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/126037
NORTHERN DATELINE z c( CI c( "' 0: >0: ' 0: "' CI >III en ... o to r a. Novice 125 traffic 'a ro und Ridgerunners' first turn, with Kirk Woods (30 going ouUide to an eventual third in Div. I. Me season opener Ridge Runners By Gerry Reagan WATSONVILLE, CAL., MAR. 14 The Ridge Runners Motorcycle Club of Santa Cruz opened their race season in style with the track in perfect condition and welI watered just before practice. The water hadn 't completely soaked in at a couple of places as the riders found out when they c am e flying over the announcing stand jump and landed in a quagmire, causing some be autiful flying W's, No 0.!K-was injured, First race off th e line was the combined Old Timers , 100 Novice and Women 's Division. In th e Old Timers it was AI "Doc" Baumann (Ya m) takin~ both motos while Lar ry WosicK (Yam) did the same in both motos of the 100 class . Nancy Thomas (Hus) ran aw ay from the other r iders in the Women 's Division, passing Doc Baumann for the overall win in the second moto when he blew a tum in the back section. Teri Wilkes (YZ) , riding in her last race before moving out of California, took second in both motos but was fought hard in the first moto by Debbie Hassler (Hon) who took third overall. The 125 Experts were off next with Danny " Mago o " Chandler (KTM) getting the holeshot in the first moto and easily leading all the way. Ron Self (KTM), in the first of three classes he rode that day, took second ' while Jeff Watts (Hus) and Mike "Neezer" Marquez (Hus) put on a good fight for third. Neezer got by Watts about a third of the way through the first moto but lost ground oui in the back section and ended up seven th o Charlie Halcorn, (Mon), just back from competing in the Florida Winter Series, took-fourth in the first moto. In the second moto Neezer got the early lead but was soon passed by Magoo who put on a great show on his wa to another win. Ron Self had a bad ' start in the second go around ' but worked his way up to third by the end of the moto to take second overall ' -' Sel f got off to a good lead in the first 250 Expert moto with Bob Grossi (Suz) and Brian jodry (Mon) not far behind: The three moved steadily away from the pack with Self holding his lead. Jodry spun out by the euclyptus tree but managed to get going before the fourth place rider caught him. That left only Self and ' Grossi out front as Grossi began to close. When they came down the hill for the white flag Grossi made his move an d got by as they headed into the tum, where they got a little close which caused Grossi to go down. He got going quickly and was able to hang on to second. The second moto was a repeat of the first with Self holding th e lead all the way and Grossi passing Jo~ for second with two laps to go. _ Ch arlie Halcomb (Hus) took the Open Expert clash wire to wire. Tom Rapp (Bul) held on to second while Floyd Davis (Su z) t ook th ird. There was a pileup in the first tum which left Gary Murphy (Hus) jumping up an d down, waving his arms frantically ' in the air as the other riders slowly picked their bikes off his . Gary managed to tear his way to his mount and get going again to move from a distant last to sixth by the end of the moto . In the second moto rRon Self (KTM) took the lead and began to pull away while Halcomb was relegated to fifth coming out of the first tum. Charlie wasn't pleased with that, and began to move up as the race progressed, taking second on the last lap and closing fast on Self as the checkered flag stopped his charge. Curt Wilcox (Yam) pulled a good holeshot -in the start of the first Open Novice but didn't shut down for the tum and went charging into the fence . In the Open Novice Division Two Tim Alarcon (Yam) easily won both motos finishing the last one a good 30 seconds ahead of the second place rider! Nancy Thomas, the winner of the Women's Division, also rode in the 250 Novice class, finishing eighth in a field of 24 riders. "Ya mean that was a (gulp) girl that passed me back there?" • _ _IIIIIIi Showmanship in Novice practice: the "O~s, after you, sir" minuet. Sunny Scrambles Sunday By R.D. Woods LA GRANGE, CAL., MARCH 7 After several weekends of blustery rains, Mother Nature relented and blessed..the ,W e s t s i d e Eagles, with sunny skies for .their scrambles. Ground conditions were excellent. jim'.Cunningham started the day off with a wire to wire win on his new 100cc Yamaha in the Open Mini Expert class and followed up later with another convincing win in the 80cc Mini Expert class. Soon after, Mike Hurst made a desparate effort to caputre his first ever win the 80cc Novice class as a present for his father who is in the hospital but failed in his bid to pass Shawn Walkingstick and had to settle for second. • 27 ....