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/126256
Western hotline '. IAbove) The 125 Novices leav e the Phoenix Gra nd Prix start. Don Babbitt (second from right) won the class. finished third among all Nov ices. lR ightl The Phoenix GP attracted a lot of sidehacks . John Ewald modified his Honda for easier "on the tank " cornering, We think he was a little ove r-enthus iastic , 22 Max Ma ple · picked u p his th ird straight 500 In termed iat e class win at So uth Ba y. Ma p le a lso was very strong Su nda y at Ca rlsb ad . Tony "The Tiger" Go mez who won a ll rn o r o s in t he 125 a n d 250 Intermed iat e classes in the previou s Sout h Bay ra ces. sat this one out to prepare for th e Wo rld Mini GP . T his left the two classes up for gra bs. Ab ian L eL e vie r g rab bed the 25 0 Inte rm ed iate c lass fo llowed very closel y by Bo b Coo pe r. T his was Le Le vie r ' s fi rs t win as an Interm edi at e . Sco tt Anderson did th e gra bb ing in th e 125 Int ermed ia te c1asss. Ext rem ely cold weather may ha v contribu ted to two seri ou s inj uries. South Bay MX track design er Dan Lon sbury of the 500 Intermed iat e class, twisted his foo t in practi ce which broke his right led bel ow -th e kn ee . Rob Norgaard is in th e Chula Vista Ho spital with t hree broken rib s. He crash ed whil e le a d i ng th e 50 0 Pro fessiona l class. Yamah a's Broc Glove r to ta lly domina ted both t he 125 and 250 Pr ofessin al classes as he easily shot do wn Dan Schramm in t he 125 contest a nd Mike McGowen in the 250s. • Resul ts in Resul ts Section. Halford shines at Sun Phoenix GP By A.H, Tellier CASHION , AZ. MAR . 13 Ma king up for being undergeared a t the Gil a Bend G ra ~d Prix two weeks ago. where he came in second . J immy Ha lfo rd in sta lled a 17 ·too th co unter -shaft sproc ket on his 390 Husky a nd ra n away with th e Amateur/Exp er t ra ce at the SUN M.C .-sponsor ed Ph oenix Grand Pr ix held a t th e Ph oenix Internatinal Ra cewa y (PIR) . Hal ford had a three-minute lead after 13 seven -mi le la ps over seco nd- place John Pavich . new ly re tu rned to San Diego. Pavich (H us) was followed by loca l Yamaha rider Ed Zornes. H al ford was wit hi n five min ut es of lappin g Zornes. Two 100-mil e races were TUn: the morning ra ce for Women a nd all No vice classes ( 125 . 250 & O pen); the a fte r noon r a ce wa s fo r Se niors. Sidecars a nd 125. 250 and O pe n Ama te u rs & Experts. The co urse u tilized po rt ions of the USAC asp ha lt ova l, th e Trans-AMA MX co urse (ug h!) . th e SCCA spo rts ca r co u rse, a defunct drag stri p. some riverbott om , desert and L -O -N -G mudholes. The SUN M.C. su pp lied five co nst ruc tionsize water trucks a nd a pp lied 350,000 ga llons of water over th e weekend : N o Dust! The Trans-AMA mo tocross course was left in basically th e same abominable condi tion as when the Big Kids ra ced on it in November . It was liberally watered , but the basi c na tu re of the gra nitic gn eiss rock su rface left the track with a series of sta ir-case sect ion s; Bob Hannah . et ai , mu st possess some kind of su pe r -human po wer. T he race drew a slight 215 rid ers . whic h req ui red cu tt ing the origi na lly-pla n ned two-d a y event into a one day. two race event. T he 500· od d (?) spectators had virtually free reign about the track, wit h access to all portions of the co urse excepting the pits and impound areas, where passes were req uired . T he lea d in the morning race was up for grabs for a couple of la ps unti l eventual ove rall winner . front -row starter Ken ny Schlosser took over for good. He ra n neck-and -neck tm the ova l with Sa n Diega n Bill Wheeler (Ya m 500), but Wheeler a te it on the d ropaway j ump and decided to play race instea d . Wheeler wheelied down th e straigh t. up th e d rag strip. to th e mudhole , in the pits, erc . , etc . Then he rode passenger on h is Ya maha sideca r in the next race . fin ishi ng both. Second place was locked in by Garre t Wagn er of Canoga Pa rk (Suz). who pushed his pit technique to th e ultimat e . He sto pped a t the pit wa ll on the st ra ight. grabbed a ga llon plastic water jug fu ll of pr emix a nd d umped it in g oing d own t h e st ra ig ht . discarding th e jug on the ova l. So unds like th e trick way to ge t a su pe r case of jock itch . or worse. One slip a nd . . .douche . His pit crew di d p ick up th e jugs. too . W agner was 30 seconds behind th e lead er at th e fini sh ( I I laps). and over 90 seconds a head of th ird overall , first 125 Novice Don Babb itt who mu st have riddd en some kind of fast in order to catch th e 250s a nd Opens . as classes were sta rted a t 30-secon d intervals. large to sm a ll. The course offered few places to short cu t, and th e la rge number of flag and co ntrol personnel made it tough to slip by. Frank Stal ey of Ph oenix was DQ:d for a n illega l left tum. Tsk tsk. Some type of Iron Lady Awa rd -should be offe red to W omen 's Division winner Lori Matassa (Suz) who went 10 laps a nd fini shed 13th over -all . A good field of Amateurs and Experts lined up on the grid for the I :00 p .m. ra ce, with ea rly-entered J immy Halford on the pole position . The course was wa tered between races. Markers were replaced . W it h "Road -race" gea ri ng, Ha lford bogged slightly off th e line, making him work the clutch up to 30 mph. This gave Ed Zorn es the cha nce he nee ded to grab the lead onto th e asphalt oval. Zornes p roved tha t it isn 't necessary to have th e latest iron in order to do well. He rod e a '75 360 YZ Yamaha . with a '72 e ngi ne , runn ing an ob vi ou sly mod ified End u ro barrel. . How ever. Ha lford's racin g experience paid off at th e asp ha lt -dirt transi tion when he got by Zornes and was never th reatened again. He d id say that he got some raci ng ou t of la p pees on the MX co urse , where they were tryi ng to stick a fro nt wheel in on hi m . Bu t his hal fm ile a nd TT racing gave him the nod on t he smoot her swee pers and road sec tions .Tapped out in sixth gea r (95m p h?)-. he was seen slidi ng, front a nd rea r , into the infield section off the drag strip. A typ ical sto p watch num be r said he was gaining a bou t 30 seconds a la p on soon-to -be- thi rd pla ce Zorn es a nd seco nd place J oh n Pavich . As is typical wit h the winne r , H alford had no trou ble. no ge r-offs, and '' . . .hadn't had th is much fu n since (I) started rid ing in the di rt. . . T hird overa ll Zorn es sa id this was the fir st event (off- roa d) tha t he'd finished . It a ppears to agree wit h him . T he GP drew one Of the largest sideca r field s in the Sou thwest , outs id e of Hop etown a nd Gr ea t Bea r ; II ent ries . T h ree loca l rigs and eight Cal ifornia chairs ma de it. As these ra cers used to be "hacks." one cou ld notice the upward swing in quality: KimTab wheels , disc brakes, Wasp frames , Honda 4s. Ka wasa ki 750s, T riu m phs , etc. The Van Nuys-based Honda 750 of Ka rl Krohn 'and Per ry