Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

••••••• i •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• PlpellDe Roger Brown won the first Rabbit Ibl Open Expert moto: mechanicals slowed him to eighth the sacond round. - On the ,Crasted Butte Enduro trail. ,A.C. Bakken returns; wins amateur class? By Don Clery CRESTED BUTTE, CO, AUG . 28 Over 260 riders of varying abilities showed up for the second annual Crested Butte Mountain Enduro. "Rocks" was the cuss- 36 word. Within five miles of the start you could see more than 50 'rid ers at a time scattered hither and yon in an attempt to top the rocky Paradise Bowl. For some 25 it was futile ; that set the stage for another 100 miles of rocky road. ' . California guest rider A.C . Bakken and partner Marc Cartwright fared well until Cartwright's bike augered. A.C . went on to win the Open Amateur class (that he' inadvertently signed up in). _ Weather was fantastic , unlike last year's snowy fiasco. A little bit of snow was still lying around on the north side of the 13 .000 foot peaks and the temperature was great for riding . Colorado Springs rider and current point leader. in d ie SRAC Enduro circuit, Steve Mathiesson (Pen) , won first overall with a convincing ' II points. Second overall and first Open Expert was Chadren, Nebraska's Floyd Stretch with 16 points. Good riders did well and thought the course was one of the best in the state, while the inexpe rienced ' riders and those with poor equipment either DQ:d or DNFd and/or bitched. Thirteen-year-old Loren Reindorph showed how it was done as she completed the 11O-mile course in fine order. A standing ovation from race officials back at race headquarters made it all worth while for little Ms. Reindorph. Drigan Weider flattened his front tire only two miles from the start but Colorado whiz kid Boo Stitcher (2) passed Ricky Kidd on the way to the Rabbit Run Open Expert win. completed the entire circuit, losing only 41 points. Only three of the 15 entered 125s finished . Mike Stearn buzzed his Can Am over Pearl Pass to take the expert victory (a nd only finisher) while Jerry Uppersen came all the way from California to torture his body, but complete the series of rocky ups and downs. Eddy Ware . the local barber. completed the course with ' m yr ia d' points, but will probably become famous for his repetitious cry , "If you think these mountains a re hard to ride a cycle up , try skiing do wn them in th e winter!" • Results in Results Section. Doss, Ogden, an d .Boo (w ho?) romp at Rabbit.Bun $5,000 MX By Greg Labbe RICHARDSON , TX , SEPT . 4 High dollar local Pro motocross races are not all that uncommon in Texas. There are usually four or five each year at various tracks around the state, What is rare is if they ever make money. Rabbit Run , a track north of Dallas which will host a Trans-AMA this year on October 30th, held a $5000 promotocross. arid fared no better financially than the other tracks. Because of a poor amateur turnout , they managed only .to break even , which seemed to be enough to satisfy the t rack 's management so long as the racing was good. The amateurs may not have shown, but, baby, did the pros turn out. It was the who 's who of Texas motocross, plus .some well known out of state r id e r s. and one yo u ng unknown rider from Colo rado who came as a complete surprise and shock to everyone. The Open Experts set the ton e for the day as they exploded off th e line and through the firs t turn . Flying ou t of the second turn sid e by side came the two arch-rivals of Texas, Ricky Kidd (H us) and Bobby Pickard (Pen) . The Reamer and th e Pick elbowed each other in every corner a n d rocketed full -throttle , side by sid e off of every jump, A year a nd a half ago these two riders would almost certain ly have gone on to fin ish first and second , bu t ',a string of serious inj uries for Pickard and Kidd's co nditioni ng would not allow that today. Tea m Penton rider Roger Brown put his National expe rt ise to work and by lap four had worked his way 'u p from a mid -pack start to the heels of Kidd and Pickard. By the time the first moto was over the order read : Roger Brown first . 