Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• , =Desert-'Hotline ~ t Monoshock king Benny Padilla w heelied through Red M ountain at the Buzzard 's 0-37 hare scrambles . Balentine flies to Buzzards' D·37 hare scrambles win By Gary Laudig R ED MOUNTAIN , CA , J UNE II Bob Balentine pushed his 400 KT M past Max Ed dy on the first loop to win the Buzza rds M.e. AMA D-37 hare scrambles. 18 The 10th bik e past the bomb was Amateur Jim Delliplaine; Kevin Hopkins and Cory T imms were ju st a head. ,Ben ny Padilla and Robbin Busse had crossed th e ro ad and wer e working th eir way through th e cho p before t he badly rutted firero ad tha t led th e ra cers to th e rid ges . Ron Bebo was chasing Bruce Ogilvie up th e roc ky trail that entered th e first part of the ridge sec tion . Ogilvie was ch asi ng, somethi ng different today . Not a bike , but a helicopter that was no mor e than 20 feet above ground tak ing pictures of lead ers Ma x Ed dy, Bob Balent ine a nd Ed d ie Zarp. The chopper eased up t he narrow canyon like an ATC90. J oe Lockhart was in th e l l th spot just ahead of "C" bike Ex pert leader Gary Charters. Ch a rlie ' Fowler crested the rise , turned left a nd sta rted a seq uence .of hu ge u p a nd down ro llers. Ru ss J ones on a new Hon d a had Fred Stro ng a t h is side as the two 250 cc racers c harged up an d down th e gia nt ro lle rs t ha t skirted alo ng th e top of th e Rand Mount ai n ra nge. Dick Camp , rid ing for Bill Kr ause Sporr cycle had 10 guys to pass before d oing ba ttle with th e el usive Ron Beb o . T urn ing rig hr.. the Senior disappeared over the sid e of the first dow n hill. Tom Schell followed : Smo ke bo m b Gaetz a nd Steve Eckardt were next. The course worked its wa y through some well-used , big rollers th en turned right down a narrow sandwash . Bill Becker had passed a bunch of folks by the time he started down the narrow wash , Paul Ch ristensen was' ahead of Becker as he entered the canyon; one that resembles an area taken from the lost continent. Mike Six berry entered the canyon with the walls so high the racers could hardly see daylight. Nobody dared look up as right down th e center of the canyon was a huge rain rut. The course wove its way down safely but th e only person who would try to pass here would be a nut. After a mile of this the course headed left up another canyon back to th e right. Ru ss J on es was after Morris Norman . Russ Collins was chasing Ed Ogden , Jr. whe n it seemed th e gu ys in front hit the binders kinda hard . The co u rse made an abrupt left a nd headed up a 30 foo t bank b ringing th e bikes onto a p latea u of virgi n terra in and gia n t p ucke rb ushes. T erry Davis, Marty Ol sen a nd Bruce Lewellyn too k chec k one. Just past t his point whe n the cours e was in a ll new territory, Balent ine moved up on Edd y, The co urse pic ked up a road , Ma x overshot t he turn a nd Bob was in th e drivers seal. Rob bin Busse, th e 250cc Amateur hero was now in third p lace . Ed Zarp had t he mon osho ck m an Ben ny Pad illa try ing to get by to take ca re of Busse. Dan Ashcraft fina lly got bu m ped a nd was running 24th overa ll, ge tt i-ng by five racer s befor e th e check. Ga ry W illins gasse d his C bik e over th e one -b ike trail heading toward Koeh n Dr y Lak e , J ohn Pr at er , Jr. was right be hi n d Gary, maki ng up time for a gc toff in the ca nyo n . T he tr a il e ntere d some more rollers. Gus Pa ull got airborne a co uple of times on th e ab ru pt edges wh ile Bob Torgers on gla nce d off of everythin g in his usu al a bando n. " 01" 01" Cliff Thomas doesn 't seem , to mind being on a T'ra ilb ike, Running first Amateur Trail , he had a bunch of 250cc and Open bikes beh ind him . Second -place Tra il Amateur Mark Davidson was a m er e five bikes back from Thomas, but guys like Jeff Fries , Fred Coll ins and Fr ed Cole kicked up the dust for Mark: T im Harris was just ahead of Dick Postma as he landed on one of th e smoothest white sand fireroads in existence . Tony Epperson followed as the racers wound their bik es out and j ust used body English to make the sweeping turns . Sheila Hopkins entered the road going full bore as she found out at ch eck one she was first girl and that meant Trudy Beck was back there som ewhere. Lynette Zuber had her 250 under control as he opened it up on the long sandy road . Joe Wilson was giving chase to Lee "The Ma rin e" Elia s, who was enjoying the ride and didn't care where camp and Lewellyn were. Francis Ch ristensen and George Zuber cont inued their di ce from the previous week : George dropped out and Chris decided to pick on D.R. Deichman . Dick Burley was too far ahead at that time for Chris to worry about. Sliding in to ch eck three Charles Hermansen glanced back to see Garry Conner and Eddie Winn h itting the binders for th e cra yon mark. Turning right, H ermansen headed up another canyon similar to th e first one , exc ept a road was at th e bottom of this one not a ra in rut. Steve Barklow followed the dust as the road wound deeper and deeper into -the depths of the mountain. Gary Niederhuth and Jeff Fraser really didn't know what to expect; they just drove on , Soon the