Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Scott Podergois (1101beat Rich Amariz in the Ascot Nov ice main. Morehead and Spencer add As.cot notches to their . tanks By Maureen lee GARDENA. CA, MAY 4 Steve Moreh ead took top hon ors in the Expert class whil e Louisiana -man Freddie Spencer , the country's top Junior a t 17 , came 34 to Ascot for the firs t time and took the ho me to wn group apart. Everyt hin g Spe ncer did was the fastest for the evening; top J unior time of 23 .07 . winning the fastest hea t and th en the main . T imes for those two races were the fast est posted by any J unior this season . W hen he a nd Bob Crabbe meet a t Ascot next week there's going to be ac tion. . Many Exp erts were on their way to San J ose, so officia ls ran all I I of th em in three " rnotos" whi ch keeps t he program tight. . The biggest sca re of the even mg. came quickly. The whol e Exp ert pac k wa s comi ng ou t of tu rn four. stra ighte ning up for th e full thro tt le driv e down th e front chute, when Ga ry Scott and Mik e Minnig cr as he d together and bounced apart. Scott took full blame for the incident , Something was go ing amiss in his Harley's fork rub es, and he would 'event ually have to retire in th e second rnoto . He said later , " I haven't been that close (to a bad crash) in a l-o-n-g time. It was bad." The heat ended with Steve Morehead out front after having quite a battle with Eddie La wson who got by him a couple of times. Scott took th ird and Art Fred enburg fou r th afte r passing Minnig right at the end . . The next moto d idn't start un til th e whole front row, with th e excep tion o f Ste ve Moreh ead , was on the back row for being antsy, Buddy Rob ins!?n slid out into the hay; t hen the Tnumph Bobby Sanders was rid ing start.ed making st ra nge noises - he pulled m ; and event ually Gary withdrew when his bike became impossible to control safely. The heat end ed Morehead . Lawson , Minnig, Armstrong , Fredenburg, J ohn Sperry, Bubba Rush and Shawn Leipold. Final rno to , Minnig and Lawson exited turn two first but Morehead na iled them both , Lawson hounded Morehead , keeping full pressure on. Morehead bobbled twice , Lawson got past , but the Team H arl ey rid er go t full on it and rega ined th e lead. On th e last la p Lawson ha d it a ll hanging out a nd ca me ' steaming around th e north turn, headed do wn the straight. Bu t it was Moreh ea d 's nigh t. Three straigh t wins plus th e Trophy Dash was th e proof. In th e Trophy Dash , John Sper ry (altern a te for Scott), Mike Minnig a nd Eddie Lawson a ll jumped the sta rt . Morehead shook his head a t th e a n tics of his fellow racers and waved them ba ck onto th e lin e alon gsid e of him. Law son go t out fr on t fi rst , ~h e~ Minnig and Moreh ead . Steve di d n t wai t around. He just went on by, took over th e lead. and tha t was that . Freddie Spen cer too k the lead of the first Junior heat and never really ha d to wor ry ab ou t losing it. Beh ind , a littl e crowd of riders settled ou t second and th ir d wit h Keith Da y fina lly eme rging second ah ead of David Ryan and Rich Volk. Next heat went to Da n ny Perkins all the way, leaving Hon d a -mounted Jeff Ha ney to do some chasing . Ch a rlie Summers won the last heat , defendi ng against J eff Allison who appears to know a good number of different lines around the Ascot oval. For the m ai n . J eff H a ney was first into turn one but Ch a rlie Summers had the lea d comi ng out down the back straig ht. By the time la p one ende d , Freddie Sp en cer had pa ssed both of th em and Haney had ende d u p in the ha y bal es. On the rest a rt , Sp enc er took off with the lead an d never lost it. Charlie Summers was second , the n ca me J eff Allison , Keith Da y and Dor othy Rowe. Allison wan ted that second bu t Summers was equally det ermined .not to let him have it. At the finish , Spen cer was sailing along. pacing Allison . who fin ally got by Summers who wa~ hanging on to third . by a whisker , ahead of John Burnett, . Dennis Camp, Bobby Garabedian and Ben Zakarian were th e three Novice -heat winners. Garabedian 's time was the fastest ; he had a good go with Rich Arnaiz wh o rid es on e of th ose very fast Can -Am 's, J im Filice won th e sem i after taking the ·Iead awa y from Joe Steffan. In the No vice main . Scott Pod ergois took t he lead from Arnaiz on the third lap and never lost it. ~arabedian had third nailed down until th e very end when Jim Filice really made his mo ve and the pair did some whee~.to.wheel racing. Filice took over by inc hes on the white flag lap. Results TROPHV DASH : 1. SIeve Morehead IH-DI: 2. Eddie Lawson (H-D); 3. M ike Minnig IH-D); 4. John Sperry IH- D). TIM E: 1:10.84. . . NOV MAIN: 1. Scan Pod gois IYam); 2. RIC Arnall .. h IC-AI; 3. Ji m Filice IVam): 4. Bobby