Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; I: _._._._._._._._._~._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.- . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ Western hotline ~ t 00 r- O"l l"'"""4 0 C'I I-< V .D e v .... .. ron 0.. V Rocket Rex State n (16) and Mark W hite lead t he 500cc Pros through the dust. Moates, Gillman, Cantaloup; wrap up 8ridgestone/ YamahaAMA Pro-Am Summer Series' By Brian George • CARLSBAD, CA , SEPT. 3 Carlsbad' Raceway was the site of the third and final round of the Bridgestone/ Yam a ha AMA Pro-Am Summer Series of moto- e -, 26 cross . Carlsbad R a ce wa y holds international events because of its high quality terrain , but Sund ay that turf on which the over 100 professiona l riders had to compete upon was probably at its worst standards . There was unru ly dust d uri ng p ract ice. and no ef forts to regrade and /or. rewarer were made, and when the races did get underway. a dustbowl emerged on what has the potential to become the best race track in southern California. It was pretty sad to see , and even worse to ride on. Deep ruts an!! gnarly bumps covered the hard surface after the first three 250cc Pro qualifying motos had ended. and they took more than their share of riders out of the day's competition. In the 250 and 500cc Pro classes. first moto winners Steve Bauer and Rocket Rex Staten suffered collapsed wheels -Staten's rear wheel while leading the second 500cc moro and Bauer's front , while on the way to overall victory in the 250cc race, For DG 's "Mad Dog " Bauer. it wasn 't just one wheel. It was his fourth of the day. Bridgestone was offering $200 to the overall winners of each Pro division if sporting Bridgestone rubber on th eir rims. and to rub salt into their already big wounds, Bauer and Staten were both running on Bridgestones, Those rear wheels cost Ba uer and Rex not only the $95 for the moto win . but the $200 bonus 10 boot : Those were almost $300 rim s! But through all of th e dust and rough riding, three machines stood up a nd proved their reliance. T he mounts were two Yamahas and a Honda . Northern Cal ifornia 's hott est 125cc Pro , Donnie Cantaloupi, took home the overa ll 125cc win by swee p ing both motos on his MOIO'X Fox Yamaha , whil e the LOP Honda of Mart y Moat es refu sed 10 b uckle un d er the harsh co nd itio ns a nd rode 10 overa ll victory in 250cc'a ct ion . T he big story ca me in th e 500cc class thoug h , when Rocket Rex was lite ra lly run ni ng off with the seco nd mot o a nd overall 10 slOp Murphy's Scott Gillman fro m • sweeping a ll three 500'cc Pro races of t he series. : a nd his rear spo kes began goi ng th eir sepa rate ways. Gillm an was right ther e again 10 pick u p his third overa ll win in a row , tak ing five of the six motes he entered . . To start things off, three quali fying rounds were run to file the field of 250cc Pros down to 40 . It was clear that it wou ld be a bailie between Marty Moates and Steve Bauer as they ran away with the first two heats. Dave Eropkin picked up the win in the consolation race . With the field trimmed , the first moro got underway with Kawasak i-moun ted Lenny Giger taking the holeshot . Ba uer was right beh ind wit h Moates ro unding the tight left in eighth . As the pack ex ited the steep horseshoe Bauer put the pressure on Giger . He. ove rr a n the green machine before , they headed up the long hill. Moates began to move through the traffic . and by th e third lap was up to Giger. Two laps later he was in second , but Bauer had already pushed his DG Honda to its limits and held a long lead. Moates could never overcome the deficit and had to settle for second. Giger held on 10 th ird until the last few Japs, when Edward Jones took over and held firm , Steve Rhyan broke out to an ea rly lead in the second moto, and stret ch ed a lead out over Bauer . Moates was knocked