Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

- Cc.ta Mesa - San Bernardino - Ascot - Ventura - Sacramento - Napa - Cc.ta Mesa - San Bernardino - Ascot - Ventura - Sacramento. Sims wins at IMS; Bast and Christian provide fireworks By Scott Daloisio SAN BERNARDINO , CA , JULY 2 Dave Sims capped off a night of fireworks in the air and on the track wit h his first Scratch Main victory of the season at Inland Motorcycle Speedway Wednesday night. Mike "The Mad Man" Muntean did a wheelie off the line but was able to stay with Sims, Denny Pyeatt and John Sandona as they went four abreast through turns one and two. - Pyeatt mo ved out fron t coming out of tum two only to lose th e lead going down the back chute with Sims getting ) fly on the inside a nd Muntean going by on the outsid e . Sims and Muntean went at it side by side t hrough turns thr ee an d four with Sims taking th e lead for keeps at th e en d of la p one. Pyeatt , who droppeu into third. got into a battle for th ir d wit h Sandona . Sandona tried Pyea tt on the outs ide but was unable to get around th e m an from Nevada . At the finis h , it was Sims, Muntean , Pyeatt an d Sandon a . Popular Jeff Carmello took the lead at the stan of the Handica p Main and led all th e way for his first H andicap victory of the season . Carmello moved into the lea d a t the start a head of J oe Burm eister a nd Derek Gage , wh o also Sla n ed on the 10. Burmeister pulled alongsid e Carmello on the back chute with Gage hot a t his heels . Carmell o fought off Burmeister going into tu m thr ee and was u nchallenged t he rest of the way. Alan Christian went down in tu m three on lap two with Burmeister dropping back to fifth. Leni Faas moved up to challenge Gage for second but ran out of time before the checkers. Following Carmell o , Gage and Fa as wer e Sandona with Christian taking fifth from Burmeister at the line . . Jim Lawson too k the lead from Moose Kennedy in tum three on the first lap to win his first Secon d Division Main of 'the season. T he Moose jum ped out front at th e stan from h is number t hree starting posit ion ahead of pole -sitter Lawso n , Kevin Weeda and nonhem California 's Steve Lucero. Lawson po wered by Kennedy going into tum th ree on the openi ng lap and never looked back. Lucero mo ved up to challenge Kennedy for second and got by when Kennedy spun in tum two on the second lap. Lucero was flying but was unable to catch Lawson in the final two laps and had to settle for second. Weeda ended up third with Kennedy credited for fourth . Eddy Lynch took the lead at the stan of the Third Division Main and went on to an easy victory. Lynch took the lead over Rusty Jennings and Ed Castro at the stan. Jennings hit the din in tum four on lap one giving second to Castro with Dennis Abbott moving to third. Lynch bobbled in tum one on the third lap but got corrected before anyone got by. At the finish it was "Fast" Eddy followed by Castro, last week's winner Victor Robledo, who took third from Abbott at the line, Jeff Havacko andJennings. Going into tum one after the final lap, Robledo and Abbott collided with both going heavily into the wall with their bikes landing on top. Robledo ' was able to walk away while Abbott was down on the track for over five m inu tes. Abbott walked away under his own power but was seen later in the pits with his right arm in a sling . The la rge crowd was treated to a fireworks display at intermission but the real fir eworks took place d ur ing . th e firs t Scratch Semi . Alan Christian and Mike Bast went into round two of their battle that started at Vent u ra on May27 . Bast and Christian jumped ou t front at the stan with Bast on the inside. Going in to tum one th ey drift ed up to the wall with Alan finally going down in tum two against the wall and Bast biting the dirt just a few fee t in front of o 00 (j') ~ him . The few feet between the riders was down to nothing quickly as the fight was on. Bast and Christ ian both tumbled to th e ground where they wrestled until being separated by officials and the track cre w. Both wanted to go a couple more rounds but were held back until cool er heads prevailed . Another confrontation was then set as both were disqualified and that put them into th e consi . T he big show down was then averted as Bast packed up and left after th e inciden t. Christian then went on to easily win the consi much to th e d elight of th e c! owd . Results SCRATCH M AIN: 1. Dave Sims; 2. Mi ke M untean ; 3. Denny Pyeatt; 4. John Sandona. HANDICAP MAIN: 1. Jeff ea. me1lo; 2. Derek Gage; 3. Leni Faas ; 4. J oh n 5andona; 5. AJan Christian; 6. Tom Burme ist er. SECOND DIVISION: 1. Jim Lawson; 2. Steve lucero; 3. Kevin Weeda; 4. Moose Kennedy. THIRD DIVISION: 1. Eddy Lunch; 2. Ed Castro; 3. VICtor Robledo; 4. Dennis