robert suffered a broken col1arbone on his last race and won 't be back for awhile. Joe Cook came off the start of the Kids B Main like he was shot from a gun, rode like he meant business and took a solid first . Rich Word was on Jeff Cook 's 250 and did he go! Ask Brian Peterson, who ate dirt in the Trophy Dash. Brian got his revenge in the A Main, though. He socked a solid first and left Rich to second. Mark Detwiler's 250 seized, as did the 360 of Greg Wilson's. The Open Trophy Dash had the crowd on its feet. Brett Howard had full intentions of a trophy but Jeff Campbell got under him to take the lead. Jeff went wide on tum one an d Louie Booth shot by with Jeff Hurd close behind. The ra ce was on for a short lap, with Booth taking the chec ks first. Jeff Campbel1 came back with a sure win in the A Main, lapping the last of the field. • Results in Results Section. Washington HSMX Championship & Yamaha Dirt Days .. By Sue Sy kes KENT, WASH. , JUL Y 19·20 Washington Yamaha Dirt Days was just as advertised - a weekend motorcycle extravaganza. When we were at S.I.R. for Wednesday motocross we cou ld see by all the banners, tents, and hay bales that we were on to something. The difficulties experienced by the Medford, Oregon Association . were not evident here in Washington. Yamaha International in fo rmed this writer in May th at Dirt Days was in th e fixings . Ex citement be gan to ge nerate among high school motocros sers . Man y o f the racers had ridden in the Wash ington race at Puy al1up, th e Honda race in Portland b u t we re still ready for a third t ime around during Dirt Days . Th e qu ali fiers were held at five Kim J oh nso n (47) wa s second Open Expert. , Pat Richte r is all up in t he air over wi n ni ng Open Expe rt at Helvetia. . 24 different tracks. Bicycle motocross qualifiers were held o n the same race days. Discount admission t ickets were availa ble at de alers for the qualifiers , wel1 in advance of ra ce dates. Fr ee ad m ission tickets for Dirt Days were also ava ilable at th is early date. Packets were m ailed to the h igh school qualifiers in advan ce of the race date with necessary forms, pit passes, track directions, and general information. Day one Sign-up was no hassle - and aft e r a prac tice an d riders ' m eetin g the ' first moto riders we re in troduced to the crowd. 100cc Novice : Probably the m o st well matched riders out. Moto one winner Tom Ludwig (Suz ) landed at the bottom of a third m oto pile up - re ally - the y had to uncover him ' before they found him. That 01' tough guy grabbed a good p osition on the resta rt a nd finish ed o u t with a third. Ludwig chalked u p a one-three-three for that first overall. Lo n Werremeyer (Hon ) o f Moxee City topped o u t Brad Ho y t (Su z ) of Puy al1u p by one point to ca sh in on th e 100cc . Expert scholarship . Fine rid es b y bo th hard-ch argin ' ra cers . Renton 's Bo b Collins (Ya m) m ade h is p re senc e kno wn with wins in 25 0c c J unio r m o t os o ne an d tw o . Bob was 250 Expert wi nne r Mick Mumau brought h is own t rophy gir l. back a bit during the 15 minute ride in moto th ree but p layed his han d right and scored in with a fourth - go o d en ou gh for first overal1. Eastern Washington dominated the 25 0 cc Expert class with three o f the n icest guys arou n d. They tr avel ed so far you have to give them cred it for being to sign-up on time. Mick Murnan (Hus) fro m Colville, a town fro m the ver y eastern part of Washington , rode a fine ra ce for a first overall and the scholarship. Or ovi lle High's Rick Hill (Ya m) - just a river's d ist ance fro m Canada - rode h is YZ to a win in motos one and tw o . In the fin al moto Rick rode second behind Murnan for the first three laps. He cla imed the lead and held it for tw