Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

IAbovel MX is fun. Mike Brownlee demonstrates at Mosier Valley.IBelowl Trey Jorski 1491 won this 125 Expert mota at Mosier Valley, but Richard Reeves 1431 conquered overall with a 2-2. ' . , Tessier's long legs were an advantage . as he flung the Honda 'a t a 45° angle at' the berm and out onto the straightaway. Mitchell again put the charge on but to no avail as they would hit another comer. One lap to go and Mitchell knew it was now or never. He found the spot and slipped around Tessier to take the lead and overall. Tessier finished second with Mr. Consistency, Rex Guy" in third. • Results in Results Section. Haney stars in Rio Brav o MX ...- By L. J. Duplichan RIO BRAVO, TX,jUNE 19 Joe Tessier's best shot fades in SRAC 125 Amateur MX t, By Unda Donelson COLORADOSPRGS, CO, JUNE 19 125 Amateurs were 23 strong and as determined as usual at S.R.A.C. 's Aztec Raceway MX. As the first moto was called to , 44 the line , JOe Tessi~r (Cycle Center) was the favorite for the holeshot. Sure enough, 'the Honda shot off the line in front of the pack with Matt Stephens (Suz) slipping into second and jim Mitchell (Yam) in third. Tessier knew he had his work cut out for him. As they approached the back straight' away Stephens and Mitchell were breathing down his neck. Lap after lap they continued to stay this way with very little daylight between the riders. Until, one lap before the checkered, Mitchell jumped in front of both riders with a burst of speed and held on for the final lap. Tessier was second, Stephens third and Rex Guy (Sui) fourth . Second moio and the crowd was excited, with everyone betting who would pull the holeshot. It was Matt Stephens starting at the far inside of the gate, with Tessier in second. As they approached the ess turns, suddenly Stephens was back in the pack and Tessier again had control, ahead of Mitchell and Guy in third. Tessier was fighting with all the Honda would give, determined not to repeat the first rnoto.' Mitchell was in second, pushing the Yamaha to the max, and pulled up within one tire width of Tessier. Into the comer The 125 Intermediate class provided some of the day's most thrilling action. as James Haney and Bennie Noska squared off. Iii the first moto, Noska poured on the power and managed to get to the flag ahead of Haney. .T he second and tie breaking moto , Iiowever, belonged to Haney as he pulled the trigger early and shot to a slim lead when the finish line was in sight. Haney's 125 victory served as a warm up for some more recognition as he completely disregarded the stifling heat to enter the 250 class. In the first moto, he managed a fifth place finish , but came back strong in the Second heat to post a win over David Vawter. When the points were tallied, it was Vawter in first place, but Haney's points were good for third, just behind Jamal Mahay. In other action, Jeff Wilson, a newcomer to motocross , mounted a big japanese jumbo Yamaha and served notice that he would be a ' con tend er for Open class honors . , Wilson rode a close second to speeding Allen Gibson in both motos, Gibson claimed the win while Wilson settled for some second place hardware in the , -- redhot competition . In expert action , it was Clint Ward taking charge early in the race to win both motos for the first , p lace cash. Results in Results Section . Schneider (Yam) opened the '77 season with some typically close Aspen roadracing. Although racing in the beginners' class , Scott and Schneider's duel provided some of the" most exciting . racing of the day, with Scott finally victorious. Other racers dicing it up were .Da le Ebersole (Yam) and Bruce.Sass (Yam) , who fought hard over the Formula Two GP race:Although Sass holds the Mountain Roadracing Assoc. Number One plate, Ebersole managed to pull out a win in this class . Sass didn't leave the track without victory, though . He took first in four ' r a ces, second in two others, and brought home a third in ,Formula One GP . Entered in seven classes on his Yamaha 500 single, Sass finished in the top three in each class. In addition to his MRA successes, Sass has been racing on the AMA national circuit, and has qualified for an expert number next year. However, David Old, Dale Ebersole and Keith Pestotnik all gave Sass tough competition at Aspen , Pestotnik finished ahead of Sass in the Open Cafe race, but it was close all the way. Pestotnik's very trick Kawasaki Z·1 ' met its match in David