Abbo tt; 5. Jeff Havocko; 6. RustY Jennings. MA TCH RACE: 1. John Sandona del. M;ke Mumeen. Christian 'cleans up at Costa Mesa By Ken Kellogg COSTA MESA , CA , J UL Y 4 "T he Firecracker Derby" at Costa Mesa's July 4 show cons isted of the top 16 First Division riders and three reserves. It was basically a National-style program wit h 20 separate heats , all scratch races with each rider meeting every ot he r rid er during the night. The sco ring was three points for first , two for seco nd an one for third . The derby sta rted wit h a bang , courtesy of Da ve DeTem p le , Ph il Gagnon , Craig Schaeffer a nd Kurt Strom mer. DeTemple was second go ing into tum one with Schaeffer running third an d Gagnon first . Coming out of turn two , both Dave a nd Craig wen t low and took the lea d and second place, respectively, DeTemple lengthened h is lea d and finished about three lengths in front of Schaeffer, with Strommer third. Event number two brought a surprise. FIrst and no surprise was Alan Christian, but second was Keith Chrisco with a fine ride. Chrisco gave Christian quite a race at first . When Christian began to move out front, Louis Lindwall tried to go inside the rookie, but Chrisco refused to be in tim id ated and finished second for two points. Lindwall was th ird, Mike Muntean fourth , Event number four brought still another surprise. Mike Bas t could not , get his usually fine-tuned bike started and had to borrow one. He finished a disappointing third behind Dave Sims and Gene Woods who fell in the next race and was taken to the hospital with a possible concussion. In event number 17, Dave Sims was able to redeem himself, though up against Dave DeTemple, Lance King and Mike Muntean. Sims really didn't have much trouble. winning; the .rea l . (Clockwise from abovel Brad Oxley. Mike Bast and Alan Christian were top point setters at Costa Mesa. Sterling Cogar at IMS. battle was for second. King almost took second several times but De'Temple had the insi de track and riding the outsid e was just too fa r fo r King. The final race had q u ite a line-up: Ala n Christi an , Mike Bast , Steve . Columbo and Craig Schaeffer. W he n the gate went u p , Bast was rolling ba ckwards sligh tly. The ga te went u p and Co lumbo was actu ally firs t out of the gate but Ch ristian a nd Bast bea t hi m to tu rn one . Christian went into first followed by Bast. Colu m bo went down and Schaeffer moved into third but went down th e ne xt lap ' and th e race was red flagged . Because more th an ha lf had been completed , it was called an official race giving Christian the win and a clean sweep of the night . Results FiNAl - DERBY" POINT STAND INGS: 1. Alan Christian (15); 2. BrBd Oxley (131;3. Mike Bast (12); 4. Shewn McConnell (10); 4. DlM! siins (10); 6. Keith Chrisco (9); 6. LanceKing (9); 6. DlM! DeTemple (9); 9. l ouis UndweU 16); 10. Craig Schaeffer IS); 11. M;ke Mun tean (4); 11. Kun Stromrner 141; 11. Steve Nuner 14 11. Steve Columbo (4); 15. Phil Gagnon (3); 16. 1; Gene Wooda 12); 17. Tom Burt>aIll . Adamo strike's aga in in Caruthers By Les Ryd er Later Bert reported that he j ust wasn 't up for th e race. " I guess I had too much fou rt h of July spiri ts or som ething." Frank ha d to settle for second in the H andicap Ma in as Chris Hedge went wire to wire for the win . Hedge , a former Junior Speedway rider, has bee n improving each week a nd th is was his first m aj or win in H a ndica p racing on the big bikes. Hedge m ay just be another Ste ve L ucero or Lance King in th e makin g . In th e Scratch Ma in , Frank Adamo had to work his way past Buddy Robinson and teammate Grant Sal yers . Robinson and Salyers outgated Adamo and Fletcher . On lap two of the race. Sa lyers fell leaving Robinson and,Adamo to fight for the win with Fletcher running in third. Robinson looked as if he was going to hold on for the win until the last turn when Adamo shot past him for the checkered flag and the win. Ken Thiebaud was awarded the challenger trophy by total number of points. Tonight was his first race on a speedway bike and he looked good, but the highlight of the night was Bob Inman's return to racing. Bob came up .in second place when the points were totaled at the end of a very pleasant central California evening, r I I ..} Results CARUTHERS , CA ,JULY 5 Frank Adamo defeated Carothers' hometown boy, Ben Stephens. two straight in the "King of the Hill" match .filce Saturday night. 1 - SCRATCH MAIN : 1. Frank Adamo; 2. Buddy Robinson; 3. Danny Retcher; 4. Grant Salyers. HANDICA P MAIN : 1. Chris Hedge' 2. Frank Adamo ' 3. Steve Viera; 4. Jim Gardner' 5. Sam ..~_. -. 6' Dan Aetcher. • "~"-'. . . CHALlENGER: 1. Ken Thiebaud; 2. Bob. Inman' 4 John Greer; 5. Marty Nation. _ , _ ' •. . 29

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