Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Desert Hotline Rich Schumaker finished second overall to Balentine on a KTM 175. Stumpjumpers' AMA D·37 H&H to Balentine By Gary Laudig RED MOUNTAIN. CA , SEPT. 3 Bob Ba lentine won but Rich Schumaker stayed within slingshot range throughout the Stumpjumpers hare and hound 18 on a KTM 175 . Jim Delliplaine took third . firs t Amateur. The bikes streaked across the Searles Valley to the li ve born b in the distance. A plank had been set up to cross the tracks at check one near the military road . First to the plank were Bob Balentine (400 KTM ) , Rick Schumaker and then Jim Delliplane ' (Yam ) running first Amateur and first 250cc; Dick Camp (Yam ). Max Eddy (Yam ) and the " Big 0:' Bruce Ogilvie (H ·D). Once across the tracks th e course headed up a series of small washes heading for the pinnacles. "Bad" Brad Henson had a mad dog on his fender , " Ma d Dog" Mills . Mike Eckardt led Mitch Smiley int o the soft -surfaced terrain as the bikes sped around the backside of the Spanglers. Lee Elias of th e Desert M .C . , Trudy Beck (C&C Enr.}, Jerry Kindsvogel and Jeff Vaughn of the Viewfinders were getting tired of the rolling whoops. Suddenly the course headed left up a windy, wash . Ron Holst of the Invaders and Loren Trout recognized t he wash after a couple of turns. This is the one with the nasty uphill at the e n d. D .L. Dorman and Tony Epperson cleared the top , hooked a right toward the canyon. Dave Matus charged up the not-too-smooth wash followed by Gu s Paull and George Zuber. Viewfin der Bob Miller could hear the buzz of Mark Davidson's trailbike , Mark was running first Trail and Amateur with Joe Lockhart right on his fender. Jo e ha d his Leckich tuned Yamaha wired and almost missed the right turn heading th e racers up a narrow goat trai l. Heading down the other side was Rich Varner of Huntington Bea ch foll owing Bruce Lewellyn . J im Sm ith made th e hard right at t he bottom follo wed by the "W yom ing Kid ," RichJackson. Clearing the suspension test area , Shamrock Brett Howell gave his Husky a b ig squirt of gas and took over "T errycab le" Da vis just ahead . Steve Webb kept Ron Bebo in sight as th e course ' headed down a wide wash leading back toward the valley basin . Sled River John Foster , astride a C bike this week , was hot on James Vincent's trail. Turning right again th e cou rse ran a ridge, had a couple of downhills , on e had laundry serv ices at th e bottom , then the course crossed the basin. up a high uphill then a two mile shot to th e pits . Bob Do ig was behind getoff victim John Prater. Jr . . th e fast Desert Rat. Heading ' for Charl ie's Place over some new stuff. Gary Conner of the Antelope Ramblers had a battle go ing with Jeff Fries of SGVMC, the current second Open Ama teur : Ken Miller chased Bob Cronkite and J im Vin cent through the ca m pground . T u rning left , T erry Davis blast ed up th e hardpan knoll ; Robin Busse and Russ Collins hooked a ha rd right , got over , the back and clea red the gears. Fr eddy Strong was in th e windy portion of the wash and Bob Sanders was turning left down th e smooth graded ro ad leading th e r a ce rs t o th e ot he r si de , Brushbuster J eff Robb ins h ad seco nd C Expert na iled down with Bill Saltzman and Benny Padilla just ahead . The racers were in a re al playground of up and down rolling terrain . Dick Camp , the Bill Kr ausesp onsored dude was runnin g 10th overall with no Ron Bebo in sight. Dennis Greene , th ird Open Expert , chased Rich Zajic, the third 250cc Amateur. as they raced through the higher foothills . Crest ing th e lone hill with the soft sand and boulders on the face , Mike Eckardt could see Jay Orendorff blasting across the valley basin. Mike Lewellyn ducked under 'the underpass . turned left onto a road known as Interstate 37. Amazing Ogilvie still held down firs t 250cc , despite a front flat the entire race. His rival Henson lost a seat and dropped out. 1·37 split . the course headed to the left toward the mining complex. J im Delliplaine handled h is YZ beautifully as he blasted down the slalom -like road. Rick Schumaker picked his way through the mining area .silently telling his powerfullyrunning KTM not to give up now . Knowing the fin ish was not far away and running the best race of his career, he wanted th is one real bad. Making a straight shot for the canyon ahead , Balentine's mighty 400 KTM roared like thunder. Turning right up the nasty ravine, Balentine could see the finish in the d istance. The spectators spotted the blazing dust trail coming out of the foothills and rushed for the banner line at the finish . Standing up , dowrishifting then applying the brakes , Big Bob Balentine The Untouchable collected overall win number 12. Novice/Beginner race Sled' Rider John Basso was the leading dust trail to the bomb. Mike Smith on a C bik e was a close second while ' Davey Woolmore of th e Pack Rats zipped by in third . John Magarro took check on e and crossed th e tracks at fourth . Larry Spaeth and Bill Anderson filed up th e wash toward th e p innacles. Throughout th is section it was touch and go . scattered roc ks a nd soft surface. Sterling Varner made dust for Ga ry Covington and last week's winner Tim Jasper . Keith Tullar had his C bi ke flying through the washboard wh oops .b eh in d the Spangler ra nge. The Beginners and Trail Novices had thei r own start ; Gary, Klein was first to th e bomb , Ed Andrake second , and both riders were on C bikes. Third was Jon Rees e , firs t 250cc followed by third C Dave Schneider. Number 802 was next , followed by 175T then Bryan Short. Taking check one , T im Sinclair, Sandy Love and Derrick Paiment crossed the' tracks to new adventures ahead . John Vest had a slim lead on a gu y named Chizmar. Turning left