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/126079
-B obby Kline wins AMEPlate By Lee Taylor .VALENC IA , CAL.. DEC. 3 In the 125 Pro class, Bob Kline took the lead in his first moto , fighting to hold back Bo b by Jones and Willy Simons. Willy had a bad stroke of luck when halfway through the first moto, his hub broke in half sett ing him wa y back to seventh. When the second moto came around Willy was back in shape and rarin' 10 go. This was his last chance at the Number One plate for the season and he knew it. There was an unreal battle between Silly Simons and Bobby Jones for first. Bob Kline was giving it all he ha d to take second from Bob by Jones . Bob Kline went d own but recovered in time to hold on to third . The tension throughout this race was unbelievable, th rougho ut the crowd as we ll as the riders . The checke red waved Bobby Jones home with a first overall , Bob Kline wit h a seco nd and third goi ng 10 Mark Boren . Bob Kline had to settle for second but hs b rilli ant riding throughout the season brought him to the Numb I plate in the 125 -er Pro class for the new season , $500 in his poc ket and the best wishes of his • fellow riders and friends . Results in Results Section. Last and best Hillclimb for '76 By Ann A . Powe!l SUNNYMEAD. CAL. , DEC . 12 It was the last hillclimb of 1976 , and DeAnza Cycle Park had a nnounced that it had a hill no one could top. In fact, Doug Hall , It's amazing the kind of situation you can find yourself in at AMC Saddleback's $1,000 MX. AMC$l,OOO Stewart Rogers Last IT of the'ye~r draws tops pros ices AME Dunes By Maureen Lee By Jody Weisel' By Lee Taylor IRVINE, CA L. . DEC . 12 18 VALENCIA . CAL. , DEC . 12 Rad ica l Ro n T urner showed up at AMC Sadd leback with a 125 , 250 and Open class equipment and went hom broke. Jeff Jen· The 250 and O pen Intermed iate race had tobe one of the best of the day. For the 250 's, in the first moto , Scott Morgan broke nings brought two bikes and announced that this was to be his last 125 race for a while as he int ends to concentrate on the big bikes. Broc Glover and a herd of Japanese onlookers rooted for a Yamaha victory . Mid-Valley's Ossa tam of Moates and .Robertso n put in th eir normal team racing heroics while th e regular cast of fast characters Vidic, Rubly. John Smith and Tim Lunde all made the racing worthwhile. . Warren Reid (Hon) took a hard fought 125 Pro win when Ra dica l Ron T urner spun out while lead ing the first moto and knocked Broc Glover down . The second moto was . Reid 's when Glover kno cked himself down . Third went 10 Pete Wa nket. . Jeff Jennings ca me back 10 take the 250 Pro class after Ro n T urne r ran awa y with the first moto . Jennings' 3-1 beat John Smith's . 5-2 a nd Greg Robertson's 2·5 . Ra dica l Ron missed out again.- Ron T urner again led th e Open Pro contingent only to succumb to the rigors of racing. while Jeff Vidic went 1-2 ahead of Tim Lunde and Ra ndy Berkely. • awa y and set up a nice lead for himself. He had Eddie Armstrong and J ohn Marsh to contend with and th ey were putting the pressure on . Then Scott went down and fell ba ck to fourth place. John Lovett took over first with Eddie Armstrong and John Marsh doing some fantastic di cing between the two of them. In the second moto Scott Morgan was back and ready for another go at it. And go he did . For another 30 minutes in and out of the-sand wash , taking first a nd holding it all around the track . John Lovett was fighting ha rd to take Scott but couldn't get by him . H is persistence paid off, however. for he took a well-deserved first overa ll. " For the Open [ntermediates the ra ce was betw een Ste ve Rya n and Stew art Rog ers. - All through the fir st moto .. Steve Rya n was on Stewart's ta il trying to take his lead away from him. In the second moto Stewart Roger took the lead again and managed to hold it. Steve had trou ble in spite -o f a beautiful ride and had to dnf leaving the first 10 Stewart for a beautiful ride. Results in Resul ts Section. EL SINO RE, CA L. , DEC 12 The District 37 TT racers gathered at Elsinore Sunday for the last race of the Bicen ten nial Year. . Pet e Ha~es won th e mini class , fighting off determined cha llenges from Bobby Garabedian a nd Mik e Redding, whil e Cu rt is Cannon a nd Rod Ra iney managed 10 tie for fou rth. In th e 125 Am at eur-Expert Mike Tidwell did it aga in with th ree straight but - eac h time it was an Am a teu r lea ding for a whil e . Com e th e 250 Main . Eddi e Beeson an d Jeff Sp ringman came off the lin e side by side. Ti dwell was right th er e -an d got by Springm an , but Bee on was s not to be ca ught. Two riders decided to sha re a bike just for th e practi ce b ut wer e , of co u rse dis qua lified whil e th oroughl y enjoying th em selves. Edd ie Lawso n sha red a 750 Yammie with Dvlan Neihardt who rode it in th e N o'vice class. Eddie won the Op en Exp ert class with three straight foll owed home by Steve Fortune and Bob Sanders. Only " pu re sportsman" in th e group was Ed Drechs ler who ca me in third over -a ll and wou ld you believe , th e seat ca me off his Norton -again ? Second round it was Sanders in the lead finding a groove he was happy with on a gr oovel ess track , but Lawson found a better one and zapped on by. . operalOr of DeAnza , was so confident that his new hill was untoppable that he offered a $100 reward t the first hot shoe who pro ved him wrong. ' Nearly 100 riders came out to pic k up a bi t of extra Christmas cas h , but a lm ost none of them could even reach the 200 foot mark. Hall felt pretty sec ure in putting his check boo k back into his pocket. For qu ite awhile it looked like the high point was reached when Ron Thompson , from Ventura, took his highly modified 500cc Yamaha up to the_225 foot marker. Even the Open class riders failed to m easu re up . Ron True, one of th e top men in his field , came close with a first mark of 220 feet , but that wasn 't enough. Even Cliff Lamb . mounted on an 1800cc Harley, the biggest bike in the event, only ' set a d isappointing high of 145 feet. During round two of the competition . True got his big Harley up 10 th e 240 mark , a new high . and what looked like the winning run of the day. But, Neal Mackel was still in contention , and he had beaten True out of several wins in th e past , and no one would count him out until the last run had been made. . Mackel sat on th e starting log for a long time. He twisted the throttle on his big T ri , tested the power ba nd, listened to th e engi ne roar. Then he was off. The big bike twisted and tu rned , bounced from side to side, . over ruts , roots and pucker bus hes. It went higher and hig her , hidden in a clo ud of flying ro cks and dust. Fina lly the engine stoppe d , but no one could see where Mac had rea ched. the dust was too thick. The scorer on the hi ll battled upward through the dust. and when it settled . the score was flashed to the crowd. The bike had halted