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/126033
•._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.-._._._._._._._._._._._.=Western hotline ~ E Road racen at Willow got lots of starting practi ce with W!ERA's multi-heat race format. Sta rter fr om SCCA's Cal Club region scrambles clear as Open Cafe mob weaves off the line. W/ERA tries 'speedwat road racing at Willow By Lane Campbell WILLOW SPRINGS , CAL. FEB. 28-29 In its bid to build a constituency among Southern California's reluctant road racers, W/ERA tried something different in its two-day program ; lots of short heat races, run " w h a m - bam -t h a n kyou-Ma'am" (sorry Larry) speedway-style. It was two sets of three lap heats plus a "hooligan" Saturday, and another two sets of heats, plus a set of five -lap points races and another hooligan-handicap Sunday. Nobody complained about not getting enough riding; and the riders seemed to thrive on th e repeated quick starts . Jim Haberlin, Dave Breetwor, and a crew from Jag's British Cycle Works brought a brace of Triumph triples (a 750 and a bored-out 1000) to gobble up the lion's share of trophies between them in the bill-bore Production, Cafe and GP classes (a IOOOcc Triumph is Open Production???) . The threat of a lone TZ 750 in Open GP disappeared when its owner Mike Rohr, practicing on his 250 , slid out in tum nine Saturday, breaking his hand and taking Jeff Steele with him. J eff, who had just been telling people he 'd not spent more than S80 on his clean little TA-I25 last season, was understandably moody, though not at Rohr directly. "It could have happened to an ybody," he said. brought out his Dick Fuller Korb's-sponsored 250 mono and practiced, but didn 't run Sunda y , as the famous March winds o f Willow showed up a day early and made things somewhat zooey on the track. (T um nine sometimes vanished in a haze of dust.) Man y of those who did run were removing their fairings, as the side winds were enough to almost rip the bubbles away in some spots. One of these was Greg McKee on a TZ with his own jewel-perfect fibreglass bodywork who ran off from the 250 GP mob. The cliffhanger race was 500 GP, in which winner AI Collins and J eff Gerken almost dead-heated at the flnish of their points race . • straight in the 125 Junior-Expert. As usual, some of the heaviest racing of the da y went on in that class . Wayne Rainey 's engine seized in the first moto and he could only manage two fourths. Danny Perkins (Hon) led the second moto but T idwell dove under him in th e back section. Perkins then held off determined Steve Woskoski (Yam) who couldn't find an opening ' til the last half of the last lap . Rob Pfetzing was doing battle on his Y-Z motocrosser because his TT rig tied up the night before. - Three Novice classes got to run a progressive program, the 125, 250 and 500/Open. The advent of the Yammie 500TT is a shot in the arm to the big bike division. Open David Reinhardt (Yam) was another one plagued with seizure problems, which hurt sin ce he was leading at the time. Stan Kemp (Hon) and Larry Hedstrom (Yam) transferred direct leaving the rest of them to fight it out through the semi. Finally Stan Kemp led the main from start to finish, followed by Wayne Melanson (Yam), while Carl Pfetzing 0-37 TT at Elsinore By Mau reen Lee ELSINORE, CAL., FEB. 29 Marty Smith takes his FMF Honda t o t he limit at CMC Saddl eback MX. The Riders M.C. threw a terrific scrambles on their home track, and new scrambles steward Jim Bearup was much in evidence, selling numbers, overseeing things in general. - - Mike Tidwell (Yam) lived up to that number one plate by winning three Ed Oreschler (69) wrangled his Norton to a fourth at Elsinore 0-37 TT. w w oJ Z w w 10 "'-'- (Yam) , Russ English (Tri) and Mike McCauley managed to get together in the esses with no damage done (excep t to Carl's levis which became more daring than what is usually worn for racing) ! 125 Novice Jim Wright has reason to remember the rubber band start, he got hung up in it ; Jim Speigle (Yam) and Steve Griffith (Yam) each transferred direct. Jim Speigle won the main without too much trouble, although Steve Griffith was starting to catch up to second place man Jim Strain. Steve Loomis (Yam) worked his way through the mob of 150 Novices to win his heat and the main from start to finish, but as the flag fell, Steve Colford (Bul) was right on his rear wheel. Biggest bike in the Open Junior class was Ed Drechsler's Norton "street stock and geared" he told me. He was having the most fun keeping the big boomer right up there with the nimbler two strokes. Steve TInsley (Bul) won the class with a third and two firsts, while Yamaha-mounted Jim Redding got '" ;) c( -' ::E