Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

athern California-Arizona-Southern Nevada- Southern Caillornia-Arizona- o 00 0') Rex Staten (66) and Ron Turner dice in mid-air at the CMC Bosch Series. Breker, Ward, Heisser take CMC/Bosch series round tour By Mike Klinger ORANGE. CA , AUG. 17 could have been advertised as a mininationall Yes, round four of the 1980 Continental Motosports Club/Bosch Pacific ChamIt .. 30 pionship Motocross Series was as classy and exciting as the March 30th AMA National held at Saddleback Park. Most of the West Coast's best were on hand to punish the much improved and extended Saddleback track, Re presenting the factories · were Kawasaki 's Jeff Ward and Goat Breker, Suzuki's Ron Turner, Yamaha's Marty Tripes and Rex Staten, Honda's Donnie Hanson and Jim Gibson , and Mugen's Johnny O'Mara. Top privateers like Moto-X Fox riders Carlos Serrano and Pete Wanket, DG's Chris Heisser, Jeff Jennings, Danny "Magoo" Chandler competed with the best of the southwest. The Open Pros were the first class to attack the Saddleback track under fairly cloudy skies in the early morning. In typical Ron Turner fashion , he had the holeshot with " Rocket Rex" Staten, and Steve Walker (Yam) making up the top three. Turner and Staten opened up a devastating pace, running away from the field except for Honda rider Jim Gibson , who was riding the Franks Racing Machines Sunday. Coming up hard from the middle of the pack was Yamaha mounted [uan Benavidez who has gotten off his 250cc Can-Am to tackle the 465cc. Benavidez overtook Walker and moved in on the four-stroke riding Gibson. On lap five, Benavidez put on an unbelievable move on Gibson on the nonhern section of the track and pushed his way into third place. Back in the rear of the pack was a green blur. The Goat was on the gasl Goat Breker was coming off a first lap spill and was picking off rider .after rider in a berserko kind of style. On lap nine , Turner and Staten hit the double jumps side by side and Staten knifed inside of the Suzuki and took over the lead, On the same lap, Gibson pulled off the track with a sprained ankle which he twisted in practice. With Staten, Turner and Benavidez holding on to stable positions, Val Tamietti (Mai) had moved up to fourth with Breker taking W~lker for fifth . Two laps to go in the 14-lap event and Breker was the show . He passed Tamietti , then Benavidez, and at the checkered flag almost nipped Turner. So, rnoto one ended with Staten barely holding on ahead of the charging Turner and Breker. Benavidez was founh , then came Tamietti and Bob Marino (Yam), Moto two was much of th e same . action except Breker got a little better start, he was fourth off th e line . Turner again led Staten and Benavidez for the first lap. By lap five both Staten and Breker had moved ahead of Benavidez and the battle was on for the top spot. Breker wasted no time taking over the lead after a slight spill by Turner on lap II . Breker won the overall with a 3-1 score. Turner was secon~ with a 2-2 then Staten (1 -3). Benavidez turned in two very impressive fourth place rides for fourth overall and Marino was fifth . In the Open class for the series lead , Turner has a narrow edge over Staten who is followed by Steve Walker. About 11;00 , just when the sun broke out, so did the 250cc Pros, Thirty-seven anxious screamers drew numbers and lined up. "H oleshot" Donnie Hansen set the pace with the series 250cc point leader Pete Wanket (Yam) following , Jim Tarantino (Hon) and Jim Gibson (Hon) were running third and fourth and Craig Gormley (Yam) bringing up the slack. By lap two , Jeff Jennings (Hon) moved past Gormley and Tarantino was inches away from Wanket. As in the Open Pro race, a green meanie was emerging from the traffic. Kawasaki's Jeff Ward got a decent stan but had to pick his way up to the leaders and by