Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

•Western hotlilie = ----~------------~-------------------_._._---_._._._.---- -- _._._ . _- --_._ ._. _- ~ t 0') !:' 0') ~ ...;..., 0.. -e Corona 250cc winner Marty Miller pu rsues St eve Bauer. J eff J ennings 1 271. Rob ert Reisinger 1 and Steve Bauer battle it out in 211 the CM C Sad dl eback 250cc Pro cla ss. Sportsmen star in Saddleback CMC/ DGMX By M ike Kl inger ORANGE. CA . MAR . 18 The opening day of the Continental Mote-sports Club-sanctioned $5 ,000 DG Performance Specialties motocross series got 32 . , ~ l off to a rainy start at Saddleback Park. The Junior and Intermediate racers are in the spotlight now for a five race series with healthy cash prizes go ing to . th e top fin ishers in each division. The rider tu rnou t was push ing 200 , but the ra in in the surrounding cities kept some would -be racers guessing. The first scoots to hit th e Ol ynipiad motocross track were all the Mini classes : Juniors, Intermediat es . Experts and IOO·s. Terry Meeks (Suz) made the first tracks until on lap two Expert George Holland (R &D) passed Meeks and lapped riders within two laps . Holland looks as if he could follow in the footsteps of other fine Mini riders such as Jeff Ward and Brian Myerscough. The Mini Juniors went to Ron Roger (Yam) with Larry Danial (Yam) second. Terry Meeks won the Mini Intermedaites with Rudy Dickinson (Suz) second. Holland obviously won the Mini Experts and Dave Frear (H CS) topped the IOOcc Juniors . Winding up the small bore classes. Paul Fitz -G ibbon (Yam) won the IOOcc Intermediate clash. The big bore machines were next to ' invade the turf with David Williams _=~ _: : :_ :_: ~ :: J I spotting his 450cc Ma ico into th e Pro lead. Williams and Ron Turner (Ya m) d iced it out for severa l laps until Turner ou tlasted Williams and too k th e lead a nd was ne ver threaten ed. Alan Smith (H us) was thi rd but never lost sigh t of Williams' rear fender . Mot o two was a ca rbo n copy of number on e . T he fin al ove ra ll o rder was Turner , Williams a nd Sm ith . In the 500cc Intermed iat es. soon- tobe -a -professional -rid er Joel Grant (Mai) coll ect ed ano ther big win while second place fini she r Ron Schwab ( Ma i) push ed Grant for 10 laps , Schw ab won moto o ne but Grant ca me back to sco re a 2-I tall y. Greg Sm it h (Mai), the Smit h in Wheelsmith , pla ced third overall . Dan Martin (Mai) tallied a perfect score of 1-I for top honors in the 500cc Junior cla ss. Mik e Schw ab (H us) took a back sea t to Martin in both m ot os and a lso in the overall standi ngs . Da vid Pisarski (Suz) was third overall. Aft er winning the O pen Pro 'class. Ron Turner now brought ou t his 250 YZ to contest the 250cc Pros and he did it in fine style. The entire first moto was run in the pouring rain . but Turner kept his mud sled upright and going straight to win one hands down . Mark VanCamp (H o n ) scored a second and the determined Jeff Jennings (Suz) placed third . Moto two went as planned for Turner as he pulled th e rest of the pack and made it a clean sweep fOT the day . Jennings started fourth behind Steve Ba uer (Yam) and Robert Reisinger (Kaw); but he qu ickly . dived inside and claimed second whi ch ga ve him second overall in the standings. Bauer was third overall. The 40 rider field of 250 cc Intermediates was d ivided in to two .. , __ ~ ~ .:. _ : ~:! : ~ : ~ ~ : _J di vision s. In number one , the over a ll winne r wa s the Yam aha p owered Mark Denning . Beh in d Denning was Pet e Murray (D MG) a nd th ird was Troy Manning (Suz). In di visio n two . the Wheelsmith m an . Greg Smi th ( Ma i) spo rted to th e to p posit ion with Dave Clement (Yam) second a nd Vincent Go nza les (Suz) thir d . The 250cc J u niors also overflowed with entrants and were sp lit into two di fferent motos, Todd Wi llia ms (C- A) and Bria n P itze n ( Vey) won their respective divisions with Bill Easley (Hon) and Dou g H a yes (Hon) pl acing second and third in section on e . Dave Pettigrew (Mai) and Rock y Ca swell (Suz) finis he d o ut t he to p three in sec tion n umber two . Som e very fa m ilia r names lined up a t t he sta