All t he race s started with a parade through town.
Balentine's second win
Tvvo days of Cal City
By Dale Brown
CALIFORNIA CITY, CAL., OCT. 4-5
Bob Balentine (400 KTM) was the
easy winner o f the Amateur/
Expert race at the DRA California
City Grand Prix, completing the
100 miles of desert, fireroads and
asphalt wit hout a serious challenge
to his lead.
It was Wayne Garrett, however,
20
who outran everybody on th e LeMans
start, led the race to the bomb and
broke shortly thereafter. Tim Bowman
(40 0 Yam) led it for the next six mi les
or so, until he crashed in some
who o pdies. Bowman ended up sporting
a nasty bru ise on his neck where he
made co ntact with the handlebars.
Balentine was about eighth to the bo mb
and he m oved up into the lead when
Bowman crashed.
jamie Avels (400 Yam) moved into
seco nd, with Cordis Brooks (250 Bul)
and jeff Wright (250 KTM) right behind
hi m. Broo ks dropped ou t on the second
loop, however .
The next two loops were fairly static,
with the exception of Wright keeping
, Nearly every desert rider h as a story to tell about rocks .
A ne w chapter is being added here .
pressure on Avels and Andy Kirker (250
Hus) moving up steadily after a bad
start. Dean Miller (250 Yam) moved up
into the Amateur lead, running in fifth,
behind j oe jones (4 00 Hus ). Tom Kelly
(1 25 Yam) was still holding his number
on e spot in the small -bore class, running
just outside the top 10.
On the fourth loop, Balentine ran
into a little trouble . H is engine was hot,
and starting to stick. He had enough of
a lead to slow down a little and nurse it
to the finish . Avels, meanwhile, had
finally put some distance be tween
hi m self and Wright, taking full
advan tage of the l o n g asphalt
straightaways. Kirker had moved up t~
fo urth, some distance be hind Wrigh t.
_ Bale ntine did m ake it into the fin ish
and the race fans practicall y m o bb ed
him . It was Bob's seco nd Gr an d Prix
win , w orth over $700 in cash, p lus
contingencies. It was nearly five minutes
before j am ie Avels fini sh ed. He sported
a flat rear tire that had been relieved of
its air on a rocky down hill just be fo re
th e .paveme nt on the last loop . Wright
was in for third and first 250, a double
win that should m ake KTM's Ted
Lap ad a kis very happy.
I
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