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
TOP LEFT: Lee Pritchard 165y) leads 125 Expert mob through' Sprockets ' swerve. ABOVE LEFT: Dave 1371 Peters vs. Steve Fortune at Corona. RIGHT: Closest race at Sprockets with Jay Bales 1221 edging Brett Butterfield. 125 Experts. Bill Fancher (Hon) came back from a bad first moto start to end up second in the final for second overall and Steve Donovan (Hon) closed the door for third. • Results in Results Section. NMA Santa Claus GP By Rex Reese TRABUCO CYN. , CAL., DEC. 5 Jon-Jon Belisle, the NMA Grand National Champ, proved why , he's number one as he over.powered the rest of the .field in 20 the 9·11 year old Modified Junior cycle class here at Racing World. Jon-Jon, who attacked the rugged track with unmatched style, had lapped the rest , of the bunch at least twice by the time the checkered flag came out. And even though Belisle did take a dive in the dirt , there was nobody even close to catching him. Rudy Dickenson of R&D Racing Engines got himself la pped only once, but stuck in there to come in second. Micheal Knapp was third. Proceedings got underway at 9 a .rn. , about an hour later than originallyscheduled, but withthe 100 class lighting off the line, the final NMA race of the year finally got going. The majority of racers blasted out of a sandwash which funneled the pack on to a course which led everybody up and over , some of th e , meanest real estate in SoCa\. To begin with, there were rocks arid ruts, not to mention the ever- present possibility of going off the side of a hill and winding up in a patch of cactus (ouchl) . Fortunately, nobody wore any cactus home, but crashes and spills were numerous , and as it got windier and subsequently hotter around mid-day, • the dust got worse to compound the problem. Back in the pits and on the track, the Santa Claus GP was the debut of a head to head confrontation of the latest weapons of the mini wars. On both sides of the fence riders paraded their brand-new Yamaha YZs and Suzuki RMs , each one a contender for the throne of the 80cc class. Anybody stuck with a Honda (namely Jeff Ward, who is look ing around) was out of the picture. Gary Dircks took home the brass in the 12·16 year old 0·83cc Modified Expert class handily over Paul Emerson and Jeff Ward. Gary didn't , stop there, he also did it to A.J. Whiting and Paul Emerson (again) in the Stock Experts. It looked like Gary would do it one more time in the 100 Experts, but Lance Moorewood beat him out for the trophy . Jerry , Bagby rolled in third. The 100 Intermediates appeared to be the possession of Brian Jordan , but he was disqualified when it was discovered that he was an Expert - a definite no-no . Accordingly, everybody was moved up after the protest was resolved: Eddie Heddon was first, followed by Scott Johnson and Greg Fountain. Lance Moorewood came back to finish off a winning day by capturing the 125 Experts with Paul Emerson once again in the 'bridesmaid position and Bryan Myerscough third. • Results in Results Section. Minnig and Lawson collect dough By Elaine Jones CORONA , CAL., DEC . I Mike Minnig and Eddie Lawson took home the bucks Wednesday night as each collected wins in the Money goes, on Corona's Flat Track. Mike Minnig was off the line first on the TT with Steve Fortune second and Tidwell in third . Minnig had it all together but Fortune and Tidwell had a few things to work out and that altercation came to a head on the sixth lap when Tidwell went by to nail down the second spot. Steve had to settle for third . Eddie did his usual number on the Half Mile getting off on top and never looking back. Mike Tidwell riding a new Yamaha with a trick frame locked , into second with Mike Minnig third. They finished in that order. . Bob by Garabedian has played bridesmaid to a lot of riders but he took a back seat to no one as he topped Chris Gables in both the TT and Half Mile Mini Division 1. Roger Thompson claimed the Mini II TT from David King and Brad Roach and David turned the tables on Roger in the Half Mile to collect the gold. Mike Tidwell had no trouble winning vthe 125cc Amateur/Expert TT from Terry Singleton and Robert Pfetzing. Robert didn't event make the line as problems took him out early. Mike had to work for the win in the 250cc Expert Half Mile asit was Mike Minnig off first and he held on to it until the second to last lap before Mike "T" found the slot to get by. Dylan Neihart got a piece of the action too , holding Mike back for one lap earlier in the race. • Doubleday TT Scrambles at Sprockets Park By Cosmic Cat & CO. BAKERSFIELD, CAL. , NOV. 27-28 If you're gonna go , you might as well go out in style. This weekend's TT is suppose to be the last one held at Bakersfield's Sprockets Pa rk with the track reportedly being dug up for an a ll motocross format. So, with this being the " Last Chance TT," it was two straight days of double point D-35 hotshoeing around a fast, well prepared track. Entries for both days exceeded 600 . Saturday Wade Williams (H -D) showed that he may be a not-too-distant threat to the Juniors and Experts. The Super Novice today destroyed both of his mains in convincing style. Williams led the 125cc Novice main wire to wire outdistancing Robert Oxford (H -D) and Tony Oxford (H-D) in the .process. Williams .gra bbed the 250cc lead from Jimmy Deen (Yam) on lap two and wasted no tim e stretching his lead. Williams had a 20 bike length lead by the third lap and kept it that way to the checkers. Deen maintained his second slot and Darren Mitchell (Suz) zapped Robert Beverage (Yam) on the last lap for third. , Being in the right position at the right time paid off for Frank Adamo (Yam) in the 250cc Expert main . Adamo was closing- on leaders Scott Dinkins (Suz) and Jimmy Birkle (Yam) but it looked like Adamo had run out of laps for entering the sweeper of the last lap , Dinkins was still holding down the fron t spot and Birkle a close second. Leaving the final turn, Dinkins broke forcing Birkle to the outside in the process. Adamo saw what was going on and dropped to the inside to take the win with Birkle only inches away in second. Dinkins coasted to third . James Crisp proved he could get the job done by winning the 500cc Juniors with a comfortable margin. Paul Shafer (Yam) and Jim Rockwell (Yam) tossed the second spot back and forth a couple times with Shafer hanging on when it counted. Sunday Riders woke this morning finding the track sporting a "blue groove" after practice. The groove did have slick spots in some areas but most of the trackers reacted fa vorably to 'the new riding turf. Brian Yocum (Yam) took an early Mini Junior lead but it was ended two laps later when fast closing Nick DelRio (Yam) took the point and proceeded to the finish line. Kurtis Wilder closed on Yocum in the final laps but fell in the righthander giving Jack Alford third. Dennis Longacre (Yam) snatched the 200cc Junior lead from Rick Alford ( Ya m ) on the third lap following some close quarter dicing in ea rlier la ps. Alford stayed close and pressured Longacre and it paid off with Longacre going down on the last lap giving Alford the win . • ECRA Santa Claus Series MX Racing World By Rex Reese TRABUCO CYN. , CAL. , DEC. 4 Gary Graham (Hon) swept all three motos today to not only take his own 125 Intermediate · trophy, but the overall position as well, as he d id it to 125cc field of first beginners and novices; It contest, but one Novice, a combined day riders, was really no Scott Fulton