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/126437
-, unlimited single seat buggy of Malcolm Smith and Bud Feldkamp. Harden fixed the light and later repassed the buggy, after Feldkamp had to pull over when the machine quit. IAbove) French rider Phillippe Cornut arrives lit a checkpoint. lBelow left) The CI... 38-winnlng Husky of Gilliland and Prather. lBeiow right) Jeff Kaplan arrives lit the finish line in La 'Paz. 10 Harden, who like his partner Wallingsford. is an unabashed lover of long, long races, told SCORE president Sal Fish at the fmish line, "This is the best race I've ever ridden." The two Husky teams were first and second in Class 22. Third in the class, finishing some 10 hours after Johnson, was the French team of Cyril Neveu and Yann Cadoret on their Cadoret/ Foutrex-sponsored :59Occ Husky. Fourth in class went to another French . team. that of Dominique Sauvetre and Herbert Auriol on a four-stroke Yamaha fitted with an eight gallon gas tank. Bronce and Rick Golden finished fifth on a Hacienda Honda-sponsored Husky. In sixth was the team of an American, David Vogel. and two Mexicans, Ricardo Arriaga and Arturo Vizcaino. Their Honda threw a chain. and that broke the countershaft seal. draining the oil. They practically destroyed the engine. but managed to rebuild it at San Ignacio, getting a new top end and countershaft seal from Team Honda member Howard Utsey's pre-run bike. The third bike into the finish be, longed to Kaplan and they too~ the Class 21 win with a time of 22:04:09.18, despite having to change the clutch and lighting problems that cost him 50 to 45 minutes. There were only two other finishers in the class, and after 985 miles of racing they were only 44 seconds apanl The Leighty/Germain four-stroke Honda out of Lone Star Honda in Texas had a :50-minute lead over the Haydis Oil Yamaha of Haydis and Hutchins at check eight. But by check nine, the last one on the COul'2, they were even. They arrived at the fmish 26 .seconds apart, with tbr Honda getting there first. However, the Haydis/Hutchif!S bike had started one minute behind, so they took second. The Vick/Watkins/Ussery Class :50 bike was the next to finish. although Watkins nearly worried himself into a frenzy waiting for Vick to finish. V,ick had taken over at Santa Rita, but got lost enroute to the finish. "I missed a tum. 1 knew the tum was there, but 1 missed it," said Vick at the finish line. He got directions from a rancher and made it in for a time of 2:5:2:5:54.60, Second in class went to the Las Vegas team of Casey Folks and Sam Bass, one hour and 27 minutes behind the winners. They were just 16 minutes ahead of the Bishop/Harper Can-Am, In fourth after spending a long time working their way up was the Up-Tite Husqvama of George Erl, Bill Friant and Lars Larsson. Larsson was centerpunched by another bike soon after the start and lost a lot of time. It was Erl's first race since severely breaking his upper arm at the Mexicali 250 in March. and he rode with a lot of pain. Fifth in class went to Dennis· DeCamp and Ramone Bruner, who rode an Anaheim Husqvarna/Maxie Enterprisessponsored mount. In sixth was the Husky of Dave, . Holeman, Carl Cranke and Todd Martella. Earlier in the week. while pre-running. CranIte hit a car near Mike's Sky Ranch. which destroyed the bike but Cranke escaped serious injury. Eleventh in c1a,ss was the R~inbow Wallets/Malcolm Smith-sponsored Husky of Laura Maddock and Cherry Stockton. finishing the race in a shade over 29 hours. Cherry, who now teaches school in Holland, said, "I was really afraid of riding at night, but it wasn't too bad. I'd do it again:'