Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

i NORTIERN DATEl.ItE ~ E Steve Bast had the holeshot and the inside line. MacMurray, Woods and Robinson pursued. SACRAMENTO , CA AUG . 12 although th ree of th e younger Vets were a hea d of him in on e moto. Fredric' Marsh (Bul) was th e seco nd plac e Old Timer. Sta n Stanton (Suz). Dennis Hausman n (Suz) a nd Bill W ellman (Yam) wer e th e fastest of th e Vet s with their overall finish in tha t order. • Resul ts in Resu lts Sect ion The second race of a series of Fri day night motocross events at Sacramento ,R acewa y . drew a large number of participants and spectators who took advantage of Pioneer resumes Summer Short Track Series Lance Beauchamp, 16, beats Open Pros at Sacto By Sallee Hilton 22 . th e m ild weather to pu rsue th eir favortie pastime . Lance Beauchamp, a 16·year-old Hu sky rid er from Carmichael, took home the big bucks in th e 500 Pro class. Beauchamp turned in some beau tifu l rid es aga in st t he m or e experience riders. He has only been rid ing th e p ro class for six weeks an d is comi ng on stron g. Also a fai rly new rider in the class, Jeff An selm o (Mai). was t he second place man. John Minor (Su z) , a m aj o r contende r of late, dominated th e 250 Pro s winning all three mot os by a healthy margin . Ra y Spore (Yam) collect ed for the seco nd spo t. Dana Wa xh am , 16, added to his winn ing stre ak. taking three motos and the iop overall cash of th e night. Pat Yoho (Ya m) was t he closest com petition. Yoho has also been on an upsw ing at recent area races . Scott Henry (Suz) picked up th e money far third overall in this class . A very ' qu ick Harley in the second d ivision of the 250 Junior class was piloted by Jeff Stadel to a second place overall with firs t going to Ken Breneisen (Suz). The previous Friday night Breneisen had also won , but Stadel had had trouble keeping up. with his Harley. In one of the best ra ces of the evening, 125 Junior, Division IV , four up-and-corning (and maybe soon to be intermediates) riders put on a good show . Ken McKenzie (KTM ) had all three firsts, but only by "the skin of his teeth" after dicing and swapping the lead all the way' through the races. His competition was from Mike Harper (Suz) and Daryl Askew (Suz) Russ Whetten (Hon) got into the act a few times too. After the points were tallied , Askew cam out second overall, with Whetten third and Harper only managed the fourth due to a bad finish the first time out, followed by two seconds. Old Timer John McClure (Yam) s howed t he r est of the grou p , including Vets , the way to go . He can hardly be dubbed " Over the Hill " By Ann Carr OAKDALE. CA . AUG. 13 Short Track racing resumed on a weekl y basis at Pionee,: Arena this weekend with 198 bikes and eight Odyssey cars entered. a ge nera lly sm oot h but consta ntly d ryin g track presented in te resting battles from hea ts to mai ns. Top m in i ex perts experienced mixed success toni ght as get offs by Bla ck Pl ates #1 and #7 , Do ug Chandler. and Bru ce Johnson , in' th e heat left cu rr ent point leader Tracy Ha ys with a free hand in th e large 80 Exp ert main . T racy respo nded with a runaway first over J ames Mason an d Mike W ilson who inherited positions after a throw n ch ain pitc hed hardtharging Ch ris Car r off following the second corner. Ch andler returned in the 100 Expert ma in to a win over J ohnson wh ile Hays bit th e du st in this one. Sixty -five ri ders competed in t he three 250 classes. TheJorgy's Ca n-Arns of Mike West , Richard Arnaiz, and Kim Jorgensen ripped off firsts in a ll three classes. West won his th ird novice ma in in a row and probably bought junior cards fo r next week while Arnaiz grabbed a ha rd -fough t fi rs t over Pa ul Green and Gary Gallagher . These three swa p pe d positions several times befo re Richard came out on top in the junior event . Jorgy meanwhile ran awa y with his second expert main consecutively and moved up on both the white and gold plate lists . J imbo Felice grabbed a strong second over Lowe , Haneyj and Davidson in a hotly contested main from third back. Short track .racing will continue at Pioneer eve ry Saturday night through September 17. The Valley's fifth annual Labor Da y short track series will continue as usu al with events at Newman Friday night (second), Oakdale on Satu rday nig ht (thi rd). and Lod i on Sunda y night and Monday afternoon (fourth and fifth ). • Results in Results Section Rick Woods was second in the NorCaI Speedway Championship. Steve Bast wins NorCal Speedway Championship By Stephen J. Rooney. Jr. SACRAMENTO. CA. AUG. 12 The excitement of Champion ship racing went right down to the next-to last event at the NorCal American Motorcyclist Assn. (A MA) Speedwa y Championships. T he Cal-Expo affair saw two former National Champions tied for the lead as th ey came to th e starti ng tapes fo r event number 19. Steve Bast had won all of his previous starts and now had to face Rick Woods who also was undefeated in the all scratch program. Rich MacMurray , defending Expo champ, was also in the race along with 1976 W ine Cup Champion Dennis Rubinson. Robinson had the pole with Bast in the number two spot . MacMurray was on the wall with Woods rolling into the number three position. As th e tapes sprung up, Bast made it to the tum first . MacMurray. coming from the outside, dove under Bast as they exited the tum . forc ing Woods to the outside line. Down the backstretch it was three abreast with Bast back on the pole, MacMurray in the middle and Woods against the wall. Robinson was also close to the pack. Exiting turn two and heading for the start/finish line, Bast was able to pull his Kirby Motors Westlake into the lead. Woods settled with ' MacMurray by catching him on the inside as they completed lap number one. Woods chased Bast for the next three laps and although he could pull even , Steve was not to be denied this victory and shut the gate on Woods to take th e win . In the meantime , MacMurray developed mechanical problems and Robinson rode home in the number three position . Bast can now add th e Nor-Cal AMA Speedway title to his impressive list of titl es, which includes two National Ch ampionship s, six State titles, and the Indoor Championship at San Francisco's Cow Pa lac e. Rick W oods. for mer three-time Natio n a l C h amp ion , is s howi ng marked im proveme n t everytime he pu ts his wheels on the track. Rick , ha ving laid off for over a year and a half, has been riding a factory Jawa four valve . for W ebster Engineering of Mill Vall ey, th e West Coast d istributor for the Jawa speedway machines. As th ere are no regularly scheduled speedway races for th e next three weeks in Northern California, Woods ma y take the opportunity to journey to the Southland for more practice on his new machine. Mike Faria, on the Karls Motors four-valve Jawa , was able to cross the finish line in the lead only two times all night . However, Mike had three second places for a total of 12 points, good enough for third place . Leonardo Lincoln-Mercury-sponsored Rich MacMurray, on his Neil Street four-valve picked up I I . points and fourth place. Lightning Larry Shaw, on the Jack Gormley Briggo machine, gathered 10 points and the number five position. Promoter AI Lauer, through a _couple of old friends, Ed Thaddeus and "Pappy" Burns, arranged a tribute to the Fort Sutter Motorcycle Club. The club, one of the earliest in Sacramento, had been one of the sole _ sources of motorcycle competition in the area for a number of years, before disbanding in 1974 . Trophies were awarded to Audrey Spieth and Robert Casara for their important work in staging the speedway races this year. In junior action, Steve Lucero , on the Lucero Machine Works Honda , caught Lance King at the finish line and took the win by about half of a wheel. , • Results in Results Section.

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