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/126349
-.-.-,rI'.-"".-.-".-....,.__.,•.:.-....... ·.VA·,:t...•...__ •.....••__ •••••••...•••......·,.·......,.·.·...·.·",.·..,.",.·A__ ·.·,;-.·.·.·.·.·.·.....•••••••••••••••••••••...•••••......•__ ....-••••, ••" .........-..... Desert Hotline Terry Davis takes first first at Donkeys' HaH By Ga ry La udig LUCERNE VALLEY. CA , DEC . 17 Paul Simon's song "Still Crazy After All These Years" is a proper theme song for Terry Davis, ' who has raced this desert for many yea rs and finally bagged his first first overall win ever, at the Desert Donkeys M .C . AMA D·37 hare and hound . • Everyone in the desert awoke to the 3 a .rn. raindrops on the tops of motorhornes, vans , and sleeping bags belonging to the hardy ones who opted to sleep in the back of the pickups and on cots. The fog 'a nd low hanging clouds made the area look as if the end of the world had happened and the only survivors were the desert racers , When the banner rose shortly after 10. the weather was optional. The banner dropped , th e ra cers took off just as a drizzle of rain started . Your reporter was well into third stage pneumonia by the time the leader , Eri c MacCracken arrived , ta ilgated by Cory Timms a nd Max Eddy . Managing the dropoff OK , th e course headed up a multi -trail past the Donkey b ann er and the frantic collection of specta to rs. Winding past the lava plateaus. the racers . en masse , spread out and made their way across the vast Johnson Valley . It was ho hum -hold -the-rhrottle-open until they reached the blowsand chop before check one. Brian Wright , working his wa y from around IOth, had taken the lead. Bruce Ogilvie tailed Max "Fla t Tire" Eddy ." then passed him , got around first Amateur MacCracken , and he and Wright had one hell of a dice. Brian hit a buried rock and unloaded . Ogilvie, in trying to miss Wright, hit the same rock- and over the bars he went also . With his flat Eddy was the leader he thought - but the wise old Checker of the dez . TerryDavis. was putting it all together. Gary Niederhuth was bangin' around in the number 15 spot. behind Dave Phillips. Phillips took check one at the apex of the loop and headed into the sandy wash in the direction of home. Dale Brassfield was keeping company with one of the really good dez racers , Lou Monterone . Dave Matus was next , running third 250cc ·Am a teu r . then Mike Arbogast and Rick Schumaker picked up the pace and got by just as the course headed right and started int o the new territory next to the base of the middle mountain above Means Dry Lake. Jeff Fr ies was pumped . running first Open Amateur at 17th overall . Jeff was chasing another hot desert racer . Rog er Toubeaux . Two pie platers separated Roger and second 250cc Amateur Rodney Busse , they were numbers A37 and A41. Cliff Thomas was next heading into the rollers behind Ma yes Mountain . His main goal was to catch Kevin Hopkins who was three bikes ahead . Number 648x trailed Hopkins into the pits righr behind the 250cc Amateur leader Russ Woolmore . Russ and Dave Woolmore keep thei r dad so excited it takes him a • cou ple of days to recover . Ron Bebo took gas and took off after Ed Whiteside . Whiteside chased Ken Miller , who seems to go faster the longer he lays off dese rt ra cing . Verl in . Van Zee , 't he "Flyin g Dutchman," swapped positions several times with the "Old" Desert Fox. Steve Eckardt. Most of the 'shoes took the Beginner finish arrows and really stirred the pits up. Max fixed his flat while Kevin Hasten . Benny Padilla and the leader Davis made a mad dash for loop two . Diana Elias had a slim lead on Diane Holeman and was determined to keep it that way . ' Don Purdy and Don Chalmers chased a crafty desert ace Bob Tartter. By t his time the Novices were _ passing the rockpile at Soggy. Jeff Cannon , riding a 250cc blue tank Husky had a good lead at the bomb. maintained it almost to check one then lost confidence and let Mr . Opportunity, Doug Mitchell , by. This got Cannon's mind back to reality and the young man set out to regain the lead . Amateur Tony Megla and Joe Zumida were in the battle as the racers headed into the rollers. Suzuki Art was out just for a fun ride and had Jim Harris and Harry Cantrall right in front of him . Mitch Smiley followed Trace Willis into the narrow whoopy ca nyon, crossed the powerline road and made a beeline drive for th e Victor pass area . Bill Bryan, Pete Andleman , and Larry Underwood crossed BMR very close together while Senior Allan Torkko entered th e pass above Victor. George Zuber. th e man wh o weld ed J.N. (h is bikes) to fame was next ; Tom Zarp. Cla rence \Yill is and Ed Ogden circled around the back of Victor and headed for the red hill in the distance. Lee Elias as having t ro uble with "Cactus Jack" Kaplan while Jack was having trouble withJan Morrison . Jim Rother had the pleasure of wat ching "C razy" Bob Torgerson richochet through the rough stuff like a kangaroo rat. Steve Shalhoob couldn't make any headway due to the ' dust Tom Mitchell and Charlie Morris kicked ,up . Dan "Aircraft" Ashcraft , usually in the top 10, went on a sightseeing tour I guess as he followed Gary Hengeveld. Ken Oviatt and Warren Cooper. The racers were on the powerline road for five miles of fun or terror depending on just - how deep your excitement factor goes. Chris Boesen was trailing a guy named Dave Hornbeck . Hornbeck and Paul Krause were srnokin' around the course but Ron Hall and Tom Schell were just ahead . making passing a problem . Ed "Ca ctus Cat" Austin pressured Bob Cronkite while Bob was giving Gary Gibbons a race. Mike " Moped Shed" Castro finished the last segment of fire road. the flagman. and the right turn . Heading into the long flatland sandwash , Ray Waldbaum , #3085x . Ken Frost and Gary Fredrickson found out they were jetted right as the wash was WFO to the Webcos heading the racers left and a straight shot for home. The Novice clan was on the ma rch. Back in the pack where the nitty gritty racing goes on , Cliff Ograin, riding his first two loop event could see Steve Padilla in the distance . Ro ck y Schmidt. Bud Campbell and Tony Bono were circling Victor Pass . all veterans of the famous / infam ous Donkey hill. Virgil French chased Al Benson. Al chased Rich Kyees and Pa t Rice . Neal J ohnson , one of t he nicest guys in th e dez followed La nce Powers, one of the neatest names in the dez . Bill Zoller. one of the gu ys wh o rea lIy enjoys a dese rt ride, kept Tom Morgan honest cros si ng t he flats toward Powerline Road . Steve Griggs, Dave Herrera . Larry Zeigle r and' Rick o Th e Checkers' Terry Dav is co llected hi s first overall w in. Boyer topped the lip of the road . turned left and cleaned the shifting pattern . "Crazy" Dave Johnson , somet imes called Don, led Rory Masacher down the road but when .the course turned right into the sandwash , Maracher got by for good. Burning the sand in the homeward .d irection , Pat Hennesey. Bob " T h e Cob" Schneider. Clint Wood and Tom Elias found out what their bikes could do , Dave Kalek chased "Late" Lou Ortali; Lou tailgated Eric Hansen. Gene Peters wanted Tim Saueressiq (whew) to develop a flat but it didn't -happen. Mike Page. Bla ir "Maieo" Swallow passed Dave Kalek as the course entered the flat section behind the range to the north. Chuck Karhonen , Jim Kurisu and Craig Baker challenged the whoops and won this time. Back live at the climactic finish of the Expert race, Kevin Hasten and Benny Padilla were far enough 'a pa rt the finish would be the same. Van Zee and Eckardt were so close , that one goof on the fireroad arid crafty Steve Eckardt edged ahead for good . Coming out of th e wash with the trail to the left . Terry Davis didn't see any dust ahead of him and the super vetera n screwed the big 400 Mono wide open. The spectators at the finish saw a dust trail nearing them at a high rate of speed. The checkered flag unfurled and Terry Davis chalked up his first -ever overall win, a goal he has dreamed of all his racing career , Congr atulation s Terry . After a multitude of ra cers finished . Novic e Jeff Cannon blitz ed his Husky toward the fin ish lin e . Not far behind was Doug Mitchell. Cannon really loves desert .racing a nd you could tell by the ' 20 minute de-brief betw een he a nd Mitchell aft er th e race. T heold Huevos Award goes to Bill Saltzman and Phil Cloward . Phil got centerpu nc hed o n the line a nd sta rt ed second to last. ahead of only "Blitzing" Bill Saltzman. Cloward finished an amazing 28th overall, on a Bultaco no less. Saltzman breezed to the 21st overall position riding an honest race too. Congratulations to Darlene Vest finally finishing a desert race after sooo many tries . The kids had a ball Saturday seeing Santa crash plus participating in the games. BLM put the stopper on the kids race as more than 50 were expected to participate and that meant another permit was needed. 1 hope they rest peacefully this Christmas knowing they meddled with the kids fun . The Desert Donkeys had finisher pins made just for the kids and they were super. Now comes the hard part. Last year 1 penned you a Christmas poem which 1 thought summed up the racing year fairing well . Well there isn't any poem around that can describe the way I feel when I tell 'you I won't be writing for you any more. Ya see I work for Lockheed and help build one of the greatest airplanes in the world . The company has selected me for Field Service and that means a lot of travel and almost zero weekends for desert rac~. If you liked the stuff I did, I'm rea lly glad; if you didn 't . I'm sorry because I wrote these stories the way I wished someone would have written them when I was racing. Floyd Wright was the man responsible for me taking th e job, half the credit for the stories goes to ' my super·patient wife Carolyn wtio left with me .every weekend. leaving two years of home and ya rdwork behind and never complaing once. She is the lady who turns all the numbers into names while 1 drive ho me. I can honestly say the desert people are the finest people walking th is planet and 1 will always believe this. I'm gonna miss you so much my pi llow will be wet for a long time. • 31