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/126065
I III' Chermak YOU'RE E PAYING TRIPLE IIiulti-winn FOREVERYTHING ELSE: WHY NOT GET US FOR ATHIRD THE PRICE? • ~ John Chermak Yamahauled a load of tr ophies ho me fr om Willow Sp rings. , By Lane Cam pbe ll WILLOW SPRINGS, CAL., SEPT. 5 It was a light tu rnout, ev.en fo r .Willow , 'wh ich SoCal roadracers seem to shun in droves because it 's t o o far away ~ .d oesn 't h ave showI ONE Y EA R SUBSCRIPT ION 12.50 ,-----I I DEI'T. SU II. P.O . IIOX 498 LONG BEACI!. CA LI FORNIA 9 08 0 I CYCLE NEWS WEST (1 yr.) S12.50 CYCLE NEWS WEST (2 yrs.) . .• .. •. 22.00 CYCLE NEWS WEST (3 yrs.l 30 .00 Via 1st class mail tor on e ye ar 44 .~O Via air mail f or one year I ':;6 .5C This is a Renewal ...... .. .. .. . ..• ', . . . . . Please bill me .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. I encl ose check o r mcnevorder .' . . . . . . . . . . O· 0 0 0 I I D 0 0 0 I roo."...· ' ... ..'... I''' '' ' ..-,,,I ,o w h · ,' I I , 8' - - - - - C" v '".". .. ;: , ers - or something. For John Chermak on a trio o f Yamahas, and for Steve Mallonee on Mr. Jags' unflappable Triumph, it was an opportunity to enter lots of races, and walk away with lots of trophies. For Tony Murphy , it was a chance to get some track time on a co up le of projects ""7 a 125 Can-Am in a Bul frame fo r South African Tommy Crawford to ride (it seized ), and To n y's own TZ250 fr esh from a trip to Mack Kambayashi's . " I dynoed this thing ou t of the box ," T o ny said, "43 horsepower, not bad. Too k it and $40 0 to Mack, got it back, dynoed it again - 53 horsepower. Pretty good investment." In the process of checking it out, Tony ran and hid from the combined 350/500/0pen GP race ; and was in the process of doing the same, to the 2 50s ' when a tiny stone got to orie carb slid e and stuck it open. Chermak had brought his trusty 200, and a 350, raced all of them , an d got two trophies. He hid from the combined 250 Prod/125 GP crowd, but there weren't enough 250 Producers to make a class . The combined 50/100 GP, 125/200 Prod race was actually a better show, due to a race-lon g drafting swap meet bet ween Ch ermak (who 'd m ak e some unbelievable slingshot passes o n the outside of turn one lap after hlp) and 100 GP winner Jeff. Pasternak (o n his Yamaha-based " An gel," always managing to slipstream by on the fron t straight until a bobble on the uphill turn three cost him mom en tum. ) Good racing, but only a teaser for the 350s Prod bash, a three-way swapping duel between Chermak on a ' 74 -vin tage RD , Tom Hayner crouched like a bi g cat on his '75-vintage RD , and Chris Rank, who forced his way by early third place man Bill Henry only to leave the group abruptly in the closing laps by going over the banking off turn two. Hayner, with a 500 Prod win already to his credit, kept on repeatedly slingsho t ting Chermak until the last lap, started as a dead heat past' the white flag. Suddenly Hayner sat up, slowed. and coasted in second over Bill Henry, as apparently his bike had gone lean in the top part of the course. . Mallonee tucked away Open Production (over Lee Fleming, trying an unsupercharged Kaw for a change). big-bore Four Stroke GP by a mile, and Super Cafe likewise. Jan Mitchell rode a very strong 750 Kaw to win Cafe over Jan Gorak's protests that he hadn't u nderstood the muffler ru ling for the day. . Another strong (and loud) machine was the black screaming Honda ridden by Tom Ballantyne to win Under 600cc Four Stroke GP. Pushing hard in Super Cafe (the day 's last race) Tom also we nt up the banking off turn two and slid about 200 yards. shredding leathers and skin as he went. He and Chris Rank were both treated for their' hurts an d released the next day. John Glover rode a hot little Kaw single out of reach of the Yamahas in 125 GP, inherited 250 GP when Murphy dropped out, and even mounted Mr. Jags' old Norton to grab a ' sp uttering third in Open Production after hanging with Mallonee/ Fleming on hair alone in the early laps. An "almost ran" in big-bore Prod was the 750cc MV Ag usta o f Mr. Jags' graduate Jim Haberlin, but a two-bit part in the distributor shut · him down for the afternoon. Things like that can sure spoil the enjoyment of a . $6500 motorcycle. . . • Resu lts in Results Section.