Old's TZ250 in the Formula One GP class, though . Aspen's tight circuit gave the lighter, more nimble TZ250 the edge. In contrast to these closely fought races, the production ,racers spread out quickly. Due to the surprising lack of entries,' MRA officials com bined all production classes . This resulted in some spread, out racing. Beaver Enderle, riding a surprisingly swift Z·1 Kawasaki , lapped everyone in the race except second place Jim johnson, riding an R90S , who also finished out of sight of third place, where the real racing began. With the Le Mans starts for production races finally abolished . the more popular live engine start is expected to attract more production racers. Still, about 75 racers met at • this Aspen racing opener. Results in Results Section. Alford w ins Mineral Wells hillclimb By Diane Polley MINERAL WELLS , TX ,JUNE 12 Sass in top three in seven cla sses at Aspen By Debbie Johnson ASPEN , CO,jUNE 12 Changing leads almost every lap, Mark Scott (Hon) and Chris The 400-foot hill at Mineral Wells was .dry, slick and dusty this month after perfect traction in May. Gearing changes were the name of the game and fewer riders made the top and most of those who did went slower. Even though Will Alford continues to dominate the 250 class on his Bultaco, a real battle had shaped up behind him. For a while it looked as if Duffy Douglas had second sewed up but some of the other riders had other ideas. Douzlas could not get a fourth today, even with extra runs because of clock troubles. Jerry Cruise and his Suzuki really looked good on the hill andhe edged Mike Ethridge (Suz) out of second with a 15:52-second run . - Ethridge crashed right on front of the announcer's stand on his second try and that finished the day for him. Henry Polley seems to like twostroke , 500cc Yamahas . He has been very successful on his this year and even tliough he did not like either one of his runs today he captured another first with consistent runs of 15.14 and then 15~33 seconds. Duffy Douglas (Yam) turned a 15.36 on his first try and then did it again on the second try for second. In the Open 'class. Mike jonesand his 1000 triple thought their second run of 14.88 had things wrapped up but Henry Polley tbought otherwise. After Tom Hairston had troubles and cou ld not find the groove with his 750 Triumph, Polley checked out the times and tried the hill one more time. He had a smooth run with a minimum of 'a ir time over the- jumps to edge jones out of first by X••th-second with 14.87 seconds. jones put chains on' his 1000 for the Exhibition class and things looked good. On his first try he went over in 14.39 seconds for the fast time of the day, Will Alford (370 Bul) eased him out with a 14.21 on his second run but Jones thought that there were some more Beans in the Triumph for the second run . After a near perfect run he had to be told that the clock had not started, so he did it again and looked better. The clock did not start again . Jones' tire chain had broken and -' hit the drive chain on top so before he could try again, he and Tom Hairston had to fix it. Heat and fat igue had taken their toll and jones could not repeat. Alford got top time of the day. • Results in Results Section. Dan Hu ls w ins MSMRAevent By Bo b Cardwell CORVALLIS, MT . MAY29 Dan Huls, riding his red-tank ,Maieo , put it all together to win , the Open class at the Montana State Motorcycle Racing Association 's point race in Corvallis. Montana . The track. located in Huls' I l'",lure, was well prepared, sandy and - eventually - extremely rough . The race site w~s in the beautifu l Bitter Root ' Valley, 50 miles south of Missoula . 228 riders participated in nine classes for the over $1 ,600 in purse. Riders came from Montana, Idaho, Washington. and Canada for the Memorial Day meet. Expert Randy Krieter, Billings, had a very bad day , crashing in both the 125cc class and the Open class . Randy was carted off to the Ravailli Co . Hospital after the second one, but was released after examination and will be able to ride next week in the Billings , Motorcycle Club's Money Moto, which he won last year. _ Rick Gate from Lewiston , Idaho won the 250cc Expert class on his RM250. Don Harding from Missoula , riding for Mike Tingley Suzuki, won the 125cc class, going away after Krieters crash . Harding was most consistent. also finishing second in the Open class. • Results in Results Section. '

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