16 year-old Boo Sticher from - Colorado second , and young ' u p -a n d · coming Texas sensation i The combined 250/Open Experts hit Kingfisher's f irst turn. Monte Anderson third . The second moro again saw Ricky Kidd in the lead , but by lap three Boo Sticher flew by and in spectacular style began putting air between himself and the rest of th e pack. By lap 10, Roger ' Brown had broken free from the pack and began closing on you ng Sticher, but, as they have done all yea r, mechanical problems for ced him . to slow way down , event ually finishi ng eigh th . The overall victory went to a very im p ressive Boo Sticher (2-1). followed by Randall Tarter (5-2) .. Dewitt. Knox (4.3) a nd Roger Brown (1·8). Dickey Nowell was fifth wit h a n 8-4 des pite a first moto , first turn cr ash which left hi m ha lf a la p dow n a t th e start . '. FMF Na tional rider Gary Ogden won the 250 Expert bash with ease by winning both rnotos an d probably would hav e done likewise in the 125 Expert class had it . not been for a second moto blown gearbox which left a gaping hole in the side of his Suzuki's cases , Ca lifornian Tim Lunde had th eholeshot in the first 250 moto but 'it was ext remely short-lived as Ogden shot by in turn three to a lead he never relinquished . Lunde stayed in second for most of the · mota . but Glen Johnson worked his way through the pack and got by before the fin ish. In the second moto it was Ogden wire 10 wire . Tim Lunde was in second place again , but th is time he had his hands full with Dickey ' Nowell in a vicious pass and repass duel. Dickey event ually fell off th e pace and Roger Brown came from deep in th e pack to pass Lunde and finish second. Overall it was Ogden (I -I ), Lunde (3·3), Glen Johnson (2· 4), and a consis tent Da ve Boles (5-6). Marvelous Mel Newm a n, out of a cast just two weeks after cr acking a vertebrae a t the Houston 125 National , DNFed the second moto , but was a surprising eigh th in moto one. Quite a comeback! The name of the game in the 125 class was finish . T he na ture of th is track - wide open sixth gea r straigh ts in 100° heat·and humongous jumps caused untold des truct ion to' engines, gearboxes and rear tires. There were seven flats in th e second 125 moto alone. Mike Brownlee (Suz) holeshot the pa ck a t th e st art of th e first moto, bu t Jimmy Martin took his Mot o-Tex FMF Suzuki int o the lead on la p one. By lap four Gary Ogden had moved in to th e lead with his berserko yet cont rolled style. Glen J ohnson eventually got by Martin as well and kept Ogden in sight to finish second . Martin was thi rd and Danny Doss worked his way up to fourth. At the frantic start of the second moto , Ogd en slipped through the first turn first but highsided (with a little help from his friends) in the second turn and went down in a cloud of dust , He got back up and had berserked his way back up to 10th by the second lap , when hi transmission went south. Meanwhile, Danny Weir had taken the lead and was trying 10 hold off a wild pack of screaming 125s.. After a couple of laps Mike Jones (Hon) got by and began open ing up an eight-second lead on th e pack. On lap eight Mike seized and it was all over for him . Danny Doss was "in th e lead now an d cooking it. Dicky T u rn bo (Yam) was coming t h rough t he pack at an ama zing clip a nd ca ug h t Doss with just fou r laps to go , but Danny wicked it up a nd pu lled away to win the second m oto a nd th e overa ll cash wit h a 4·1 score. T u rn bo finished second with a 6-2. Glen J oh nson was th ird with a 2-6, and Danny W eir · was fourth (7-7). Resu lts in Results Section . Kingfisher MX: First goes to Cu'nningham . By Rebecca Sands KINGFISHER. OK, SEPT. 4 At Kingfisher Mot ocross. the combined 250 and O pen Expert class was led the first m oto by John Goeller from start to finish, with Chris Cunningham (Suz), Bobby ' Sanford (Pen), and Tony McGugan in pursuit and finishing in that order. Goeller ate it around the first turn the second moto and Cunningham led the dusty way to first, with Sanford close behind , tak ing second with McGugan th ird. I T aking two wins, J ohn Brya n (Ma i) controlled the Open Novice class . Billy Westervelt (Ya m) rode to two seconds and Harry Gifford took third overall. Ma ybe th ey are over 30 . but the ridi ng in this class- does nothing to prove it. Howard Musgrove (Mai), dialed in and f1yin ' , rod e in the lead until the last la p , when John Bryan ( Ma i) passed to take first . Mike Mc~lusky (Yam) finish ed third, Jerry Morrison fourth . 'H istory rep eating itself . Musgrove led again u nti l the last lap and was passed by Bryan who led across the che ckers . Morrison took third overall, Cliff Springer fou rth overa ll. In th e 125 Exp ert class , Wendell W oolard (Suz) rounded the first tu rn in th e lead with Curtis Ross (Suz) nipping at his ba ck tire. Ross passed, finding his spot th e third lap and winning the first moto. In the second mota , Wool ard again pulled the holeshot , leading three laps until again Ross passed to finish first. • Results in Results Section.

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