Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.• ..... I II s E Th e trial was stage d near the Crow Inn (a waysid e spigot stop on lI ighway 2 1), drawing 45 rider s and a n ice group of spectators. Since everyone in Boise drives u p 21 on Sunday to " re create" at Lucky Pea k o r Ida ho City, a large group of trucks, vans and cars next to the road makes a lo t of people stop to see if there's been a gruesome accident . Passers-b y . often stay aro und a while once t hey discover tha t a bunch of fo lks on mo torcy cle are rid in g around quie tly and having fu n. The sec t ions laid out by Mar k and J o hn Corn and Nor ma n Wilson , Sr. and Jr. wer e challengi ng and n ot too scary. Men , women , boys and girls we re popping abou t w it h eq ua l ap lo m b . T he Crow Cu p is o ne in an eig h t part series of "cup" eve n ts put o n by the clu b . Ther e are no trans fer po ints at stake and th e pers on wi th the m ost "c up points " stand s ready to receive a su per cup fo r his (or her) cl ass. Th ere is also no minimum number o f riders req uired to make a class so everyo ne gets to shoot his be st sho t . The wh ole idea behind the cup series is to promote interest in tri als b y enco uraging new participants to give it a go in an at mosp here of friendlin ess rath er than knuckle-whitenin g co mpe tit ion . T he Am ateur clas s was presided o ver by Dwi ght Bowker wh o dabbed o nly three times to ace ou t Mark Corn and Mike Hollingsworth. The level of co mpe titio n is quite keen in this class. Bo w ker an d Corn Hollingsworth , gen erally place highl y whe never t hey meet. In the No vic e Division, De nn is Burrough wa s separated from sec ond pl ace man , George Batterman only by virt u e of his 21 cleans as opposed to Batterman 's 16. Trap designer Norman Wilson, Sr. had to beat his so n by one po int to slip into third. Class y J o anne Kerstein has be en getting so me co mpe tition lately from ladies like Katy Poole and Mary Strough but J o anne still managed to out-Cor a both of them for a win in the Powder Puff event. (They11 wan t~ to call it Person Puff b efore yo u kn o w it. ] A highlight o f the trial was the Big Bike class an d , although there were o nly two entrants, th e cro wd lov ed hear in g the thumpers. Classi c Bikes proprietor r Dick Rennstrom chugged around on a Mat ch less. The beautiful •vintage red-tanked m achine with the flyin g "M " o n it sounded like the mech anical nostalgia that it is an d Dick handled it well to outdistance Stan Gillil and o n his BSA. While not restrict ed to an tiq ue s, th e class is designed for machines ove r three hundred po unds and these day s (fortunately or unfortunat ely ), there aren't too many o f them in serv ice. • Porterville Spinners cloudy TT scrambles By Cosm ic Cat & CO, PORTERVILLE, CA L., FEB. 8 Af t er battlin g wheel to wheel with two riders, Mik e Ragan (Suz), finally disposed o f ' th e competition with a win in th e 125cc No vice cla ss he re at cloudy Porterville. Ragan was second o ff the start following fell ow Suz uki rider Ste ve McWilliams wh o lost the lead to Ragan in the sweeper on lap two. McWilliams th en lost second as Ro bert Oxford (H-D) seemed to co m e up from nowhere to get past then third runner Fra n k Schoenbachl er (lion ) an d McWilliams for second . Ox ford 's second po sition didn 't last long due to a fall o n th e last lap whi ch moved Sch oenbachl er in second and early leader McWilliams in third. Ragan , m issing all th e co m motio n beh in d him , jus t cru ise d. T he actio n was close and good during th e op eni ng lap s of the 360-500cc Junior run , but surprising ly the top three posit ion s never changed. \Vinning wire-to -wire was Yamaha-mounted Ricky Beals fo llowed by two other men Thump, thump, Dick Renstrom's got two, so far . . . Vintage trialin' in Idaho. who refused to swap posinons, Kirk Riden our (Yam) and Bobby Edgar (Bul) . Capturing do ub le wins today were Mike Garrison (Mini Expert and lOOcc Exp ert) and Scott Dinkins (l25cc and • 25 0cc Experts) . Argyll Park mudocross marred by fatal accident By Sallee H ilton DIXON, CAL., FE B. 8 When th e rains finally came to Northe rn California, Dix on 's clay typ e soil becam e tr each ero usly slip pe ry. The mot o c r oss track at Argy ll Par k, wi th tons o f sand and rice hu lls p lo wed in , was in far be tt er co nditio n than th e surrounding