Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ILeft) The Dannv Winebarger/Jimmy Kruger 125cc Yamaha going for it in the Las Vegas desert.IRight) The Bruce Ogilvie/Bob Rutten Harley-Davidson late in the race, t hrowing some dust. wasted no time in topping off the gas and heading out across the crossgra in washout area , in pursuit of Brian Purfeerst and famous desert ace Ron Nelson , After about five mil es of crossgra in , they ent ered a nasty section of car course . Mike Pu rdy and Alec Pettersen made their way through as safely as possib le a nd then t u n e d their motocross skills , windi ng t hrough the tricky narrow wash . By this time the course had entered th e base of the McCullough Mo untains and first ' Sportsm a n Charlie Fowler cou ld n' t beli eve the trees. Circling around Railroad Springs, Danny Winebarger a nd Mark Jones picked th eir wa y throu gh the rock section th at dumps into th e lasI segment of ca r course. At th is poi nt in time the Hardin / "Yallings ford bike was making a better lap tim e than th e pre-race favorite Roeseler/J ohnson effort . ,l;lea d ing to the left , the racers headed down the dreaded trai l at the of th e mountain range : Steep , off Liu... ca m ber tra ils with a wa ll on one side , d~opoff on th e o~ her. Donnie Morrison hea de d down this , ah ead of th e seco nd sr,;;; tsma n J oe W ells, From her e to c1ieck four it was cro ss cou ntry to th e tracks. T om Kell y had a bik e len gth on Larry Roeseler as the two desert ac es ' end I headed for th e dropoff before th e track underpass. Roeseler ga ssed his Husky a nd p assed T om in mid -air. Both men streaked to the pits and t he anxiou s crowd. By lap two th e check times started to filter in . Hardin and Wallingsford maintained a good 20 seconds on the Roeseler/ j ohnson tea m . 'Finger and Ka plan by this time had changed t hree rear tires, Ron Wright started to ta ke the IT from Ron Nelson when th ey noticed the rear sprocket was wiped out. T he Southwest Paving pit team changed th e tire and the former number one took off. The difference between first and second place 250cc was very close th en heartbreak struck . A noise from th e en gine erupted and the bike quit with a main bearing gone. Marc Cartwright took up the slack a nd started to close on the leader when havoc struck . Cartwright got off, breaking a co lla rbone a nd letting Sh umaker go it alone . The fast-flying team of Bill Tarling a nd Bob Messer had their ride ended when Bill noti ce the rear end feel in g spongy. The swinga rm broke in two places and put an end to th eir ra ce, Kevin Welch a nd Troy Fitch were battling for t he 125cc class , t he Hamill/Robbins team were rig ht in th e fight turning co nsistent la p lim es, Ken Bailey was still running stro ng despite th e horrendou s endo suffered just five miles from the pits. The Mangold /Howell team didn't lose or ga in any time , just rod e a consistent ra ce . The Gerber/Lanier Husqvarna rolled along with no apparent prob lem s just behind th e Grimsley/ Iverson H usky. Pa u l Christensen , rid ing th e second leg of the Miller/ Christensen team ha d a tranny go south , parked the bike and kicked back. With the warm sun , Paul fell , asleep and the next thing he knew . the rescue learn was waking him up . The day wore on and the dust began to thicken. The flat sections became choppy making the racers hold on harder and the silt beds got deeper, making passing almost impossible. Coming in on th e third lap. Harden handed the bik e to Wall ingsford . The spokes were loose but a ti re change mea nt two minu te s down ti me . Wallingsford too k off for the last lap . Johnson was a lready in the mo untain pass. N ot kn owing , what th e . tim e diffeence was , Jack had but on e plan : " Gas it. " Riding on th e ragged edge . th e Husky pilot sho t down a ca nyo n behind a slowe r bike. The gu y hit th e berm a nd crashed in front of Jack , sendi ng him instantly to th e g ro u nd . Thirty p recious seco nds ticked aw ay befor e he could ge t goin g again . ' By main gas two . Harden took over and by alternate gas two . they lost almost two minutes tightening th e remain ing spokes. Fred Hansen took the bike from Mike Maze and burned a trail around the last lap. The Finger/Kapla n team su ffe re d two more flats and settled i"; at third , Hamill stayed on the bike until the second a lternate. handi ng the bike over to R ob bins for th e home stretch . Leonard Skikorski co u ld wrap up th ird overall 250cc as long as he stayed a board the bik e ; he did just that. The spectators at the finish had no idea what the outcome of the overall winner battle would be . Johnson cou ld be seen streaking across the desert and the speculation mounted. Crossing the fin ish line they immediately started keeping time. The magic number was two and a half minutes . It passed and a b ig grin sp read across Johnson and Roeseler's face . Jack said. " It's abou t time, kid." Harden was soon p icked u p in the d ista nce. Crossing the finish. they has hed over the problems and Scot sa id " tha t's ra cing." , Th e weather s t ayed p erfect . everyone thought th e cou rse wa s super . T om Kell y wished th ere had been som e dust when Roeseler was on his ta il. Thanks to Bill Putman , Casey Folks . a nd Sam Bass for making this grea t race possibl e , • 13

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