Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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(j') ~ Q) ..0 e Q) > o Z The $50,000 f/y-bynight finale By Brian George ORANGE. CA , OCT. 28 Seven men from different parts of the world converged upon Orange 'Coun ty International Raceway with the idea that man was made to fly. And all set out to show their own version of powered flight. Wha t we re they shooting for ? Aro und $50 .000 in cash! All you had to do was to ride the motorcycle of your choice for around 110 feet . set it down on a little white square and not fall off. Sound easy ? Oh , I forgot to mention , between the 110 feet there were 20 cars. And a flight plan was in accordance to the task at hand. A flyby-night show it wasn't, Doing what those seven men did was hard . And . very dangerous. Just think of how fun it would be to try and out jump Dick Sto ne of America ; Bob Duffey. an alternate from New Mexico; Alain Prieu r . a Frenchman who claims the all -time jumping record of over 200 feet; Karel . Soucek. a Czechoslovakian daredevil who will do anything for the right amount of money; Rex Blackwell. the most pumped competitor in the j u m p ing world ; Eddie Kidd , the superstar from England; and Gary Wells. who hopes to jump the Houston Astrodome in th e next fou r years. Ea ch competitor made two jumps. the first from 100 feet and the next from 110 . Scores were given in th e olympic style by j udges drawn from th roughout th e motorcycling world . Judging was based on the ac curacy of the ju m p and th e style with which it was performed. Ten was perfect. and th e low was a five if you happened to land on top of the safety ramp . If a competito r was d issatisfied with one of his two jumps. he could elect to throw ou t his lowest score a nd take an optional j um p of 110 feet again . The fin al round on e com pe tito r was Bob Duffey . Duffey e a rned the approval of th e cro wd as he d id numerous wheeli es a nd one-banders in his warmup . A 7.8 was all he could put together on t he ramps . though. After the first round , the jumpers were all on edge about on e thing or another - all but Blackwell that is. He had scored highest at 9.8 . Ston e , Wells and Kidd all compla in ed a bou t poor ram p co nd itio ns, but Blackwell sai d t ha t they wer e th e smoothest he'd ever been on. All six trailing were unhappy with th e judging. They th ou ght it was inconsistent and too low . But all returned to take th eir second attempt. at 110 feet. Dick Stone drew the number one spot a nd put on a nice . smooth j um p of 8 .1 . A confident Gary W ell s followed with a disappointing 8.6 score. Sou cek hit the top of the safety ramp and almost crashed the barriers , as he had done in the first round. The Frenchman Frieur was now up for his second try . An 8 .5 leap was the outcome . and the man was satisfied. He'd done a five the first tim e. Bob Duffey was next up. and again he put on a warm up show that was not topped by anyone there . Duffey said that he would rather do his trick riding and wheelies than jump a motorcycle. But when he did make his second ro und jump. he threw his bike right on top of the target . good enought for a 9.6 . the highest second ro und score. A disappointed Eddie Kidd walked away from his second flight very upset. The London star again thought he had made a n ice leap. but with a 7.8 score. walked away mumbling "T he judging is rubbish ." Rex Blackwell was the last of the second round jumpers. and just about made everyone take the ir optional j u m p. Blackwell landed a little beyond the target , but it was st ill close enoug h for an 8.6 score. After the second round . th e totals were Blackwell out in front with an 18.4 total followed by Wells with 18, Bob Duffey at 17.4 . Dick Stone at 15.7 . Eddie Kidd with 15. Alain Prieur at 13.4 and Karel Soucek at 13.5 . All seven riders elected to take the optional jump. knowing that the scores were really close. In the optional round Dick Stone led th e field with the first jump. He overshot the ta rge t and went head first int o the back wall . His score was lower than th e one he threw ou t. so he went down in the standings. Prieur W3.S next , and he put on an 8 .0 jump. Gary W ells was out on the 110 foot ramps again , and walked away with a 9.0 jump , again d isappoint ed in the judges . Bob Du ffey returned and took th e second spot away from Wells as he tied the 9.0 leap. Blackwell threw away the chance for first place when he badly misjudged his speed and came down on t he top of the safety ramp. scoring a five . Eddie Kidd and Karel Soucek made th ei r last jumps. but the upset had already happened. The alternate. Bob Duffey had won the jump· off and $20 .000. The winner of the eve nt now had the option of tryi ng for a new AMA reco rd of 120 feet . equival ent of 24 ca rs. Duffey decided to go for the record. and an extra $5 .000 . Duffey sa id he liked to land with his front whe el high. This time he paid for th at extra front wheel height. As th e New Me xico show j u m per ca me down on th e ramp , his front wh eel shot for the moon . In a shower of sparks. the seat of his leathers smoking. Duffey slid to a stop. His bike was demolished a nd his posterior extremel y sor e. Duffey ro lled off in th e ambulance afte r he stood up and gritted, "Like th e man said in England. I wal ked in here tonight , and I'm gonna walk out of here too ." It was the only reference to Evel Knievel all night. • Results t . Bob Duffey (New Mexico). 2. Gary Wells ITexasl. 3. Karel Soucek (Czechoslovakial . 4. Alain Prieur (France!. 5. Dick Stone lCaH fomial. 6. Eddie Kidd !England). 7. Rex Blackwel l lArizonal. 11