pit , pa r king and spec ta to r areas, bu t was none-the-less mudd y . The mud m ay or may not have co n trib u ted to caus e th e cras h in wh ich Rich Allred was injured. He died th at n ight in a Vallej o hos pi tal , of head injuries. The fatal crash occurred in the morning during the all No vice p or t io n of th e sp lit program . Most of the Expe rt s and Intermediates , arr iving after noon were unaware o f the serious accide n t th at had happened earlier, and went abo u t their racin g as usual. Ron Knarr (Ya m) took th e lead in th e firs t 12 5 Expert moto o n the seco nd lap whe n Dann y " Magoo " Chan dl er ( KT~I) slid ou t an d wen t d own. Knarr lo o ked good and hel d h is lead th rough o u t th e race. l\like Preston (Yam) missed the sta rt . lI e joine d the race at th e back of the pack a lap down . The second mota found Preston o n the line and ready to ma ke it all up. Come tta go t th e holesh ot, bu t Prest on too k over in the secon d lap , foll owed by Knarr, wh o h ad had a bad sta rt bu t was ted no time in mo ving up to second. He co uld n't ca tc h Pre st on . Cornetta took third and Wood fourth. Over all poin ts gave Knarr top ca sh with Cornetta second an d Wood third. l\Iark Hilton (Suz) was firs t off th e line in the 25 0 Expe rt fir st mot o wi th Pat Richter (KT M) righ t beh ind him and closing fast. lIi1ton slid o u t in th e muc k and moved back to fifth befo re th e first lap was ove r . By the time Ric h te r had sli d ou t fo ur times in · the co urse of th e race, ei ther go ing down o r kill ing his engine each t ime, Larry Rippenkroe ger (Kaw) had bui lt a p retty good lead . The rid ers were all so well disgui sed unde r a few inche s o f mud it was diffic ult to tell o ne fr om ano ther, and it took t he coope ra tio n o f th e riders themselves to get th e fin ish order straightened o ut. The second m o to start ed and Richter had an insta nt lead . lie go t way o ut fro n t before sli di ng o u t agai n and sta lling. The KTl\I had had eno ugh and Richter retired to the pits leavin \l Rippenkroe ger and Bill Rousch (Yam ) d icin g fo r th e front spot. Rippen kr oe ger wen t do wn and Rousch too k th e lead for a few lap s be fore he was ov er ta ken . This tim e Rippenkroeger stay ed up an d stayed in for the win . Only eigh t rid ers o f th e o rigina l 25 h ad fin ished th e second run ! • The Lodi mudder . almost By An n Carr LODI, CA L., FEB. I No ra in has hit California for weeks but Lodi l\1.C. was almos t force d to canc el tod ay 's ro ugh scrambles because of wet gro unds. Neighboring farmers , trying to co unterac t the seaso n's aridi ty , allowed irri g ation lin es to overfl o w; co nsequ en t ly , Lodi Bowl closely resembled its aff ect iona te nickname " t he ho le" - a muddy o ne . Thanks to so me tireless efforts by club members, their wives, and the loan of big eq uipm en t and personnel from the farm ers, disast er was averted and a slightly alt ered but tacky course greeted 20 4 co mpe t ito rs today . Mini ac tio n featured the co nt in ued domination by Jim Cunningham in both t he 80 an d Open Expert classes. In the Open Junior race , however, two new fac es emerged: l\Iodesto's Randy Camp and Pittsburgh 's Danny Hamm san dwiched around hard-riding l\Iark Silvas for trophies in their first Junior race . Probably the star of today's sportsman action wa s Clements Honda ace Mike Holland who outdrug everyone in a timed race across the tree tum mudhole, Mike beat out brother Jim's t ime b y 1/10 of a second 5 .6-5.7. This event occupied onlookers while the track was being disced. To prove his ride was no fluke Jim returned to heat his same competitor in the 125 Novice Main . Mario Perez and former mini No . One Brian Thompson fought over third with Mario the winner. Brian consoled himself by overwhelming the 250 Novices. Lodi hi-point man St eve Brandt exc h anged heat spots with Santa Clara's Phil Vitalie and took a good win in t he newly formed 360 scrambles class. Though riders failed to voice lo ud o bje ctions to the n ew format, most felt th e specta tor show, payoffs, and p oints wo u ld benefit from a return to the old 500 class. Former No . One Alan Yarrow enjoyed a rel axing win in the 500 class, thou gh, as Rick Woods an d Company cou ld not kee p up wit h the fleet rough tra c ker . • 23

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