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/126045
o n to th e fro nt straight and land wi th a The do uble bou nce every ti me. sparkplugs loo ked like they belonged in the Spruce Goose . The Expert Main d idn ' t turn out the way people expected. Willie Hockie roared out front like a scalded cat. Feets Minert, who naturally wasn't asleep at the switch, was gaining just a tiny bit OJ; the fleet Hockie when his Beezer just stopped (bringing back all the tales oi what BSA rea lly stands for) an d it was Willie's race. Gene Smith suffered th woes of racing. A fellow rider unloaded in tum one and by the time Gene had avoided him the pack was over the hills and far away . So, Willie Hockie's name goes o n one of the silver trop hies. J ay Wahls unloaded in his class but didn't lose his ciga r . The rides Larry Bird and his Triumph cub put in , hass ling Rick Marquis and leaving m ore sophisticated equip ment in the dust, were something else . The Lost Angels obvio us ly survived the ir fu n ru n as they were there , God lo ve 'e m , in full fo rce . So nny Nutter and Scott Sivedge gave John R. so me co mpetit io n in his class bu t J o h n had a bad day an d wasrr'twith it. Sonny and Sco tt h ave too m uch goi ng for t he m in their professional life to ge t ove r-enthusiastic an d b low it all in a dirt race, bu t were th e y h aving fu n! Ch uck Wheat's ride in tha t class to a second in the main was really tremendo us . He's got all the ta lent in the world going for him but p refers not to go the pro route. Lana Paige Smith came out and put in a couple of laps. Ten years ago Lana first rode her Triumph TT special at Perris and gladdened the hearts of the male racers when her blouse came open. Dick Morley gets ready t~ romp around Perris on his 1926 JD Harley while Clyde Earl gently rests his primo Matchless. lhose- Dirt Diggin' Dinosaurs By Maureen Lee PERRIS, CAL, l\IA Y 2 Whenever the Dirt Diggers throw a race they really try to do things up right. They provided spectators with an announcer and the nag that napped proudly fro m the pole once new over the nation 's capitol. It was a nifty day with all those loverly four-strokes romping around until 6:30 p.m , 8 The mood was set early when one large gentleman rum bled by, on an equally large Norton, his red shirt bearing the legend "Two Strokes Suck". We were standing by the mo b wai ting to go o ut for practice, knee deep in 500TT Yamahas, bu t t he true Din osau rs were the re: T om Sau te r's AJS with th e Un io n J ack on th e tan k, Ed die Muld er 's Triumph (ye p, "Squirrel" was the re) was ' painte d li kewis e. Th ere wa s a simp ly go rgeous Matchless plus a few pro u d ' old wa r hor ses like Barn ey Koogle 's. The oldes t Dinosaur had to be Dick Morley's 1926 J D (t ha t's a Harley to yo u two -stro ke freaks) an d by Go d , he ro de it in the Open Novice heat an d semi. Dick wo ul d come out of t he ho le Ray Tanner was there. If your first four stroke is a new 500 TT Yamaha may be you don't know the na me, but he was National TT champion, King of Catalina and blew all of them off in the Big Bear. Today Ray wears the plumbing in his arm that co mes with havin g to hoo k up t o a kidney dialysis mach ine w ith great regulari ty b ut , when his kind of bi kes are running, he be lo ngs out there with his trust y Triumph, if only for a few lap s. Last year people donated and t he Diggers bo ught three b eau tiful silver cu p s to p erpetuate t he n am es of people who love the big fo urs, there 's o ne for t he 350, 500 and Ope n Expert classes to be hel d by the winner fo r o ne year. This year the trophies go to Mike Myers (50 0cc) and Ric k Marquis (35 0) . As this is a Din osaur race we'll call that the 2 1" class . . . Nex t year, the Diggers say, it'll be mail entry on ly. The sign-up booth lines were so long it looked like you were getting so mething free. Every rid er, winner or not, went home with the traditional Dinosaur race p laque with a bent valve embossed DDMC 1976 Dinosaur. If you were there you Can groove on the memories, if you weren 't , come next year. • Results in Results Section. The hackers were out in force to join the old ies but good ies annual trek to the Dirt Diggers Dinosaur run.