Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Start action of the first Old Timers Master moto atPlymouth's Hangtown Hangover National shows the old guys still have the competitive spirit in their bodies. . In a fierce battle for the Master lead. Dick Mann roosts eventual winner Joe MacKenzie, Mann went out with a front flat. Sierra O.T.s host Hangtown Hangover National By Sallee Hilton PLYMOUTH , CA , APR. 15 & 16 After a beautiful Hangtown weekend of plentiful su nshine graced the opening race of the AMA 125 and 250cc Motocross Nationals , 34 the opener for th e Old Timers Nation als at th e same tr ack th e following weekend was trea ted to a total lack of cooperation .from Mother Nature. Ove r 200 riders, representing Old Timers associat ion s from as fa r as 1600 miles aw ay, b raved the wind , hail and rain to ride their first three mot os on the first d ay of th e event . Still willing to tackle t he mud for three more motos, th e rid ers took a look a t the ' track on t he m orning of Sunday, and found th at ha lf of it was under wat er . The othe r ha lf was hop elessly muddy or being wash ed away by running str eams. A special riders ' meeting was call ed and th e decision was m ad e ' to score the event on th e basis of th e three . m otos per class com p le ted o n Saturday. In pl a ce of t he Su nday ra ce program , th e who le gro up moved to the Amad or Co unty Fairgrounds for a day of socializing . awa rds presentation a nd ca te red di nner . Twenty-five of th e fin est of th e Old T im ers wa rr anted e ig h t tro p hi es, bein g presented in th e Masters class. First' pla ce trophy wen t to Maico Jo e McKenzie , th e 46 -year-old motocross star fr om W enatchee . Washington. He had worked hard for the win in the first moto , Jim Saitone (Mai), on the Sierra team , had th e holeshot in that m ot o but cou ld n' t hold ou t agai nst th e onslaugh t of Dick Mann (Ya m) , a lso a Sierra member , and Ma ico J oe. T hose two went ou t front to stage th eir own battle for th e lead spot ; Mann's flat tire eventually put him ou t of the fight , but Mel McKerlie (H us) , of th e Washington team , had co me into the picture. Also a rri ving to make a good race of it was Ca nada 's Zoli Berenyi (CZ ) , who ha d pull ed up o n t he leaders fr om a mid -p a ck sta rt. Foll owi ng McK en zie closely ac ross the finish lin e a t th e end of t his first 20 m inute moto wer e McK erli e, Ber en yi and Sairone . Ma nn man aged 10th. Bugsy Mann put himself ou t front right awa y in the second a nd t hi rd rnotos , and mainta ined a healthy lead all the wa y. Both tim es, Marvin O lson (Ma i), for th e Los Angeles club , was in there for sa fe seconds after problems in th e first moto had given him a 15th pla ce fin ish . McK enzie a nd Sa ito ne switched off th e t hird and fourth pla ce spots. W ith McK enzie ta ki ng th e overa ll win , Saiton e got t he second. Mann was third a nd Ber en yi fou rt h . Also pickin g up th e un ique 'trop hies were Larry ' Johnson (Sie rra) , Ol son, McK erl ie , and Bill McCli n ton (Sierra) . Jerry Lu st (Ya m) , of W ashingt on , _was th e m an to beat in t he first two m ot os of th e crowd ed Exp ert clas s. By the third time ilu t , th e deep mu d a nd slick a reas ca used cha nges in th e lead, and Gen e Hi ggi nb o th am (Ma i) , Sierra , got th e win. T ro p hies went to Lust for first , Hi ggi nbotham second . Fr ed Session s (Ma i), W ashington , was thi rd in two mot es for thi rd overa ll a nd Bill O nga (Suz). Sierra , with a second and a third , trophied in fourth. An outstanding ride was seen in th e second divisi on of the 'Ama teur ra nks. Norris Rancourt (Ho n) , Sierra , 20· years ago held Nat ion al number one as a road ra cer. a nd won Da ytona . Rancourt decid ed to try m ot ocross agai n, sayi ng he ca n't even remember how ma ny 'yea rs it's been . He had two clean m oto wins , a nd in th e ot he r claimed his seco nd p lace finish was du e to fa u lty st rategy as Ga ry Arnold (Yam) , Sierra , outfoxed him for th e win . Arnold fini shed seco nd in th e ot her two mot os. T he sons a nd daughters of th e Old T im ers provid ed th e on ly Support classes of th e program. T here wer e many ages a nd sizes of bikes an d rid ers and varyin g d egrees of experience . The Support rid er s wer e divided into Min is a nd Big Kids . Each of these races were broken down in scoring by rid er classification . T he ne xt Old T im ers Na t io n a l motocro ss is sched u led for May 27 a nd 28 a t Pu yallup , W a sh in gton. T he W ashing ton Ol d Timers Motocross Associ ation will act as host club. Results in Results Sect ion. Rains roost Bonneville night MX opener By Maxie Abernethy SALT LAKE CITY , UT , APR . 