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/126251
e NORTHERN DATELINE • ~ Ely back in Spinners IT E winner's circle By Cosmic Cat & CO. PORTERVILLE, CA , FEB . 20 The rather dry Porterville Spinners track helped put Rob Ely (Yam) back in the Mini Expert winner's circle. Ely admittedly M ini EXpen Rob Ely 121 gets an early lead on Billy Hollenbeck 141 and Roben Land 1 at Spinners TT 31 prefers a dry track and showed why as he took the holeshor, then waltzed away to the checkers with a 15 bike length cushion. Ricky Hollenbeck (Suz) and Robert Land (Yam) had an earlv batt le for second unti l Land took control on lap three . Michael Padilla (Yam) had his problems on the last lap of the 200cc Novice Main . Padilla was lea ding when the white nag was thrown . but dropped the lead to Marty Brown (Yam). Seconds la ter , Tony Oxford (H-D) found a ho le and slipped by in the righthander, dropping Padilla into third. Positions remained in that order at the finish . Stan Wheaton (Suz) and Chris Hignote (Yam) diced side by side for two laps in the 500cc Novice run. Hignote won out for good going over the jump on lap two . Wheaton then tried desperately to keep his second position from falling to fast-closing Mark Meadows (Yam). Wheaton's efforts were in vain as Meadows edged by for second at the line . • Becker, Halcomb and Cantaloupi tops at SVS MX Mark Gregson (1) roosts a competitor in practice, but was in the hospital by the time his two Winter Series awards were handed out. Dennis Longacre, a coming 200cc Junior at Porterville, cleverly hides a companion's number so he can 't get his name in the paper. Mike Odden (8) sprays Puyallup real estate back at fellow 125 Pro George Symondsl1w) VJ w > '" VJ w :J VJ > '" ~ VJ 32 iE off his Open class bike and broke the same wrist he hurt last year. The "Super Mac" . Larry MacKenzie will be out for about five months. 1I's reported r tbat MacKenzie underwent surgery for the knee injury from the Feb . 20 race. Even with all this happening, there were some class winners still to be decided, and the riders were on their toes. For the first time in memory, the Mini Jr. class was run in two races. The two lap Mini Consolation was won by- Mike La rson (Hon) - youngest member of the Larson racing team. His brother Phil and dad (Phil , Sr.) took home series wins for Mini Expert and Over the Hill . The star of the day was Pat Jacobson from Auburn. J acobson grabbed the lead from H o nd a -m ou n te d Bo b Klemp in moto one. He cut loose to stretch the lead over Gary Racca (Yam) , now second. Something , mechanical went sour about lap four , and Racca went on to finis h when .Jacobson pulled out. Jacobson tu rn ed ar ound next time ou t and p ut a moto win on the card; then he chalked up an overall win in Open Pro. Many tha nks go ou t to Quaker State Oils a nd D-G Performan ce Specialties for their support of this Puyallu p eigh t-race W inter Series. Jackets, hats , T-shirts and' gift prizes went out to 64 deserving riders who had worked ,su pe r·hard for the last two mo nths. Results in Resul ts Sect ion. By Sallee Hilton PLYMO UTH , CA . FEB . 27 Although Ken Sisler (Mai) a nd J eff Lo ff (Mai) each took a moto win in the O pen Expert class, it was DeIn o Becker (KTM) from Oroville who snagged the overall first. Mark Lewallen (KTM) was first off the line in the first moto with Sisler sizzlin' behind him . Loff, running third,' was charging hard when he crashe d ha rd . Sisler smo ked on by Lewa llen and Kent Classen (KTM) pulled into third , then crashed. Blue Pla te No. 2 Becker took over third, and the top three were set. Sisler and Bru ce Logan (Suz) took the initial lead in the second mo to, bu t shortly thereafter both went down and were running de ad last when they got ' going again. That put Becker and Lewallen in the lead with Loff moving fast in third . Loff took second, then caught Becker at the straightaway and wheelied on by. Sisler was back up to fourth by the finish. Charlie Halcomb (H us) hauled in the cas h for both moto wins in the 250 clUs. From holeshot to checkered flag Halcomb had it his own way, with the single exception of the first lap of the first moto when he ha d J oh n Minor beside him. Jim Lesniewski, (Oss) mo ved from eighth to second in th ree laps, the n spent th e next four laps of th e firs t moto tryi ng vainly to catch Ha lcom b . Back in third , Min or was being passed by Ron Junkert and then by Mark H ilt on, bo th on Su zukis. H ilto n had worked his way up fro m about 13th off the start, and was putting th e move on J unkert in the fina l m inute of the race bu t couldn't take third away.