lap seven , Ward was in fourth ahead of Mike Tripes (Yam). As the leaders began to lap riders , Gibson made his move on Wanket to take over second place momentarily. As Gibson pulled up on a lapped rider to begin his charge on the leader Hansen , an unknown Husqvarna rider cut him off causing the Honda to be crushed into the ground and snapping the bars. Gibson had to retire. On lap 10, Marty Tripes (Yam) had surged from the traffic also but was unable to continue due to a flat rear tire. Well , it looked as if Hansen had scored another big win. The last lap flag came out. There went Hansen , Ward, Wanket, Jennings and Tarantino for one more lap. Half a lap to go and Ward had the pressure so intense on Hansen that the water-cooled Honda skipped a beat and Hansen bit the dirt. He regained his composure and still finished second. Wanket was a stable third ahead of Jennings, Tarantino and EdAmet (~~m), . , Marty Tripes did not waste any time taking the lead in moto two. He was fourth off the start and on lap five, Tripes overtook the leader. Yamaha teammate Rex Staten (Yam). In third place was Hansen again with Ward again putting the screws to him. With Tripes beginning to pull the field and lap slower riders . Hansen again fell allowing Ward to take over the third position which would eventually be the final standings. On the very last lap, Clint Hardick (Suz) won a hard fought battle between himself and Scott johnson (H on) for the sixth position in the moto. The overall went to Ward with a 1-3 score against very stiff competi tion , Second overall went to Hansen (2 -4) then came Jennings (4 -5), Rex Staten (8-2) and Pete Wanket (3 -10) . Pete Wanket still leads the point standings for the series in the 250cc class. Behind Wanket are Staten and Jennings . . 250cc PRO: 1. J. Ward lKaw); 2. O. Hanson IHon); 3. J. Jennings lHanl . 5OOc:c PRO: 1. G. Breker IKawI 2. R. Turner ISuz); 3. ; R.Staten IYaml. Lightweights host Saddleback short track By Maureen Lee Photo by Gene Lee ORANGE, CA, AUG. 17 With no other races in sight , and a portion of the District's finest headed back for the Kansas National Scrambles, the Lightweights thought they'd have a short track, just to keep everyone on their toes. Incidently, their membership is open, they need new blood and are a family and fun oriented group. It's not all racing for them but other things too...so if you want to support your sport and keep scrambles going, join. Mik K' b (1 I 2) he mi . t e ir y - - won t e mnu class over Curtis Cannon (2-2-1) with Brent Bowers always lurking in the third spot. In the second moto they were really going at it, Cannon went for the lead and got it with a neat cross-over coming out of tum four, but Mike wasn't having any, and took the lead back in tum one again. It was good to see Jimmy Snow back out again _ he's been forced to cool his heels a bit but he's back now and the Snowman hasn't lost any speed. He easily won the first 250cc Novice moto, It was a water-cooled day for Chris Heisser (Hon) and Johnny O'Mara (Mug) . Both the pumpers pulled the entire field of I25cc Pros and no one could even get close. In moto one, Heisser got the early lead with O'Mara as close as a U-Haul trailer. The real racing was a battle between the third place rider on the Kawasaki, Curt McCuistion and none other than Danny "Magoo" Chandler (Hon) . These two .guys were at each other's throats for 14 laps and never let off. With that race pretty tied .up this left fifth place up for grabs and Mike Tripes. DG 's Rick Maki (Yam) and Eric Baker (Suz) the three candidates. Heisser went on to an easy win as did O'M f d I McC " ara or secon pace. uisnon held onto a very impressive third place ride with Magoo in fourth . Tripes did . win the war with Maki in sixth ahead of Baker. Heisser again pulled the strings in moto two and won fairly easily with