Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ELocal hotline ' • ~ E Tyer ties up RTMC MX By Mike Yada CARLSBAD,. CAL. , NOV . 8 Flying Ma chine Factory rocket Mark Ty er gave RTMC racers at Carlsb ad a goo d look at his rear fender by outrunning the rest of the Open Pros on his new RM 250 Suzuki. Sherman Schneller (Su z) o p en ed up the da y b y cran king o ut th e hol eshot only to over shoot the first turn and nearly nail the chain-link fen ce. T hat slip allowed T yer to take th e lead , followed clo sely by T amali Smith (Kaw) and Ron Turner (Su z) . Schneller go t up fro m a last- place first lap and began to move up rapidly through the pack. He soon moved up behind Smith's KX , only to drop bac k wi thin a few laps. Tyer had a lead over th e rest. Tamali finished going full on in second, Turn er th ird, Schneller in fourth . Ty er immediately resumed hi s hold on top sp ot at the st art of the second mota, lead ing J o hn Sm ith an d Tamali Smith out of the ga te . John .wired it on and passed Tyer up th e bumpy h ill. T yer didn't let up, th ough , as he quic kly repassed John o n t he downhill. Tamali Sm ith and T urn er then got arou nd Smi th to play a dice fo r second. Turner st ayed exactly a sec o nd o r two ah ead of Smith, not even giving h im an inch of ro om . In th e me antime, J o h n Smith m oved back o ne m ore no tch as Gerald Stewart (Yam) go t aro und him. While T yer had full command of the lea d , Turn er and Smith wer e st ill at it , o nly for th ird, as Schneller swep t in to second. Tamali p u t tne pass o n Turne r o n the fmal lap . The p air jet ted do wn the famed Carlsbad downhill, wi th neither giving way. T am ali go t up next to Turner and nudged him o ut of third, then sh ut the door o n him . Tyer went home t he happy winner, whil e Ta mali 's late pass gave hi m enough fo r second overall. Schneller ended up third, with T urn er cap t uring • fo urth . Mark Tyer dominated the combined Expert class in RTMC racing at Carlsbad. On ly 6 I riders entered bu t there was st ill some fine racing. Professional victories we n t to Paul Schones (12 5 Hon}, Mar k Marinez (25 0 Mai) and Steve See (370 Su z), but the best racing came in th e Am at eur ran ks. J eff Ward , th e n at ionally known minicycle st ar , watch ed his o pp osit io n get increasingly tough er each m ota. His first ra ce was a l4-second m arg in of victory. By the final , it was a narrow scuffle against Bryan J ordan (Mai ) who was second overall. T y Hanway put aside the 25 0 Beginner s (?) with an expec te d clean sweep with Jeff Bates (Bul) gra bbi ng a solid sec ond. The 250 Juniors we n t to Jim Carlino in co me-fro m-be h ind rides wh ile Dan Vivier go t second. AMC will race the n ext three Wednesda ys at OCIR wi th th e ' 75 series ending Decem ber 3. • Results in Results Section . Corona finale By Elaine Jones Mik e Ti dwe ll was go od fo r three firs ts and one secon d to become th e winningest rid er of th e eveni ng. As usual his biggest cha llenge came fro m Mi ke Minnig who ran seco nd o n both the TT an d half mil e 250 Exp er t goes . Go rdie Kidd challenge d Mike fo r th e win in th e 25 0 Expert Twin half mile but j ust d idn't h ave en ough to stay wi th Ti dw ell. Mike 's onl y defeat cam e ' at th e hands of Murray Hoffm an an d then it was o nly afte r Mik e had led mos t of t he race. But wha t co un ts is the chec ke red flag and Mur ray was in th e right place (first) at the righ t tim e . Steve Fo rtune had a 750 Yam aha th at did go fast and he proved it by running away wi th it all in t he Op en Expert half mil e. Ro d Sexton go t th e ho lesho t an d went out in fro nt bu t it only lasted until lap fo ur wh en Steve to ok over and never looked back. Rod was seco nd an d Murray Hoffman third.· Don Gr igsby led from st art to fin ish . to win th e Open Expe r t TT while th e figh t for seco n d rage d be hin d him. It was Dave Johnson who di d it the hard way , rnoving up fro m ba c k in th e pack to nail do wn th e spot. Ste ve Miller , riding for the firs t tim e as an Expert, was equal to t he oc casion , clipping Bill Barning at th e fini sh line in th e Division I Exper t half mile. Double winners abounded with Paul Cook the Open Novic e cham p both times . Brian Theunissen and Sco tt Thurlow both earned transfer to Am at eur as they won both th e TT and half mile in th eir respective 25 0 Novice ' classes. • Resul ts in Results Sec t ion . By John Bethea 22 :l Z « ~::........--,-_::........~ ::; -..:::.::........::........::........::........::........-..:::._::............::::;;._::........::........ ::........-..:::.