Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._ (Continu ed from page 23) f- ) / wide and Steve had no room to maneuver and Steve went u p and over Springman and received a smashed finger for his acrobatic feats . Gary Sm ith was next in line and rode his Bul to second , behind Sexton. Joel W indham was th ird . Sexton pulled the moto holeshot , and gave the sp ect ators a shower of dirt. Sexton was all alone out front but Windham was gaining fast and got a wheel under him at the white flag. However, Sex ton m ad e · certain he would take the ,win, keeping Windham behind h im . T he final moto was a joy ride for Rod . He had the track to himself out front wit h an Arizona rider fr om Flagstaff, Cra ig Morton taking second and Chri s Choisser third . T he overall finish went: Sex ton , Yamahamounted ; Gary Smith, aboard ' a Bultaco and Honda rider, Craig Morton. The Special Expert class was rough and rowdy . W indham had the holeshot the first race , with Rod Sex ton second, and Rex Hailey third. Dorothy Rowe was fourth and flying off the jump into a beautiful slide when she found one of the ruts and highsided into quite a pile. As the officials and Dorothy decided about whether or not she would be moved into the ambulance, Sexton and Windham noticed the yellow ' flag and Sexton almost ended up alongside of Dorothy 'a s he started to pass Windham on the inside but had to brake quickly and allow Joel to continue on in the lead spot to avo id a collision with Dorothy. Windham took the win , and Rod was second with Hailey third . The officials and Dorothy agreed she should not try to walk away with her injured ankle, and she was put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital. In moto two , Sexton was most determined to take the lead from start to finish , and almost suc ceeded . Windham wasn't going to let Sexton off the hook that easily and stayed close on his heels , but Rod kept the door closed and bolted to assure himself of the victory . Chris Choisser , back after a long vacation from racing, finished third . In th e third and final race, Windham was successful in knocking Sexton out of the number one sp ot. Sexton was o~f on top and led until the fina l lap when W indham noticed the door to victory slightly aja r and he stuck his steel shoe in to ste p in fr ont and take the checkered right from under Sexton's nose. Sexton was second a nd Choisser was third . Results in Res ults Section . Johnson runs away with eighth annual Moapa to Vegas By Linda loomis LAS VEGAS , NV ,JAN . 15 Finishing a full 10 minutes ahead ' of the second place rider, J ack Johnson grab bed first overall in the eighth annual Moapa to Vegas , one-wa y hare and hound . Conquering a multitude of obstacles includ ing four and five -foot mud holes res ulting from locally heavy rains, Johnson maneuvered his 390 cc Husky through the 110-mile race to finish in an im pres sive three hours fla t. Excitement began a t th e d ro p of the b anner as 139 riders bombed the ir yja y through the rainsoaked desert. It ~as Johnson, Leroy Kyger bar-to-bar until , a five foot water hole swallowed Kyger's 400 Yamaha , pulling him from the race completely. At Gas I , just two and one-half m inutes behind Johnson , Kr is Morgan, one of Utah's fastest , on a 390cc Husk y , dazzled spectators. D icing it out for third and fourth were Scot Harden and 1977 Arizona State C ham pion , Jim Halford . H arden had made up the almost 40 places he lost after losing th e course. The race to Gas 2 was between , Utah's Preston Gerber (250 KTM) and two of Las Vegas' best , Mike Maze (250 Husky) and Fred Hansen (250cc Yamaha) but a new five-foot water hole (one that a lso tempora rily stopped Scot H arden) sucked in Maze's Husky. Hansen tried to jump it bu t missed, while ' Gerber, using the essential cautiousness , dismounted and walked his KTM around the hole, all the whi le smiling, and continued on to eventually win the 250cc class, placing fifth overall. Johnson had stretched his lead to eight minutes at the third gas with Wyoming'S C ot ton Guio (390cc Husky) and Scot Harden bar-to-bar for second. Mike Maze, recoveri ng from his fa ll in the m ud , surprised many spectators by pressing local Sid Tarbert and Preston Gerber, passing the checkpoint in eighth place. T he l a st 23 miles completely changed the course of the race . Cotton Guio lost his second p lace co ntest with Sco t Harden when a rock destroyed his right fork leg , forc ing him back to the pits for repairs and dropping his finish to 18th . Mike Maze's recovery was short -lived when engi ne problems took him out of the race. The finish was a welcome sight for the 75 who made it. Scot Harden held his second place position behind Johnson with J im Halford , in his first , Southern Nevada race , finishing third foll owed by Kris Morgan . The 50 .mile bar-to-bar race between Preston Gerber and Sid Tarbert ended with the d uo placing fifth and sixth , respectively , Ta rbett with no re ar tire . It was the first race of the season in Southern Nevada and what a successl With ra insoaked , bitchen desert and over fifty percent finishers . What a wa y to start the new year! Norco dominates Corona HSMX By Elaine Jones ._._._._._._.