Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

with mononucleosus as he fell sick after each mota. St eve Montague (Suz) took third place money ahead of hardcharging Rick Rassmuson (Yam) . Alan Smith (H us) looked to be in . contention for the overall win with a first moto victory but troubles left him in tenth in the second moto , and fifth forthe day. Bob Cochran took his Can-Am o across Saddleback's gnarly whoops to CN the 250 Intermediate win witna clean double motovictory. Gary Gonzales l-< (Mai) took second in the talent-laden c, class . Steve Jackson piloted his RM250 Suzuki ahead of John Hamamoto's Honda, fo r third and fourth respectively. • Results in Results Section. ..... - < Minnig, Tortorelli cop Corona flatt rack cash By Elaine Jones CORONA , CA , MAR. 30 Mik e Minnig, who broke down the week before, was ready to claim everything he could at Corona . H e was off the line first (Abovel Luc Delay. closest to the camera. gets underway. heading for second in the AMC 250 Pros. (Belowl The bike lands feet up. Craig Mock face down at DeAnza. uncleared . " T h e least t he park could've done," bitched one rider. "was cut th e damn grass!" Bu t, no one cuts the grass on the W id owm aker . No one smooths out the bumps , fills in the ho les. or makes any ot her cha nges to ease the run up the hi ll. At the W id owm aker the onIv hi ll prep is th e li me m arks fo~ bo undries a nd footage . Anyone who pla ns to go h igh on tha t hill will have to b laze the wa y with his (or her) b ike. A group uf 125cc hikes were the first ones off th e lin e a t De An za today . Their runs a re not expected to be high . so th ere were few su rp rises as t he riders scored from 20 to 180 fee t. W ith a hill ne a rly 400 feet high , some of these sm all b ikes ha rdly got off t he starting line . T he 250 Begi nner class, a lt hough th e bikes had twice the po wer , d idn't even d o as well . H er e the newest riders to hillclimb ing tried th eir lu ck . A high mark of 130 feet was enough to gi ve newcomer . Paul Ba nder , his first win in the sport. Co mpetition in th e 250 Stock and 250 Modified classes was rea lly to ugh. He re th e riders have experience, a nd it was evident in the m arks th ey set. Kerry Pete r son , who h a s been domi na ting the 250 Stock class o n his Harley, agai n too k th e win a nd was the first rider to top th e 200-foo t ma rk , Dou g Hall set the modified ma rk with a foo tage of exac tly 200 fee t. It was in the mi d -ra nge classes where so me of t he most obvious cha ng es wok place , First of a ll, many of th e riders in those mid -range stoc k . cla sses have moved upward , eithe r in to modi fied cla sses or into co m pet ition with b igger bikes . For two years the 400 Stock wins have go ne excl usively to Kerr y Pet er son a nd his su pe r Maico. Now Peter son is no longer in that cla ss. T he newe r riders hav e taken over and the win ne r was Dan Flower, a nother Ma ico rider. In hillclimbing, any rider may j u m p hi s bike into a h igher dis pla cement class and continue to com pete . The only st ring attached to such-a jump is that th e rider can only move upward to a modified class. T ha t m eans that a bik e , say a 450 cc stoc ke r, ca n com pete,against th e 650s, b ut on ly those in t he modified cla ss whe re chai ns , sp ecial frames and exotic fuel s a re also a llowed . It was that kind of jump that saw a b rand new overall winner in today's clim b. Well , almost that kind of jump. C lyde Pet erson , mounted on a modified 500 Yamaha, which had a lread y won a first place in its class, ju m ped into th e 650 Modified cla ss, Althou gh his bike was running on ' pu m p gas, he did hav e cha ins on th e rea r tire . Giving a full 100cc's of power , Pe terson managed to win the class and set the high mark for th e day, 28 7 fee t. . T hose lon g swing a rms that made a first sho wing tod a y ga ve varied results to th e rid ers . Many were pleased , some were not , othe rs headed home to add a nothe r inc h or two to give eve n greater sta bility . The word has come to Ca liforni a tha t right now the Wi dowmak er has six _inc hes of sno w cove ring . These riders a re not used to that kind of terrain . bu t they a re n't abou t to let a litt le of th e "fro zen fog" sto p thei r climb. . Resul ts in Resu lts Sect ion . Morgan takes AMC 250 Pro win By Dennis Cox' ORANGE, CA, MAR . 27 Ken Morgan (Suz) topped the 250 Pro's at Bette Lasker's AMC Saddleback motocross . This should help with Morgan's se a rc h for ~ new sponsor. After spi ri ted rides in both motos, Luc Delay (Suz) took a well deserved second. Delay felt he might be coming down in th e Money sho rt tra ck with Chuck Palmgren o n his heel s and Eddie Lawson not far behind. On lap two , Law son made a pass o n Palmgren and managed to hold him until the sixth lap when Palmgren made a slick move and got by to take over second and start putting pressure on Minnig . Lawson came right back and got by Palmgren on the ~eventh , then ~Id him off until the last lap , when Palmgren came up with another slick mov e to get by and follow Minnig by tenths of a second across the line. The half mile was up for grabs but Minnig wanted h is name to be in the number one spot. Minnig again was out on top but it only took two laps for Don Tortorelli to catch him and take over first. J eff Kerr was holding in the third spot with Jay Lewis fourth and Dave Kerr fifth . Minnig reclaimed the lead on th e sixth lap as bikes started going sour . J eff Kerr went out followed two laps later by his brother Dave. The only three left at the end of eight were Minnig , Tortorelli , and Lewis. On lap II , Lewis went ou t a nd Minnig's bike wa s making strange noises that Tortorell i took fu JI advantage of, reclaiming th e lead . T he race was called on 12 with Tortorelli running st ro ng and Minnig nursin g his herr-c. Jim Vendley, who h as been I U fl ~ overd ue. wa s cook in g in the O p e n Amateur half m ile and let Pat Dobbins lead it for one before blowing by him and building a lead that was never cha llenged , Dobbins had to be co ntent to follow him home. W a yne Rainey, still riding his win strea k, took on th e 250 Experts on the half mil e a nd led it fro m wire to wire. In th e semi Rainey had been caught in traffic a nd co uld n' t do any better than fourth so he had somethi ng to prove to everyo ne and he d id. Tortorelli , who had won th e semi , tried every trick he knew to get by Rainey but nothing worked and Bob Spi cer was ready and waiting to ca pita lize on any mistake Tortorelli made whi ch kept everybody honest. Pete Hames, who makes the long haul from Simi Valley, showed up with his tricked out Yamaha and collected a dou bl e win in the 125 Amateur/Expert short track and half mi le . The field was loaded with talent 27

• Cover