O'Mara again placing second. The overall then went to Heisser (I-I) and obviously O'Mara (2-2) was second. The ride of the day had to be by Curt McCuistion. With two fantastic third place rides for third overall, you can look for him possibly with a Kawasaki ride in the near future . Mike Tripes handled fourth overall (5-5) with fifth going to Yamaha -mounted Rick Maki (6 -6). O'Mara moved into third place in the series points in the 125cc Pros with Scott Manning still leading . and Ron Turner in second. This same turnout of National caliber riders will probably return on August 31 to compete on the last race of the series and will probably decide the series champions. Sportsmen also compete on the 31st, and DG is putting up an additional $2000 for the sportsmen along with the regular Bosch series prizes and awards. then had to really go for it in the second to get around Bruce Nordstrom, but he still made it three wins in a row . Nord- Results JR CYCLE INT 1. K. Heisser !Yam : ). MINI JR STOCK: 1. E. Bellwood !Yam 2. M. ); ThompsonlKaw); 3. S. Rilay ISuzl. MINI JR MOD: 1. M.leiber !Yam) 2. K. CliftonISuzl; ; 3. M. Thompson IKaw). MINIINT STOCK: 1. C. Tavtor IKawl; 2. O. Hammack ISMl~'I~ G~o~ ~c~iay'or IKawl. MINI EX STOCK: 1. B. Bunch IKawl. MINI EX MOD: 1. B. Buncl1IKaw). va~~;';~~;/ Suner IYam); 2. F. Szazy ISuzl; 3. M. 100c:c INT: 1. P. DolanISuzl. 125cc JR: 1. O. O'Donnell ISuz); 2. S. Fellhoelter ISuzl; 3. B. Voorhees IR&OI. 250cc JR: 1. K. MeeksISuz); 2. B. Olsen IMai): 3. P. HarrisonIYam). SOOcc JR: 1. A. Pack IHon); 2. C. Galloway IYam); 3. M. English (Yam). VETS: 1. M. Jennings (Yaml; 2. J . McManaway (Yam) . 1251NT: 1. R. TorreslYaml; 2. V. Butler(Yaml; 3. T. Tetone ITCWI. 250cc INT: 1, O. Hoover IYam); 2. O. Ashcraft IHus) ; 3. T. Makowski IYam). 5OOc:c INT: 1. C. Robertson ISuz); 2. O. tioover !Yam); 3. B. Edrington(Yaml. 125cc PRO: 1. C. Heisser IHon); 2. J . O'Mera (Mug) ; 3. C. McCu;stionIKawI. • .. a t · _ ~ • _ .. ' .A strom. Brian Speaks, Bruce Windham and Erwin Rittner shuffied around the other spots. The 250cc Amateur / Expert class really gave starter Ed Carroll a hard time each time they lined up . In the second round Carroll finally just dropped the flag on the ground and waited until they pulled themselves into some semblance of a line. Bud Carroll won the class with three straight but not without some tough competition from Scot Longnecker and Barry O'Brien, O'Brien got a second and a third along with Skip Cristy, but also a ninth place, so Cristy took second overall. In the 500cc Novice go they were all over the place at times, and no rider waltzed away with it. Winner Mike McCauley did it with a 2-!I-l, second was Steve Wybenga (1 -2-3) and third was Dan Shield (3-4 -2) . In the first round of the 500cc Experts Dennis Briggs got the lead with Larry Bird, Mark Cain and Chris Cannon all after him . Bird made one strong attempt to get in front, diving for the inside, but Denny just looked at him, gassed it and kept the lead. Briggs (1-2 -1) won , Cannon (!I-l 3) got t h e secon d an d t hi d was Bi d . was ir tr The 250cc Pro class was a goody. Ken Coupe and Rob Pfetzing both arrived in tum one first from almost opposite ends of the staning line in the first round but everyone made it through. Tommy Walton did it to 'em in the second , with Jimmy Rosa unsuccessfully trying to fend off Bud Carroll for third and Pfetzing ended up overall winner with a 1-2-1 , Walton (3-1-2) was second and Carroll (2-3-!I) took third. Pfetzing was all grins for the day ; he went east , rode three nights straight in TT races in Amarillo, Dallas and Albuquerque and won all three, really bringing up 0his Novice points for the year. Th 500 / Pr I Id e cc open 0 c ass cou have been called a hooligan race; the "* • • " . ••• • ." . • • • . .. •

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