Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• 1:1 ~ 4 •• ----------------------------- • Western _ themselves. Hailey and Reichart came from behind and pi cked riders off one by one. Reichart dived under McWhorter and Meyers, then Hailey followed suit. Gri gsby went on to a stunning victory, with Reichart and Hailey fin ishing seco nd and third. - E CRC/NMA finale / By Laszlo VA LENC[A, CAL., AU G . 26 CRC an d NMA ended their. Wednesday nigh t summer series before a fantastic turn out of both riders and spect ators. Dave Haugh (Above) Don Gri gsby (1) and Doug Hannon (22) at Perri s. (Below) Steve Griffit h (86) 125 Ex. winner at Elsinore. >Z o :I: et ::; Z et once again proved his dominance in t he 250 Ex pe r t cl ass by gra nd-slamm ing th e field. Hau gh led the entire first moto, with Dou g Renno and Rich Bland co mpeting the ' Maico sweep. Dave had a few problems off th e line in the second moto though, bottling himself up in traffic while Bland sped away from the field up in th e lead. It didn't last long, as Hau gh recl aimed the top spot after a little over three laps. The race kind o f dragged on after that point, looking more like an end uran ce even t t han a m otocross ra ce. Hau gh, Bland an d Renno finally claim ed the to p th ree overa ll posi t ions, a ft er th e i results were totaled. In 125 Exp ert action Bobby J on es let the overall win slip thr ough hi s h an ds late in th e sec o nd m oto. His p layful antics caused his downfall to seco nd when , wh ile sho wing off th e lea d he had built, h e fell off his bi ke. Tom Ryan swiftl y m otor ed by , taking the moto and overa ll victories wit h hi m. J on es still managed second wh ile Bob Ramsey plac ed third overall. The 125 Beginne r field wa s by far t he lar gest even t o f th e evening, featuring 28 rider s. Ro bbie Abe rna th y and Shawn Hu ghes split m oto win s but Hughes grahbed the overall with a 1-2 finish. Shawn barely edged o ut Steve Vin cze for th e first moto win after an intense four lap b attle for t he lead . Ab ern at hy , th e seco nd m oto winner, was hampered by a p oor start in th e first m oto which left him in the m iddle of the field. By the end of th e race , Robbie had moved up to ninth, but that was obviously not enough. Abernathy still placed ' t hird overall, nosing aut Eric Graves in fourth. Results in Results Se cti on. o and fifth places. In the end, Roberts advanced to second, Darling hung on to third, Rodney Brand (Hon) made a kamakazi run from mid pack to fourth. J im Lenieski once again pulled the holeshot in the 250 affair, after a re-start. A mishap on the first try took out three riders, including David Morris who had placed second in the first moto. Lenieski began to pull out a strong lead with Martin and Al Burluti filin g in behind. ,Scott Karl , Jim Lenieski, and . Robbie Brand were the top scores in the 250 class. Butch Darling claimed the 125 win , Ch elma Roberts was second, Joe Santich ranked third. . The next round of the series will be held at Hangtown on September 12. The top fifteen riders in each class after Hangtown will transfer directly to the national, to be held at Carlsbad, on the GP course in October. . ' Results in Results Section. Griffith & Smith steal Elsi TT By Andi Gangewer ELSIN O RE, CAL., AUG . 21 18 Due to Novices, had to Griffith, a small 125cc class, the Am at eurs, ' and Experts ride together and Steve the only Expert, was nomiriated to start on the jump. Ben Mey er lined up on the regular st arting lin e, and the remaining Novices were way ou t front on the first tum. Rick Blankenship took con trol of the ra ce with Steve Griffith right on hi s tail . La p I three , and one blink of an eye later, Blankenship was fo llo wing Steve Griffith. Ben Meyer also ro de a catc h up ra ce to fin ish third. Mo to two was an instant replay of the first go 'r ound but in the final moto Blankenship applied what he had learned from following an Expert around. Griffith was held up by traffic, and not until th e final lap cou ld h e make one last attempt at Meyer and Blankenship. Ben went . wide on the sweeper and Steve hung low long eno ugh to get h is wheel under Ben's. Steve set his sights on Blanken ship and o n the back sweeper set Rick up fo r the kill . Three wins entitled Griffith to the on e trophy. Gary Smith, a regular at' Elsinore, brought his not so regular 500 IT Yamaha out for the first tim e. Gary climbed aboard and took the bike for a ride in the Open Expert class and th ey took q uite a liking to each other. Gary jumped ou t front and left o nly his wake for Doug Han non and Billy Hicks, the second and third place rid ers, to foll ow in. Fo r the first time o n a 5 00 Gary could have fo oled an yone as he went on to win the two remaining races. Billy Hicks was the next closest man to Smith - and Doug Hannon followed in for third. Results in Re sults Section. Lightweights hold heavy point run By And i Gangewer Lawson cleans house at Corona By Elaine Jones .CORONA, CAL., AUG . 25 PERRIS, CAL., AUG . 22 The Lightweight's seco nd poin t run ran as sm ooth as silk. The big cro wd included so me Profession al Experts who wer e out to try th eir luck with the sportsman ride rs. Half of the 250 No vices, due to over-anxiousness, had to start on the second row which gave J oe Steffen an even better start. Steffen was steaming and from start to finish the race belonged to him. Jack Smith came on like gang busters to bull-do ze his way int o second but there was no stopping Joe as he chalked up an easy win. The Amateurs and Experts ro de together in the Open class and Don Frauenberger, a Perris Raceway veteran, took three firsts and the overall win. The 350-500cc Expert Main was 'th e final race of the af tern o o n , and what a finale it was. There was a two minute delay to start while Don T-Bone Grigsby made some qui ck repairs on his Yamaha. But he made the rac e, in fact, it looked like he inven ted it . T he lead was T-Bone's from the st art but second was up fo r grabs as McWhorter,' Meyers, Rex Hailey and Mark Reichart, all aboard Yamahas, juggled am o ng Eddie Lawson matched Rav Lovell's 250cc . single Yamah~ against som e pretty good 750cc boy s, took th em to th e cleaners, and set the fast time of the night in the Open Money Half-Mile. Vern Maxwell and AI Glover battled each other for the seco nd spot with Vern squeeking through in that on e. Minicycle rider Bobby Garabedian had a double win in the Min i Division I and, to add insult to injury, the m inis rurned the half-mile one second faster than the 250cc No vices. On t he half-mile Ken Mclntrie, after a four month layoff and obvious gearing problems, held off Mike Knoefler for secon d. They finished in the sam e order on the TT. Randy Heacl1 ey too k Division II Mini IT and Charlie Taylor got the nod on the half-mile. Terry' McCreery was the only other, double winner of the evening, leading the 125cc Am ateurs on a m er ry chase with his well tuned Kawa sak i. Brian Burch , brou ght home second in both, assisted by third place John Silva's seized engine. Vern Maxwell didn't run second to an ybody in the Open Expert Half-Mile

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