Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ .. .............•..........................•.•.......•..•....••••.•••.....•..........•...........••••••••••.••.••••••••...••.........•.••.•...•••• Desert Hotline .' = ~~ ~ ~ t Robert Shook and Steve McCorkell explore one of the Lucerne sandwashes-. Nothing like making it all the way to the bottom of a hill and .then crashing. La~ry Roeseler strikes it rich at the Pr~spectors' Hare S~rambles By Gary Laudig LUCERNE VALLEY, CA . FEB . 20 T he dusty haze hung over the r ace area asriders searched.for "the" line to the smokebomb , nursing the ever-present' thought of an overall win tucked way back in the recesses of their . sweat and dust-encrusted Bells. 18 The ra £e was underway at 10:03 a .m, Charging across the desert , the . racers made their way towards the bomb. The leader a nd the first ten or 15 enjoyed the briefluxury ofthe ridge paralleling the lefthand side of the sandwash , full of whoop-de-doos that keeps Curnutt, Works Performance, White Bros . and the rest of the suspension industry crying all the way to the bank. The rest braved the sandwash, holding on for dear life, hoping for better things to come. Leading the racers was Jim Wotring, out after a long layoff, followed 'closely by Ed Za rp. Bruce Ogilvie on his trusty Harley was in third , the n Gordon " Bom b R un" Schm id , Larry Roeseler , Bob Ru tt en , Bill T homas. and John Tobin first Amateur. . Aft er a half-hour delay.rthe Novices made their charge. Le ading was Jan Morrison followed _by Steve Nichols, Greg Rud owsk i , Donnie Broa c h , Kevin Shehee, Terry Trachy and Jay Ganong. Just .before the first right hander out of the wash Morrison got into tank slappers and lost it. By the time he got going again . he was running in the 20s . Rick Da vis was running around . 30th , first Trail Novice , and Robert Beardsley out of Beavert on , Oregon , riding his first desert race, was first heavyweight, first Beginner. Va nce Henderson ~as first 175 with Victor Salls. second. right on his fender . A few m iles down th e trail Wotring still had the lead and the rest of the positions stayed except for Roeseler moving from fifth to fourth and Gordon Schmid sliding back to seventh. Dwayne Carter, ru n ni ng about 12th at the bom b . was right in front of Dave Aldana'in eig hth place. That "Old Buzza rd " h im self, jack Froelich was firs t Senior'250 , with Jeff T ho rpe right beh ind hoping J ack . wou ld event u ally run out of steam -. George -W alker was abou t ten bikes back. T he course ran down the old bomb run by the power lines towards Bessemer Mine Road . angling off towards Victor Pass into th e soft beige sa nd that tends to make th e front end go cr azy. This is where a lot of ' positions were jockied for . Crossing th e old Soggy camp ground and heading ba ck fo r th e p its. Roeseler had th e lead fo r th e seco nd - t im e . Brian W right , working up from 12th place . settled in a t th ird . Coming int o t he gas off of the big Sage Mountain downhill . Bill Thom as was in ' fou rt h place , . T erry ."Ca ble" Davi s first hea vy a t seventh , Mit ch Pa yton first 175 a t 14th . first hea vywe ight Amat eur Larkin Wight at 17th. . First Novi ce in to repl enish was Chris Gray a t 125th overall. follow ed by Donnie Broach . both holdin g th e same positions all th e wa y around . Mike Thompson was first Division 11 in a t eighth. -~ Heading out on the second loop . Roeseler held a 20 ·second lead over Ogilvie but , that would not last for long .' About two minutes later Wright and Ba rn ey - the dicing duo of the day - came by followed by previous lead er Wotring. Terry Davis and first Amateur . Dese rt Knigh t John Tobin. Bob Carpenter took over as first 175 Expert when Mit ch Payton broke down. . Tra il Exp erts Chuck Carr e le d g er rid ing for Leckich Tuning, and Charlie Hamill. Jr. of Raceway Cycle reall y went at it all th e way today, both ha ving somet h ing to prove. Chuck. back after a four month layoff. showed .no signs of fatigue or lack of finesse as he and Charlie traded thelead several times . First Beginner and first overall on e looper, holding the lead from start to finish was Robert Beardsley. Second heavyweight . third Beginner overall went to D a vid Chase of the Shamrocks. John Scott was third . Second overall . first 250 Beginner. Steve McCorkell was followed by Zack Peterson of the Desert Donkeys. Roun ding out the list. first Division 11 . Begi n ner . fifth overall Bill Burnham led Dan Gonzales and Mitch Kelly . Jay O ren dorff on a four stroke picked off Henry Wesselman and Tony G reves whi le moving up to 11th o Gordon Schmid. refusing to give any more ground tenaciously held . onto 12th . Bob Carpenter started h is move on the second loo p pic king up six posi tio ns and m an aging to stay six bikes ahead of fast moving J im Brown . who took second 175· Expert. First Amateurjohn Tobin lost a lot of . gtound dropping from eigh th t,o 17th. just two b ikes ahead o f Roger Toubeaux who put on a good second half charge. Ru sty Blake can't be ignored as he was only eight places back fro m ' Ha m ill a n d Carteledge at th ird T rail Exp ert, making up 15 posit ions afte~ he pitt ed. Warren . Goodman was satisfied with a 22nd , firs t O pe n Am at eur into the pits and

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