Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ENORTHERN DATEUNE ~ t - Going for goodies - to p 125 Intermediate Mike Bonner at the Whit e Knuckler. White Knuckle Grand Prix By Sallee Hilton DIXON, CAL., SEPT 5 & 6 Even the notoriously "windy" Dixon cooperated with BO$s MX during the Fifth Annual White Knuckle National on Labor .Day 28 weekend. The two da ys of ra cin g at Argyll Park brought out 400 Sportsman riders, 108 Pros and over 1500 spectators. The $2400 purse for the Pros and about $600 worth of pri zes and contingencies for the Sportsmen gave plenty of incentive to the riders to give it their all. As part of the entertainment offered, Kid America and the Shooting Stars p erform ed "in concert " Sunday night for the benefit of those who took advantage of the free camping. The fully tricked out FMF equipped Honda was the Grand Prize pursued by the 12 5, 2 50 and Open Novices an d Intermediates. The Sportsman riders put in t wo grueling motos on Sunday, with th e th ird and final deciding moto being run Monday morning. Going in to Monday 's progr am there wer e seven riders with -t wo first place runs behind them, giving the race fans some super ex citing races to watch while the potential b ike winners made their final bid. After the third motos were completed there were four perfect score of three points so leading laps were counted for breaking the tie. On e of the four was disqualified for riding out of his class . The bike wen t to 15-year-old Dean Wiggins o f Santa Ros a. California who had ridden a Maico in the Open Intermediate class. With his three win s he had 15 leadin g lap s out of the possible 17. The second overall prize, an FMF engine kit and $ I 00 gift cer tific ate was won by Cole Newkirk, a No vice Honda rid er from Con cord. California, with 13 leadin g lap s. Third overall winner was 16'er Mario Perez (Yam) (with II leading laps) of Stockton, California, who go t a $6 0 gift certificate from FMF. Contingencies also went to top RM 250 rider Carl Black, top RM Open rider Robert Stone, top 125 Novice Cole Newkirk and top 125 Intermediate Mike Bonner. FMF was represen ted in fo rce with approximately $2000 in prizes, riders in nearly all classes and much of their equipment up for sale ! Being from Sou them California, the reps were somewhat su rp rised to see so me real Northern talent displayed agai ns t their riders, and even went so far as to pick up a Northern rider fo r their team : 16-year-old Expert Donny Cantaloupi from Stockton. Man y of th e guy s would have be en hard pressed to keep up with the girls in the Women 's Divisi on. As a m atter of fac t. many of the Open Novice riders found that out for themselves when Nancy Thomas ripped b y them on her Suzuki to take two third pl ace finishes and a fifth giving her the third overall, and may have done a lot better had she not broken her leg two days before this race which she rode with the cast! Nancy Thomas (or Nasty Nan, as she prefers to be calIed) overwhelmed the Women's race. although Sue Wood cam e pretty close to taking over a few times on her Honda. Dona Putney (Yam) and J an Parker (Hon) also pu t on a good show. Dona suffered a crash in the first moto which seemed to slow her down afterwards. Nasty Nan won-the moto by _ a good margin. and in the second m o ta . Sue Wood wo uldn't give up easily, although Nan is an Expert and Sue an In termediate, She gave her a good chase, so good in fact that Nancy waited for her to make up the few seconds distance in tending to give her the moto, and when Sue caught up she refused to accept the gift. Both of them parked right in front of th e confused finish flagman an d lap checkers with third place runner J an Parker co min g up on them. Th e tw o girls then joined hands and rode across the line to gether, real sp ortsm an sh ip! Th ey later refused to accept tr ophies. Th e Novi ce girls were way behind the one Expert an d three Intermediates but also put on a good race with Linda Clare (Suz ) ~e tting all three wins. Joy ce Ford (Hon) all three seconds. Ten-y ear-old Lynette Wosick (Yam ) h ad third overaII with a third, fourth and six th fini sh. Th e mo to cros si n g Doctor Al Baumann (KT M) r an away from the pack of 3 2 Old Timers and Veterans with abou t half a lap lead over the second man by the end of the race alI three runs! Between his motes, he could usually be found a t th e First Aid station assistin g and advising the National Motorcycle Patrol Dominatin g th e 250 Intermediate scene was Larry Wosick (Hus) riding hard and looking good. He won the first two motos with ease and was in contention for the FMF prize with 10 leading laps. In th e thrid moto he was again out front when his chain broke. leavin g him to make the lon g walk for a push-across finish and 16th place. He still managed a six th overall, and was turned Expert by the referee. He immediate ly forked over the Pro entry fee. and was ba ck later to pu t on a good race with th e be st of the best. He had a ninth place finish in his qu alifier and took the 10th overall in the 250 Pro class ! With 50 250 Pro s signed up it was ne cessary to run qualifier heats of 25 each, tr ansferrin g 15, and a co nsolati on rac e transferring 10 for a total of 40 in th e final motos. The sign-up sheet read lik e a "Who's Who " of Motocross! As the first qu al ifier roared off the line for the 10 minute run, Pat Rich ter (KRM) pulled out front and kept on gassin ' while Bob Elliott (Suz) chased. Elliott was followed most of the way by Greg Robertson (Ossa) although Allen Berluti kept his Husky in third for a time. The second qualifier was on the line, tension building. Several riders kept leaning a little too hard on the rubberband and the line judge put a stop to that by picking the worst offender to make an example of. Mike Hersman was the one unlucky enough to be placed on the starting line backwards! In spite of the extreme disadvantage, he qualified in 13th position. When the race finally go t u nderway Mark Hilton (Suz) had the h oles hot, held ou t through the first turn, over the first jump and arou nd t he first sweeper bu t then found him self fighting for second after Hal Strauss (Mai) went by and he had Marty Moates (RM) to contend with . After some dicing Moates wen t on by, and kept going to take over first place, leaving Strauss second and Hilton third at the finish, The 125 Pros were next up and right o ff the line a terrific race was going with

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