=--...;.;:..::J Rod Sexto n (75E) got the holeshot in Co rona's Open Expe rt race, but Steve F!lrtune got by to win. CORON A , CAL. , OCT. 29 Coron a hosted 166 rid ers for th eir fin al race of the season an d th e action was ho t an d heavy on th e TT and half mile courses. By Ron Busch Marland Whaley 's first visit to the Las Vegas are a was an impressive . one, with Marland winning the South Nevada Bogwheelers trial by 39 points. the more successful Wednesday night show. However, to allow the word to spread, the crew took on one more low-turnout Friday, the last of th e year, and set plans on rebuilding the mid-week showdowns. III W AMCMX EAST IRVINE , CAL., NOV. 14 I< :l .J The ladies clean up Nevada trials After several weeks of the Friday night program, AMC's Betty Lasker read the writing on the wall and decided to switch back to z o l- Amate ur an d won, dropping 12 points, five less than loc al ride r Paul Ya tes . An o t her Las Vegas rid er, Mike Clar k wo n the Novice class, bu t he reall y had to wo r k to defea t Fra n Ol dro yd o f Cedar City, Utah , wh o had been terrorizing th e m en in th e class . Denise Hamm is an ad mirer of Debbie Evan s. Only a beginn er in competition, she has nonetheless learned h ow to bala nce th e bike wh ile stan ding o n her he ad . Like Deb bie Evans, Denise is a winner and she prov ed it by winning the Beginner class. • 125s mix it up at DeAnza By Gus SUNN YMEA D, CAL., NOV. 16 Ken Morris carne out th e top mon ey winner in th e 125 Pro class, berserking his way throu gh the pack in .bo th motos to end up at the chec kere d in second overall. Taking top spot in the firs t moto was Intermediate, Clint Carman . In the seco n d mota he had scooter tro ubles and couldn 't quite get his act to gether for the top spot, b ut still man aged to win th e Intermediate class easil y. Butch Bak er and Bill T ayl or hoo ked it o u t for seco nd spot in the Pro class, with Bak er taking co mmand the last m oto to take home seco nd pl ace cash. 125 Junior ac tio n was fantastic with four riders running away from the rest of the field and engaging in plenty of lead swapping and handle bar ra ttl ing. Danny McDougal and Danny Burtt we n t into the last mota tied for top spo t , with McDougal getting theholeshot and Burtt nipping at Mike Dickherber's rear wheel . McDougal went on to win the rnoto. Burtt was able to get around Dickherber, but was repassed at the finish when he missed a gear. Fin al standings were: McDougal, Burtt, • Dickherber and Steve Ellington. Results in Results Section. LAS VEGAS, N EV ., OCT. 26 Honda-mounted Whaley completed more than hal f t he trial before he dropped a single point. Giving up only 10 for the da y , Marland easily beat runner-up Ron Doster's total of 49. Jeff Fish took third with 64 points. Jay Reynolds, of Ely , Nevada, competed for the first time as an HSMX: Pacific squeaks by Garden Grove By John Bethea EAST IRVIN E, CAL., NOV. 15 Pacific a High School walked into the special Garden Grove Recreatio n Division Championships as th e od ds-on favori tes to win, but they da ng near lo st to an undermanned but p ow erful sq uad from Garden Gr ove H.S . The scen e was Orange County In ternat ional Racew ay and it wa s also the p lot of a squeaker . Uno fficia lly , over th e PA, this rep o rte r gave th e win to Paci fica by a na rrow t wo p oin ts, 23-2 1. Th e tally at th e end of the night had th e sco re tied at 22-22 with Garden Grove th e victors on m ost overall win s. However , when t he re ch eckin g was done , an error in o ne race tabulation was corrected and Pacifi ca again achieved a two -point vic tory , this tim e by the sco re 24 -22. It all so un ds like a narrow vic to ry and it was. T he official co u nt results in the fact th at Pacifi ca took six overall vic to ries whil e .Garden Grove ach ieved only th ree. That in itself sh ows how strong Paci fica was, and is. However, with 28 members on the sq ua d, Pacifica outnumbered Garden Grove 's 15. T he runnerup made good use of its few teammates. Pa cifica, whic h o wns th e OCIR HSMX team record of 29 points, got on th e boards in th e seco nd even t with Greg Williams ta kin g the overal l victory in t he 100 Beginner . Before they sco red agai n, Garden Gr ove w as splurging. T ha t splurge came in the five divisi ons of 125 Beginners , Garden Gr ove's stro ng suit . Of the team 's 22 points, 20 ca me in 125 Beginner co mp et ition ! The Garden Grove drive was soon don e and Paci fica, behind by nine ca tch up. Ken t po in ts, played Haw ksw orth got four poin ts and an overa ll win in th e 12 5 Juniors and J eff Colli s adde d three m ore wit h a first place in 250 Beginner Division I. T he two te ams then drew even in th e 250 Begin ner Division II when Pacifica's Gr eg Williams took second for t wo points. The team totals read 20·2 0. The fm al confro ntat io n between the two schools cam e in the Open Beginner race and to show how tight th ey were, the overall tal ly ended in a tie with seven mota points each . Pat McBride go t the overall fo r Pacifica with a second in the final m ota .while Garden Grove's Philip Pratt had a third. That spelled the difference between a tie and th e two-point spread. Pacifica had taken the lead 23-22 and they added one more with Dan Burkhart's 250 Junior win in the last rac e of the night. Many of the Pacifica team metnbers left thinking they had won. But the school officials th at stayed were upset to hear they had lost in a narrow tie. Then came the official word Sunday when the resul ts were rechecked. All sho uld be happy for Pacifica co me the Trophy Awards night. • Results in Results Section.

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