Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

&; - _ ....._-_ ••__._.._---_.._----.._---_ .._ ..._-_•• -;. _ •• - - -- -- - -- -. _ -- -- -- -- -- -- _ , • ..._ _ ._. ,., Western hotline ~ E W a lt e r Tharp keeps going while J o h n Kovalick g ets an Arizo na soil sample at t he Gila Bend GP. Wyoming's Cotton Guio wins Arizona's Gila BendGP By A. H. Te llier GILA BEND, AZ, FEB . 27 "Lots better'n Sobobal" were the words of the first man to finish : J immy Halford , who had paid $100 for Mitch Mayes' entry at Soboba. Sinc e the Grand Prix was a 30 -second interv a l st a rt situati on . Hal ford had to sweat out th e possible ea rly arrival of the m ysterious rider #120 . If the ninth-row start er ca me in in less than four and one -h alf m inutes a fter Halford, then he got J immy. An d he did . In fact , Cotton Gu io (390 Husky) came in two m inutes after H alford: a two and one-ha lf minut e cush ion . The Gu io family, four strong , drove 1100 miles one way, from Big Piney, Wyoming. According to the senior Guio, Ken, that's 90 mil es south of Jackson Hole. While a trek like this is not uncommon , it should be no ted that they made a similar trip two weeks earlier to ride the D-37 Moose Run , which Ken had ridden 25 years prior. The diminutive, 27 -yea r- old Cotton ha s been hitting th e major D37 desert wars f~r several years now. The course was basically a 34 -mil e loop through the flat a lluvia l basin surrounding the usually-dry Gila River ch a n ne l. Several miles of in town pavem ent were used, as were a coup le miles of canal bank. The majorit y of th e cou rse followed existing jeep roads and sa nd washes. Guio's average spe ed over th e four-lap Expert ra ce ( 136 mil es) was 44 .3 mph . The start was flagged off at 12:00 noon in 30-second intervals from in front of the old Gila Bend Hotel. With 357 riders, the start procedure took 39 minutes, causing some ill -founded concern that the first row leaders would be in before the last row started. It took J immy Halford 47 m inutes to make his dust-free way a rou nd and back into town with a flourish . The home check , on the pavement in town , was a fine place to obs erve th e warriors in action . Locking u p the rear brake was st a n d a r d operating procedure. Locking up the front brake put Tom Clark into the "W hoa" sign . Which was attached to a Yamaha . Great funl 20 It should b e noted that the Amateurs and Experts rode four laps , or 136 miles. The Novices. Beginners, Ladies , Trail bikes and Seniors wer e out for three laps: 102 mil es . So everyone surely got enough di stance to ride. The race for overall and first Open Exp ert were one and th e same. J immy Halfo rd had , on o ne h and , an advantage in starting on th e fro nt row. He jumped into th e lead and never saw dust until he started cat chi ng back markers on th e second lap . However, his position as phy sical leader meant that he never actually had to ra ce with a nyone, and he couldn't tell if a nyone was catching him . Cotton Gui o, wh ile literally racing against the clock , a lso cou ld gauge his situati on by passing th e eight rows of riders in front of him . T he overall mil e-an-hour average for Guio was 44 .3 mph , a nd 43 .7 for Halford: a 1.3% differ en ce . Jimmy said he was geared for "85 in a 105 mph race ." Third overall ; and first 250 Expert was ex-ca r jum pe r Ga ry W ells. With th e wide-open roads, Wells m ust ha ve had h is 250 on the boil! Wells was slower than Ha lford by a bo ut 1.25% : a pretty tight three -wa y race. The 125 winner, at 14th overa ll, was T om Cleveland, from Parker , AZ, who ran the' course at over 38 mph . This was Tom's first rid e as a 125 Expert. The second place 250 Ama teur rider was Dennis Prescot t on a bizarre Sw e d e n -j a p a n co m b i natio n : Hondavarna. The thing must work . T he first three places in th e Open and 250 Amateur classes fini shed in overall sequence , with the first two Open bikes riding out of Nolan's Action C ycl e. Nolan' s had m an y r ace rs p lacin g very well , more than a ny other shop. The part of th e course tha t ran up sa nd washes often had overha ngi ng spi ne -carry ing Palo Ver de trees , and rid ers often had to ru n th ro ugh th e branches, nothin g severe or unusual for Arizona. Number t h ree 250 Novice Cha rley Marsh had numerous cuts a nd sc r a tc hes on h is n ose a n d ne ck . Charley opinioned that ", .. speed burns ," Hmmm. I had been led to beli eve th at speed kills. The Lost Co yotes MC , a District 37 cl u b, se nt over severa l r