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/126328
; . •••• r. r ••• r ••• Fa. _ ••• ., =Desert H !5.....- -:a ~ t 00 J:"-o en 1""""4 Ed larp chases Steve Eckardt 1131 in the Open Expert race. Bill Saltzman took second Open Expert. Balen&le, Ogilvie continue D·37 domination By Gary Laudig LUCERNE VA LLEY, CA . AUG . 20 18 Bob Balentine (KT M), and Bruce Ogilvie (H-D) continued to domin ate their respective classes, while Rick Schumaker (KT M) pulled out a b ig win in the 175cc C bike class at the Sled Riders M .C . AMA European scrambles. The early morning quiet (8 :00 a .m.) erupted into life as the T railbikes took the field . On the Expert course , Kevin Hopkins won handily over Dennis Marchand and Pete Andelman. Art Guzman settled for fourth . Novice ace Don Urbanket charged to an early lead and held it for the win ahead o f Tim S in clair, Brian Reynolds, John Haller, Dave Morrison and Lane Custer. The women lined up on the Novice course. Charging to her favori te place, in front , Trudy Beck had a new heckler in second place. Lori Farmer was making dust for Sheila Hopkins and June Elias . Lori was firs t Amateur, Diana Elias took second. Jolene Payne stayed ahead of Lynette Zuber and also had first Novice in the bag. Sandy Love took second, Cindy Max third. The Beginner winner was Deanna J enkins. Looking at the Senior results, there are a lot of old Buzzards st ill flying around the dez. Smokebomb Gaetz crashed first , and then Ron Bebo. Smokebomb go t up th e quickes t and won the race. John Watkins took second , Bebo third . "Suzuki" Art bagged the Open Amateur win ahead of Dick King and Warren Cooper. Ken Price was the Nov ice winner; Terrill Cotton and Bob Statts were next. Rocky Schmidt was th e lon e Beginner survivor. George Zuber seems to keep a 50 'yard barrier betw een him and Francis Christensen week aft er week a nd so won the 250c c Exp'erts, Dick Burley took third. Ray W illiams and Fr ed Hawkins wer e th e 250cc Amateur winners while Ray Sheldon and Pa t Pri ce bagged th e Novice 250c c win. Monte Lee led Bruce Ogilvie to the bomb. but the "Big 0" won the 250cc Expert. Skip Kolb and Jim Moore were the first two Beginners to take the checkered. John McCown powered his CSC Can-Am to the front of the C bike class , beating Ron Milligan and Ed Austin in the process. Bob Shook and Frank Sherril finished just ahead of third place Dale Dorman in the C bike Amateur clash. Val Morris, Bud Gawing and Jack Overhalt rounded out the No vice C class . The C bikes lined up at 10 a .m, and Rick Schumaker never looked back as he took the Expert win wire to wire. Chris Austin was a heavy second until two flats put he and former th ird place Steve Webb out of it. Charlie Hamill moved from sixth to second and Russ Jenkins bagged third. Garry Conner was next, then first Amateur Gary Hangeveld , Jim Vincent, Ron Hall ' and then second Amateur D. L. Dorman. Mike Easley was right on Dorman's knobby for third Amateur. ~ The Novice winner was Mike Sm ith ch ased by 509c and then firs t Beginner 491c. Jim Huiser was third Novi ce , Murry Kapko was second Beginner; Bob Tello took third. The mean 250cc bikes took t he field and Monte Lee won the bomb run ; Bruce "B ig 0 " Ogilvie won the race. MikeLewellyn , moving up from th e C bike class . bagged second overall. first Amateur. John Prater took second Expert: Dan Ashcraft was right behind for se cond Amateur . Paul Ch ristensen took th ird Expert and th en Monte Lee and Tom Sch ell filed by. Cra ig Kinnaman was next then Mike Johnson . Ken Mill er , Mike Eck ardt and "Coo l" Ka rl Fjastad . The Novices had G regg Joh nston in the win ner's ci rcle. Ga ry Covington took second ahead of a p ie plater and " La te" Lou Orta li. Two more pie platers came, then Steve Mirelag . Randy Anderson and Ned Pritchard followed two more pie platers then the great Fudpucker charged in for the finish . On t he sta rt line, Bob Balentine gets more stares than a streaker. He is sort of a streaker since it seems nobody can catch him . Today he picked up his II th straight District overall with an Open Expert win . Bill .Sa ltzm a n bagged second and J im McGraw, who supposedly retired from desert ra cing. charged from 15th to third overall . Jay Orendorff got by Steve Eckardt on the last lap for fourth . R ick Sh irey was next then Verlin Van Zee , typist'S n ightmare Dave Rogacezewski, Bob Cronkite and Randy Brown. Cronkite took first Amateur after Lee Scheffers, former second overall, dropped back. Bill Postel bagged second Amateur then th ird through eighth blasted by: Tony Epperson. Dick Harris, Lou Monterone , " Big Bud" Wheeler. Gale Evans and Lee Scheffers. Larry Spaeth took his open b ike to the line and landed in th e Novice win ne r's column. Bruce McClusky and Kirk Kandt fo ll o we d. and then Sterline Varner , Ga ry White , Bla ir Swallow and Rod Wheeler filed by . Ken Hansing was the first Beginner; #S03b was second. Bruce Wood, Rich Hansing and Bob Fr eeman wer e the rest of the Beginner continent. Well, the race finally d id end. on a happy note. I don't th ink Rescue 3 had any business all day. Good going Sled Riders . H ad a momentary ambulance sca re ca using a five minu te d elay. The soci al event of the weekend wa s th e housewarming at th e Theel's new Smuggler motorhome, Invite inclu ded a free beer and gu ided tour by Gene . Take you r salt pills - the re is a hare and hound next week . •