Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I Desert Hotline ~ t 00 t" (j') ....... ...... .... 0.< M Kem Park finished first overall Novi ce. leadi ng all the way. From left to right Tom Schell. Brian Wright. Bob Balentine aoo Brad Henson . Balentine blasts AMA D·37 hare scrambles By Gary laudig RED MOUNTA IN, CA , MAR , 25 Work ing up from a bad start , and passing in the .hardest places, Bob Balentine powered his white KTM to another overallw in . 14 Flying d own the roller coaster fire road and the n into th e canyon m outh , Yamaha pi lots Heath Hibbard and Brad Henson were so close th eir foo tpegs wer e touching. As the trail merged Into o ne Hibbard too k a slight lead . Bill Becker (Ya m) , Ben ny Pa d illa (Ya m), Ed Za rp (Ya m) a nd James La wren ce (H us) blasted down the canyon ; all would be dodging rocks very shortly. Ba len tine was running about 12th at t he time. Knowing how the course was , it. seemed the KTM pil ot would be ea ting lots of dust. The course intercepted the vee wh ere th e two wash es m eet. T u rning left , Hens on had the lead a nd started opening it up. Nobody was eating dust like Bruce " Big 0 " O gi lvie . He and Gregg T ho mas hit a m in ing excavation almos t simultaneou sly. Bru ce took off dead last ; we ll a lmos t. Ga ry " Hawkeye" Charter s d id a big endo on th e bomb a nd ca me th rough a bo ut a m inute a fte r O gi lvie . T he race of th e day was be twee n the third and fourth sp ot, Tom " R oa d r u n n e r" Schell. Bri an Wr ig ht of Yamaha Internation al , Lee Sheffers, Max Eddy and Bill Beck er were as close as a closed fist heading u p the rocky uphi ll th en down th e lon g st re tc h behind leading into th e last wash segment. T on y Grea ves had passed Ja mes La wre nce as the wash curved to the right then Tony set his sights on Chuck Pett igrew. Just as the lit tle outhouse on the p rairie by the track came in view, th e racers had a handful working their way through the pinnacle deposits. Ba len tin e had passed all bu t Bra d Henson . Brad mis -read a li.n!, .o,f lim e Bill Burnam staves off another rider in the desert near Red Mountain. --------------------------------" in the p in nacles and took off to the righ t. .Hea ri ng the roar of the KTM , he loo ked a rou nd and saw Ba lentin e heading for th e tra cks . Making an a bout fac e, Henson took off after h is fleeting overall . Joe Loc khart was ' trailing the fast Kenny Dodd but when the wash emptied out into the flats , Ken got carried away and a rock put a dent in his ac t a nd a new Trailbike in the lead - Lockhart, Mark Cartwright, riding out of the Eri c J enson Super Cycle Sho p , bi rd -dogged Morris Norman through the p innacles , across t he tracks and into the super fu n flatland wash . I Ba ck in the pack , three Seniors were ha vin g a ball : J ack Froelich , Marv Van Sickl e and Bru ce Lewellyn . Charlie Herma nsen 'was IO b ikes a head of the rowdy bunch; Dick Camp on his T &O · tuned scoot was seven b ikes in fro nt of Charli e, bu t th e lea der of the fee b le folk was Ron Beb o at 19th overall. James Vin cent had no id ea he was ru nning fir st C ( 175cc) Expert again . He also didn't kn ow rnot ocr osser J eff Blix was hot o n his tai l, rear fla t a nd all . Blix, riding for Al Bak er, was outdoing his sponsor. Bak er never really got it together but the fou r racers wearing his jerseys m a de a good accou nt of themsel ves . Art Knapp d id n't recognize the pie pl ater o n his rear fender - J eff Kirk , ba ck fro m a long layoff was doing rea l well when th e co urse shot u p the lon g , narrow wash/road. Chris Gray, working on his t hird consecutive 250cc Ama teu r win, flew down the road leading off into the ro llers next to Trona Road . By this time Ogi lvie ha d po wered his H arley into 24 th; C ha rt ers rep laced a shi fter and worked his sick Mai co into 38th . T rudy Beck a nd her trusty AA A Hu sky were not doing as well as last week (22nd overall) b u t she was a head of fast-moving Sheila Hopkins . The next girl was white-leat hered Winona Richa rdso n , unaware she had the numb er one e n d u ro girl , Diane Blauer , nine bikes behind her. As .t·be dust line.of {h e Novices and Begi nn ers crossing the valley for the 11 first time came into view, Bal entine. < having .a hell of a ti me wit h his Baja . su spension , hit t he second washcrossing , flew t h roug h the air sideways rr a good 20 ya rds , T he back wheel of the to. KT M touched dow n and corrected itsel f, wit h a lt itle help from Bo b . Soon - Henson could be heard and the 250cc leader made the sa m e identical ju m p as Balentine ; both sca ri ng the heck out of a pucker bush besid e the trail and . me. Steve Lindseyhad a good ride go ing s ch asing Jeff Blix across the des ert, d iving into the wash tha t goes left nt. toward Charlie's Pla ce . Hanging a ]1 hard right , the two rac ers d isappeared over the rise when Steve Nicho lson exi ted t he wash just a he ad of a couple of rac ers who swa pped position s all day: Rog Tubeaux and Mark Cotter. Scott Postma ha d screami ng C bi ke r Jeff Robb ins on ' his tai l. Postma kn ew he had seco nd 25 0cc Ama teur und er '; co ntrol and gas sed his m ount t hrough the wh oops, with R ick Shi rey , jody- (, Belkna p a nd J ay O ren d orff close beh in d . Rick Davis, runnin g second C Ama teur , was making all the d ust f0t: Belknap . J ohn Boy Lawson sa w a person in fro nt of him wit h leathers reading H ALLS ASS (Ga rry H all ). Lawso n , ri di ng on a rear ' flat d idn't have time to laugh , only maintai n* some so rt of control. Bu zz Moe ller , Steve Barklow and . G ary Fredrickson fa n ned out as th e. co urse headed up the old bo mb ru n at , the end of the Sea rles. J oe Wi lson and . ' Ma rty Rider were soon to follow, By t his ti me Ba lent ine had cleared' the rollers , turned right and was h e adin g a lo ng t he base of th e... m ountains jus t before the ca nyo n r entry. Turnin g righ t , Bob sh ot up the, ~ high ba nked ca nyo n, cas ting a gla nce ove r his sh oul der to see if Henson had m ade up a ny time. Assu red of no apparent threat , Bo b rode high on the banks enjoying the remainder of th'e2 race . R id ge -r u n n ing for a sh?rt. d istance the ribbon turned the racel ~ left , down the narrow canyon and across the va lley basin to the knoll fore the last time. Pum ped with adrenal in

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