Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I Desert Hotline s t Balentine dusts Desert Rats' AMA D-37 hare scrambles By Gary Laudig LUCERNE VALLEY . CA . JUNE 25 Bob Balentine (400 KTM ) led most of the way to win the Desert Ra ts M .e. AMA D-37 hare scrambles. Balentine was followed by fellow Heavyweight Expert Ma x Eddy (Ya m ), and 250cc Experts Bill Tarling (KT M) a nd Bruce Ogilv ie (H· D ). (Above) W inner Bob Balent ine . (Bel o w) Steve Ke nnedy (518x) lead s Richa rd W atson (742) and Diana Elias (8vl throug h t he rock s. (Bottom) Dave Phillips (87xl is pursued by J im Delliplaine . 18 Superbowl VII took its tol l on the ranks thi s week but th e ones who did show up came to ra ce. The banner dropped at 9 a .m. a nd KTM -m ounted Bob Bal entine had a slim lead on Bruce Ogilvie (H ·D) . tra iled by rapid Bill T a rling (KTM) out to renew th eir dice from the Desert Daisvs' event when Tarli ng b rok e in the heat of bailie . Cord is Brooks (W heels mi th Ma i) was do ing a su pe r job conside ring his ai ling rib cage. Chuck Miller (Yam) was u p to his usua l habit , goi ng fast and t hen a long ca me Max Edd y (Ya m). look in' like the guy who gO! sand kicked in his face on th e bea ch . T he co urse d id t he sa me t hing as last week . heading into t he sandy pucke r range. Bal ent ine swu ng wide a nd go t off tra il. Ogil vie stuc k 10 th e tra il like gl ue a nd whe n Bob realized his path was not go ing to swing back in th e di rec tion of Ogil vie's dust he sta n ed boondockin' , Cresting a sad d leba ck rise. Bad Br ad Henson put an unbelievable pa ss on Bill Beck er . in some nasty rocks . Robin Busse. Charlie Hamill . Ed Zarp then Charlie Fowle r filed by. disappearing in the dust beyond. Tony Greaves and Benny Padilla had a dice going as they raced down the whoopy wash that headed right and to the rear of the small mountains . Back in the pack. th e "Terrible" trio of Leo Marchand . Dick Burley and Marv Van Sickle worked up a swea t in th e whoops. "Cool" Carl Fjastad followed Al Guzman as th e wash became wider. Rich Watson stayed on th e main section wh ile Russ Jenkins picked the sid e trails to the right. Gu s Paull gO! by Dennis Marchand wh en Dennis' footpeg popped off. Eddie W inn was tryin g to get around Ga ry Fredrickson to do bailie with " Big" Bud Wheeler , wh o was ra cin g for a cha nge . Jeff Thorpe witn essed th e d ogfight bet ween J oe W ilson and Jim Brown ; Ja y Orendorff was busy working up from a poo r sta n. passing Ron Surbeck, Jeff Rob b ins. Ho yt Statham a nd Verlin Va n Zee a long th e way . The co urse sta yed in th e wash cle a r to th e Powerline road a t Soggy . T orco lad y Diane Blau er was riding a very aggressive race moving well ahead of he r next co mpetitor, Sue H al l. Dave Va n Wormer and J eff Fries wer e goin' a t it for first Open Am a teur. Fries liked win ni ng it last week a nd d ecided to be greedy . Past th e hal fwa y point . Mark Da vidson a nd Cliff T homas were go ing a t it j ust like th e Daisys' ra ce exce pt t ha t Ma rch an d was prospec ting in the wash for his Ioo tpcg . Bob Torgerson got cra1,y in the "Space Mount a in" sect ion while Mont e Anderson was speeding for th e Fry Mou nt a in foot hills. Morri s Norman was in the bla ck sa nd ca nvon : Sch ell . was T om " Road runne r" hea ding up the rockfa ce tra il ex iting th e canyon as Verlin Van Zee was trailing Charlie Herma nsen ou t of th e ca nyon. t he road crossing then the sa ndy d itches. From th is po in t on you put you r bike in cruise co nt ro l a nd crossed t he Johnson Vall ey on th e smoothest trail ever. Ed Whiteside crossed BMR then p icked up th e wash at the rea r of the ca m pgrou nd . Steve Eck ardt had entered th e canyon taking the racers toward home. Eric Spaeth. Dave Phillips and Torco man Kern Park were glad to see the '32 Dodge meaning the whoopy wash was just about over with . Steve Barklow and Ron Bebo headed up the back of Mayes Mo untain in a hurry. Monte Lee (AI Baker R&D ) whizzed along the top at 14th overall . with Brian Wright (doin' it after a long layoff), and Mike Eckardt running very well for a change. Balentine and Ogilvie were fa irly close considering the " Big 0 " threw a chain on top of Mayes Mountain. Max Eddy got by Ogilvie on the last half of th e second loop a nd set his sights on th e distant cloud of dust . Balentine . oblivious 10 what was go ing on behind him. motored on in quest of th e overall. Tarling, remembering the last time he and Ogilvie tangled , pressed th e Harley pilot all around the second loop . Henson. limping a long on a rear .flat , still hurting from his Baja getoff, had Eddie Zarp to contend with as th e second dose of whoops did' a number on Cordis' ribs making him slow down whether he wanted to or not. Balentine crested the top of Mayes Mountain and headed down the long. tricky downhill . Max was next and. could see Bob c1ear as a bell but the rocky pass kept him from gaining any ground. Ogilvie came next. then Tarling. To wat ch these two come off the mountain. one would think they were try ing to stan an avalanche. Clearing the bottom , they could be seen in the rollers. neck and neck all the way to the finish . Ba lent ine sky shot the knoll blasting down the ridge for the win ; Max was right behind . Ogilvie saw the ribbon stretched across th e trail and overshot; Tarling got by for one hell of an exciting finish. Desp ite a rear flat . C harlie Hamill caught Rich Schumaker for the C bike win. Jeff Robbins took the Trail bike class as som e of the leaders ran out of gas on the second loop bu t not on the first? Novice/Beg in ner race Lancaster's Brett Howell had the bomb run wired aga in . Close behind him thought was a red shined pie plater named Grant. There were several pie platers this week ; two of th em very fast. Rich Varner was chased by first Beginner Tony Megla . Mike Ryan and Ken O viatt were hassling over who shou ld be second 250cc . " Pistol" Pet e Postel and J esse " Ba nd it" James were separated by the unfortunate T im Jasper. Heading down th e long. cho p py wash . Kirk Ka nd t . Randy Basdin , and Steve Zoll inger spread ou t and gassed it. Back in the middle of things th ere wer e several lad ies doin' it in th e d irt. Cindy Max was going "ma x," running first overa ll gir l. Four guys passed. the n Dahlen e Dorm an zipped by. Eight m or e guy s a nd th en Sandy Love , chasin' her " 01 man " Don . Linda Ch ristensen was six bikes back . Diana Elias th en Diane Wells. Gloria Farvor liked t he smoot her wid e wash a nd was out of sig ht before Nan cy Ca sell i. Dean na J enk ins and Sand y Perk ins ro u nded th e turn .

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