Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; &1 _._._._._._._._._._~._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.- . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . - . Western hotline . Hillcli m b. In a re verse of th eir last year's finish, Ron wen t hom e with th e $ 120 0 and first pl ace, leavin g J im to set tle for $500 an d th e number t wo spot. Mac ke l co uld hardly be tagged a loser , with • th ird p lace an d a chec k for $200 . Resu lts in Re su lt s Sec tion . Smith wicks it for 250 win By Patti Trotter ORANG E. CAL., MAY 3 0 J ohn Smith aboard his new 250 RM wicked ' his 'way to his first CMC win sinc e returning to racing a fter knee surgery. The first moto Doug Hall shows his Bul a new version of the Hustle at De Anza Championship Climb. De Anza World Champ Hillclimb By Ann A. Powell SUNNYMEA D, CA L., MAY 23 Sh ow a hillclimber any hill and he'll jump to meet the challenge . Offer him from $100 to $1200 fo r being the fastest man over that hill and he'll go through an ythin g to get there. Th e fact that the last rain at De An za is well back in the history books, and the blazing sun 18 is very much at hand, meant t ha t the hill was at least t wo feet deep wi th lo ose powde r. But , James Mock , Inc. an d Vinso n and Thomas Construction Co. had pu t up a sizable purse and eve ry rider was willin g to give it a go. The first of th e fo ur classes to the line were the bikes rangi ng up to 125cc. This w as the o nly clas s that wo uld be run o ff co mpletely (each ri der getti ng tw o ru ns) o n a sep ara te hill. It 100ke d like the win wo uld go to o ne o f the you nger ri ders, Steve Stith, age 13 . He set the high mar k o n the first run, o nly to have it fall away t o Tom T urner's second ru n. Bo th St ith and Turner were Honda m ounted, and Turn er was t he tu ner for both bikes. First pl ace in this cla ss p aid $ I 00 , and y oung Steve p icked up $40 fo r second. The I 26·25 0cc b ike s bega n the ir runs and the crow d go t some id ea of how really tou gh this hill wa s going to be. The rider s had an off-camber run from th e st arting line, then over a jum p an d in t o powder that reached nearly t o the axl e. If the bike survived th at, and many didn 't, th e nex t obstacle was th e dog-legged turn. The lu cky ones missed the turn and veered left to whe re an acc ess ro ad had be en cut. The others went righ t . .. right down into a st eep gully th at required plenty o f muscle to ge t o u t of. Doug Hall managed to take his Bult aco up t o the 479 foot mark, just below th e clo cks wh ich were at 4 8 5 feet. Sin ce he ran earl y in the class, the cr o wd still had hopes of seeing someone go over the top. Those hopes dimmed rapidly as rider aft er rider fell well back of Hall's high mark. T he nex t class, bikes that ranged from 25 I-50 l ccs, was the biggest of the day. So me of the top names in had entered : Ron hillclimbing Standeven, Wes Evans, Dic k De Rosa and Kerry Peterson, tops as far as SoCal riders go, we re all in th is class. Ron True, J im True and Vin ce Bertolucci, all fro m Northe rn Cal ifo rnia, were making t hei r first ap pea ra nces of th e day . J im Stoddard and Mel Kimball led a large co n tinge ncy of Utah rid er s and so me were from as far away as In di an a and Tex as. Wes Evans be came the fi rst man to see th e t op o f the hill. He se t a time of 12 .99 seco nds. He was soon fo llo we d by so me o f the co mpetition , but the time to be at w as Evan s' 12. 39 in his second run, and no one quit e made it. T he cl osest was Kerry Peterson wi th a ti me o f 14 .09 seconds. The line u p in th e fo ur-st roke class ' was pre tt y much a repeat of th e 500 class. So me ne w n am es we re added; Jim Elle nberger , winner of the Op en class at the Wido wm aker, and Vince Vinson , second pl ace Open winner. J im and Ron True we re both entered . When yo u co nsider that the fast ti mes last year were well under 10 secon ds , to day's times were un impressive. Then ca me Neal Mac kel , King of the Matter h o rn . Bo th Ron and J im T rue had already m ade their first ru ns, and their mar ks were im pressive, 12.3 7 seconds for Ron . and 470 feet fo r J im . 