o laps, t hen slid ou t in the starter tu m . It took Rick t oo lon g to ge t going aga in, and he settled for second ov erall. Third we nt to Steve Eckenberg (Hus) , Kennewick. Good old hard work and a ni ce scoring of two in m o to three paid o ff. Day two A full line o f 125 Novice riders formed at th e sign -up booth by ei ght Sun day . T wo lin e-u p s really - anyway th at 's wha t it to ok t o ge t them o ff th e sta rt ing lin e. Ea ch div ision ran two m o re s. Th en the to p seve n overall fr om each div ision transferred to the third m oto . J eff McCann (Ya m ) o f Kent to ok a tw o-one in q ualifier m otos th en to pped it off b y lea di ng 16 laps o f the final moto . Seco nd an d third were Leon McDonald (Ya m) t hen Ron Binckley (Yam) . Lee Vo ss rightly earned th e 125cc Expert scholarshi p . In m ot o o ne Voss to ok a mid-pack st ar t an d a ft er o ne lap wa s d o wn to eig h t h. But the har d char gin ' Suz u ki rider kept aft er it and finish ed third with G lenn Fe lt (Yam) th e m oto wi nner. In m oto two Vo ss too k the lead o n lap five afte r start ing o u t fourth. The fin al m o t o Felt t o ok th e lead for three laps then gave wa y to Voss who ro d e o u t 14 m or e lap s fo r the win. Fifteen-year-o ld Micah Raphael o f Port Orchard rode his way to fam e and a scholarsh ip on his Yamaha - with a o ne-t wo -t wo in Op en Expert. Tw o riders th at d id n' t make the t ro p hy list but pl ace d fourth in th eir respective classes des erve a pat on th e back . Rich Binckley, Op en Expe rt , proved he was boss by claiming motos tw o and three o f his class. Rich took the lead of these two m otos and lapped all the riders on moto three. Moto one wa s o n e o f . th o se "That's Racing" experi ences. A broken chain in the first lap let the scholarship slip righ t through hi s h and because he d id n 't take a finishing position. Marvin Sykes (Hon), 125 Junio r, was o u t the second lap o f moto one to change a plu g an d th e best he scored was 14 th. Sykes was determined the ne xt two mo tos were his - he too k the lead from th e st ar t and was never touched for 16 laps per rno to - a super jo~ • Results in Results Section. Preston, Sandretto & Richter top Helvetia By Sallee Hilton HELVETIA PARK, CAL.,J ULY 20 Mike Prest on, coming on strong with hi s new Noguchi (Yam) from Mote -Fast, cashed in for the top 125 money after winning moto one, wi t h Ed die Brown (Ho n) h ot o n his heels, and taking second to Robert Friedland in mot o two . Danny " Mago o " Ch andler (Yam) , alwa ys a cro wd p lease r with all the bo dy En gli sh WFO, crashed in the first lap o f the first mot o and ca m e bac k In t o -the race in about 10th spot. In tw o laps he was in fir st , o n ly to crash again . He st ill man aged a th ird place finish. Th e second moto was worse for Magoo. He spun o u t a co up le o f times, an d in tr ying to make up for time lost he co llid ed wi th a tree . Fortunat ely there was no permanen t d am age d o ne and he fin ished the race but was out of contention. Preston, a n easy rid er, rode both ro un ds the sa me way - star ting o ut fifth or thereabouts an d gradually working h is way up to the top. In the second ru n , he never q uite got by Friedland who had finished six th th e first time. Third place payback went to J im Sylva (Hus ) for a seventh and a 10th. Kevin Henry (Bul] , comin g back to ra cing aft er several weeks layoff with an injured leg re ceived at Car lsbad, (and not quite healed ye t ), finished in the money for fo u rth with a fourth and a sixth . Hitting the b u mp s har d , th e ju m p s high , the corners sharp and the straights fas t, Pat Richter (CZ ) and Brian J odry (Mon) .raced hard aga in st ea ch other in the 250 Expert class. Richter took the 1 I

• Cover