Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

(Pierc e, had it not been for his accident later in the day, would have ridden a Te am Kawasaki KR250 and a Boston Cycles TZ 750 at the Ontario Nati o nal. ] • OCIR MX growing By John Bethea EAST IRVINE, CAL. , SEPT. 19 Open sanction motocross returned to Orange County International with increase in rider turnout, which made happy promoters as well as competition. Lar ge st class wa s t h e 1 25 c c Beginners, topped by Darcy Johnson (Hon). He won the fir st moto and then co llecte d second p laces in the fmal pair to earn the victory despite Richard Hill 's two moto win s. Hill, finished 10th in the first m oto and was relegated to fourth overall. The n e wl y -c reated Senior Men s segment ta ke s th ose racers 25 and older who do not wish to co m pe te against th e kids. Phil l Black (Kaw) originally en tered the 25 0cc Junior class, then found out abou t Senior Mens, ch anged his entry and wo n. OCIR mo to cross, every Friday night, accep ts AMC, CMC or NMA licenses or y ou can purch ase: an OCIR license: for only $2 if you don ' t belong to an y of those other clubs. Moros ar e between six and n ine laps each . • Water hole no dampener on Dunes night MX By Denise Beardshear V ALENCIA, CAL., SEPT. 19 An unplanned water crossing got increasingly deeper during the eveni ng's racin g. Reportedly, some helpful spectators turned on th e water somewhere in the back section and before AME officials co uld get it turned off, water had floo de d the section between the double jumps. It provided a spectacular sigh t ; as riders landed from the first jump, water splashed at least six feet in the air! This was th e first evening that AME ran two longer motos, instead of the usual three quickies. The riders seem to prefer the longer motes, although there were a couple who obviously forgot that the races were longer and pulled off before the en d ... rather puzzled to see everyone else: keep going. At t h e s ta rt of th e 250 Am ateur /Expert ra ce, second moto vtwo ri de r s lo ck ed h andlebars and the unluckier one was driven face-firs t to the ground - hard ! The added bummer was th at th is sam e gu y had won the Am ateur di vision first moto , Will Harper (Mai) didn 't find much com peti tio n to p lay with in the 250 Expert class. Firs t moto, with a big lead, he looked back just to m ake sure no one was too close , and cam e pretty close: to losing it o ver th e j ump . In his typical show-off styl e , he pulled a wheelie across th e finish lin e . Steve Miller was running second aboard a Co le Bros. CZ , but lightweighted out just before th e en d . Tassano [Mai] and Shimp (CZ) cam e through second and third. Not far behind (c o m bi n ed race) was 250 Amateur Ridgway (Su z) putting in so me very go od riding. The 500 Pr o s did some fast switching. First m oto, Tom Claire kept his NBR Su zuki powered-on attempting to hold off McAfee 's Maico. McAfee went down but not for long. Next moto, Han sen too k an easy win. Beh ind him, Dave Hall and Claire went at it so close y o u'd swear that they were ho lding hands. Th en Claire 's bike acted up and Randy Stubbs moved up to third, all the while McAfee hot on his he els . Mike Pillar was looking even better on his C & H Honda than last wee k. In the firs t moto of th e 125 Experts, he had a ridiculous lead on Egerman (FMF) and Todd (Suz ). But Pillar was o u t of running second moto, and J annings came through first overall, Egerman second. Th ere were three divisions o f 125 Beginners. The racing wa s close with s o me o f th e riders turnin g far - from -b e ginner lap times. Ch ris Hackman (Suz ) cloc ke d in at I : 2 2.4 for a first overall in Division II. Alm ost 30 seconds be hin d him was Morrison (Bul) . If Chris keeps riding like th at, it won 't be long be fore he's giving the Juniors a bad time. Incidently, if you th ought th e gu y cheering for him in the pits looked familiar, yo u were right. Yep, it was Gene H ac km an , st ar of "French Connection," looking just like an y other rider's Dad in jeans and a little Bell hat. RoxAnne Dougherty (Hon) came in first Po wder Puff first moto , but fell just before th e finish of th e second. Denise Beardshear (Suz) slipped by for th e moto win, with Dougherty holding on t o first overall. The Fl a g m a n 's Associ ation was do in g th eir usual expert job. Monte James , President, explained th e cri teria fo r beco m i ng a m em b er. E a c h Ilagperson h as to work o ne n igh t at n o pay with a qualifi ed flagger, plus they 're given an instruction booklet o u tlini ng all n ecessary information. Starting back in Novem be r , the Association is now some 22 men and women strong. Many of th e m embers also ride, and h ave as much fun wa t ching as . helpin g. It 's certainly an asset to the riders having qu alified people nearby to help in case th ~W~ i t! • Results in Results Section. t-l-< CIJ .0 o +-> o o Mark Tyer