Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

chance to try , jeff was out of the race with a broken chain. It was n ow a race to see if Han n ah could ge t his water p um per around the Na tio nal Cha mpion for the le ad . Kicking the ba ck end of the Yamaha out in the turns and tu c kin g in behind the radiator on the bumpy back straight, Bob hounded Marty 's rear fender for not more th an a lap before blasting by Marty and taking the lead. Half a lap later Marty pulled off to th e side o f th e track with a burned crankshalf and a clutch assembly th at tried to find its way thru the Honda 's sidecover. Hurricane Han n ah easil v co n tinned to pull away with his lead right up to the chec kere d flag. On th e straights his water p umper proved to be no faster than the other bikes, but ratherit was Bob 's skill in diving into the turns deeper amid so me pretty hairy handlebar slapping and ho lding it on fu rthe r in the rough stuff. " [ felt ragged ," said Bob , "bou ncing allover th e pl ace." But it h ardl y kept h im fro m mo ving up fro m 38 th place. Billy Gro ssi moved up as well fro m the secon d tum crash to tak e secon d be hind Hurrican e, des p ite t he fact his Suz u ki was seiz ing o ff an d o n durin g the race. McDou gal he ld o n for t hird place , foll owed by Reid, Kessler , Wise , Savitski an d Ron T urn er . Yamah a 's Dan ny T urn er had the pe tcock falloff his fuel tan k an d ran ou t of gas. Danny La Po rte b ro ught his Suz u ki in nin th wi th a fo otp eg st uck in the up position. Moto Two The mu dhole w as reworked for the second mo to and everyone got a good start as " Killer" Don Kudalski nailed down the lead with his F!\IF-Team Ho nda Elsinore. The field so rted out behind him and by the fourth lap Marty Moates from San Diego on a Rl\[ Su zuki held second p osition a head of Marty Smith, Grossi, 16 year old jennings, Kessler and Hann ah . Fo ur m ore laps and bo th Smith an d Grossi had gotten around Mo ates, and Han nah had moved up as wel l to join. them as th ey set out in pursuit of Kudalski. The three of them cl osed o n Kudal ski and for th e next 10 min ut es they left knobb y prints o f eac h o the r's fenders as Don st ill held o n to h is fro n t posit ion . Aro u nd th e. hal fway p oint in the mot a he slowed up an d let Smith . Grossi an d Hannah o n by ... "I go t so ne rvous, th at I jus t wan ted to pl ay it safe and slow ed down . [ did n' t want to take th e ch an ce of falling," Don said af terw ards. Two laps after Kudalski dropped back, Hannah worked his wa y aro und Grossi for goo d and bega n pressuring Smith. An other two laps and Bob had the lead permanently for the second time in the da y , Marty stayed some 20 feet behind Bob right to the chec kered flag. Billy Grossi m aintained his th ird p lace easil y , and with it the Bea r lat ched o nto se cond overall fo r the day be hind th e Hur rican e. Following in fou rt h pl ace for th e mo to w a s Ku dalski, then Mic key Kessler o n th e new factory Kawasak i bi ke , Moates, Wise and Dan Turne r. Bob su m me d up th e mo ta o n th e Bill Buchka tu ned wo r ks Ya mah a wh ich has proven to b e ultra reliable - "It was reall y a cl ose one. Marty made a little mistake an d I go t around him . [ thought he m igh t pass m e back, but he didn 't. " Claim ing the water pumper Fifteen min u tes after Bob Han nah pulled into the p its with his win of the second moro, Al\[A National Motocross Referee Chuck McCall wa lked over to the Yamah a p it area and impounded Bob's win ning number 39 works Yamaha. What had been feared in m o t ocro ss, and has happened in other types of m otorcycle racing, was finally taking pl ace . According to Al\[A rules , any rider in the race co uld claim any o t her rider' s bike. The go ing p rice fo r the 125cc motocrosser was S2,000. _ The rider wh o had made th e claim on the bik e was j\[ickey Boon e, a rid er wh o had last year been semi-sponso red by Honda on produ ct ion Elsin ores, an d had te rm ina ted the sponsorship himself when Honda wouldn 't let him h ave the us e o f their RC factory bikes. Hon da felt he wasn't fast en ough to warrant th eir letting him race an RC. Bo on e wa s of th e opini on th at he, as well as many o the r independent riders , c ou ld co mpete wi th the fac tory riders if the y had equal equipmen t. As Mickey 's fa th er co m men ted , "Factory's should be req uired to sell 200 o r more ex amples of a bik e to the general public before th e bike can be eligible to ra ce . The present syst em of letting the factories use ex o t ic works bikes isn 't fair to the independent. " Boone was out to prove a point . lie said he would have chosen either the Honda RC or Suz uki RA [25 cc works bikes just as easily , b u t sin gled o u t the Yamah a because it h ad won. It did n't matt er to h im that he 'd never be ab le to race the bi ke be cause Yamah a wo uld n ' t se ll him pa rts for it , and nothin g on t he bike was in ter changable wit h a produ ction YZ. Besides, he woul d loo k prett y fo olish is he race d th e bi ke and di dn't win . Two minutes before th e 3D-m in ute clai ming period ended , Bo b Han n ah r an up an d put in h is o wn cla im o n the Yamaha owned bi ke. A team man ger fro m one of the other facto ry teams p ut up the money for Hannah 's bid. "That 's my bike!" exclaimed Bob . HIt's set up just right for me , No one else co u ld ride it, and I don 't wan t to see it destroyed!" The app rehe nsion clouded his face which was still red and d irty from winning the race . Chuck l\IcCall pla ced th e num bers used for drawing startin g po siti on s in a co ffee can , and th en held it in his han d over his head. Bo th Mick ey and Bob would draw numbers. The rider who d rew the hi ghes t number co uld pi ck up a real bar gain for 52,0 00; a factory prot otype works bi ke with handbuilt fra me , du al sp ring alloy m on o shock suspensio n, wate rc ool e d engi ne with intern ally c ran kssha ft driven water pump . The fro nt forks alo ne were worth m ore th an 53 ,0 00. Both Mick ey and Bob re ached high in to the air and dipped their han ds in the coffe e can . l\[ick ey drew o ut a slip of p ape r with the number 4 2 marked o n it , Bob drew ou t number 4 7. Hannah had just bought himself a Yamah a. St ill , the matter was o nly settled until next week 's race. Who 's bike would be n ex t ? Marty Smith's RC 12 5 ? Tony D.'s RH 250 ? jimmy Weinert 's KX 400 ? We aske d Yamaha Racing Te am Manager Pet e Schi ck how he felt abo u t the whole claiming situation .. . "Works bikes are highly experimen ta l items. We need them fo r developmen t to improve the products we sel l. The clai m ing rul e is needed , though; fo r the benefit of the privateer. We need to raise the p rices in th e clai ming ru le , because eve n m ost . th e the privateers have m o re than $2,000 invest ed in a • co mpe tit ive race bi ke." . Results 12 5 N AT IONAL: 1. Bob Hannah ( 1 ,1 ) Ya m. 2 . Billy Gross i (2 .3 ) Su z. 3. Ste ve Wise (6, 7 ) H o n. 4 . Wa rre n Rei d (4.10) Hon. S. Bruce M cD ougal ( 3, 1 3) V am. 6. Ron Tu rn er ( 8 .9 ) Han. 7. Do n K Udalsk l (1 5,4 ) Han . 8. Joh n sav itsk l (7.12 ) C ·A, 9. Broc G lover (5, 14) Han . 10. Dan ny LaPo rt e (.1 1) Suz. 1 1. Gene M c Ka y (1 0 .15) V am . 1 2. M arty M oa tes (21,6) Suz . 13. Mike Whant on (1 2 , 17 1 Suz. 14. Steve Ab t . (13,22 ) H a n. 15 . R ch ard M adole (1 6.20 ) Han. 16. Jo hn Racln ( 18, 19) V am . 17. Mickey Kessler ( 3 3.5 ) Kaw. 18. William Joyce (11 ,27) cne. 19. Marty Sm it h (4 0 .2) H an . 2 0. Monty Mo hler (22 ,21) C-A. 5 0 0 SUPPO RT : 1. Bo b Rutter (1 2/ Bu l. 2. John Kelley (4,3) Yam. 3. Dav id EI is ( 8,1) Vam. 4. Rick Walsworth (7 .4 ) Pen. 5. Ke lvin Travis (9,6) B ul. 6. Bill M oyer (11,5 ) Mai. 7. Jay C lar k (6 .13) Yam. 8 . Scott Brown (12,9) Suz . 9 . Mar k Johnson (10,11) Hu~ 10. Wes Patterson (3 ,20) Suz. OUf chrome fits as good as it looks. . If you've ever had to bend, fold, spindle orotherwisemutilate a shiny piece of chrome to get it to fit your bike, you know allthat glitters isn't gold. , Thafs why Y amaha designs quick bolt-on chrome accessories to specifica lly fit Y amaha motorcycles. For instance, if you've got a RD 350, model ACC-11110-05-00 luggage rack isthe perfect fit. And ACC-11110-06-01 back rest ACC-111 10-07-00 front safe1y bat and soon. We usethe higheststandards in the business. A dual nickel-plating process.Rustresistant qualitytubing. Double tubing in high stress areas. Brazing instead of arc welding. And little touc hes like an exclusive black vinyl inlay on luggage carriers, Then we test everything to make sure there won't be any problem down the road. Sure, our chrome accessories may cost a little more, But if you didn't appreciate the best you wouldn't be riding a Yamaha, Ask yourlocal Yamaha dealer forthe Y.P.D.!. chrome occes-' sories made justtor your particular Yamaha, Parts Distributors, Inc. 6610 Orangelhorpe Ave. • Buena Par1<. C A 90620 13

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