down off the line and had to start dead last and play catchup th e entire 30 minute-plus-two-lap final. But on the sixth lap the course ca ught up with Rhyan and while sailing up the long uphill, Rhyan's chain derailed and •.tweaked the rear wheel. Bauer shot by. and didn 't even know he h ad th e lead until aft er the race . But his fini sh to the race actually came 10 an abrupt standstill with three laps remaining. The spokes in his bo rrowed front rim were coming apa rt and at the bottom of th e fast downh ill they let go altogether and he had to pu t some fantastic moves from the sadd le to save it. His chec ke red n ag was taken with a pu sh . With th e two early leader s a lrea dy out , Moates found th at a ll of h is hard rid ing was worthwhile as he moved int o seco nd just past the halfway mark , a nd while closing on Bau er he inherired th e win and t he overa ll. Jon es was there again beh in d Ma rt y and picked up second overa ll, wh ile Allen Berluti took third , and th e sa me overall. O pen ac tio n was h ighlighted by th e ap pea ra nce of new Ya m aha fac to ry r id er R ocket Rex St at en , o n a pro duction YZ400 . Rex p roved why he was seco nd to Rick Bu rgett in th e fin al 500cc AMA/Mr. PiBB Na tio na l MX poi nt tallies as he roc ket ed out to a n untouc ha ble lead in th e first mot o . It was a ll over after th e first turn , bu t seco nd on down to 12th sti ll pa id mon ey. Mark White trailed St at en for the firs t two co rners befor e wat ching Rex g lide out of sight as David Geri g , Dan Steel e . Koji Masud a a nd SCOll Gillm an di ced for position s behind. Ma suda slid up 10 third on the seco nd lap , but Gillm an co uld n't ge t out of six t h unt il th e fourth la p . Th e pos iti ons then read St at en , White , Ma suda and Gillm an , but Koji was d etermined to pick up mor c grou nd on th e Yarn ah a /Basseu tea m ste r. He picked off Wh ite on th e fifth lap, but ju st as qui ckly got o ff a nd dropped to fifth . T h is put Gillm an in second , but ' the mor o closed and Gillm an suffered his firs t mot o loss of the ser ies. Thi rd went to Alan Smith. who passed Whi te in the fina l la ps, as did Bob Marino . St at en began a repeal ru naway with th e seco nd mot o . but now Masud a a nd Gillm a n went at it rig h t fro m th e first turn . Masuda held th e edge for the first la p. then with his wild style . proceeded 10 ge t o ff again. Gillm a n held a d istant seco nd on ly two laps into the moto. and Stat en was just stroki n' ou t in the lead . He was so sm oo th, yet SO fast. and it look ed like he had a lot of money coming in aft erth e moto was over. But that end never came. as his rear wheel broke severa l spokes. Lady Luck now was on the side of Gillman. and she brought him uneventfully to the overall victory, Second went to John Hadley. who passed Bob Marino early for the spot. Goat Breker came in to third after a bad start , Don n ie Canraloupi became the day's on ly doub le moto win ner as he took th e 125cc Pro overall after coming off of' bad starts to overtake early lea ders, In the first rrioto, Mike Tripes and Ra ndy .Hess . fought for holeshot honors, with Tripes taking over. Canta loupi ran eighth off the line , but picked his way past one to two riders per lap, and by the halfway point was up to second and challenging Hess for the lead. Tripes had dropped to third earlier. and that is where he finished . Going into the ninth lap, Cantaloupi pressured Hess heavil y, and when the duo came down from the back sections. Cantaloupi was in con trol. Suzuki's Scott Burn wort h was the ne xt to battle Ra nd y Hess for holeshot honors . and took the lead on th e first lap of the second moto . Again Cantaloupi was behind off th e start , back in seventh , Tim Locey. Mike Tripes, Cliff Lett and Hess wcre the fac t ors between Cant aloupi a n d Burnworth. and Donnie picked each rid