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/126287
Desert Hotline I.D I""""l l-o (I) ..0 e (I) > o Z o Balentine's back·~ and charging ~ hardatCRC By Jerry G. Welton CALIFORN IA CITY. CA . NOV . 6 (Ab ove) Tom Kelly t ook second ove rall behind teammate Balent ine.IAbove right! Balentine collected the champagne, pretty girl and the rest of the winner's spoils upon his CRC return . (Below) Benny Padilla led it to the bomb, retired with a flat at the halfway point. 12 After ba ttling in AMA District 37 for the past month and a half, Bob Balentine and his 400cc KTM came back to the CRC action victoriously at California City. Approximately three quarters of the' A brisk head wind confronted the riders as they sped towards the smoke bom b. Just precedi ng the smoke it was Benny Padilla (Open Yam) with about a 100 yard spread over Phil Stumbo (400 KTM) and Ba lent ine . Novice Kevin Cantwell (400 Yam). " Ba d" Brad Henson (175 LT4) and Al Wurtzel (250 KTM ) moved by next with Tom Kelly (250 KTM ) and Monte Lee (250 Yam) moving in to . help increase the ever widening pattern of riders heading for the first ca nyo n . About five mil es out . S tumbo worked his way by Padilla and into the lead . Henson moved int o a firm fourth at th e first canyon with Ke lly and Cantwell following. • Wurtzel was running well with the leaders when he gorout of shape a nd was thrown from his cycle . When he recovered . severa l bikes had gone past and Wurtzel was forc ed to play the catc h up game. Gary Davies (400 Yam) took a very wide to the right line and before he knew it ha d worked his wa y into the top ten. Up from . Stu m bo was sti ll in com m a nd with Pad illa just ahead of Bal entine. Benny u nloaded on a ridge a nd Balentine made his way into second with thoughts of putting a fast move on Stum bo . H enson fl att en ed a ti re whil e running fourth and was forced to ca ll it a day. Kelly filled in th e fou rt h spo t with Cantwell persistently tryin g to stay with the leaders. wa y around . near Cam p C. Bal entine worked his way past Stum bo. W he n Balen t ine felt he had bui lt up enough distance over Stumbo he started ridi ng at a steady pace. With no warning. Stumbo shot by Balentine and once again took the lead . With both racers ri ding on the ragged edge the y proced ed in towards the pits. From camp you could see a large dust cloud approaching from the northwest . and most people thought it was th e firs t place bik e. but when it got closer it was a complete surprise to most. The white Clean Sweep jersey of Stumbo and the red. white and blue KTM jersey of 'Ba len tine were nearly side by side as they approached the camp area and as they turned down the pit road there was less than two seconds separating th em . As the two leaders rode ou t of sight . a sm all puff of dust came in a minute later. Kelly had moved int o third after passing Pad illa a few m iles ou t. Padilla pulled in with a flat tire a couple of m in utes later and parked his scooter for the day. The next three b ikes ~ere tightly woven as Cantwell led Dav ies and Lee into the pits . Davies a nd Lee had swapped positions several t imes in the last few mi les and neither one of them were about to let up for a seco nd. H eath Hibbard (400 Yam) was through nex t with Pat J on es (250 Hu s) and amateur Kent Perkins (390 Hus) a littl e ways beh ind . Ru nn ing 11th overa ll was Sodbuster Tim Nething (25 0 Hus) with Ed