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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126267
Tom Kelly finished second overall and - like his number plate - first 250. Balentine back in form at DRA By Jerry G. Welton Jimmy We inert in action at Sandy Oaks for the first time in any 125 Nationals. (Contin ue d from pag e 16) Mototwo 20 Sand really flew on the opening lap of the second rnoto as the Yamaha duo of Glover and Hannah disappeared down the starting straight's three foot whoops. using up the entir e track with their sideways lock to lock antics, Danny LaPorte was following a slower rider too close and spilled over in a high bermed turn . Gro ssi and Richter plowed in behind. All three were down nearly half a lap when they got going again. Rich ter broke his rear brake in the process, leaving him with no brakes at all. This was because none of the ri ders could use their front brak es in the deep. soft sa nd . T o do so meant an inst ant crash from a pl owin g fro nt wheel. By the seco nd lap the posi tio ns had sorted out to H a nnah pulling away with the lea d again. this tim e over Glover. Dan ny Turner . Wi se. Reid . Barnett . Myerscough, Keese . Cole and Ron T urner. Koji Masuda ste pped off in the whoops and had h is bike run o ver by another rider. breaking one of its rear shocks. . Positions remained fairly steady for the first half of the m oto then Dan Turner began drop ping back from his thir d place position. This moved Steve W ise u p in to third followed by Rei d a nd Ba rnett . T owards t he en d of the m oto LaPorte would m ake up en ough of the lost d istance after h is crash on the opening la p to work his way into fourth ahead of Ma rk Barnett. Re id would be bumped down a notch by Barnett to sixth. California hotshoe Danny " Magoo" Chandler had been running in eighth place after engine problems the first moto when he ran into one of the steel stakes holding up the snowfencing. Danny had to be taken to the hospital with undetermined inju ries. Bob cruised to his second moto win a good 50 seconds ahead of teammate Glover. " I liked the sand. The b ike worked good. If 1 can just finish the rest of the races 1 know I'll have a good shot a t the cham p ionsh ip ." Seems Yamaha had entered Hannah at bo th the Midland 125cc N ationa l and the Carlsbad 500cc GP to be held this following weekend. The Carlsbad entry would be used by Bob only if he had problems this weekend at Sandy O aks and wouldn't ride the re m ai ni ng 125cc Nationals. 250 Support The 1976 AMA National Amateur Cham pi on . Tad Pe rkins fr om Duncan Fa ll,O hio. pulled off the overall win in the Support cl ass. Tad worked up fro m a fifth place start in the first m oto pass ing Penton's Frank Sta cy a nd Mark Robillard on a H usky as the two battled over second posi tion most of the race . Stacy won ou t as he pulled away from Robillard near the end . The second moto was victo ry for J ohn " Actio n" Ayers as he wheeled his Yamaha arou nd th e course with the lead the entire rnoto afte r pulling the holesho t. Perkins m oved up to second pla ce' which proved good eno ugh for the overall win . • Results 12Sc:c Nat ional 1. Bob Hannah 2. Danny laPorta 3. Broc Glover 4. Gary Ogden 5. Warren Reid 6. Chuck Sun 7. Arlo Englund 8. Tony Wanket 9. Steve Wi .. 10. Koji Ma.uda 11. Mark Barnett 12. BillyGroaai 13. Brian Myerscough 14. Mika Guerra 15. Mika Jone. 16, David Bowman 17. Gene McCay 18. Peter Wankat 19. Dan Turner 20. Pat Richter 250cc Support · 1. Tad Parkin. 2. Frank Stacy 3. John Ayera 4. John Calathe. 5. Denny Swartz 6. Mark Robillard 7. Jaddy Greene 8. Rick Wal.worth • 9. Gary Pu.telac 10. Tony Ma.ciarelll 11. Greg Thei •• 12. Jay Clark 13. Jerry Sale. 14. Pat Snyder 15. David Meachez 16. John Kelly 17. David Word 18. Steven McNay 13. David Elli. ,20. Jeff Greenberg . 1·1 2-4 8-2 3-9 6-6 7·7 11·10 10-11 DNF·3 4-DNF -5 5-26 13-15 -8 9-22 19-12 14-17 18-14 12·20 DNf..13 1·2 2·3 7-1 ..... 