Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

DeAnza 125 Pro w inner Rodney Brand leads hard-luck Steve Bauer. Brand wins special Pro class at De AnzaD-37MX By Ron Lawson SUNNYMEAD, CA,JUNE 12 DeAnza Cycle Park tried something different last week. The race on June 5 was pre-empted because of the world champion- 26 ship hillclimb, so all the DeAnza regulars had two weeks of racing saved up. They came out in force, but they were met by a different club . Instead of the usual Moreno Valley M .C .. AMA District 37's Simi Valley M.C . had control of the event and there were quite a few changes. Number one on the list was no payback to the pros. Needless to say, this had more than a few riders upset, so a group led by Jim and Shirley Dickherber organized the 125 Pros into paying an extra 10 dollars each to make a purse. Everyone was willing and the races were soon underway. In moto one. Steve Bauer (DG Hon) grabbed an immediate lead. Rodney Brand (Suz) , was . buried back in the pack . along -with . Mike Dickherber (Suz) . l'he two riders moved up swiftly until Dickherbei . crashed, leaving Brand to contend with Bauer. Brand was slowly reeling in the DG rider, but the race was coming into ' the last half and it was going to be close. It was on the ninth lap that Bauer went down while weaving through a clump of lapped riders. Brand went on by and maintained an equal lead for the remainder of the 20-minute race. Mark Barnes rode smoothly in for a third . In round two, Bauer once again got the holeshot. Dickherber, however, was right behind. Br a nd was in fifth behind Barnes and Dennis Vetter (Suz). It took him only five laps to catch up to the battling duo in the lead. Dickherber edged by Bauer for the lead, but the three riders were. so close that anything could happen. A short whi le later, Bra nd also displaced Bauer although he couldn't open up any distance at all. The trio ci rcled the track within inches of one another until Bauer dropped out with mechanical trouble. On the very same lap , Dickherber made a costly mistake which allowed Bran d to go by and on to his second win. Barnes once again finished third, which gave him second place money. _ . Final results are still pending. Perkins, Rainey split Corona wins By Elaine Jones CORONA , CA , JUNE 8 Danny Perkins climbed aboard Butch Silva 's new 750 Yamaha for a test ride and ended up turning fast time for the night with a 23 .86 on the half mile. Perkins was impressed and it had to be quite a ride for a young man who spends most of his time aboard the smaller 250s . His 250 did the job in the Money short track but it was one heck of a race between him and Mike Minnig. Minnig took it off the line and was really cooking. Perkins got off third behind Shawn Leipold but by lap two had moved into second. Minnig had enough time to make a pretty good gap , but Perkins began to whittle away the lead. It took six laps to do it and Perkins finally caught him in a drag race for tum one. The last five laps had the same race in reverse and at the wire it was Perkins , Minnig and Steve Fortune who had taken Leipold on the ninth lap. Wayne Rainey was in top form for the Money half mile and did his usual wire to wire number. Terry Statum, coming off a win in the Open Experts, was in second for two laps before Perkins found a hole and got by. Leipold had locked into third but was out of the duel between Rainey and Perkins. Perkins gave it everything he had but had to , settle for second. Leipold held off a strong challenge by Minnig to take the third . Rainey also added the 250 Expert half mile, winning it in pretty much the same way . Really starting to turn on , Terry Singleton was second ahead of Joe Steffen. Singleton did claim the 250 Expert short track. Steffen had it off the line and held it for two laps before Singleton was able to get a wheel under him and take over the lead. Pete Hames and Todd Brown shared the 125 Expert honors. Hames really let it hang out setting a lap time of 20.85 on the short track which was bettered only in the Money race, with a 20 .76 . Todd Brown and Chris Cannon were close behind for second and third . Hames , all set to go on the half mile , developed problems on the line and the two minute hold wasn't enough to get him running. Brown was more than happy to take over the first place honors with Cannon second and Rodney Rainey third. Denny Aguirre , tech man for the Wednesday night flat track, took his last ride on his just-sold machine and came awa y with the win in the Open Amateur half mile. Unknown to the officials, Aguirre and th e flat track enthusiast ambulance crew had planned their own little farewell. Aguirre had also signed up for the expert class and when the checkered came ou t he faded back and laid his bike down between turns three and four. The announcer having been clued to what was coming down played along with the little drama as the ambulance rushed to the scene, red lights flashing. It all became apparent, when Dusty, the head paramedic, pulled a revolver and shot Denny's bike , that a number had been played on all of us. • Results in Results Section . (Above) AME Double winner Mark Lawrence ahead of Jerry Shore (23) and Bob Kline. (Below ) Will Harper (5) finished third in t he 500 Pros. VALENCIA , CA, JUNE 5 make Klassen mad and he slides up on the tank , you can keep that wild Yamaha on the ground. get the holeshot . and take a first for that moto . Pete was so far ahead in the second moto , he looked lonesome. Kenny Watts got it together on a brand new Yamaha for first overall in the novice class . Art Bergeron took second; Roger Roessler from Santa Barbara, was in for third . "Holeshot Kid" Coffman disappeared in the first moto, end ing up in the back of the pack. He came back in the second moto in second and got that Coffmanstyle holeshot in the third moto and took a first , finally ending up in fourth overall . • Those Hot-Doggers in the Master class made Maico music as the Old Timers raced with CRC, with Marvin Olson, John Maroney AMEMX: Lawrence strikes Olson's Maico makes music in Old Timer's MX By Betty Bird and Big Jim Warden going for it with Olson taking the big one. Strange things happen to the Old Timers. In the Expert class, Bob Millner was heard singing to Bill Bird. Millner can't carry a tune, but he got that "bump· start" Husky in third , while Cal Browning hooked a second . It was Richard Lyons with a 1·1-1 for the win . Amateur " Bro ad way John" Webb took the class gold . He says it only cost him $8,342.14 to win that first place, but it was worth every dime! Boyce Williams took second , Dick Mosely third. Pete Klassen couldn't figure out how to keep his 400 Yamaha from hillclimbing off the start - his starts were always bad. Well, we found out if you twice By Lee Taylor VALENCIA, CA, ]UNE 12 Monte McCoy (KTM-Mid-Valley) took home top money in the 500 Pros. In the first moto, Will Harper (Mai-Cole Bros.) jumped into the lead with Chris Know lto n in second and McCoy running third. Tom Claire moved on into third , but McCoy gave chase and Claire was really laying the pressure on Knowlton . Going down into the gully, both Claire and McCoy got by Knowlton . Heading down into the sandwash loop, McCoy went high on a

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