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/126255
II •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• =Desert Hotline . . ~ t IAbovel Dave Conner won the Novice 'class overall. (Belowl Tom Grant l10clleads this group as Gene Rowden (201 squeezes his way t hrough a bottleneck. James Bell. Wayne Langner. Ray Guiltiean and another ri der w ind dow n a rocky trail. _ AMAD-37: Tom Brooks wins Cactus Cats benefit Rare Scrambles By Gary Laud ig L UCERNE v ALLEY. CA . MAR. 27 T orn Brooks won the Cactus Cats M.C. Benefit H are Scrambles for Rescue Three and Mitch Mayes, taking his fourth AMA -D-37 Overall win of the year . And in a brilliant show of de- 12 termination . Max Eddy rode up from five minutes behind last place at th e start to 49th at the pits to -19t h Ov..rall at the finish. With the throttle to the stops and a 20 -second cushion over second place. Bruce Ogilvie flew through a tank slapper wash off the start wit h his Harley sounding and looking better than it ever had before. But second into the first left hand turn was Tom Brooks (KT M). Moments later Bob Rutten (H u s) made the turn with about a b ike -length lead over Brent Wallingsford (Hus). Ron Bebo (Yam) was fifth . Ed Zarp (Yam ) sixth . and Garry Conner (on one of the three new Maicos in th e des ert} sevent h. Eighth and first Heavyweight Am ateur was Don Wallingsford (Ya m). ch ased by Chuck Pettegrew (on a new Ma ico ) and Marc Cartwright (KT M). The racers cleared th e horrendous sa nd wash . and the helmet -filtered profanity diminished somewhat as the course smoothed out and hea ded for th e power line road crossing and th e Cooper Strand mining area . Jeff Thorpe's lip caused th e d elay in the Beginner-No vice start . Joe Penoncello led th e green-and -wh itestripers all the way through th e wash and beyond . Following close behind were fast guys Dav e Conner. and Rick Hickman of the Prospectors on his brand new KTM. Big guy Chuck Fowler blasted by Second Heavy with Sam Soule. Art Grajeda . Jim Morrison and Greg Pagan pursuing. Larry Mulch and Jan Morrison rounded out the top 10. Randy Hallman was first Begi nner and first 250. Gregg Perkins ro d e the first " C " bike and Ra y Guilbeau first Trail. Kell y W iseman was first girl . and of co urse "Cut across Sh ort y" of th e Lost Coyot es follo wed . rid in g h is p at ent ed "co nserva tive" ra ce . By this time th e Amateu r/Experts had cleared the tig ht . win d y sa nd wash at Coo per Strand . Brooks had ta ken the lead a ft e r Og ilvie got off. (witn essed by Ed Zarp . who d rop ped out wit h a lea ky head gas ket ). Rutten took over second . Bill Sal tzm a n moved up fro m 12t h to fo urt h . Chu ck Pertegrew , usin g h is rnor o ski lls . passed several guys in tight stu ff to assume fifth . Ch arley Barney. coming from 20 -someth ing fitted in at sixth. Moving up fro m 19th at th e bomb . Ron Irby hu stled h is Husk y into seventh place a nd first Amaieur. Ste ve . Cosn er . on a new 390 Husky in his first race in a long time moved from 23rd to 14th about halfway around th e loop . First Seni or, Dick Camp , dropped back from 13th to 21st . Lisa Christianson was holding on to first girl . first Amateur at the same tim e . Dave Conner took over first place Novice while Joe Penoncello held second. Chuck Fowler moved up to third as fast moving Steve Nickolson. com ing from 15th . settled in at fourth . Hi ckman dropped back to fifth as Gregg Pagan dusted a few. moving from eighth to fifth overall and third 250 . T he rest of th e positi ons sta yed about th e same as th e young racers headed across up pe r Johnson Va lley towards Chec k T wo. Brooks kept th e Competition Serv ice Cycle KTM moving a t its usual fast pa ce as th e Amateur/Expert ra cers cleared th e 40 foo t ver t ica I em ba nkment heading into the ridge running territory at Iron Ridge . T a nk cards were marked near th e fam ilia r old hollowed -out van . It was Brian Wright 14th. Bob Do ig. John Prater (first 250 Amateur) . Mitch Payton first Expert " C" bike ). Ron " Go t Off' Bebo , John T obin. Don Brand , Jr.. Charlie Hamill , Gary Willins and Tom G rant at 23rd', T he Beginner/Novice racers sta rte d into a sm a ll sa n d - wash o u t of mountains. The wash progressively got bigger and bigger 't il it was a freeway vee ring off into the Iro n Ridge foot hills, which nicely hid th e sandy whoops that checked out all three suspension system s - forks, shocks and legs. Surviving about five miles of thi s, Conner a nd the ga ng a rrived at Check Two . By ' this time . th e Amateur/Expert crowd had crossed th e u pper Johnson Vall ey cross-g rai n cho p a nd clea red . Victor Pass, interce p ted th e old a ir strip . (j ohnson Vall ey Freeway) , shot across Soggy bomb area at a bout a 45 degree angle a nd picked up a wellused sa nd wash at th e base of th e Fry Mounta ins. This d id n't sit too well in th e arm and leg departments. The wash had about a m ile-and -a -half of some per iod ic bi ke -swa llo wing wh oops. Finally. th e wash vect ored 'right, picked up a n ice. smooth , windy trail that occasi on all y jumped out int o th e desert . 'then cut ba ck int o the wash . Coming out for th e last tim e. Brooks could see th e pit s and poured on the coal to h is bike. Rutten ca me through th e -pits a bo u t 20 seconds behind Brooks. still first 250. Bruce Ogilvie had remounted his Harley and worked ba ck into ihird at the p its. ... Aft er about the first five or six bikes the riders were rea lly strung out. . The Novic es sta rted into the pits with 'the positions about th e same. It wa s Conner. Fowl er . Ni ck olson . Hickman , Pagan , Gr ajeda . Ahuero , and Langer. Sam Soul e had dropped ba ck to 13th d ue to a slight crash . Perkins was st ill first "C " bik e. Kell y W isem an still first lady. T he Trail Novices a nd Beginners pull ed off to th e left fo r a well deserv ed finish . Eric Hanson . ha ving trou ble pinpointing the finish , finally cam e to a halt with the help of first Tra il Novice by R a y Guil bea u. H a nson bagged fir st Overall. first Beg inne r a nd first H ea vywe igh t. Wa rr en Holm ber g took. th ir d Overa ll, firs t 250 ; Da n Dr ew seco nd Heavy . Paul Kr ause cruised in a t fifth O vera ll, seco nd T rail Novice . wit h J eff Coen th ir d . Da n Sm ith was fourt h Trail Novice , doing t he whole loop on a fla t rea r tire . Jim LaRoy, rid ing his first ever desert race . go t fifth 250 , 13th Overall on some badlv-fad ed shoc ks. Bill Burnam bagged 'first "C" bik e . The Beginner class (or desert "Fa rm T eam .") is reall y gro wing . Riding th e second loop became a problem when the wind began making a nu isance of itse lf. As Brooks started for Victor Pass Ogilviestarted closing the gap on Rutten. Rutten was trying to keep the Harley ahead at a distance . but as he shot through Victor Pass his bik e's chain went first overall into the bush es as th e ma chine's swin garm broke in two . Ogilvie roared by. and Rutten sa w his class win and a grea i ride slip awa y.