Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

True gets top bucks; Peterson gets top footage By Ann A. Powell PO INT·OF-THE·MOUNTA IN. UT, AP R. 17 More t han 400 competitors a nd from 12,000 to 14 ,000 spectators met on the plateau overloo king Utah Sta te Prison, 20 m iles from IAbove) Ron True took first place in the Exhibition ~lass on the Widowmaker with his snortin ' Norton, setting 8 mark 65T10" above the start. Unset} George McGraw of Nebraska took second in the 201-250cc class and first in the 251370cc class. (Below) Scott Juhlin of Minnesota tried for all the power he could get by running two Honda SOOcc engines in tandem. Unfortunately Juhlin didn't even get high enough for an official score. Cahoon, Rosa among winners at Salinas scrambles By Burt Dinner SALINAS , CA , AP R. 10 Salinas' first smooth scrambles was a true " bu nny ho p" and the racers a cted like cott on tails as they manipula ted the super -fast layou t. 24 R ight from the beginning, R od Cahoon (Yam) started like a rabbit and outdistanced the 100 Novice field . Start ing from the cheaters line, Da vid Rosa (Ya m) worked his way th rough th e pack to edge W ayne Ka rcich (Kaw) in the 125 Novice class . Karch ich a lso trop hied in the 250s ' finis hing th ird behind jay R a lston (Bul) a nd Robert Silva (Ya m) . Matt Pembert on (Yam) won the Open Junior race and with it, too k Over the lead for the season's high point trophy. Manuel Da tan (Yam) and Ron Day (Suz) went neck and neck for the entire 250 Expert event. with Da ra n finally winning. . The 360 Novice race saw Matt Crowley (Bul) take the win ahead of Doug "Flyin" O brien and his bright new green leathers. In the most exciting race of the day. 500 Expert Ken Netto (Yam) rode a smooth and smart race. keeping Rick Graham (Yam) at bay to take the checkered flag . Ryan gets squashed, then wins at Sand Hill RanchMX By Tura Houser BR ENTWOOD , CA, AP R. 8 R ick R yan , t he 10 -yea r -old Wonder Kid from San J ose, had some hea vy compe tition Frid a y night and a lit tle toug h luck. You 'd think a heavy Suzuki might squash a kid like Rick flat , but after it was lifted off of him in the Mini race , he got right up and onto his 100 Suzuki and won the In term ed ia te division . . Ra ndy McGinnis won both motos in the 100 Junior Division. Mike Holmes was first in the Mini Intermediate race, wav out ahead of the Novices. Chris Pluta was first overall in the Mini Nov. Div. and the new point leader. Geoffrey Paris is rea lly doing great things all of a sudden. He won the second moto of the Minis and .cornpeting with ten others in the Mini Money Ra ce . managed a good lead for the win and the bucks. Riding for Concord Honda . Perry' Evans won both 250 J u n ior rnotos, with point leader Conrad Schmeckel hav ing motor problems and out of the competition . This shou ld put Evans in the points lead. jim Ha rtba uer , out last week for the first time, was back, again winning Open J u n ior race. His Yamaha 500 was the perfect machine for the wet surface track . ' Mike Underhill was second, which puts him in a tie for points with Ha rtba uer , Joey Schlag. Ra nd y Martin and Shawn Cady had a 125 Int erm edia te race to talk about; anyone could have won . It was a bla nket finish . Sc hlag took home the trophy after a really exciting ride . Wes Mo rrell, winner of - the 250 In te r m ed ia te race, also won the Trophy Dash , beating a ll first moto win ners. J oh n Silva . Marathon rider, returned to Sand Hill to take first overa ll in the Vets race on a Bul raco . U nder hill d ue led with Si lva th rou gh ou t both motos but had to settle for second p lace . T he Dou gl as Bro th ers won two of the Expert classes - Phil took first overall in the 250s and Greg won amongst the O pen Experts. Rodney Greener was the winner in t he 125 Expert category. . • Resu lts in Resul ts Sec tion . Salt Lake City. This was a day that bikers had anticipated for a full year, the day of the Widowmaker '77 Hillclimb. By 7:30 a.m . the pi ts were beginning to fill. Spectators. those most dedicated to the sport, were a lso arrivi ng. Riders took " burn -out" ru ns in a specially ma rked area. a nd knob s were cut as riders worked for new tread design s and !flore traction. The largest single grou p of riders, pi t crews a nd supporters were fro m California . T hey had the area next to t he sponsoring Bees' pit area . Ne xt to them was a group from Texas. perhaps the second largest out-of-state conclave. Both of these groups were old hands at hillclimbing and bo th boasted some of the top climbers in t he country. Scattered for more than a mile along the base of the hill were other pit areas. The riders had come from Kentucky , from Pennsylvania. from Michigan and Montana . They had come from all over the United States, a nd they all had a single goal .. . to go another 1500 feet . to the top of the Widowmaker. The 'd a y was perfect for hillclimbing. It had snowed 24 ho urs earlier , but that was all gone now . The temperatures were climbing faster t han the bikes. and by noon it was ba lmy enough that many of the riders • (and some of the female spectators) had a lready shed shirts. The hill was rough , but there was p lenty of traction ... if you cou ld get around or over the thick brush that cove red the hill. At the Widowmaker , there are three lanes going up / t he face of the mountain. Lane one was set aside for the Novice riders, a ll from Uta h. Nu mber two was for the Amateur class. a lso exclusively Utah riders. Lane two was the one used by t he Expert class last year , and was the lane . used by jim True when he became the on ly man to reach the top of the hill. Lane three was reserved for Expert riders and those in the Exhibition class . It was, by far. the roughest of the th ree rough lines. While the Novices and Amateurs were running on lanes one and two, the 175-200cc Experts were goi ng at lane three. High mark for all the Novices was set by Brian Peterson on a 500cc Yamaha. He got up to 668 fee t, two inches . On the center la ne , Robert A. Peck set the overall high for Amateu rs at 650 feel. He was ridi ng a 499cc Ho nda. T he sma ll bikes in the Expert class weren't doing ' 50 well. Tha t la ne was rea lly ro ugh. The first class win there went to Sun ny Ho lmes of Texas on a 200cc Bu lra co . He got to th e 300 -foot m a rk e r . Seco n d p lace we nt to Cal ifo rnia n Steve Stit h on a 175 Honda. His footage was 280'3". It was o bvio us t hat the Texans a nd ~ Ca lifo rnians were going to be th e ones to beat today. From th is point on, classes bega n to m ix up well enough to keep the

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