Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1979 09 05

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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lAbove) PeuI Emerson .... the 12&cc ranks on the tint moto atIIrt. punued by eventulll winner Rick Stout 1111. lBeiow IeftJ C.... 21 winner l.4mnY Giger.lBeIow right) Kevin Devia took both rOWMIs for his CIua 22 win. Davis, Giger lead the way at SCORE OII·Road World Championship By Dale Brown Photos by Skip Johnson and Brown RIVERSIDE, CA, AUG. l!5 Las Vegans Kevin Davis and Lenny Giger led the way for the motorcycles in the BFGoodrich/ SCORE Off-Road World Championship, winning the two fastest classes. Davis won overall in both races with his 450cc Maico and held off a second moto challen..... by David Gerig 0• to take the Class22 (Open) WIn. 16 while Kawasaki-mounted Giger fmished second to Team Honda's Many Tripes in Class l!1 (l!50cc) and won the second moto after Tripes suffered a bad crash. Other class winners were Rick Stout in Class l!0 (USee), Charles Conway in Ciaa;' 50. (rid~n over age .SO). and DaVid Miller In Class SS (nders over age SS). All motorcycles ran together in two races of l!0-l!4 miles in length. The al?proxim~tely two-mil~ c~ne was laid out m front of Rivenlde Inter· national Raceway's large tum six grandstands. Delays in track preparation and qualifying for one of the four-wheel classes led the fint moto to be delayed by about an hour. The second race, the final one in Saturday's program finished after the sun had set. ' Compounding the problem of delayed races was delayed scoring. Apparently. pan of the problem stemmed from the numbering system. The Class l!l! machines carried numben 1·50, black numerals on white backgrounds, while Class l! 1 competitors were assigned numben above 50. white on a black background. Class l!0 riders repeated the I-50 numerals. this time with black numbers on yellow backgrounds. Add to this Class 50 (50 and above, white on red) and CI_ S8 (I-50, red on white) and it apparently soon degenerated into a scorers' nightmare. Unofficial results were not released until 8 p.m. Sunday night. Davis, riding a Bill Hill's Vegas Cycle Center/Duralube,spoDlored Maico 450 Magnum, needed just half a lap to establish himself in the lead. as Class l!l! was the first of five wa~ to' start in 10-second intervals. Jeff jennings (Suz) took the early lead in Class l!l and Paul Emerson (Hon) did the same in Class l!0. Dave Wood (Yam) and Kenneth Thorall (Yam) took holeshots in C1uses 50 and S8, nspectively. Davis led David Gerig's Escondido Suzuki/Tibblin Racing Producu RM400N at the condlllion of a lap. They were followed by Mike Sixbery (Yam). Bill Tarling (XR5OIl Hon) and Scot Harden (Hus). jennings still led the quaner liter class and was pursued by Charles Welk (Yam), Giger, Chris Howard (Mai) and Marty Tripes. Action among the small-bores still saw Emeraon in the lead. with StOUt anet his Riverside Suzuki-sponsored, DG-prepped RM12SN in second. Scott Coutts (Hus) held third in front of Marv Chapman. In Class SO. Lon Peterson had taken over first, leading Ron Bishop (C·A) and Wood. Hoyt Statham and David Miller were the first of the Class S8 riden to complete a lap. jennings' race came to a conclusion on lap two when the rear tire lost iu air supply and he ended up chugging back to the piu. Welk inherited the class lead. While Davis and Gerig continued out front, Tarling thumped his way past Sixbery to take over third. Tripes was now leading the l!5Occ racers. with Giger and Welk in his wake. -Emerson still led the USee ranks, with Chapman putting Stout back to third for the meantime. In Class 50, Charlie Conway (KTM) was now the closest one to leader Bishop; and in CI_ S8. Miller had paRed Statham for the lead. Tripes continued cutting a swath through the Open cl. . riders who'd staned in front of him. moving into sixth overall as they approached the halfway point in the 10·lap race. A lap or 10 later and he was in founh overall. Stout moved into the Class !O lead. after getting around Chapman and seeing Emerson drop out with unknown problems. With the exception of Conway passing Bishop in Class 50, there were no more class lead changes in the fint race. There was, however, Tripes' exdting challenge to Davis' overall lead. The Typhoon moved from fourth to third, and then up to second. Many closed to within a second or two of Davis as announcer Larry Huffman had the crowd roaring. but the checkered Oag came out with Davis still in the lead, Both he and Tripes took their class wins. Gerig finished second in the Open ranks, leadinJ Harden, Craig Adams (KTM) and Sixbery to the"flag. Giger took second l!SOcc, over Welk. Kenny lahn (Mai) and jimmyjackson (Hon). Stout. Chapman -and Steve Wiseman (Hus) were the top three in CI~ l!O, with Conway, Bishop and Wayne Cornelius (Yam) ftlling those slots in Class SO. CI. . S8's top three were Miller, Statham and Red Sanden (Yam). Said Davis of the flfst race: "About the sixth lap. I backed off. I thought I had enough of a lead and I dida't want to blow it." On Tripes' preIeIlCle= WOn the last tum I went - , to the inside 10 Tripes wouldn't get by there." Bruce Ogilvie (Yam) and Craig Adams got going f~t as the second race of the day mned. Ogilvie still had the lead at the end of a lat'. but Davis got by on the second arcuit. Giger, aboard his Honda/Kawasaki of Las Vegas/Moto-X·Fox/Accuracy Engineering·sponsored mount, led the l!5Dcc ranks. with Tripes and jackson in tow. Stout led CIa.. 20 over Emerson and john O'Mara (Yam), who DNF the fint moto. ComeIiusled Class SO. while Statham did the same to his Class S8 brethren. Tripes moved past Giger. only to crash on the following lap on a ~. but·fast straiPt. He got going apm,

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