Garabedian (Yaml ; 5. Ben zakar ian {Yaml; 6. Stev e Karsten (Yam); 7. Dennis Camp (Yaml; 8. Joe Steffan (Yam); 9. Bob Cunnington (Yam l; 10. Jim McOaniel lYam), . TIME : 8 laps 3:15.48. J R MAIN: 1. Freddie Spencer (H-D); 2. Jeff Al lison (Yam); 3. Charlie Summ ers lYam); 4. John Burn ~n (Yam); 5. Rich Vo lk (Yaml ; 6. Keit h Day lYam); 7. Da~ld Ryan lY am); 8, Doro th y Row e (Yam); 9, Danny Perkms . (Yaml; 10. J eff Haney IVaml. TIME: 10 laps 3:55.53. EX OVERALL PLACING Ibased on 3 motes):1. Steve Ma< ehead IH-D); 2. Eddie Lawson IH-DI; 3. M ike Minn ig IH-DI; 4. Art Fredenburgh IH-D); 5. Craig Armstrong (Yaml : 6. Bubba Rush IH-DI; 7. John Sperry IH-D); 8. Gary Scan IH·D}; 9. Shawn Leipold (Yaml; 10. Bobby Sanders CTri); 11. Buddy Robinson IH-DI. 2:41.96 2:42.63 2.43.06. J erry He ns ley (581 came up w ith t he DeA nza 250cc Pro vic tory. Burtt comes back toDeAnzaMX By Ron lawson . SUNNYMEAD. CA , APR . 29 After about a month away from the DeAnza motocross scene , Redlands Suzuki rider Da n n y Burtt returned with a splash , winning the 125cc Pro class and taking a close second in a hotly contested 250cc Pro ra ce , But th e man that held th e spo tligh t at the start of the first 125cc moto was Rick Rodgers (Kaw). who guided his green machine through the first turn with a good lead and then began to stretch it. Bu rt t was in fourth place when th ey came around at the end of lap on e. but before long he was right behind Rogers . Then Burtt got a break when Rodge rs went ' down . damaging his sh ift lever in th e process. From there on in. it was all Burtt's and th e only rid er even close to him was his fellow Redlands Suzuki rider Todd Bald win as he crossed the finish . In t hi rd was Keith . W ill iamson (Su z) followed by Ken Odra (Ya m) and Rod gers . Round two saw Indio Suzuki rid er Craig Gormley grab the hol~shot. . striving to make up for bad luck m the first mo to . Behind him . Burtt, Odra , Rodgers, Ba ld win and Williamson filed in , but onl y Bu rtt could match his pace. The two riders pulled awa y and soon th ey were all by themselves in front. The battle went all the way to th e last few laps. when Bu rt t began to slac k off. apparently knowing th e ~e had the ove rall money. Baldwin crossed the finish line in third for second plac e cash and Williamson was right behind him for third overa ll, The 250c c cla ss was very unusua l with only two riders managing to place in th e lOp five in bo th m ot os. J er ry Hensley (Suz) took his RM t hrough th e first tu rn on top bu t by th e seco nd .Ia p . H i -Dese rt H onda /Coors Beer ride r Steve Davis was lea di ng t he parade. Don Griewe (Kaw) hel d d own th e third place spo t with Burtt in a dist ant fou rt h. Da vis an d his Honda looked very im pressive a nd soon. th ey ahd a strong lead tha twas gett mg str~mger with every lap . It was at the mld.way poi n t that Burtt began to shine , pa ssing both Griewe and H ensley on the same lap. a nd then he set out after the leader. Slowly Burtt was catch up . b u t the checkered flag came out before he pr esented any real threat to Davis . But Gri ewe d id manage to put t he last lap to use by passing Hensley for third . Chris Tarvin (H on ) pulled the holes hot in a second moto that was filled with cas ualties. The first rider to go down was Griewe , who fell shortly after the start and quit for the day . Then it was Burtt who lost it . letting th e leaders get a full minute ahead before he was able to remount. Meanwhile. Tarvin had su rr endered his position to Da vid Hopkins (Suz) , who DNF th e first round , but was now fl ying at an incre d ib le pace . He opened up a huge lead on Tarvin by th e fifth lap and it looked like the race was sewn up . but t hen the riders started crashing again . First it was Davis who sac rificed fourth place and then Tarvin gav e up second . That placed Hensley b riefl y in second , but then he suddenly found himself leading when Hopkins went down . Don Jackson (H us) was then the rider in second. but then he too crashed and gave the position to Danny Jean (Suz) , who kept the rubbe r sid e of ? is machine down long enough to finish there. As they crossed the line. Hensley had a good lead ahead of Jean and in ' th ird pla ce it was Burtt , who made a last minute move on Dave Stewart (Yam) . In the mixed up overall results . it was Hensl ey. Bu rtt , Jean . Stewart and Bill Pelto (Ya m). Results . PEE W EE 1: 1. Kimberly Robertson ISuzl ; 2. Vern Reynoldslltal. . PEE WEE 2: 1. Tim Galated ISuz); 2. K..ry Tarvin IHon}' 3. Nalhon Slat.. l5ul). MIN I BEG: 1. Leonard Robertson ISull: 2. Glenn Clark IYam); 3. Trini Camarena ISuz). MINI NOV: 1. John M eshkoff (Vam); 2. Larry BUller IKawl; 3. Scon Brown IKaw}. . MINI INT: 1. Don Sigr ist (Yam); 2. Eddie W~rn

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