Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

front but t he winners were in the normal positions. Walter Humphries and his wife, Mikey, went over in 9.48 seconds on his Triumph. Gary Chandler was running nitro in his 750 Triumph. He tried it several years ago and flooded the bike. The pistons ended up on the ground under the bike, so ' he was a little more cautious and knowedgeable this time. The bike died on the line and he was seen pushing it backwards in gear to clean out the engine. It looked a little unusual to those who did not understand what he was doing. Jack Wilson, owner of Big D Cy cles, rode down to watch the Triumphs he tunes. It 's beginning to 100 k like the big bikes have more than their share of tro uble when he comes. Electrical troubles and bent shocks were some of t he things that p lagu ed them this time: Chandler was still feeling his bike out an d with th e troubles the rest of the big boys were having that let Will Al fordon his 360 Bul h ave a shot at the t op time. He set a t ime of 6.67 seconds on the firs t try an d that 's all it too k . Will was really sweating when the big Triumphs and Hondas tried. • Resultsin Results Section. \.0 r--. Ol \ .0 C'J lot ~ ..0 0 .... U .. 0 Midwest Regional Championship to Chuck Palmgren By Frank H. Harrison N o z Q ~ « Ga ry Bailey (187) t akes c harge, but Carl Zo rtman (18) put s an insid e move on that tumed him into State 250 Cham pion. SRAC 250 State Championship By Action, Oz BERTHOUD, COLO., OCT. 3 Carl Zortman (Yam) won the Colorado State Championship , event with a 1-3 day. Off the line second in the. first moto following ,. Gary Baile y (Kaw) who got the holeshot, Zortman quickly passed Bailey and began to stretch it O\1t. Off the lin e with a middle of the pack start was Gary Glasenapp (Bul ) who immediately threaded his way through the melee to begin his chase .for the brass ring. Not to be, though, as a pair of new shocks spit him off three times during the first moto , Jack Todd (Suz) rode as if on rails to turn a ' 2-5 day . Richard Dostal (Bul) had ., two 'fine, motos to pick up a third overall for his day. Glasenapp, who wanted 'this' event, (last year he'd h ad two flat tires or he'd have won it ) came back after il ;4lst fmish to take first convincingly in the second moto, He didn't rideashard and made those shocks work for 'him 'rat her than against him. But it was Zortman's day as he managed a third in tire 'secon d moto to win fir st overall and the 250 , State Championship. There Was, plenty : of action for this prestigious event and , riders like Greg Alley (Yam) andMike Meyer [Hus] put on a sh ow or-dicing that had the spectators going ' fo r it . , Missing from , the action was Wild , Bill Ferneyhough who wo n this -even t : last , year. , . The 125A Support class came off die line with a pileu p in th e . first turn. Getting thro ugh was Mike Loeffler (Suz) who decided to win, He had 'a great start. Why not! Mike did t his twice fo r the Support class to put to geth er the overall win. Albert Firestine (Yam) needed o ne more lap at the end or it might have been a different story. Jay Rice (Suz) picked up a third overall with a super good two m o tp s, nev".r really too far behind the top two: Boo Stichter and Rick MaGaha did their usual and kept everyone wat ching as they put on a dicing show to remind everyone how good they are. To make it more interesting for riders and fans, Bill Burgener laid the track out d ifferently from the w ay it is usually run and is to be congratulated for his efforts. Colorado's 250A class St ate Championship race, the Valley Dirt Riders who pu t it on and the riders themselves gave the whole event a touch of class. • Results in Results Section. Houston gets night lights By Mark Knowles HOUSTON, TEX., OCT. I Billed as 'the bigge st an d best night track in the U.S:, Rio Bravo opened their new motocross park. The first of a two day affair, over , $3,000 for the Experts an d multiple trophies for the Amateurs were offered. Although the Amateur turnout was heavy, the limelight was on the Expert Classes and Shaun Kelly stole the light in the 125 Expert class . Kelly (PK Hon) was -really ripping the new track apart, winning the first moto with co nsiderable ease. However, a crash in the 250 class set him aside the rest of the evening and put o ld pro Glen Johnson (Hon) into the win ning spot. Moto-Tex star J im m y Martin (FMF) h ustled d own fro m Dallas to co llect sec ond place cash with local Steve Schram m (Hon) finishing third. Penton Central's Ricky Kidd took t he 250 Expert class with his usual hard jamming style followed by Gary Wells (Hon) and Da ve Taylor (Bul) . Roger Brown mad e the long ride from New Braunfels worthwhile by winning the Open Expert class with Mark Pardue (Yam) in second. John Tutt (Suz) secured third with Bobby Guidry (Bul) back in fourth . • Results in Results Section. Alford on Whitney Hill By Diane Polley WHITNEY, TEX., OCT. 3 The Whitney Hill was really in fine shape, all 240 feet of it. Saturday some unknown people. decided to work over the top and boy! did they do a good job. In addition to filling in some rain ruts caused by recent he avy rains they' filled in the groove at the top and made the whole top half very loose. Sunday morning a little tractor work on the bottom half changed the line that everyone had picked out while practicing Saturday. Some of the riders were fussing about all that practice being for naught. In the end they agreed that the hill was in super shape and very challenging, • George Carlisle, who rides a 250 Cooper enduro bike, scored a surprise in the 250 Enduro Street class. He has just moved d own from Iowa and after riding in the Sportsman classes for a couple of mon ths realized that his bike fit the rules of the Enduro Street classes. On his first t ry he to pped the hill in 9.24 seconds and it was hard to imagine that he co uld go any fast er. He waited to take the last ri de on the secon d try until the rest o f the class had had their try at him . No on e could beat his ti me so decided to do a little Geo rge experimenting. He tried taking off in fou rt h gear and when the clock st op ped it read 8. 73 seconds. Just fo r a change the Texas Hillclimbers t hrew in a Buddy class with a prize of ten d ollars. Fourteen pairs signed u p. So me of the drivers sat on the tank, an d some put the passen ger in OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA., OCT. 3 "Sunday morning coming down" is a very apt expression at Oklahoma City, not only because of the annual partying that always goes on Saturday night, but this year the "dawn came up with thunder" and it was really coming down; Oklahoma wet stuff. Mid -morning saw bright clear sunshine however, and things at the track looked fast, and they were as both Bubba Rush and Mike Collins creamed Corky Keener 's May , 1976 track record of 24.72 by tieing a ,new one of 24.23. Darrel Hurst came up with a 24.24 and Amarillo's Bill Brown 24 .25. The Novice Main saw Ontari o, California's Eddie Lawson (Bul) fly into one followed by Ga dsden, turn Alabama's Lance Jones on his WKR (Yam) . Jones took the lead ill thestart of lap two as Mike Rhoads of Alma, (Bul) fought for third Michigan position., With Rhoads holding tremendous pressure on Jones, the duo pulled a tremendous gap between them and the rest of the pack, however, by the halfway Jones started st ret chin g his lead to a very comfortable first place with Lawson and Rhoads holding their second and third to the finish. Oklahoma favorite Brett Brady of Ada was quickest in the Junior Main followed .by Michael Parr of Independence , Missouri and Michigan's Garth Brow, however, by lap two Jackson, Michigan's Jeff Vilrninot picked off Brown and moved into third. Vilminot then started working hard on Parr as Brady held the lead in varying degrees of comfort . Brady then managed t o pull away as the second, third, and fourth place riders ran so close at ti mes it was hard t o tell how to call the po sit io n s. Vilminot finally cinched second and started m oving on Brady . In tu m four of the finish, the gra ndstand went wild as yo u could hav e almost thrown a blanket over Brady , Vilminot, Brow, and Parr in that order at the flag. It was alm ost like a small Nation al for the 10 la p Expert Main as half of ,the field was m ad e u p of fo rmer Nationa l winner s along ' w it h two former O klaho ma fair winners Steve Droste an d Mike Collins. The crowd was on its fee t at the start to see what they rarely get t o witness in these parts of the country ; an d t hey weren't disapp ointed either as Mik e Collins of Alb uquerque p ulled th e ' holeshot into the first tu rn fo llowed by

• Cover