Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

(Abovel Good times at the Plumas County Fair by Western States Racing Assn. (Below) Mike (118) Inderbiizen and Brian (19) Thompson in Oakdale duel. - As the second moto got underway it was noted that none of the top five . front runners had bcen among the winners in moto one. Mark Gardner . (Mai) was leading with Mike Spratt (Ya m )', Glenn W illis ( H us) and Derrick Knepper (H us) running in the next three spo ts. The fron t four were th isclose as they negotiated th e twisty track , a nyone of th em ca p ab le of grabbing th e lead, On th e fou rt h lap Willis missed a shi ft , allowing Nance , who had slip pe d pa sr -Knepper, .in ro third . Nance ad vanced to seco nd, and th en the lead as th e riders he aded around on thei r last lap . Coming out of the back section it wa s Gardner again in front with Nance close by in second and Willis back in thi rd . Gardner got the moto win but Nance , by virtue of his fir st and second , took the overall. ' • There were 29 riders in the Open Novice class and Bri an Otto (CI ) swapped wins with J.B . Cyclery racer John Schloer (CI) . Otto took the first moto, moving by Schloer in the closing laps. and Schloer grabbed the early lead in moto two holding on to win ahead of Otto. Third in both moros was Alan Younger (Ya m) who put in two very consistent rides. Over a thousand peopl e paid admission to the ra ce , wh ich was th e second-to -last event on the Ridge Runners' 1977 sched ule. A swarm of bees kept the early arri vals company, b ut the bees gave up their good sea ts when they found out th ey couldn't com pete with the buzzin g of the two • strokes. Results in Resu lts Sect ion . Cantaloupi, Turner and WaUer do it By Sallee Hilto n DIXON , CA , AUG , 21 was in a first turn p ile-up in m ot o one and began his cha rge from wa y back in th e pack. On the sec ond lap th e three. leaders, Dan Ge ery (Y am) . Tim W orth (Suz) a nd Scott Karl (Suz). a ll cras he d sep arately a t abou t th e sa me ti m e o n . t he d ifficul t . down h ill sta ircase in th e fro nt sectio n of the course. This put Randy Kerslake, o n th e K&R Cycle Products Suzuki into the lead. but he was passed by Phi l Crane (Suz) a la p la te r. Meanwh ile Bra nd was moving stead ily through the pack. along with ' Mik e Marquez whose T urner Racin g Suzuki had also been involved in the first turn m ishap. Brand a nd Marqu ez picked off rider afte r ride r as th ey m ad e th eir way to seco nd and fourth • pla ce finis hes in the m ote . C ra ne . who had taken the lea d earlier. went on to win t he first rou nd . In th e second ou ti ng, Brand was off the line in good posit ion and bu ilt up a fair ly good lead , never cha lle nged as he went o n to win . Marquez was seven th at th e en d of th e first la p a nd agai n worked his / way th roug h the crowd 10 fin ish secon d . This gave Brand th e overa ll and Ma rquez second for the day . 38 An other co me- fro m -be h ind rid er wa s Tim H eb ard (Suz) wh o d ice d throu ghout th e first moto of th e 125 Amateu r I event with Brian Bowen (Suz). finall y ge tti ng by on th e seco nd to last lap to win th e moto . In th e second go around , Hebard came off the line in the middle of the pack while Bowen j u m ped to an earl y le ad . Hebard began quickly to m ove up , bu t was'side line d a few moments with bik e problems. droppin g him way back aga in . Bowen went o n 10 win th e rn oto , and the ra ce . wh ile Hebard had to fight to regain a 12th place finish in m o to tw o . The h ard r iding was rewarded though, because when th e overa ll re su lt s ca me o ut , H ebard found he had finis he d t hi rd , high enough for a goo d-si zed trop hy. Larry W osick (Ya m) led the way as the 250 Experts took to the track . winning the first m ot o going away. Se cond in rn oto one was