Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

DESERT • •I.i •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Tom Brooks wi Larry Roeseler. sholNn here crossing a rare desert stream. finished more than 20 minutes ahead of everybody save Balentine. but was five minutes behind Brooks . CALI FORNI A CITY , CAL. ,JAN. 2 By Dale Brown Tom Brooks (400 KTM) won the Pennzoill DRA "20 Mule Team Parkway 200. " As has been his style for several past races , Brooks led the 165-mile event for the duration. 20 Ra ins dampened the 4I.2-mile course to th e poi nt that it was virt ually dustless. Since the lead at the smokebomb was thus a less precious com modity, Tom picked it up at that point. Seven miles into the course. racers went down a large .down hill. Behind Brooks at th at point were : Larry Roeseler (390 Hus). Bob Balentine (400 KTM), Mark Zoller (250 Yam), Tom Kelly (250 KTM) and Cordis Br ook s (250 Bu l) . Bet ween the down hill and th e point where th e course hit the pavement a couple of miles from the finish area , Zoller dropped ou t a nd Co rd is Brooks d ropped back. Ba len ti ne was moving up on Roeseler (who said he was geared too low) on th e paveme nt when Bob seized, sending him into a maneuver worthy of top-caliber speedway riders before pulling in the clutch. Kelly got p ast Bob there and past Roesler as well when the latter highsided in a ditch right after the pavement ended. The. first loop ended with Tom Brooks holding a substantial lead over Kelly, Bale ntine and Roeseler , these three staying fairly close together. AI Baker (410 Hon), Bill Saltzman (400 KTM) and Phil Stumbo (400 KTM) came through in a pack for fifth through seventh. But Stumbo had already seized once, and he seized again twice , coming to a halt. Baker and Sal tzm an continued to duel; a duel that would last through the rest of the race. Brooks continued to maintain his lead on the second loop, while . Roeselermoved from fourth to second. Part of the gain was made easier when Kelly crashed. Balentine got passed in the same place he'd been passed the previous lap. . Through the latter half of the race, Brooks opened up a five-minute lead over Roeseler , who was able to gain a slight lead over Balen tine. The first three finished about 20 minutes in front of the fourth-place finisher . Brooks' time for the I65 -mile race: th ree hou rs, 30 minutes, de sp it e falling on the first loop and tweaking his forks (He got up from the fall, got going and then later stopped to fLX the forks, all without losing a position.). Fo urth went to Nevada's Scot Hardin, who admitted that he found it hard to keep up with California riders at the start. Running tenth at the end of the first loop, he moved up 'to seventh on the second loop and to sixth on the third loop. Interesting point: Hardin carries tools, food. and "enough ' ma tches to set every bush between here and Cal City on fire" in a beat-up jacket , just in case of emergency. MikeJohnston (400 KTM) . finished the first loop right behind Hardin and stayed there for the remainder of the race. finishi ng fifth . Baker and Saltzman had been running fou rt h and fifth throughout much of the race. On the third loop, Saltzman came up with a flat rear tire and had to have the tire and tube changed . Baker carried on for the nex t half of the fourth loop , only to have his rear tire come up flat. That was where Hardin and Jo hnston passed him. Baker finis hed sixth. with Saltzman next . Another interesting point : Baker' s four-stroke was the only bike of Japanese origin to finish in the top ten (a nd this despite th e fact that Al broke his collarbone the first weekend in Decem ber). Doug Winchell (400 KT M) ran as high as fourth before losing his rear brake; the replacement time dropped him to eighth. The long string of O pen Experts was br oken by Ron Irby (360 H us) , the first Ama teur. Irby led the Amateurs all the way; three crashes didn't affect his position. Only one 250 cracked the top ten and it belo nge d to Amateur Bill Tarling (Hus). The first 250 Expert was right behind him : Monte Lee (Yam) . Tim Plant (175 Yam) won the 0-200 class with a 12th overall. Plant had been pursuing Brad Henson (175 Yam) when Henson lost his shift lever . Plant helped look for it , but it wasn't to be found. The Duncan brothers, Scott and Rilcy , dominated the Novice class. Riley (370 Suz) led until he destroyed his front wheel and limped into the pits. Scott (250 Suz) was the only one to get past and he remained in the lead to finish 13th overall. Riley had the front wheel replaced and finished close be hind his brother as first Open Novice. Jeff Wilson (250 Suz) finished third and m ade it a clean sweep for the Foothill Cycle Accessories team. T he next rider to finish was the small-bore Novice winner David Kinshella (125 Suz). La ck of entries forced t he cancellation of the announced O ld Timers class. O nly one of DRA's regu lar Senior riders, John Gregory (400 Yam) .entered the event, so he rode a nd finished as an O p en Amateur. There was no Powder Puff class pl anned, but Jo lene Payne rode anyway as the first woman to ever enter and fin ish this event. Pro moter Ron Burpo figured that Brooks' ea rnings would be in the ne ighborhood of $600 . Since its inception, the 20 Mu le Team 200 has lost money. Pennzoil's support made it possible to ru n the race aga in this year. The riders said they enjoyed the race and gave the course high marks. The no-dust factor was certainly an element of that praise, as well as the weather, which was brisk and rainless; ideal for a long race. • Results in Results Section.

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