takes a smooth 125 Pro overall win at OCIR. Nitetimes lose to daytimes at 395 By Phil Carpenter ADELANTO, CAL., SEPT. 20 Th e rid ers got a taste o f the daytime racing coming up in October with a hard , slic k track tonight at 395 Cycle Park. The moon was full and the clear, open de sert seemed to magnify it. To those who promote races, it gives an apprehension of more accidents, more irrational behavior. Riders were certain it had already "go t to" the referee when he explained it at ri ders m eeting. Perhaps it was the warning or perhaps they wanted to call his bluff, but the only first-aid action tonight was a sp lin ter from a spectator. The Amate urs stole the show on the last race of t he 5 /8 m ile co urse. In 5 0 0 h alf mile actio n , Pat Go rdon pulled away for t he finish with J o hn Lundgre n o n his rear tire until the finish lap , wh en Wayne Melanson to ok t he second sp o t from John's sick scooter. Gordon had the T.T. sewed up till lap four when his T rium ph took h im the back way out leaving Ted Share and Wayne Melanson at it agai n . Melanson passed Share in lap five only to lose it for the finish . Th e 125 A/X is a continuation of a seasonal bat tle b etween little J eff Moon (Yam ) and Dylan Neihart (Yam). The half mil e finish wa s a sco re keepers nigh trn are with Neihart the winner by a retread. In T.T. acti o n, Moon was his sh adow all six laps while John Evans and St eve Davis put on the sh ow for third. (Can ' t you picture their driving te acher wh en th ey get old enough to enro llj'} Cliff Whetstone took the 250 Novice honors easily while Victorville 's Scott Thurlow and OUT go -go gal Ms. Bobbi Hunter stole th e sho w in hot and heavy c o m p e t i tion for second. Shawn Leipold 's Yamaha was "moving on " tonight in 25 0 Expert half mil e ac ti on . Mi ke Minning was running a hard second until lap four when he pulled off giving San Diego's Bill Cain the edge he needed to pull away from talen ted Terry St atum . Rivers ide's Garry Stodden took the T .T. trophy with Mik e finishing seco nd for South Gate. The hot Open Expert action was Mark Fitzgerald 's 65 0 Triumph pulling away from Laney 's 360 Yamaha for th e win on the 'IT course. Al Renz 's 650 Triu mph held off Laney till lap six . In half mile Open Ex p ert, Laney kept his throne with Fitzgerald and Steve Miller waiting for that mistake that never came. • Results in Results Section. Tyer & Rodman take over AMCOCIR By Hidden Images Tyer as he blasted out in front of the well-packed group of 125 Pros in the lead-off moto . Tyer and his Emler bike left everyone else to figh t over second with Gregg To yama (Hon) and Sc ot Clifton (Hon ) doing just that. Toyama held off Clifton un til the white flag but Gregg slipped in the new cornu put in j ust weeks ago . Rick Bean (Hon) took ove r for third while Clifton had sec ond all to h im sel f. In th e second m o to , Gregg Toyama got off to a fantastic start with Tyer righ t on his tail. Toyama and Tyer stayed close for the first half of the m oto until Ty er gassed it past Gregg on th e finish straigh t. Clifton hooked up th ird for the moto with Bean in fourth. Th e final moto was all Ty er's, Scot Clifton stayed close, but was unable to get by. Rick Bean finished off in third as Toyama go t off to a bad start to finish fourth. Clifton took home second overal l be h in d Tyer, Bean took .t hird, and To yama fourth . • Results in Results Section. EAST IRVINE , CAL. , SEPT. 17 For the first time in many weeks you co uld ac tually see th e stars high abov e the night lights of OCIR as Mark Rodm an and Mark Tyer, of FM F, to t ally dominated Pro racing action tonight. Mark Rodman (Kaw) go t off to a gre at st art as he led th e first 250 Pro moto wire to wire with Mar k Marinez (Mai) and Mik e Morgan ( Yam ) close behind. Richee Collins (Mai) worked his way around Morgan at th e halfw ay point to grab th ird. Th e sec o n d Pro go looked very much th e same as Rodman once again grabbed th e sta r t and ran away from the re st, only this time it was Collins' tum to snatch second as Marinez was un able to ge t by. The final moto saw Marinez getting the holeshot, only to h ave Rodman slip under him in the first comer on the third lap . Collins settled for a third in th e final , for third overall, following Rodman and Marinez. Th e real show was provided by Mar k Bernie gives the Honda Team a homecoming By B. Bernard POWAY, CA L., SEPT. 14 The Bogwheelers trial (first ATA points event since June) cam e off in 80 degree weath er. With the Nati onal series completed, many of the top riders were ba ck on hand, much to the delight of the spectators. A six ntile course was laid out through the foothills, utilizing many of the rocky ravines and outcroppings, Expert Section Four proved to be ex ci ting as riders lo o ked for an easy route over slick wet rocks and up a soft, sandy hill. Good place to accumulate d abs. Combined traps nine /ten saw 19

• Cover