Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

·1Desert Hotline s E 00 1:' ~ ~ ...... .... I-< 0.. < ~icing in t he D-3? desert. T he Rovers ' Red Mountain course was rat ed hig h ly by many riders. Balentine wins Rovers D-37 H&H in last 100 yards By Gary Laudig RED MO UNTAIN , CA . APR. 9 Bob Balentine literally fought La~ry Roeseler throughout the entire Rovers M.e. "Boner Run" hare and hound. The lead ch anged several times but the race was won in the final 100 yards. The Ro vers Boner banner dropped and after a 100 -yard blast. Brad H enson crashed and Do wnhill Alexander ran over him . Yamaha International's Charlie Hamill hit a m in ing excavation and headed for th e moon; a ll this happening before the bikes hit fift h gear . Yamaha In t erna t ional's 250cc ace Brian Wrigh.t led Larry Roeseler, Bob ~alenune and Bruce Ogilvie over the nse above the flower- infested wash. W right missed a turn and had to cu t behind a huge rockpile. Ducking back onto the course, Brian still had a bike length lead o~ ~oeseler. Heading toward th~ pipeline road crossing, C.huck . Pettigrew and Mike Sixberry diced mto the rollers and noticed a couple of bikes down: Brian Wrigh t and Bob Corder got off and their race ended. Ed Zarp got by the former seventh overall and second 250cc Expert Steve Lindsey; right on Eddie's fender was first Amateur Bryan Charters , first C bike also. Monoshock Ac e Benny Padilla moved up ·on the Sixberry/Pettigrew battle and the three vete rans fought for ~ea l ~sta te all the way to the rocky secti on Just on th e ou tskirts of th e Radem ach er range. Kern Park a nd Mor ris Norma n swapped posit ions heading into check two. The cou rse hea ded toward th e Searl~ Stati~>n Road . Dou g Winchell , • , _. runnmg• •tJure!. ~50c j':xpe t, • haQ. 24 Verli n Van Zee and T om Schell , riding an Open bike for the firs t time, in his dust. Max Eddy. working up fro m a sleazy start started around Schell and collected a few di ngs on his helmet from the rocks tossed by"Roddrunner's" tire . Ma x had a heck of a tim e gettin g aro u nd the Cable Man Terry Da vis. . Roeseler, Balentin e and Ogilvie were so close tog ether you cou ld cover them with a blanket. Roeseler would overshoot a turn and Bal entine wou ld take the lead. Balentine got off course and Ogilvie took command. Headin~ over the rise past cam p. Paul Christensen caught up with the "Roadrunner" and passed him in midair over a flatland jump. Dave Matus seemed to have Chris G ra y's 250cc Amateur streak broken as Da ve shot across the pipeline road with a 27 -b ike lea? on Gray. Kevin Hopkins couldn't bel ieve what was happening. Ron C:obb. another trailbike Expert was right on Kevin 's fender as the two racers crossed Trona Road and the track at the same time. Cory Timms, Steve . Eckardt, Tom Schmidt , John WatkIns and Jay Orendorff headed for the big gnarly uphill to the left of Teagle Wash Road . Max Eddy had quite a surprise because just as he entered the rocky top of th e hill , Chuck Pettigrew shot by on th e rear wheel. Ma x shook his head and gunned his Mono after the Wheelsmith Maico. Ron Bebo the Senior leader had a nine-bike lead on Bruce Lewellyn. Crossing under the tracks, Lee Scheffers and Russ Jones found themselves in r o cks camouflaged with abundant weeds . Bouncing through the fun stuff. Eric , Spaeth didn't have a chance at Charlie H amill but Jody Belknap had a shot a t E ri ~ .and his second ' p lace C Expert position. Past check five . J oe Wil son n o ticed a b ik e a lo ng t he tra il. Glancing b ack , Wi lson' saw Brya n Cha rters regrouping a nd tu rned the throttle open , knowing he was th e new C Amateur lea der. • ,. ~ r,\d Henson cleared t he pits 46th " ~oa drun ner" overall a nd was passi ng peopl e like cra zy . H e a d ing into t he L a va Mo untains th rou gh th e n asty stu ff the ' Invaders used to use , Henson sitl l • passed peop le. .After a long wash . th e racers ridge ra n the Sea rles , the course hooked around to the left a nd there it was the Desert Knights downhill. Sca ttered on the face of this t h in g was J eff Ma~thews , . Pancho Spain trying to aVOId ru n m ng over Eric Spaeth, J eff Fraser m umbling things unprint able . then Da n Per ki ns a nd Ga rry Conner. De n n is Marchand cleared t h e dow nhill running fir st Trail Amateur with ' Paul Kra use close behind . Ken Dodd had a bad da y but Pe te Andelman kept him company as they cleared th e mouth of th e wash and headed home. Up fr on t th e battle was sti ll on. In the sa ndwash es, Roeseler wou ld dive u nder Ba lentine and ta ke th e lead only to have .Bob do th e sa me to him . Headir:g ac ross the Searl es Va lley, the best line offered th e lea d . Ogilvie co u ld stay with the t woj n the tigh ter stu ff bu t th e 250 Harl ey co uldn't ~a tch the bea ns of th e Open ma chi nes m t he flats . Cr ossin g th e tracks for the las t time, the racers headed for the rock laced rid ge in t he d istance . Break ing trai l it was neck and neck to the one bik e pass. Roeseler eeked ahead and sta rt ed d own th e hill to th e finish a half mile aw ay. The h uge cro wd at th e finish pointed and shouted as if th ey were watching the Superbowl of Motocross. The course jogged to the left and La rry was in front . T he course went right a nd Bob was in the lea d ; both rid ers rese mb ling d own hill ski racers. Blasting into th e fla ts, Larry had the lead and Bob began to reason wit h himself. " I' ve d iced all th is way, I' m not going to set tle for second. " Just as both racers reached a dropoff, Larry paused ju st a fraction for th e flagma n just as Bob screwed his throttle wide open. The spectators gasped as Balentine flew a good 50 yards through the air, past Roeseler and past the , checkered flag . Two better gentlemen ca n not be found like Larry and Bob. They both agreed it was the most exciting desert race they had ever been in . You hate to see one of them lose . Charlie Hamill a nd Brad Henson should ge t the determination trophy because Charlie worked up from way back to fin ish first C bike eighth overall. Brad started dead last' crashed twice and finished ~ • phenomenal 17th. Mike Butler gets the award. Running ninth, Mike. got off on the home stretch, hit a high pucker bush and exploded his left fork , totaling his front end. He carried on to fin ish 33rd and loved the race. Hamill stated it was th e best course he had ever ridden . Fitzpatrick seconded the m?tion. Many thanks to Rescue 3, the ram ,. andthe Rovers for going out and finding an area well worth the trip to Red Mountain . Robin Busse (250 Yam) took the ov~ rall Novic e win , battling Jeff Wmter (C R250 R) all the wa y. • Results in Resul ts Section. CRChare scrambles: Kelly captures second in a row By Jerry Welton CALIFORNIA CI TY . CA , APR . 9 Tom Kell y took advan tag-e of a Tom Ke lly took another CRC overall w in. good start at Sunday's CRC hare scrambles to tak e the lead after ' the bomb and he never lost it', ca ptu ring his seco nd ove ra ll win in a-row . When th e banner d ropped , it was Wayne Allen and his Midas Muffler j, Yamaha that led the cha rge from th e LeMans sta rt . Off to one side of Allen was Kelly , and beh ind him came: Mor gan Malocco (400 Yam), "Crazy" Ch ris Kalle n . Scott Du n can (250 Ya m) , Chu ck Mill er (250 Yam) and Al' Wurtzel (25 0 KT M). .) At th e bomb there were severa l lines t~ chO?"e fro m , a llleadi ng in the same directio n . Before th e trai ls came together , Kelly had taken th e lead and was opening up sp ace between . Ma locco , Allen and himself. Recovering fr om a bad start was Amateur Eric MacCracken (390 Hus) , MacCracken moved through riders like they weren't even there and moved to within striking distance of the . leader. Kent Perkins (390 Hus) was running parallel with the leaders and t when the lines began to narrow down q he found himself running fifth . Several of the front runners had ') problems early in the race . Chuck Miller and Mark Moulett (250 KTM) dropped out early due to seizure. As the course entered the whoops 1 near checkpoint one, Kelly was in firm I command with Malocco and MacCracken in hot pursuit. When the course moved up a sandy series of whoops towards the rocky uphill '{ fireroad , MacCracken put the move Y on the t!ring Mal<><;co. Malocco got off] hard, dislocated hIS shoulder in Bajarr and this was h is first race since. _ • ,01 Kall~n w~s doing an outstanding job ' of staY1~g WIth th e leader despite a flat " front tire that he discovered on theA J & starting line . Wurtzel was in hot pursuit of Du.ncan, with steady Fred ) Strong and hIS new 250 Mono right u? . behind. • rrrlr The course made a swing left aft~r'A running up a whooped hill, then back' " acr~ss . ope? . d~sert toward the pits :j " Whde comm~ into the last checkpoin~ s rl ' on la p one, sit u a ted on top of th e last downhill , MacCracken was trying so hard to catch Kell y that he couldn't / stop and slid past th e ch eck ers and down th e hill. This was no prob lem as his number was wri tt en d own so he co u ld be sco red on the next loop . : Kelly was first in th e pits with a big . lead on MacC racken , Malocco , Allen and Perkin s. T he , next rider th ro ugh

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