'But Mac was rid in g in his home are a and the cro wd was ve ry part ia l. The p ress ure was on, bu t he wa s equal to t he chal lenge. He sped over th e top, se tti ng a new fast tim e of I \.9 5 sec o nds, t he fast est time of the even t. Everyone seemed sure th at Mackel had . th e big money in his pocket ... every on e ex cept th e True bro t hers. Ron made his second run, an unbelievable 10.85 seconds, and Mackel dropped to second. Then Jim ca me t o the line and set a time of 11.82 seco nds , enough to dr op Mac back anot he r st ep , but still not enough to overtake Ron . Mac was the last of the big three to run and he still had a cha nce to t ak e over the lead. But, this was a day fo r the T rues. Mackel m ad e his second run , but not only did he fail to b eat his ea rlier time , he didn't even get as high as th e clocks. The Trues were the big winners of the 1976 World Championship had John ge tting the holeshot with Jeff Jennings (Suz ) hot on his tail. Jennings took th e lead away from Smith at th e halfway mark and held on to it for the win. In the se cond moto J ennings led the pack down the . hill but he crashed soon after the first run and was out for the rest o f the race. Mike Tripes (DG) and John Smith (Su z) worked their way o u t to the lead and h ad their own race going as the rest of the riders were at least a quarter of a lap behind them. They diced it out for five laps until Smith gassed it out of th e scoring tower turn for the mota win. Smith took home the first pl ace money . The one-twa-fives were really o n the gas today. Bro c Glover (DG) got the ho lesho t and kept the lead all through t he first mota. Mik e Bell ( Fra) got th e sec o nd place po ints. The seco nd moto was a real crowd pleaser, th e racing was fast and furious . J eff J ennings (Suz) got out in front with Gl over no t to o far behin d hi m . J e ff gave u-p t he lead fo r t wo lap s only to pass Glover o n th e n jum p at th e fi ish lin e. The final poin ts fo r th e day went to Glover with Bell in second and Marty Mo ates (Ho n) ge tting th e th ird pl ace cash. Bill Rubly (Mai) . Marty Mo ates (Su z) and Val T amie tti (Mai] we re th e winners 'in the 500 Pro cl ass. Rubly took the lead early in both motos and never gave it up . • Results in Results Sect ion. Hooker cooks Irwindale By Tom Blattler IRWINDALE, CA L. , MAY 2 1 All th ree professional classes found new winners last week at Irwindale's weekl y CMC mot ocross program. J ohn At wo od (Ho n), Vin ce Van Hook (Mai) an d Gene Martin (Mai) to o k home th e top money from ea ch of th e cas h p aybac k di visions. Van Hook m ade his debu t at Irwindale ab oard a 250cc m ach in e an d the "Hooker " too k his Track n ' Travel Maico to an im p re ssive victory . In th e firs t mo ta Dave y Carlson (Mai) made it lo o k quite easy as he wal ke d away with th e win. Se cond went to Van Hook and third to Bill Chapin (Mai). Mo to two found Val T amietti rid ing his T rac k n ' Travel Maico to the win af te r battlin g with Van Ho o k and Jeff . Sloan (Su z) throughout most o f the five-lap even t. In the fin al moto Van Hook grab be d the lead on the opening lap and never looked back. Second in the final mota was Tamietti, who also pi cked up second overall, with third going to Chapin . 12 5 Pros and Irwi ndale's "stars" , David Taylor and Gary Denton, were not on. hand. Tay lor was out with a broken bike and Denton wa s injured. A gre at battle developed between Flying Factory rid ers Atwood, Machine Carl son, and Cliff Lett. In the fir st go. Atwood and Lett battled for th e lead before Carls on moved in to ch allen ge. However, Atwood was able to hold off Davey ri~ht at the checke red flag and take the win . In th e second m oto, At woo d agai n took the early lead with Carlson and Lett battling fo r second. This time, it was all At wood and John pick ed up his second straight win ove r Carlson and Lett. T he final round saw Atwood take the lead and claim his fir st clean sweep of the year at Irwindale . Carl son took second overall with Lett third. Consisten t riding paid off for 50 0 Pro Gene Martin as the Maico -mounted rider pl aced first, second, and third in the three five -lappers to claim the overall win. Second overall went t o Bob Elliott, who ca p tu re d two o f th e three races, but suffered b ike trouble in th e second m oto. Third overall went to an other Maico rider, Trent !\IcGee. • H agi returns for a clean sweep By Michael Sachs KAHUKU, HI ., MAY 23 Hagi Alexander (Mai] , Hawaii's top rider in both the 250 and 125 Expert classes, returned from Newp ort Beach, California to lead all three 250 Expert motos. Hagi had

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