8-7 3-10 10-5 9-8 8-11 11·9 15-16 12·13 14-16 17·14 21·12 18-15 16-18 20-19 19-22 25-17 Vam Suz Vam Suz Hon Hu. Hu. Vam Hon Suz Suz Suz Suz Hu. Hon Vam Vam Hon Suz Yam Pen Vam Ma i . Mal Hu. Vam Pen Suz Hu. Vam Suz ' KTM Hu. Suz Suz CALIFO RN IA CITY . CA, JUNE, 19 I houg h he crashed the previou s d ay. Bob Ba lentine (4 00 KT M) b rus ed it off and led nearly t he enti re race to win the Desert R acing Assn . (D RA ) hare scrambl es at California Cit y. Ama teur Alan Decker (250 Yam) led the anxious field of racers to the bomb with Gary Da vies (400 Yam). Ba lentine . Morga n Ma locco (400 IT). Ke n t Per kins (590 H us), a nd Pa t McEvoy (400 Yam ) following in close formatio n . Ba lent ine ga ined the lea d sho rt ly afte r the smoke after passing the h ard charging amateu r. Da vies and never reli nquis he d it. Davies went down at a ro ad cross ing a bo ut a m ile after the bom b . T om Kelly (250 KTM ) rod e strongly throug h d ust . ca tc hi ng an d overtaking Decker a bout seven m iles o ut. Mal occo was ru n ning well when h is kill butto n shorted ou t in a ro cky section of the cou rse . It took Mal occo little ti me to rem ed y t he situation , but in t he process he lost severa l places. Coming down the hill and into the pits at the co m pletion of the first of three loops it was Ba len tin e . About 40 seco nd s later Ke ll y arri ved wi th Decker and #552 right behind. Mike J o h nsto n (400 KT M) wa s th e next scooter to come down the hill with Malocco, Perkins and Davies trailing with a bit of space between eac h of them . Malocco solved his ea rly problems but Da vies' problems were st ill occu rri ng in the form of a broken swinga rm . Back at 16th pos itio n a battle was going on between Ken ny Upp ( 125 Ya m ) and John Foster ( 125 Yam) for the lig htweig ht lead with U pp having a slig ht advantage. On th e second lap Bal en tin e had p u lled a bo ut 40 seconds on Kelly. Mike J ohnston got by Deck er o n the second to u r of the co u rse and was twisting the throttle hard in a n effort to ca tch the lea ders. In the process he pu n ctured o ne of h is tires a nd develo pe d a slow leak . T h is did no t slow him mu ch . howeve r. and h e co nt inued out o n th e fina l exc u rsion of the 20 m ile co urse. Monte Lee (250 Yarn) was the victi m of a bad start a nd was only running 12th at the completion of the firs t go ro u nd. seventh by lap two. Nov ice R icha rd Zaji c (250 Su z) also broke in to the top lO on the second loo p after ru nning 15th on the previou s lap . Een tho ugh Ba lentin e let up on the last loop he still had a bit of a lead and took th e checkered flag j ust ahea d of teammate Kelly. Johnston was running third for the m ajo ri ty of t he last loo p but just before the finish he encountered wheel troubles a nd was unable to finish . Deck er was in fo r third d oing an o utstanding jo b of racing fin ishi ng ahead of Malocco. Perk in s co ntracted a flat ti re on the first la p and co ntin ued on to the Open Am ateu r win and fif th overall. Lee was in nex t with anothe r one of his consiste nt finishes a nd staying just far eno ug h a head of Open Junior win ne r Pat Mc Evoy to n ai l down sixth overall. Zajic put in a very go od effort fo r the day edgi ng out Eric Burney (59? Hus) for eigh th ove ra ll a nd first novice . After all o f t he probl ems encountered ea rlier in th e r ace , Davies also ha d to overcome his rear brake lock ing up to finis h in t he 10th spo t. John Foster pressed Ken Upp hard for the first two la ps . eve ntually ta king the lightweight honors du e to Upp's DN F. The Senior A mateur r ace was between La rry Upp (250 Yam) and the presisrent J a y Sh el d o n (250 Yam ). Sh eldon had trouble with his thro ttle sticking a nd consequently had to settle for second place. Vern Het h ( 125 Yam ) out-rode Elwi n J o h nso n (175 Yam) for the win in the Junior 0-200 Expert ro mp . It was no surprise to see pow der puff Lo ri Fa rmer (250 Bu l) bri ng home t he go ld . beating Nona R ichardso n (250 KT M), who rode her first ra ce as an amateur today. No vice Jolene Pa yne (175 KT M) rode up with the amateurs and was able to ta ke t he class victory over Mich ele Griffin (250 H us). Mi ke Van Ac he r ( 125 Ya m ) led o ve r all on t h e first lo op in the beginners race bu t the eve ntual winner was J ac k Fuller (25 0 Yam ) with Rob Poznoff ( 125 Yam) and Ste ve Hale (400 Yam) foll owing. Van Avcher had to sett le fo r fourth j ust a he a d of Danny Van Ac her ( I 75 Yam). It was a not her good day fo r racing with cle ar skies and good wa rm wea t her. ' A sligh t b reeze kept the afternoon enj oyable . T he , course was fas t and u sed ruts and roc ks for o bstacles. Most riders I tal ke d with see med to enjoy the ra ce a great dea l. Resu lts in Resu lts Section.