14 Rain played a major rol e at th e premiere of CMC night motocross held at Bonneville Raceway. It sprinkled most of the da y, but ri'ot lon g enough for Bob Ipsen to ca ncel, so th e race was on . A mere precariou s cha nc e of more m oisture couldn't ostracize th e event a fter $4 ,000 was spent getting t he track ready! A pu blicized triple j um p added int er est a nd b rou ght 208 riders to th e sce ne. T he se 'spe ed bumps' were strat egi c all y p osition ed at th e beginn ing of th e b ig swee p , to slow down racers befor e th ey met th e Plaza Cycle jump, But most of th e goo d riders co u ld hit th e first one a nd sail over th e ot her two with out losing mu ch speed . Things were looking grea t until Larry Parkin ' perch ed on top of h is bo ot h for th e rid er s' me eting . R aising hi s voi c e to give last -minut e instructi ons jo lted the heavens a nd in respo nse , th ey deluged us with a cl oudbu rst. Th e rid ers wer e undaunted a nd th e race began while the triple d ippity-d oos slowly melted awa y. The rain continued to stea d ily pelt Utah with wet artillery until the tra ck was in si d ious, caus in g t he d ownfall of th e third mota. Yamahas rul ed the Open Pro class as R a dical Ron Sc haefe r (Ya m) spra ng off th e lin e , then cha nge d his sta tus by dumping it. Pet e W at son (Ya m) scoo ped u p th e lead a nd built a wid e margin a head of th e pack. Meanw hile, Schaefer by-passed rid ers for cefull y until he'd ac h ieved second, th en WFO 'd it in hop es of regai n ing first. T he ch eckers sq uelc hed his attempt. When th e ga te d rop ped for th e second moto , Schaefer and Watson left th e lin e together, but Watson gained a sligh t edge. They skirmished throughout ' t he heat , bombarding towa rds th e checkers in unison , until Watson went beyond the limits of sa ni ty a nd won by a fender. Stan Wynhof (Suz) sn a tched the holeshot in the 250 cc Pro division , but' Eld on Copier (Han) sne aked in from behind and took over .th e lead . T hat left th e second place door open for Jim East (Han) and kn ocked W ynh of ba ck to third . T he second he a t er u pted a nd Copi er shot in to th e lead , leaving East and Wynhof to di ce for second. East finall y got th e upper hand and flew by . th e ch eckers in second, closely tagged by W ynhof. Holeshooting th e ~ 2 5 cc Pr o cla ss, Dan Lechtenberg (Ya m) had it all to himself until Eld on Copi er (Suz) came knocking at his door. Lechtenberg withstoo d th e a ttack a nd left Cop ier to ha ssle with N ick Ewing (Yam ) for second . The fini sh lin e eme rged with Cop ier reta ining his second place spot. Ken Archibald (Su z) za pped th e line in th e second mot a , but was co nsta nt ly harassed by Lechtenberg, resulting in an exc iting, close fin ish. Arch ib ald got th e winn e r' s t ick et , Lecht enberg zoomed al ong for seco nd and Jim East (Ho n) ga ssed it for th ird . Open Intermedi a tes were rul ed by Rich Gillett (Yam) and Craig Kunkle (Mai) , as Gill ett ou t-rode the pack in both mot os for a first , wh ile Kunkle foll owed suit in th e second. Third place was left up for grabs and Jeff Roberts (Yam) grabbed it. Steve Taggar t (Ya m ) d id some spec tacu la r r idin g in t he 250cc Intermediate class and ga ined first in bo th m ot os. Neil Hil ton (Ka w) a nd Kelly Smith (Han) ch opped th e track together , with Hilton taking th e upper edge . H ilto n ca me off th e lin e first in the second hea t , but Tagg art zeroed in and cu t h im ou t. Sm ith wast ed no tim e cla iming second and Kenneth Gordon. (Suz ) did some fa st maneuvering to take th ird . Bad lu ck plagued Matt Rob inson . (Suz) , a 125cc Intermedi at e . when he c h a lked up b oth h ol esh ots , but co u ldn' t hold on to th em. David Silvira (Suz) and Cor y Carson (Ya m) dic ed it ou t and Silvira sn atched th e lead , leavin g Carson to wor ry a bo ut Steve J epps on (Suz). . The seco nd m oto turned into a re al head -cr ash er, but Jeppson maintained his p oints for firs t , with Carson d od gin g flying rocks for second . Silvira worked b ac k to third a fter he'd been bumped out of it. Snell Johnson (Suz) rod e the crest with th e fastest lin e in th e Mini Exp ert class. and kept ahead of th e pac k th at wa s filled wit h co n flic t. Kell y Archiba ld (Suz) shoo k loose from Bra d Fr ampto n (Ya m) lon g enough to take seco nd in th e first heat , but was shutt led back to fourth by Brent Gray (Yam ) in th e seco nd mot o. Johnson rod e in for a definite first , Archibald got second a nd Gray took third. • Results in Results Section.

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