Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126279
; t._._._._._._._._._ ~_._._._._._._._._._._._. =Western hotline ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. . . - ~ t t"'t"'O') ...... IAbovel ECRA racers stir up the dust at Racing Wo rld. IBelowl Robert Marino awaits the start of the Irwi ndale King of the Hill race. Raceway is really q uite a happening, and the Friday night race is attracting a lot of specta- and a crowd of sportsmen. The 125 Pro battle was made up of 12 fast racers, and the best bet ' was the overall winner Gregg Toyama , riding for the Flying Machine Factory of Harbor City. His favorite machine was always a fast Honda , but now Gregg is on one of the ' new RM machines. Amazingly , even with heavy competition, Gregg led every lap in the first moto. Teammate Ron Turner was just a short distance behind: 1n the second and final rnoto Mike Brown, just out of the minicycle ranks. led the first lap. By lap two , Toyama resumed the first place position , wh ich gave him the first overall honors over Turner, Chris Herma OBS). Brown, Wayne Wells, Matt Devich, Russ Eide , Jim Erwin , Bobby McGregor. Scott Clifton and Ray O 'Brien. • Results in Results Section. Halford tops fast Snowflake 100 By John Ehrhart TAYLOR. AZ, AUG. 21 Jim Halford got back on form to win the second annual (ADRA) Snowfla ke 100. He took the lead in the timed 20 race by the end of the first la p and breezed to a n unchallenged victory on his Open class Ya maha. Bob Shepard and Dave Miller. both O pe n Experts. followed Halford. All three are from the Phoenix area . A.L. Haydis won the 250 Expert class, finishing fourth overall. . Some riders were unhappy about the course, saying it was too fast. "It was definitely an open-bike course," said Tom Sch oe m ig , second 125 Expert. "They could really fly on those long straights." Surprisingly, fifth overall was th e 125 of Dale Hutchins from Parker. AZ. John Gardner won Open Amateurs and finished seventh overall. Another amateur, Jim Edmonds. flew his ancient Penton 250 to first in his class and 12th overall . Usual top five finishers Daryll Tussing of Gila Bend and Phil Bird of Phoenix placed 19th and 20th overall. Bird had some problems with his spark arrestor. manda tory for this event. H e was not the only one to have problems with this though . Most made an extra effort to make it back to th e pits after hearing the coyote chorus the night before. The 250 Novices didn't have the victory decided b y mechan ical problems, however. One minute separate the first three pla ces . Dominic Paddock traveled f r om Parker to beat Larry Cullen by about seven seconds in his first race as a Novice. Cullen's brother Steve had th e only broken bone, an ankle, during the entire race . There were 280 entires. Tom Albertino brought his Penton 250 out from the enduro wars of Illinois to explore the joys of desert racing. He won the 250 Beginner battle, but not after discovering the desert tank slapper. He said he'll wear a kidney bel t in the future. • Resu lts in Resu lts Section. Irwindale MX: Denton does it in the dark By Tom Corley IRWINDALE . CA. AUG. 26 CMC _ Motocross at Irwindale tors. Since there isn't much happening locally they figure that the best way to spend the evening is howling in the grandstands and watching the show of. night dicing which always includes plenty of 'spectator pleasing crashes. One of the finest racers at the track has been Gary Denton , currently the Night Nationals Champ. Gary won the title on a f25 , but now is winning in the 250 Pro class , on a hot machine from Suzuki of Pomona. He was on the gas all night. won all three motos for th e overall win . The toughest competition cam e from Mark " Mad ma n " Lawrence, on e of the best riders out of the Crown Cycle Shop. Lawrence captured second overall and also won the 125 Pro event and beat Jeff Vidic in th e " King of the Hill" race. Vidic hooked third overall in th e 250 dice over Tim Lunde . Bill Chapin, Ron Stablein, Gene Martin , Brian Anderson and Kell y Carlisle. Results in Results Section. " By the light of the brown paper bags" Riverbottom Grand Prix "For go it!" By George Th erm al SOMEWHERE NORTH OF PHOENIX , AZ , AUG. 27 According to the ancient records of the Old Ones, there is nothing written that requires a Riverbottom Grand Prix to be near a river. Or a bottom , for that matter. Armed with this bit of information, a water truck was waved over the secluded Brothers Wonderful track. and uoilal, a " R iverbottom " appeared. In an effort to obtain a respite from the grueling Arizona summer sun , the event started on Saturday night. It wain ot a coincidence that it was a full moon evening either, proving that . so me planning went into the production. In fact , several porta b le generators were available. as were some 68 cand les in brown paper bags ("Trojan short markets ," for you exboxb oys) . The basic p lan was to outline the MX track wit h the luminous paper bags , and go for it by the light of the moon. Hopefully a few training laps would be run during the . day. Hopefully. The first evening moto lined up under the stars and included some stars: H. Kirby (rides hard: never trophies) . Dave Van Fleet (fresh off of a disc operation) and Paul Proto , exercising his cheater's clause b y running a Super Oscar. It may be informative to elaborate: the only rule of the RVG P is that there are no rules. When the dust had cleared after the flag . it was Harry Kirby out in front. Since Harry had laid out the course. he had a legal unfair "ad va n ta ge. which he took to the finish , low doggin' it the full five-lapper. Proto lost his headlight early in he second lap and, with it , his advantage. So it ended: Kirby, Proto, Van Fleet. and Spuds. After the MX warm -up , racing moved to the short track event. Full y lit with a variety of Cibies, KC's and flood lights, the course was ready for some close racing. Hundreds of fans were not about to be disappointed . Five-bike heats were run for five laps, or morning. which ever came first. Officious starter Dean-O-rama flagged off the first wave of cannonfodder , with Mesa 's own Tony Pierce taking the lead (400 YZ), closely followed by the ' Du ke of Mesa and Paul Proto (250 W R) . "Rocket Rex " H" on somebody else's bike as usual , couldn't take the pace and fell back to fourth. After some pretty close dicing (and shredding), Pierce put T he Du ke away for the win . Fifth place was taken 'way back by Bob Nei ll/ Bob Brizzee on a TM 400 sid ecar . T he second race saw quite a bit of lea d cha nging as some ou t -of-sta ters battled for the glory. G riswold; Iowa's favorite son, (not of Sam. either) Steve Pro kop (326 Bu l) took the lead at the "go" flag, but was cut off out of the first turn by Ruffus Jones, recently back from Denver (Rocky Mtn. High School) . Prokop was quickly ta ken over by Ra ul Splanks , fr om the Wrecking Crew, and eve ntually