Jero me Heiberger ( Mai) who had cha rged steadily through th e field to slip into that spot o n the last lap . I n m oto two it was again W osick with the first la p lea d , but J im Lesn iewski ( Ma i) m ot ored by o n lap four to grab the fr o nt SP01. W osick and H eibe rger d ueled for seco nd the rest of the race with Eric McKen n a (Ya m) lurking in fo urt h spot wai ting for a brea k . McK enn a got his chance when Heib erger lost a chain on th e fina l lap. McK en n a took ove r third for a fourth overa ll fini sh a nd Heiber ger had to give up a su re th ird overa ll. Dou g Swarthout looked fast as he cha rged to th e front of th e Open Amateur class o n his ncwly rebuilt Suzuk i, bu t it was not his day as another rider tangled with him in th e ba ck secti on , tak in g both down . Dav e Nance (Ya m) grabbed th e lead when Swarthout spilled and set a stro ng pac e with Paul Ryan (Suz) following and Rod Hines taking th ir d on his Bultaco . Winning a race without spokes is pretty tricky , but Dan Waller pulled it offl Waller had to push his Maico to its utmost to win th e ' first Open Expe rt m oto . Ta d Gumbmann , th e su per fast winner a t Hangt own , had his KTM way , wa y ou t fro nt until some sort of m echanica l fai lure stopped him . W all er ied o ne lap a nd just before th e whitc flag ca rne ou t. he not iced a rea r end wobble . Hc had lost spo kes. As th e spo kes co ntinued 10 snap , seco nd pla ce Ern ie Sullivan closed th e gap, · an d was on th e verge of ta king over when he crasHed.· Jeff Loff (H us) had been on the m ove since t he begi nning of the m oro . taki ng o ne o r two rid ers every lap , a nd was n ow in the second spot . H e co u ld n' t help but not ice th a t the bike in front of him had a d efin ite pro blem and his eyes lit up as he gassed it. W ith th e checkered flag in sigh t Loff was closing fast , but Waller hu ng in there for the win wit h only a few fee t to spare a nd no sp okes . In the second m or o Gumbm ann pulled away from the pack aga in , and this t ime had t he bi ke running pro perl y all the way. It was a n easy win . W all er and Loff sta rted m id -pack a nd worked their way u p together , fina lly bo th ge tti ng by Ted Roger s' KTM in ti me 10 cla im th e seco nd an d th ird . W all er p rob ab ly had to sp end all of his winnings o n his rear wheel. T he first 250 Ex p ert m oto was esta blished a t the sta rt of th e race when Danny T u rner ( Kaw) lef t t he gate o ut fr o nt fo llowed by Tad Gu mbmann, now on a Mai co, the n Donnie C a ntal oupi ( Ya m) , Fourth place underw ent severa l cha nges, and Dav id W ood (Ya m) had it at th e end. The second moto was more interesting , From the beginning Cantaloupi, Turner , Gumbmann , John Minor (Suz ) and Wood all went out ahead of the pack and stayed close. About halfwa y Turner began moving o n Cantaloupi, then passed and th en left h im behind. Gumbmann also made the move around Cantaloupi. By the end of the race : the front three were nearly half a lap ahead of fourth place Minor. Danny Turner was kick ing back with plenty of ti me 10 tak e the flag before being overtaken. O verall payoffs went th e same as th e fin ish with Wood getting the fifth and final cash , The 125 class had Turner and . Cantaloupi dicing it out again , th is tim e join ed by Don Ferraro (Suz), and David Ernst (Ya m) in th e first moto. Ernst led the e a rly stages, but Cantaloupi was right behind him waiting for the opportunity to take over, which he managed . Ferra ro scooped Ernst , and then it was Turner's turn . Ernst had had enough of that stu ff, a nd held out against the next challenger, Danny Willis (Ya m) . Ferraro took th e lead in the second m oto but Turner was right on his tail. Cantalou pi spent several laps gradually closing the g

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