Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126327
; -'OOOOOQOOOOOC)O CllOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO . =SPEED s Y WEEK t 00 r- O'l ...... (Above) Batman and Robin. Tom Burmeister and Leni Faas. (Below left) Costa Mesa Div. II winner Pam Bennett. (Below right) Santa Ana Div. II winner Paul Belisle. (A bo v e) Lou is Lindwall and "Speedy Joe" Spisak get t ight at Costa Mesa. (Below ) Mike Bast en route to the hospital. . Batman, Robin strike at Ventura By Dennis Greene VEN TURA, CA. AUG. 8 Bannan and Robin ride again l Leni Faas and Tom Burmeister, both heroes of the lower divisions, both go t moved up in class ; Faas 26 int o First Division and Bunneister into second . T hey're the ridi ng buddies who m a tch eac h oth er's fea ts, if Burmeister wins, so does Faas. The od ds of either winning in a faste r divisio n were ab out 50-50. The odds of bo th winning woul d pu t a bookie in shock! ' . Len i Faas won the First Division H an d icap Main Event. Tom Burmeister won the Second Division Main Event. This was th e third week of Spe edway a t th e Ventu ra Fairgrounds an d the sellout cr owd saw Alan Ch ristian get ' the jump ' at th e sta rt of the Scra tch Main Even t. Mike Bast had mo ved into second pla ce after working his way past Steve Nutter and Gen e Woods. but in passing Wo ods on th e back straightaway. he clipped th e fron t. wheel of Woods' bik e and Gen e had to back off to get th e bike under cont rol. By th e new rul e book th e refe ree had to move Mike into last place for making contact. W ith only seven weeks of ra cing left a t Ventu ra , th e new promoters a re ~~~~ _1:,rKe~ _ _ . • .a!':.ea~~ .t~lk!~~ ?'??':'t. ~ _ t~ack for next year , The crash walls will be moved out about 40 feet right up to the outside light poles and new grandstands will be added. All they need is the go ah ea d from the horse show people and rodeo promoters and th at has been the problem in th e past, But for the next seven weeks speedway will be running on Tuesday nights. Rounding out the full ni~h!. of. racing. Mark Dett er won th e DIV ISIon Three Main Event. Cook; Lewis storm Santa Ana By Ken Kellogg SANTA ANA , CA , AUG. 8 Perhaps the largest crowd of the season at Santa Ana Stadium saw thunder and lightning in th e sky coming from the south . There was also thu nde r and lightni ng on the tra ck coming from the north in th e form of John Cook. J ohn d efeated Glenn Hutchison and hom e grown Wayne Lewis in the H an di cap Main . John had a spectacu la r night a nd just m issed making the Scratch Main . In the Scratch Main . former winner Wa yne Lewis rode hard to hold off crowd favorit e Brian " T he Bumblebe e" Buffi ngton and northern ride r Glenn Hutchison . Coming from a bad sta n and tr ailin g du ring th e first two laps. Paul Belisle rod e far outsi de the groove and passed a, su rprised Mike Gross on th e last lap of the Second Division Scratch Main. Finishing third was Bill Dunlap. In the Second Division Handicap Main , Keitli Crisco. " the Crisco Kid ," finally got it all together as he rode from the 30-yard line to victory , Keith beat out Utah rider Robert Borg. Finishing th ird after taking a spill was Bill Dunlap. Getting a new license at Santa Ana seems to be good luck. Jeff Vasquez became th e second rider to take th e test this season and was the second rider to go li gh t out in his first ra ce and win the main event in Division Three. The most exciti ng racing of the evening was again the Junior event, A tie -break ing event was run between Scott St . John and Ch ris H edge. Chris got the gate and managed to hold off Scott for th e win . Bast, Sim s prep for -state. cham pionship By Dennis Greene SAN BERNARDINO . CA , AUG . 9 The Orange Show Fairgrounds in San Bernardino will again be the sight of the California State Championship. The top 16 Scratch riders will be trying for the seco nd m os t im p ort a n t titl e in Ame rican speedway. T he September State Ch ampionship is a good ya rdsti ck for the U.S. National Spedway Championship that will be held the third week in October at Costa Mesa . ' Current U,S, Champ Mike Bast let it be known that he is ready with a fine ride to victory in the Scratch Ma in Event over Dennis Sigalos , Ron Preston and Steve Nutter, Just one' of the other 15 riders who want the big title is Da ve Sims and you can bet when the po ints are totaled up • in Octob er. he will be righ t up there. Dave won the Handicap Ma in Event , after getting past Alan Christian in the last few feet . One of the best Division Two rides of the seaso n was tu rn ed in by Louis Lind wa ll. He is a rider who keeps getting mo ved int o and ou t of Division One. H e wan ts to get int o the big mon ey a nd sta y the re . Division Three honors went to Ken Funkhouser . who found ou t that the • lower d ivision riders don't get a lot of money. but when three trophy girls come aftr you . victory can be sweet! Ascot: t he lights went By Dennis Greene GARDENA. CA , AUG . 10 Two for the price of oriel Everywho bought a ticket to see Speedway on the big oval was given two free tickets as theyleft the grandstands about 9:30 p .m. after the lights blew ou t on th e back straightaway.