Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

...............................................................·.·.y.·.· · ·.·.·.·A· · ••••••• ·•·•·•••• · l'...............•••••••••, .. NORTHERN DATELINE for third place, kep t th em going . It was a brown cigarette paper th at sep arated them mo st o f the way but Mor ley repeated Martin 's performance and ju st edged o u t the smoo th riding Ferr is. When th e smoke h ad cleared, Martin was/ is the champ. Saly ers was second and Morl ey third. • Fossil Bowl(?) of MX By Jack Blevins CLARKIA ; IDAHO, S EPT . 12 A lo t of young businessmen showed up for th e $5 00 to win 125 race at Fossil Bowl motocro ss. During pract ice the specta- Multit ude of starting styl es at Hanford's Div. II Speedw ay Finals. Speedway Central Championship Final HANFORD, CAL., SEPT. 24 Hanford climaxed its '76 Division Two speedway season with the second annual state championship for the SRA Division Two cam- (Above) Ed Davis (95) out of shape but leading th e Fossil Bowl mob . (Below) Jack Martin is Speedway Central victor, flanked by Salye rs, mou stache-stroking Morley. paigners. T he all-Sc ra tch program was run in five -rounds of four heats each, and the action and suspense didn 't quit until after the final heat Sixteen top contenders from central and southern Cal ifornia's SRA ranks began the fireworks at the first gate when San Bernardino's Stan Flanders and Kurt Strom mer teamed up for a one-two finish dumping favorites Max Koemans and Brad Oxley. The rest of the round saw_T o m Ferris, Jack Martin an d Tom Morley begin a battle that went down to t he fi nal heat By halftime, ' h opes were already fading for Ox ley , Brian Buffington, and Steve Schlanser - they couldn't dia l in to the ,track. Flanders ate the turn two fence, cut his ' hand and bent his "m ach in e - Strommer missed a ' chance to score after breaking th e tape and Koemans h ad only rung up two points. Everyone else had a fighting chance go in g in to round four, bu t by the time the fm al rolled arou nd th e b attle was clearly fonned : Martin had a perfect score of 12 with one ride left in th e final Grant Sal yers had 13 with n o rides left and Tom Morley was in the sam e boat wi th 12. Ferris however, had 10 pain ts and wou ld m eet Martin in th e fmal heat. T here fore if Martin bl ew it the whole p ic tu re w ou ld change, forcing run-offs. Mart in an d Ferr is faced O xley and Buffin g ton who, th ou gh no longer in con te n tio n, had gotte n th eir ac t together so mewhat and figu red as "spoilers. " The ga te w en t up an d ' th e Ferr is/l\lartin duo go t cle ar o f the pack in th e ~first turn. From th cn on th ey staged a battle th at th e fan s will talk abo u t for yea rs. Ferr is n eeded the win, an d Martin was feelin g the pressure. On th e b eginnin g of lap tw o Martin ca me in too hard and Ferris go t under him. Mart in rec overed on th e ba ck st ra igh t and it was man on man for tw o laps, th en in exact ly the same spo t Martin aga in wen t a sh ade wide allo wing Ferris to take the initiative. Martin again u sed th e b ac k straigh t to re cover and with a su per human effort he found enough horsepower and tra ction to do a wheel-standin g fr ont s tra igh t drive that nailed Ferris by a wheel. The cro wd went nuts and a run off . _b~ween the.now-tied Ferris and Morley to rs go t a real cross-u p show over th e hi gh jump. The super 'fast riders in for the money were ridin g loose and showing off. On c e lined up for the start, however, tensions were ti ght as the ru bber snap line. Once off th e line, Ed Davis on a DG Honda grabbed the holeshot and maintained the lead the duration of the .m o to. Bill Joyce ridin g a CH p repared Honda rode ' number two spot co n stan tly close to David. A hard charge line through some at the fmish washboards netted him access to the fast line. However, the rough stuff left him at a stability disadvantage and Davis . made the corn er with au t the berm anyway, hanging in for a first They shook hands with ea ch other as they pulled into the off ramp. Pat J acobson rode number three sp o t while Gary Kuest, a Spokane rider wh o garnered the track points trophy for the season, settled ' for fourth in this mota. Fifth place Rick Gage really mixed it up with a total (1 suspect it's a track record) of 25 position ch anges. Ron Dimeo who knocked down first pl ace money out of the 52500 purse just one week before at Washougal had to settle for six th. Second moto saw WFO 's Racing Team Pat J acobson grab the holeshot briefly. The first turn off the starting line straightaway is an S curve. Jacobson had the fast au tside line on the beginning of the co m er. Trying to maintain his lead he swung in fr on t of the pack to use the au tside berm on the latter end of the S. It was a hell of a place to ge t tripped up. It loo ked like he never hit the ground till th e entire field cleared the comer. Apparently he figured he could us e the exercise as he jumped right back on his bike (with a little help) but the to ll .was ap p are nt on his Honda for it was missing some vital parts. WFO was screaming for five minu tes to ge t the bike repaired, Gary Racca had just discovered his hastily reassem bled DG replica was au t of time. This led to the de cision to run the Intermediates and let the down bikes have an extra 20 m inu te break for repairs. It's a n on affilia ted trac k so this was a personal de c ision of the management and it wa s a little con troversial. The m an ager deftly avoid ed th ree fist fights, the checkered flag m an nearly had h is flag disass embled. and a nurse, innocent byst ander in th e con trol tower, wa s verball y assa u lte d. We haven 't completely tr anslated the official protest Se cond m ota fin ally off saw Joyce grab th e holeshot and lead. Gary Racca who blew up in th e fir st m ota pu t in an o ld barrel and had to file down a third over ring to ge t well aga in . Ra cca Senior stated h e'd nev er see n an ything like th at before for the bike ran Iike . a wind storm, Rac ca with his DG Honda gra b bed third, then sec o nd an d twice go t a fron t tire ah ead of Joy ce on the insid e but would h ave h ad to cut him off, an d h e elec te d not to. Ridin g his tw o yea r old iron and retiming on the st arting lin e, it was definitely the bike and rid e of the day. 16 year y ou ng Ed Davis hung 'b ac k in third waiting to cap it alize on a very probable collision as the two lead bikes rode close, close the en tire mota. It never cam e. Gary Kkst and Rick Gage a ga i n con stan tly fought the moto for fourth and fifth spots. • '. . , . l ( j J J' I .' : • J ( I

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