er off by the sixth lap, when he mov ed in on Burnworth . Scott was getting very tired , as was half the field , and Canraloupi took full advant ag e of the youngster's fatigu e. On the 10th lap Burnworth. g ave wa y t o Canraloupi in a two -lined berm . by going wa y outside and pr odu cin g no fight for the lead. Cant al oupi look over for th e rema inder of th e rnoto and cranked on to a not he r se ries overa ll. Burnsworth dropped to l l rh a fter his brilliant ea rly ride , which a llowed Lett to pick up seco nd a head of Tripes and Locey. Results 125 PRO: 1. Donn; e Cantaloup ;; 2. M ;ke Tripes; 3. Randy Hess ; 4. CI,ft Len; 5. Bobby Sull"'n; 6. Scon Burnworth; 7. Edwin Arnet; 8. Pat Hubbs; 9. Mark Barnes: 10. A.J. W hiting . 250 PRO: 1. Marty Moates: 2. Edward Jones; 3. : Allen Berluti; 4 . Robert St e m; 5. Tim Mich litsch ;.6. Jo hn G'eenway; 7. Steve Bauer; 8. Kurt Sofka: 9. Frite Schleg el; 10. Shaw n Hybarg... 500cc PRO: 1. Seen Gillman; 2. Mark White; 3. Rober t Marino~ 4. Rober t Haa g; 5. Koji Masuda; 6. Steve Walker; 7. Sherman Schneller; 8. Dan Sleek; 9. Tad Gumbmann; 10. M ike Nedw in. Draskovich, Mayfield take CRCRacing WorldMX By Keith Clemons TRABUCO CANYON , CA , AUG . 27 With the AMA Yamaha/ Bridgestone Pro -Am series running only a few miles away one would think that California Racing Club's entries mi ght be a b it on th e light side, but no way! Sever al hundred d yed -in th e-wool moro freaks pu m ped th eir way out to th e Marty Smith tra ck at Racin g Worl d . Donald Draskovich , first overall in CRC poi nts for th e first qu arter , gra bbed a n unbeat able I -I moto tally in h is event wh ich a ll but sewed up th e second quarter cont est for him also. T aking the hol eshot in both 250cc Pro motos, Draskovich ran a on e man ra ce for th e money. At the fini sh of t he Second mor o he was clocked with a 40 second lead over his brother-in -law Steve Pons who pulled in second. The rest of th e . 250cc Pros ran an unnaturall y bunched up race and stuck together like bees buzzing in swarm format ion . Can-Am -mounted Den n is Brown took second overall from Potts by finishing second in the first moto a nd third in the second , while a first mo to collision between Potts and Joe D. Price lef t Potts wit h a nint h p lace first moto finish. Price meanwhile . driving home fourt h the first time arou nd. finis hed well enough to take home the third p lace money. Still it was no giveaway - Price bailed off in the second moto also a nd ha d to grit his teeth and grind a lot of dirt to finish as well as he did , Open Pro Tom Mayfield decided to get back into serious racing after a three-month vacation , which he spent truckin' around the U,S .. but if he was out of shape it su re d idn't show. He got the holeshot in the first Open Pro race but Ra ndy Blevins was able to crank his DG-sponsored Yamaha into the front position before the completion of the first lap . With Ron Tebbs. also returning to racing after a three month absence due to a broken collarbone, filling in the th ird place position it looked like that might be the line up at the fin ish but when the white nag fell Mayfield bore down and ran around Blevins to take over first in the final lap. MOIO Meister's main man Carl Ellen ga ve Mayfield 't he Maico tha t shot him to victory . In the second moto Mayfield didn't give Blevins or anyone else a fighting chance he ' simply corn ered the first turn in the number on e position and stayed th ere till he cl ut ched past the checkers. Ron Tebbs gav e a second effort to rry and huild a good rep utation for hi s new spo nso r, Po m o n a Vall e y Kawasaki . wh o supplied him with a Hu sky, a nd battled with Blevins for the seco nd overall. Coming int o th e fin al turns, Blevins opened his Yam a ha wide and tried to swa llow T ebbs. but those that ..

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