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
(A bove) larry Roeseler (28), Bill Saltzman (13) and Craig Adams (3) fight for the lead in the 500 Junior/Expert start. (Right) M ike Goodwin (that Goodwin) took an eighth in the 500 Novices; second in the Pioneer race. (Belowl The mudhole snared a few, Dirt Diggers' Grand Pree, Whee! By Gary Laudig TRABUCO CANYON , CA, NOV . 5 The spectre of rain lurked in the back of the racers' and specators' minds as the bikes were pushed to the starting line on Saturday. Sowbelly skies made the racers almost as edgy as the psyche-up/psyche-out course walk down during the quiet time, J: noi th b elOr~ bik ~ an d noise di 1 ~.srupt e mormng stillness. The start en- 6 gines" signal is given and 54 bikes of 80 and 100cc displacement fired up and waited for the green flag to get them underway . T he flag dropped and the Dirt Diggers 19th Grand Prix, the Pioneer Town Sportsman Classic , was underwa y. First turn here at Racing World is just as hairy as the old Hopetown left ha nd er. The racers bunched up, made the turn and powered up the long hill. Number seven Joe Lockhart had his Yamaha screwed to the stop with Charlie Hamill and Doug Martin right behind him . Craig Eggerman had the fas t Novice Jeff Moeller in pursuit as they wheelied over the top of the hill and wound down to t he long, flat plateau to the right. The next two experts through were Kim Bat es and Don Lyon, with Zuba the Rover next , running first ama teur. Ma king a left tu rn , Steve W eb b , Jo hn Langhammer , (second novice), Mike Vorndran , expert, then second and third amateurs Torsten Co rum a nd Dale Holcomb bounced their way through the deep whoops . As the first bike crested the hill adjacent to the long start uphill , it was Charlie Hamill with a good lead on Loc~hart, who was havi~g a hard time keeping ahe~d of CraIg . Eggerman. Gregg Hamilton and hIS Yamaha decided 10th wasn 't good enough and methodically started working their way through the crowd. So did John Rudd er and the super fast novice J ohn Langhammer. Coming down the sort of double jump down hi ll, Lockhart passed Hamill and reall y got moving. He wasn't close to Eggerman, but the two ; desert rivals were really burni ng up the course . . Taking t he wh ite f1 ag indicating the start of the last lap , Lockhart headed in to the muck hole and off popped his chain . Hamill, thinking there was no way he was going to catch Joe , dove into the II mudhole and you sho uld have seen the grin on Charlie's face as he squirmed .J. past the hapless Lockhart and headed off on the last loop. The checkered flag fell and Craig • Eggerman (Hon) took the win. Charlie Ha mi ll was second expert, J oe Loc khart third. Fourth overall a nd first novice was John Ru dder . Fift h place and second novice was Gr egg Hamilton on a Suzuki, third went to _ John Langhammer at ninth . First a mateur honors went seventh place Da le Holcomb (Suz) with Kirk Harris (Yam) second, Rob in Busse (Suz) third . If you wondered what happened to former third place racer Doug