road made a 180-left turn and as the course zig-zagged to the top, Gus Paull could look down and see Steve Barklow, Barklow could look down and see Niederhuih. T he last leg made a gradual rig ht then up a steep, hardpan uphill with a two-foot rain rut right in the middle. Cresti ng th e to p it was home and t he pits. Ba lent ine pitt ed a bout 30 seconds ahead of Eddy, Cory Timms was next. Rob bin Busse had the Prospectors going crazy pitting - he was fourth overall, was out by first 250cc as the Big Rescue 3, giving his Harley mouth-tocarb resesitation, , The second loop was not too kind to Gary Charters, who was leading Charlie Hamill again this week, wnen he cen rerp unc hed a rock in the canyon with the high bank to th e left. Going over th e bars at about 10 mph , he totaled his bike and got kn ocked silly, H amill sto p ped and gave aid until Cha rters told him to go on . Timms, running third a nd ha ving the luxury of the Peter Starr helicoptor following him on th e first loop all th e way up th e last uphill , crashed on th e second loop , sca ttering Husky pans a ll over th e wash . Dahlen e Dorman ga ve th e d ejected ra cer a ride home , Tom Sch ell a nd J oh n Prat er had a fantastic dice goi ng a ll a ro und the co urse . Past chec k two in th e range gra ss ro llers . Sch ell kicked up a roc k, hitting Pr at er, and John got off ag a in . Balentine got a flat ha lfwa y around t he seco nd loop a nd was afra id Max would ca tc h him , Som e spec ta tors pointed Ma x in th e wrong direct ion a nd he lost five m inutes find in g th e co urse agai n . Balentine cru ised in for th e win a nd the crowd wa ited fo r th e next bike . a Novice/Begi nner race Mike Ryan was first to th e bomb , th e rutty road , a nd whe n he headed , ... . , , , .." up the rock -strewn jeep trail he was rid ing on the ba ck tire , th e front about fou r inches off the ground . Ken Oviatt trailed him , th en first Beginner Larry Mclntyre. Brett Howell , R ick Burris, Leonard Barone and Rick Varner headed for th e top of th e ridge and disappeared , After severa l racers filed by, Kevin Case hit a neutral but go t going again , Ted Hunnicutt , Jr. got radical in the boulders, and Bill Parks bounced into Senior Rick Hammell. What looked like a Laugh -in crash turned out to be Hammell with his foot stuffed in Parks' chain and sprocket. Once freed , they took off to conquer the wasteland . Oren Beck, Jr. decided to put his act together and had his Trailbike in the 12th overall position before the first downhill . Ned Pritchard followed Tim Jasper down the first downhill; a one bike , sandy affair with a good runout at the bottom , Mitc h Sm iley of the Low Budget M.C . was being bird dogged by George Jaggard , Dennis Lanski was chasi ng Chris Boesen as the ~ racers made the up and down tri p through the high rollers. Kris Goolsby made the right turn into the tight wash , Ryan Grosz and David Main almost overshot it. Jesse "T he Bandit" James made it dusty for Mike Sm ith and Kevin Case as th ey headed down the long, dark, canyon . Dave Woolmore a ma zed most of the racers as he worked his wa y from 25th at the bomb to 10th a t check on e . Marv Van Sickle took th e chec k and headed through th e boonies, followed by Jim Short and Trace Willis, The next person int o the ch eck was first girl Dan a Dunham but just as the course entered a rutty road , Diana Elias got by for good . Heading down the roller coaster trail , - Keith Tullar and Frank Cham berl ain swapped pos itions a few times. Heading the day-glos, J erry Gilpin and George Kander slowed as they crested the rise that emptied int o t he upper portion of Whitey's Gulc h , Once on the sandy road , Art Guzm a n led th e way fo r Do n Urbanek, Dick Evans and Dave J ones , all enjoyi ng the chance to let it all hang out. Ka thy Hopkin s took check two and headed due east th rough the range grass rollers. Two saddlebacks and three valleys later Dahlene Dorman , was still trying, so was Dea nn a Jenkins . Do n Love was th inking about trading in his Trailbike for a 125cc after the third uphill . J im "Cu tacross Shorty" Wilson was d oing great with h is Trailbike. Heading up th e zig -zag trail , Cliff Ogra in looked up and saw Ga ry Gibbons ; Tony Megla looked straight ahead and sa w Dan Sutton. Pitting and heading out on th e last loop , Davey Woo lmore mo ved up eight m or e positions to settl e in behind Brett Howell who had a ge ne rous lead of five minu tes. Rich Varner held fourth , Tim Jasper dropped fro m fifth to 12th. Howell held on for th e Win , W oolm ore was the 250cc cha m p , Mitch Smi ley th e C bike winner, Oregn Beck th e T railbike king, The co u rse was all you cou ld ask for. T he 'shoes a nd th e No vices really had a grea t tim e. The Buzzards are a sma ll club but refu se to put on a lou sy rac e even though th eir anchorman Jack Froelich is in the hospital. Get well from all of usJ ack . For those of you wh o staye d hom e you will never rea ch movie sta rd om as Peter Starr's "T ake it to th e lim it'rfilm crew wer e ou t takin g lots of footage. A .C . Bakk en did a go around with a helmet ca mera , .

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