Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1979 01 17

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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- I .. · :. . .- , . ~ E ~ l' ~ ...-4 r-...-4 eco;S ~ Q co;S -, kitC CGolden remainder of the race as Weinert cruised the remaining three laps to the checkered flag , nearly unmolested . Only on the last lap did he get the signal to speed up as Lenny Geiger, having battled his way past Honda's Gary Semics for second position after falling , almost got back his lead . Danny "Magoo" Chandler was fourth on a Maico, Gaylon Mosier fifth and almost being ' caught by Rex Staten who .was riding two classes had pulled a miserable 30th place start at the beginning of the race, then Tim Lunde , Peter Wanket and Steve Bauer. 500cc Pro Though Rex Staten won the Open class on his new YZ·400F Yamaha production bike, the win just as well could have belonged to Kawasaki's new shoe Tommy Croft with their new KX ·400 production bike . The Tomahawk and Rocket Rex played tag the entire. race, trading the lead back and forth more times than could be counted. Unlike the battles in the other two classes which saw broken bikes and bruised bodies as part of the ruckus, both Tommy .and Rex kept their passing clean and only zapped each other when there were clear openings. Croft won the start ' and Staten the finish , but the order could have been reversed - they were that equal the entire race. Making a strong comeback to the Pro circuit was Billy "Sugar . Bear" Grossi who kept his Moto-X Foxsponsored 450 Maico in third right up to the last lap, when a little fatigue on the Bear's part and a last-lap , last ditch-effort charge by Gaylon Mosier on another KX·400 Kawasaki saw Billy relegated to fourth spot just three turns before the finish line. Rounding out the top 10 money paying positions were a slew of hot privateers which included hot dogger Randy Losh, Dave Williams , Will Harper, Steve Rhyan, Dale Lewis and Bob Marino. An interesting sidelight to the day was Torsten Hallman's Lars Larson , -the old Swede who has to be pushing 40 years old by now but probably won't admit it, who pulled Ake Jonsson's old 1972 Trans·AMA Serieswinning Maico out of mothballs to go racing. Lars placed ninth in his qualifying moto on the bike with three inches of rea r wheel travel . .. surely good enough for a top 20 ·finish in the feature against the California Pros ... but we didn't see Lars after th e first lap. A mudhole victim? Anyway, the Suzuki/CMC Golden State Series is p~etty exciting and certainly deserves to see more than just -t he riders'. girl friends coming out to watch. • (Opposite page) AMA 125cc National Champ Broc Glover (1) and Gary Denton (421 finished 2·3 in the 125cc event behind Kawasaki's Jeff Ward. nop left) Sloppy Saddleback.lTop right! Tommy Croft. second in the 500cc class joins 250cc class winner Jimmy Weinert on Kawasaki, (Below) Tommy Croft lTC)and Rex Staten (30) played tag all through the 500cc motos with "Rocket Rex" edging "Tomahawk." Results 12Scc PRo: 1. Jeff Ward (Kawl; 2. Brae Glover !Ya m); 3. Gary Denton ISuz); 4. Brian MY1!'scough lSun; 5. David Waxman ISuz ); 6. David Taylor (S un; 7. Choppy Blose IKawl; 8 . Danny Turner IS Ul); 9. Jimmy Holley (Ya m); 10. Chris Hoisser IS uz); 11. Donnie Cantaloup i (Yam); 12. Andy Kirker (Yam); 13. John Greenway (Yaml; 14 . Terry Schel

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