Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

thern Nevada· Southern Callfornia·Arizona·Southern Nevada· Southern California·Arizona·Southern Nevada·Southern Cali hard to find . Mark Heth (Yam) seemed to have things all sewed up with a great start and a great lead. Amateur Danny Bartholomew (Ya m) made a claim on second while a late starter , Bellflower Yama ha 's Kevin Senn mo ved into third. Heth went dow n and Senn passed Bartholomew for the lead. It now appeared the overall would belong to Senn. Senn wen t down, Bartholomew took the lead . The finale was as follows: Bartholomew first overall, first Amateur, Paul Krause second overall, first Expert, Jon Speight third overall, .first Novice and Senn fourth overall , second Amateur. Second and third experts were Torsten Corum and Lome Crawford. Third Amateur was Kevin Case . Second and third Novice was John Esposito and Rick Webb. Beginners were Dan Sullivan, Mike Bigler and B. Massari. . In the Senior race, Lynn McGraw (Yam ) and Bill Misner of Long Beach Yamaha provided good compet ition foi each other while Charlie Conway (KTM) , who got a bad start, worked his way past Bryon Farnsworth and Don Mardon for third. The favorite of this race was Chuck "Feets" Minert, riding a 1971 BSA. Feets sta rt ed racing when he was 16 years old for Jim Underwood who nick named him "Feets" when he could n' t find a pair of boots big enough to fit him . Feets has raced his BSAs in Europe and all over the U.S. He has ridden . TT, Ascot, half m iles, sho rt tracks and any competition he came across . He still rides for J im Underwood 's La Habra BSA and owns 18 BSAs of his own . Feets' overall wins . include the Big Bear run into the San Bernardino mountains in 1949 , '50 and '51. Top Senior Amateurs were Bill Carr, Rick Hobbs and Ha rry Thornburg. T op Novice riders were Gary Little, Mark Flemming and Cliff Stevens. The leading Beginners were S.T. Bell , Norman Carpenter and Jim Wooldridge. The mighty Mini overall wen t to Expert Barry Crawford on a Yamaha who was being challenged heavily by the number one plate holder, Bellflower Yamaha's Dave Trager who claimed first Amateu r. Shannon Shamblin claimed third overall, second Amateur followed by his brother Jimmy, who was ' third Amateur. Novice honors went to Bryan Metze r and Jeff Frazier while Robert Stumbaugh, G. Kindelberger and .T ravis Allison cla im ed th e Beginner laurels. The 250cc machines fina lized the day's events and the win went to Craig Adams (KTM) . Mike Baker (Yam), Keith Fearing (C· A) and Mike Sixberry (Yam) all tried to make Adams' race more interesting but Baker was the only one who succeeded. Sixberry went out with mechanical problems and Fearing went down , ending up sixth overall. At the end, it was Experts Adams, Baker and Phil Thorstenson. The fast est Amateurs were Karl Davis, Fred Strong and Marty Gomez. Novice honors went to Bryan Statham, John Sarrail and Mike Haworth. Top Beginners were Ian McCafferty, Bruce Silvera and Ralph J ohnston. Cool victory lor Johnson at CMC Saddleback MX By Mike Klinger ORANGE, CA , JUNE I ·~ Y ea h. the waterpumper that Rick Johnson is riding is really nice. Sometimes you have to keep these guys in terested" , Cliff Lett explained jokingly as we watched Johnson smoke the 125cc Pros on a ultra trick water-cooled Yamaha. Johnson went on to win the 125cc pro class with hardly any challenges. "Radical Ron" Turner again was the big winner as he w0I! four motos and two classes, th e 250cc and Open Pros . In moto one of the Open Pros, Turner received a little hea t from Yamaha-mounted Robert Marino. Following the YZ465 of Marino off the start were David Gerig (H us) and Andy Jefferson (Yam). Turner and Marino began to pull away from the rest of the field and the battle for third developed with Gerig and Jefferson. At one point, these two riders were side by side on a straight and Jefferson's Yamaha simply ran away from Gerig's 420cc Husqvarna. The charge was then too . much for Jefferson as he eventually dropped to sixth place. Clint Hardick (Suz) then moved up to challenge Gerig but by th is time Alan Smi th (Hus) , who go t a bad start, was dialed in and picked off another rider, Hardick, to move up to fourth . The moto ended with Turner losing ground to Marino , Gerig was third ahead of Smith and Hardick. There was not much of a change in moto two fo the Opens. Gerig, . Turner, Marino a nd Hardick were first to the first turn and made the fast track to the crest of Webco Hill. The lead position was a real tangle with Gerig only being able to hold off Turner for three laps but both riders set a very fast pace. With Marino pushing himself to the max to overt ake Gerig for second, the Yamaha ride went down ' and dropped to fourth behind Hardick. With one lap to go, Marino had passed Hardick and persued Gerig. With Gerig's . bike ailing from a cracked pipe, the lOss of horsepower also lost him second in the moto as Marino made a mad charge to the last tum. Turner went I -I for the win , followed by Marino (2·2) , Gerig (3· 3), Hardiclt (5· 4) and Smith (4 ·7) : Andy Northrup , one of Kelvin Franks' newest fast guys, hustled to the first tum with Turner and . Criag Gormley (Yam) in the first two motos in the 250cc Pros. By lap two, Turner took over the lead and Northrup was wheel to wheel with Gormley for the second best. Hardick held onto a solid fourth. Coming from the middle of the pack in a real hurry was Can-Am mounted Juan Benavidez who got by Hardick and then past Gormley. With one lap to go , Turner had a comforta ble lead but Benavidez was stalking Northrup for the runner-up position. It only took a couple of turns and the orange Can-Am of Benavidez took the checkered flag ahead of Northrup. Hardick also jammed it on the last lap o 00 (j) P'"""4 - • i CAN YOU QUALIFY TO WEAR THIS JERSEY? les t'\Ot for saie, H owe.vu, if yoo.'re part of I ~ r - ; HuS9varr--as r.ew aN:! excitil~ gra.ss roots rocil".g effort, -m.'1\ se-d you Ol\lZ of these tZ,Xclus\ve. Te:..a.m Husqver re, je.rse.ys (you car\t buy Ol\lZ. · at OJ\~ price.l. Husq\)Of\'\O. M otor0'c.le. Col1'\f>~ has mMe, a. / spe.cial offer available. to Huskj dealers to e.N:Ourq.ge. local rider spoY\Sors1\ips il\ MX, eMLlras O!\d off-mad racir'8- Participatil\g de.ole-rs l\o.'\Je: coll\plll.k. dmlts orx l\ow you. cCt.r\ qUolif,:i for 0.. Husk:Y Blue. and Gold co, \}JNti teatl\jers

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