up th e windy canyon , Gary Reese , Gary Brick and Jolene Pa yne charged up the , cobby uphill that bothered so many. Ron Gutirrez a nd Jim .Moore headed for the big canyon . Rich Parcells followed Deanna Jenkins into th e deep whoops; Tony Avan zal ini , Frank Chase and Bob Patterson turned left and headed up the n arrow trail. Making a left turn the cou rse he aded d own a neat flatland wash toward the mining complex t o the left. Turning right . Phil Mendoza chased Bruce Wood up th e canyon . Entering some more on e bike trail sections , Gordon Burton charged down the last downhill . pursuing Lars Bergman and ' Br ian Sh ort. Cle aring th e "valley of big washes ," Tim Sin clair and Jon Reese fishtailed th eir wa y to the top of th e big uphill . turned right and rid gera n . John McCormack shot across the sm a ll valley with the car tracks in the trail. Derrick Pa irnent cleared the saddleback rise and saw Gary Klein heading for the finish. Ed Andrake tried his best all the way around the course and won the overall Beginner race on a C bike. The Novices had pitted ; Dave Woolmore had assumed the lead. with Greg Winter second. John Steinbeck turned right at the foothills and followed Kevin Armstrong cross country in the boulder-laced area below Charlie's. Da ve Jones diced with Gene Peters a s they entered the camping area . Shooting down th e road , Doug Ahuero broke to the right to get out of Tim Foster's dust. Downshifting, Jimmy Huizar shot up the bald knoll ; John Cl ine and Clinton Wood streaked down the backside. Chuck Aselin and Gary White appreciated their Open bikes as they turned into a banzai wash so smooth and obstacle free . " La te" Lou Ortali gave J im Divine a run for his money until they hit the snaky section and Lou had to back off. Frank Chamberlin saw Rod Absher hit the binders. Making a hard left, the two shot down the smooth graded road and crossed Trona Road heading into the playground. Brent Leckich, Eric Bergquist and Dan Drew single filed through the rolling territory; Mike Walters and Paul Palmer were into the steeper sections . Mark Torgerson crested the big hill then worked his way to the bottom hoping to catch Larry Spaeth, who was heading for the underpass. John Basso was on 1-37, Keith Tullar kicked up more than enough dust. Tim Jasper hooked a left and headed down the windy road t oward the mining area. John Magarro , Kirk Kandt and Sterling Varner cleared the mining section and then headed up the canyon ahead . Varner could see second place Winter in the d istance . Winter could see Woolmore but Dave's 250 Husky was too much for W inter's C bike and Woolmore bagged th e overall Novice victory. Saturday night live The waterhole was used for a swimming pool ' during the day . no water samples were taken but nobody really wanted to fall in . The first round of the Stumpjumper's tug-o·war went to the Viewfinders. Desert Foxes. Desert Squirrels and Prospectors. 1 The second round had die Viewfinders . Prospectors as the winners. The Desert Squirrels invited me to pull with them and even gav e me the guest of honor position , right in front of the waterhole. We lost the second pull and you know where I wound up. The Viewfinders " Ai! (animal) team beat the Prospectors for , the championship; the Viewfinders women's team lost to Trudy Beck a n d the hotshoes . Rumor has it the Viewfinders "A" team traded the 'bee r in for a crate of bananas. • The turnout was super, the race was a real winner'. A wholeheated welcome to Dan Thordarson of HBMC out to watch the race and visit fr iends. Congratulat ions to Darl ene Vest completing her first desert race ! Thanks to Rescue 3 - you 're th e greatest. the snowcone folks and everyone concerned for making th e Labor Day weeke nd a success. Kelly cranks to CRC HS overall, Open points lead By Jerry G. Welton ) I I Tom Kelly and his KTM were too much for the Barstow terrain , as he motored across the fin ish lin e with the win and the cac points lead in the Open class. . Before nine o'clock the banner was dropped and th e race was under way . Amateur Mark Force (400 KTM) , Scot Duncan (250 Yam) and George Tolmasoff (250 Hon) jumped out front with Kelly eating a little dust. Morgan Malocco (400 Yam) and Doug Beisner (2 50 Suz) d idn't let their two kick starts keep them out of the top as they moved around traffic. . When the course swung right Malocco found an opening and went for it. The course jumped on to an old chewed up fireroad previously used by buggies, then down into some hills . Malocco had little sp ace between h imself and Duncan with Kelly in hot pursuit of the pair. Amateur Tim Nething (250 H us) shot through the rollers in fourth with Tolmosoff and Eric MacCrakken (390 Hus) not far behind. Beisner was chasing Amateur Chris Duncan (4~0 Suz) . Greg Johnston (250 Yam) and Baker R&D teammate Monte Lee (250 Yam) were battling it out as Vern Heth (250 Yam) took advantage of a good start and gassed it hard. . Just before leaving the hills and dropping on th e flat Malocco lost his footpeg and had to hand th e lead over to Scot Duncan temporarily . On the first road it was Kell y's 400 over th e 250 of Duncan. MacCrakkin did som e heavy duty riding and , caught Malocco. In an effort to overtake Malocco and wh at he th ought was the lead , MacCrakking ruptured his front tire and ende d his day. The cou rse took a . cou ple of 90 degree turns down a gnarly fireroad whi ch kept everyo ne on their toes . Monte Lee KOl by Beisner in this a rea .. Aft er crossin g a coup le of highlines a nd makin g a la rg e arc of cont in uing gn arls it cha nged into a high -speed race with severa l lin es to choose from . Mike Mulcon ery (400 Mid -Vall ey KTM) was using everythi ng he had to reco ver from a two-kick sta rt and the upcoming sandwash was no exception.

• Cover