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/126015
One stalled rider often led to scenes like t his . to 500 Expert on Sunday afternoon. never en keep those po int-chasing Seniors separate from the non-District Old Timers, In the Senior Division, George Walker (C-A) got by early leader Dick Camp to win handily. The last race of the weekend, the Old T imers, was domi nated by a new - to them - face, J ohn Rice. John R. j ust turned old enough (4 0) to co mpete and he kept that Greeves in fron t all the wa y. Both Days This year was the dustie st in recent memory. The lack of rain didn't hlep and in some of the later races, the setting sun added its share to the lack of visib ility . One 250 Expert told m e th at as h e crested the end of a long st raight, the dust and the straight-on sun meant he co uld n ' t see a thing. Not the hot set-up when there 's a tricky off-camber tum co ming up soo n. There was a good deal of charitable work goin g on this year. Raffle tickets were sold to hel p the children of Frank J. Ryan, a deceased Dirt Digge r m em ber and all proceeds went towards their educations. SoCal members were selling tickets to help with Alan May's medical expen ses. The San Gabriel Valley M.C. was taking donations towards their legal funds. • (Con tinued on page 42) John Franklin was uncatchable in the 350 class. In th e first Divisions of 500 Novices, a rat her portly gentleman whose garishly decorated h elm et identified him as " Super Hunky ," led the first lap. Rick Sieman 's glo ry seemed short-lived when Jeff Haase (Mai) got past the seco nd tim e round. But Sie man won. That last bit of information is very unofficial , due to sc o rin~ problems with that ra ce. Bob Mills (Yam) was the winner in the other division. A good three-way battle hig hligh ted the opening laps of the 500 Amateur event, with Dave Caspary (Mai) shedding himself o f the scuffle and winning. In 500 E x p e r t co mpe tition , Mike Sixberry (Yam ) looked to be an easy winner, but a derailed chain in the mudhole cost him that win. It went to John Hateley (Suz], a perennial Hopetown favorite , who had worked his way up to second. Preston Petty (Mai) entered a bunch of races, but only rode one. He took the lead in the Op en Combined event and it looked like Preston was finally goi ng to get that one cla ss win that had avoi ded him. But the bike broke, leavin g Gene Smith (Tri) in the lead. Jim Wilson (Tri) soon got by, stretched out and won. Sue Fish wo n the Wome n's Division race, with no challenge whatsoever to her lead. Second place was a war of attrition, with firs t Janice Kline (Hon), the n Kim LaV igne (C-A) and fina lly Che rr y Stockton (Bu l) occupyi ng it. J ohan na Stenerso n (Ya m) generate d a lot of " ooh s" and "ah hhs" with he r berserk flights th ro ugh the mudh o le, but four crashes on t he du sty firs t lap kept her down. Speaking of berserk, there were 27 sid ehacks. Easily the fastest was the Kawas aki h ack of Tom Ridyard and passenger Charly Sanner as they won convin cin gl y over the John Palfreyman /J oe Gardner (No r) team. 7