- . _ . com pa red to next closes t rival San Bernardino's 95. Moreno Valley ; . Mo ntclair and Palm Springs finished out the field as the blue machine proved again that they are out to beat North High School, which has been n umber one since the HSMX league was formed. Mike Word and Bill Boschert , got N orca on the board first as they finished one and two in the Mini Senior divi sion. The 100cc Novice class was up for grabs and Devin Huntsman of San Bernardino got out top in the first rnot o and held off a fast -closing Danny Curtis and Paul Fontenot of Norco to the checkered .' The se cond m o to sa w Fonteno t . _ ~ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . . IAbove) Mark Ellis showed eve ryone at DeAnza how to ride a four-stroke he won the Open Pro class.IBelow) Marty M iller put up a good fight at DeAnza. but lost the 125cc Pro class to Muff Hadley. break on top with Cu rtis in second and Bill Frosheise r , a lso of Norco in third . Everybody was satisfied to h o ld position and they finished in that order. Fontenot and Curtis ended in a tie for first with the nod -going to Fontenot. Huntsman , o ne point down, picked up the show spot. Kevin Andrews and Ken R ycraft of Norco picked up first and sec ond in the 100cc Intermediates while Kenny Mcintyre also of Norco copped the 1OOcc Senior div ision . David Neal added more icing to the Norco cake as he went two for two in the 125cc Novi ces , Second was a tie between Den nis Moon of San Berna rdino and Alan Seeley of Norco with Moon taking the nod . Bill J ewett put everything together for Norco in the 125cc Seniors. He rode two flawl ess races while Donnie D avis of Montclair and Mark Sanchez of Norco had problems with the second moto and bo th lim ped home. D avis got second by one point from Sanchez. Sanchez came back strong in the 175cc Intermediates and gave Norco te ammates Rick Mc Corkell and Jay Gerald a guided tour of th e Corona MX course.' Norco's Scott Seel ey, Alan's brother, avenged the family honor as he won bo th motos of the 175 cc Novice division . Rod Vigue of Moreno Valley sq ueaked by Mike Knveven of Norco by one point to take the second. Results in Results Section. CORONA , CA ,JAN . 21 Norco High School again took on all comers and totally dominated the Corona Raceway high school MX , pi ling up 383 points _ Ellis thumps competition.at DeAnzaMX By Ron lawson SUNNYMEAD , CA , JAN . 22 Mark Ellis was on ha nd at De Anza, armed wi th the same TT50d Yamaha that carried him to third place in the Four-Stroke National Motocross . The bike and he m ade an impressive com bi na tio n in the Open Pro class . Ell is' main competition was from Ken T aylor (Suz) who has been aw a y fro m th e ra ci ng sce ne fo r m o re tha n fou r m ont hs . I n moto one, Ellis got the holeshot , but lost it to T aylor on the first lap. Fro m there on in , it was Taylor all the wa y. Ellis maintained a safe second place , but never managed to reel in the leader. In third place was Tony Pena (Yam) ahead of T im Lanham (Yam) . Round two saw T aylor in the lead again , with Ellis right behind. About halfway through the race , Taylor started having some trouble . His rear tire was almost flat and still going down. Wi th just a few laps remaining, Ellis wh izzed by to take the second moto and the overall win . Taylor still finished second for second overall and Pen a was third. Dave Ohl (Sus) made it two weeks running by taking the 250cc Pro class again . Ohl is really getting serious now and it shows. In both motos he took a commanding lead over Ken Taylor (Suz) and Arden Hadley (Mai) . The 125cc P ro class had an exciting ra ce between Marty Miller (Suz) a nd Muff Hadley (Hus) . The first moto went to Miller hands down , but ro und two was a different story. Miller ran into difficulties that p ut him in second behind Hadley. Bo b Maxwell (Mai) was third. ' The new yea r has just begun, but already some members of the DeAnza Cycle Park Racing Club have excelled. T od Gibboney has co llected more po in ts than' anyone else so far in the Min i class. The Vetsare be ing led by La wrence Bu ster a nd the regu la r class has a four- way tie fo r the top between Ralph Pu ringto n, Scott Quick , Paul H essel and Bill Koc h . , ' Resu lts in Resu lts Sect ion. ~. 29

• Cover