Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

wrist as he jumped to the lead from the beginning and held Davidson at bay for the entire main. Mitch still has an outside chance at one of the three money positions left .. . if he can win next we ek. More racers than not started th e 2 50 Main from the penalty line, leaving only Can -Am local Ken jackson an d perennial favorite Ray Huff on the fron t row. Both took advantage of the situation to capture th e first two Expert payoff spots. Meanwhile , p enalty riders Kim jorgensen (in his first race in three weeks) and jeff Eide worked their way through traffic for the final point spots. T he heavyweight Expert cl asses tonight saw an easy win by Ric k Otto in th e 6;;0 where riders were strung out over the course and the return of Redwood City 's Mike VanLienden in the 500 ranks. Otto had the lead to himself while Dave Bostrom and Duane Spence waited for each other to make a mistake but none happened . VanUenden was challenged by Ray Huff in the 500 but pressure on Huffie by another returnee Paul johnson (who came off the second row after dribbling oil on the track in the heat) kept Mike ahead. . junior action saw Scott Rasmussen and Sal Hoffman move into striking distance of Dan Foley for overall Sportsman honors by winning th eir respective 125 and 500 classes. Scott took his seventh win out of 10 while Hoffman took his fifth, Foley was unable to take the 175-200 even t . The Novice event of th e evening was the Open Main where james Bonner and Dan Laine struggled around th e slippery course for six tight laps. Bonner led the en~ race but Laine tried every safe passmg area only to be turned back. - Bob Grossi on the comeback trail at Plymouth, about to hose some unwary spectaton. came out of the back section there was Longeor right behind him again. McDannald had to really f"lght to keep ' Longcor behind him for the last two laps and took first br about 10 feet. Pat Brown (Bul ran off with th e Open Expert class with Gary Murphy (Hus) putting in a good ride for second and Pat Noland took the honors in the 250 Amateur on a Honda without much trouble. Kelly Hardman (Hon) took the first 125 Amateur mota with jeff Watts (Hus) and Greg Larson (Hon) right behind him. Hardman got the second moto too but with different followers as Watts crashed on the second lap and Larson had a bad start. This time it was Wayne Murray (Han) and Dennis Brownfield (Hon), who had been ninth and 10th in the first mota, following Hardman across the line while Larson worked his way up to fourth. This gave Larson a second overall and Watts, who finished the second moto in seventh, got a third. ' Although there were no serious injuries to the riders, some of the motorcycles' dido 't fare as ' well. Bill DeWitt (Yam), a 250 Amateur , from New York, brought his bike along on his vacation to try his luck against the California boys. He got a sixth in the first moto but in the second race his bike threw a chain, ripping the sprocket ri~t off the hub. llrad jones led both 125 Novice motos all the way - up until 'th e last lap of the second moto , With only a quarter of a lap to go to the checkered and a healthy lead working, his bike also threw a chain. He pushed it to the pits calling it everything but a Honda. Danny Schmidt won both motos of the 250 Novice Division Two race crossing the line in the first moto with no rear shocks. One shock came loose and was hanging in the breeze when, on the downhill before the checkered flag, the other one came off too. He crossed the line with the rear fender riding on the tire. The Ridgerunners did a fine job of preparing the track and there was very little dust. _ Results in Results Section. Grossi takes the Open dass By Salle Hilton PLYMOUTH. CAL., JULY 27 34 The day was a sizzler and so was that 500 'Suzu ki under Bob Grossi, as he smoked the Open class in both motos, Closest competition was Casey Vail (Mai ) who led Grossi for the first half of the first moto, but by the last half of the second mota had lost sight of him. Lowell Spiva (Hus) was third both rounds, and the rest of the riders mixed it up in the backfield, On top in the 250 group were Olarles Halcomb (Hus) , Casey Vail (Mai) again and Brian jodry (Mon ). In the first moto Perry Gann (Yam) was off the line and in to the first tum in front of the others but Vail took over a healthy lead before the end of the lap and held out with jodry coming up through the pack and chasing him hard. The second moto was Halcomb's. From start to finish he was way out in front and again jodry worked through the pack to finish second with Vail third, giving all three riders a total of four points. With the second moto being the tiebreaker the money wen t to Halcomb for first overall ,jodry second Vail third, then Gary Murphy (Moni fourth with nine points and Henry Halbach (Mon) fifth with 10. Cloyse Holland, jr. (Suz) took the 125 class after chasing Eric Harvey (Yam) all through the first moto to ge t by him in the last lap. At the checkered flag Harvey barely managed to h old his second while Eric McKenna (Han) made h is last ditch effort to get by. McKenna took over th e second moto from Holland in the second lap as the two got out ahead and hel d position all through the race. The re al action was in th e .race .for third between jim Le s n ie ws k i , Harvey and Michael Preston , all on Yamahas, with the end re sul t in th at order although it too k a :-vhole race of place swapping to decide .L Results in Resul 15 Section, Boy, when Porky McCabe loses Lodi night sa-ambles semi-final By Ann Carr tom, CAL. , AUG. 8 Steve Brandt of Walnut Creek sewed up the 12 5 Expert class over a very consistent Mitch Davidson of Modesto. Steve showed no ill effects of h is broken aT Speedway Central HANFORD, CAL., AU G. 15 The new face s eme rging in . th e last few weeks at Han ford 's speedway races are now solidly en trenched. Dan Toom ey , ou t of his early season slump, blasted th e ou tside groo ve and missed a clean sweep o nly by a seco n d spot in a heat ra ce . His wins in th e Handi cap Main and the Scratch Main were very co nvi ncing. T oomey used th e part o f th e . tra ck tha t Max Koemans usuall y reserves for h im self an d even though Ko emans di d not make it easy , Toomey was never seriously challenged. Grant Salyers of Taft, a main event regular, w as not abl e to ge t into either the Scr at ch or Handicap Main. jack Martin of Hanford, his arch rival made the Scratch Main, but co uld not handle the pressure put on b y To o mey , Russ Duronsolet and Koemans. Th e final running o f th e best of three ch allenge races between Martin and Salyers went off in hair-raising style again, with Martin taking two in a row. . Martin is the "King of the Hill" now and has already be en ch allenged. A race ~as formed o f .the four most popular rid ers, the WInner of wh ich will challenge Martin fo r a co ntinu ing "King of the Hill " series. With the season at Sacramento drawing to a close , many northern riders are signing to ri de the Hanford program - six scheduled for August 22. Results in Re sults Section. contact lenses, he co me s all unglued. Up front in this heat is Hanford's new "King of the Hill," Jack Martin. - The Lodi Motorcycle Club suffered through a ragged event this evening as valley heat dried out an o the rwise well-prepared course ' and starter MikePereyda had an o ff night. h~s ROI\C&L z. III o '" I- o r ..

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