rt of the 125cc Pros: LOP riders Ga ry Denton and Dave T aylo r. Suzuki's Brian Myer scough , new Tea m Hond a m ember J im Gibson , Cli ff Lett. Ron Turner a nd host of o the r quick ies. Taylor led for four laps of m ot o o ne but it on ly took time before M yers cou gh m oved a he a d of the pa ck . Taylor pulled within inches of th e fa ctory Suzuki rider durin g traffi c but co u ld not overco me. In m oto two . T aylo r ca me ba ck to win and g ra b the ove ra ll doll a rs. Myerscou gh sett led fo r seco nd overa ll and G ibson was third . In the 125cc Intermed iate cla sses , Steve Pfaff (Suz) won di vision one a nd Dave H amada (Su z) won di vision two . Second place finishers were Robert Green (Suz) and Stewart Pry er (Su z). Ken Hamilton (Suz) a nd J. Quall s (Q &E) to ok third place honors. T he largest class of a ll was th e I2 5cc Juniors . The 50 en trants were again sta rt ed in two different classes. SCOtt Manning (Suz), Ma rk Stubbs ( Kaw) and Mike Wilkin son (Suz) gathered in the highest three positions in divisio n one. In division two , Sean Gilboy (Hon) . Richard Varner (Kaw) and T errin Keefer (Ya m) scored the best of th eir 27 co ntesta n ts. The Intermediate and Juniors turnouts were outstanding. Looks like everyone will pursue their chance to collect some of that. $5000 purse from DG . Hansen, Simons, Strauss strike at CRCDunesMX By Brian Geo rge VALENCIA, CA. MAR. 18 While the rest of southern Cali fornia was getting drenched with .' . '.1 •• • • • • • • & a l :' •• • • I rainfaIl , the weather around Indian Dunes was sunny and slight ly coo l, a nd th e skies opene d u p only once for a brief one -rno to shower. Cal ifornia Racin g Club pulled off . a nother fa nt ast ic Sunday m ot ocross under those, clo uds , a nd the three top P rofession als of the d a y were DG 's W illy Sim on s in the 125s. Ca n -Am 's Donnie Hansen in th e 250s . a nd Cole Bros. Ma ico-rnounted Hal Strauss in the O pens . The firs t P ros off the gate were the O pe n riders . Yamaha 's T erry Clark took the first moto after working around DM G's Greg Draskovich , J oe Pri ce and J o hn R _ W ilso n . Jr. . then finally cut an early lea d St rauss ha d built up a long the way for the win . I n the seco nd m ot o Cl ark worke d p ast D raskovich and Price agai n , then go t by Strauss to command the rest of the ra ce . but in the final turn of th e last lap . th e rear end of Clark's 400 Yamaha lock ed up in th e sand and Strauss rode by for th e win as Clark tried to push acorss. Pri ce took second overa ll ahead of Draskovich . In th e 250cc action Can -Am rider " Dynam ite Donnie" Hansen effo rtl essly rod e away with both motos and got in a littl e passing practice as well . DMG's Don Drask ovich pulled th e holesh o t on his Ma ico Magnum . but co u ld o nly hold Hansen off for th e ea rly part of th e firs t m ot o before th e Can -Am set off for th e fla g . Mark Gamb ett a soo n pull ed up t o D ra sk o vich to c ha lle nge fo r th e number two position and the duo went at it fo r a number of laps before Gambetta made a daring pass around Draskovic h in a new turn at the base of th e sta rt downhill. Pos iti ons held for the remain der of the moto with John Atwood pick ing up fourth ahead of Da rrel Anders on. Hanse n 's powerful Can -Am roosted out of th e gate to the second moto hol esh ot , a nd fro m the first tum on it was his ra ce . Bill Ovellette rode seco nd with Atwood right on his butt. and a heavy battle ensued for the position. Atwood continu a lly stabbed his Maico at the Yamaha underneath Ovelleue, andfor the first three-quarters of the race nothing worked. Finally, towards the end .of the moto, Atwood slipped by for second and second overall. Draskovich picked up third overall with a fifth . and Gambetta locked a thrown chain in his rear hub out in th e sandwash, which abruptly put an end to his d ay. After a little layoff due to spo nsorship d isagreements , DG 's Willy Simons was back out on his Yamaha and picked up the I ssee Pro overall. The first rnoto saw young A .J. Whiting )1 ; ' ; 1 lS I I 'J '( ; ~ r L V rr:

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