id e rs , includi ng 01' sand-bagger him self Roy Asaro , who cu t th e three laps a t al most 40 mph , for first -overall " no n-ex pe rt" and first 250 Beginner . As a n exa m ple of "blowing 'em in th e weeds," th e second- place 250 Beginner was 47th overa ll. The Seniors were broken int o two age groups: Over-40 and a " You ng Oldie" (35-40) . Usual ·ADRA ·Over40 -winner is John Dios, on a B-50 Beezer thumper. But this wasn't his day , and he had to settle for third . Don Bilsbarrow (KTM) of Tucson and Vern Darland, another Lost Coyote on another KTM slipped in ahead , I imagine those Austrian machines are just too much for The Qu een 's Iron. The 35-40 group was take n by Bill Murray, from beautiful downtown Burbank, He came over with th e Wom en 's Division winner, Ms. Toni Van Knapp . Ton i beat ou t Barb Don Grigsby (1) and Danny Perk ins come in o ut of the darkness at Corona 's half-m ile , where Steve Fortu ne w on twice. Wright , fr om La s Cru ces, Ne w Mexi co , th e usu al ADRA Lad ies' winner. An outstand in g t h e atrical performance was ac hieved by Eddie Ornelas, Jr .. fro m Ca sa Grande . Eddie , an Open Beginner, co llapsed a t th e fin ish and could on ly say "terri fic" in a very sm all voice. It even tua lly bec ame ob viou s th at all th is Sarah Bernhardt-stuff was for th e benefit of his lady ~ri en? . But he sai d h~ did have a good tim e: . . . whee . . . . The course , wh ile it was very fast , d id not tak e a la rge toll in human su ff e r ing. Accord in g to Ph il Aurerhiemer , th ere were five broken coll arbones a s th e tot al se r io us injuries. • Resu lts in Results Section. S teve Trulson ha d to mix borrowed gas w ith ATF to finish at Gila Bend, Fortune takes two from McWhorter at Corona half mile By Elaine Jones CO RONA , CA, MAR. 2 It was a strange evening to say t he least a t Corona, A cold , super fast tr ack and riders break ing left and right. In spite of all the problems there was still some heavy duty racing , especially in th e Open Expert and Money hal f mile events. Steve Fortune and Tim McWhorter squared off against each other in the O pen Expert ra ce. Off th e line it was a drag race with Fort u ne gett ing to tu rn one on a hair in fro nt of McWhorter. Rich Warren was in th ird a nd Don Gr igsb y was scou ting him. It didn't take "T- Bone" long to make his move on W arren. McWhort er a nd Fortune were still runn ing togethe r, co mi ng o ut of th e turns like Siam ese twins with Fortune sti ll ho ldi ng . O n fou r "T· Bon e" was ou t an d Warren again took over t hi rd and a t th e ch eckered it was Fortune , McWhorter a nd Warren . It was th e same cast of players who lined up for th e Mon ey ra ce. Another d rag ra ce to th e first turn but th is time if was McWhorter who go t th er e first with Grigsby second and Fortune third . "T vBone's" second pla ce was short lived as his 400 was no match for Fort u ne's big Harley and at th e end of two laps Fortun e wa s c hasing McWhorter hard . McWhorter held him off for two more laps but the long la yoff started to tell and Fortune took over to bring it o n hom e with McWhorter seco nd a nd " T -Bo ne" th ird . McWhort er 's hands were so cram ped t ha t he cou ld n' t even hold a cu p th at was of fered to h im wh en it was all over. Grigsb y a lways manages to go home with more than he ca me wit h a nd the Money sho rt track was his. T he Semi had see n him go ou t when h is pipe bracket broke , Bu t when it co unted he had everyt hing togethe r a nd wen t wire-to-wir e with Danny Perkins in second. Robert Pfetzin g had a very good night for h im self riding three and winn ing th ree . T he 125 Expert short tra ck was th e first to fall in a wir e. to wire number wh ich saw Ma rk Milazso and Randy Baker follow him horn e. The O pen sho rt tr ack was th e next in lin e and ano t he r sta rt to fini sh lead over Ron W arren a nd Terry Miller. The 125 half mil e was wh er e he met up with a c h a lle nge. Bobb y Garabedian beat him off the line and held him for three before Pfetz ing could get by and ta ke t he win . Chris Cannon picked up th e third in that on e . The 250 Novic e clas s was full of action on both the short track and half mile. In th e short track , John Perez was off first with Heff Wise second and Tom Hughes third . When they came around on the second lap, Gr eg Wood had made a move from fourth to take over the lead , Hughes had moved to second , Wise third a nd Perez was fourth . When they came around on

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