Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Central Pipeline Longhorn Nationals to Trett, Farr, Kizer o and McClure Hoover charges to win at Jennings MX 0') JENNINGS, KS, SEPT. 7 - 00 FORT WORTH. TX, SEPT. 6-7 $-0 QJ ..!:J o "-l U o .... Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki entries kept their "even split" skein of professional categories at DRAGBIKEI National Cham- Dan Hoover of Phillipsburg demonstrated aggressive riding as he overcame midpack starts to win both motos of the 250cc Se- - pionship Series meets going th~s wee~ end and DRAGBIKEI -kept Its raID string going at six straight with this weekend's running of the Longhorn Nationals at Green Valley Race City. nior class at the Jennings round of the Coors Midwest Motocross Champion. ship series. J.D. Sanderson jumped to the front at the start of the first moto and immediately opened up some breathing room on second-place Tom Kuhl, also riding a Yamaha. Hoover emerged in third place after first lap confusion with Dave Emerick on his heels. The order of the leaders held steady for the first few laps until Emerick's borrowed Yamaha slid out from under him in a hardpacked left-hander, letting Steve E\lis and Bob Burns by as Emerick dropped out. Ellis was rea\ly charging, but had difficulty also keeping upright on the slick course and dropped back to last place after running third for a lap. Hoover took advantage of a traffic snarl as Kuhl lost control momentarily and moved into second right behind Sanderson, whom he pestered for the final two laps before slipping past midway ~hrough the final lap for the win. Sanderson ro\led in second while Kuhl_ claimed third over Kevin Wagoner. Nobody seemed to back off the throttle in the first turn of the second 250cc Senior moto as Sanderson again took the holeshot over Kuhl, Emerick, Hoover and Ellis. Both Hoover and Ellis moved by Emerick on the second 'lap. then by Kuhl as we\l on the next go around for second and third. Hoover began working on Sanderson again for the lead while E\lis became the unfor· tunate victim of a broken chain. Sanderson looked more determined than before to hold onto first and the two got caught up in a game of tag that carried them far ahead of thirdplace Kuhl. Just before the white flag came out, Hoover jammed by Sanderson and went on to win the moto for the overa\l. Steve E\lis kept his Suzuki right·sideup and mechanica\ly sound to win the Open Seniors with a 1-2 ta\ly. Jesse Wessels got a big holeshot in the first moto and stretched out quite an early lead before E\lis was able to steadily whittle it down and move past for the win. Wessels took an easy. second over Emerick. whose Yamaha was experiencing an air leak, and Hoover. Wessels, Hoover 'and Emerick contro\led the first lap of the second moto while Ellis found himself having to work up from a crash. While Ellis was busy passing a rider each lap Hoover was shadowing Wessels and managed to get by the Maico rider on the fifth lap just as Ellis moved into third. Ellis jammed by Wessels as we\l on the sixth lap, but was unable to overtake the fleet Hoover despite a remarkable recovery. A second moto win gave Honda rider Mike Walker the overa\l in the 125cc Senior division. Walker led the first moto under constant pressure from Suzuki-mounted Jeff Barge\l. their dice carrying them away from Bret Weaver and Mitch Rorabaugh. Bargell got past the tiring Walker with two laps to go for the win. Walker held second place we\l ahead of Rorabaugh at the end. The second moto had Walker leading Weaver, Bargell and Rorabaugh. In Top Fuel Eliminator. Elmer Trett strung strong. consistent 8-flat runs to top a fine seven-bike field of fuelers with a final round win over the Kawa· saki of Sam Wills. The Harleys of Trett and of Paul Ruffin and Steve Morale of Dallas shared Top Speed of the Meet honors while Wills took low ET at 7.78. . In Pro Stock, Marshall Farr, 1979 Longhorn winner, hopped onto the seat of wife Vicki's Kawasaki ZIR and went all the way for his second straight win. this time over the national cham· pion ZI of "Superbike Mike" Keyte in a star·studded three-round contest. The final round produced contro· versy. however. as the Farr team placed traction compound on the staning line. A heated post-race argument resulted in a predicament for officials. In a de· cision involving uncomfortably subjective observations. race director Tom Loughlin decided that since the moment of infraction (on the line just prior to the run). and since neither Keyte nor his crew had noticed the violation prior to his redlighting. the violation had no effect on the outcome of the race. that the run would stand. (You had to be there to really under· stand.) In the future, no one will be allowed any traction compound of any sort at any event unless placed by officials. In Super Eliminator, Terry Kizer and Mo Parsons on the MTC-Mr. Turbo Kawasaki dragster set the A/DT national record at 8.15 seconds and took the eliminator with a final round victory over the nitro· injected A/Fuel bike of Fritz Myers of Pueblo. CO. Pro Dragster went to a final between the veteran Bonnie Truett Harley of Wichita, KS. and National Champion Jim McClure of Williamsburg, VA, with McClure soloing as Truett's chain came apart on the starting line. In Sportsman racing, Len Hrominchuk of Thunder Bay. Ontario took Competition Eliminator on his AA/ .Altered Zl Kawasaki over the Steve Russell B/Altered ZIR out of Ardmore. OK. Modified was the province again of Kawasaki in an a\l Kaw final with new record holder Jimmy Pugh of Tyler, TX. on his C/Mod ZI out of the Hop Shop the winner and Floyd Gaulden's Arkansas City, KS. A/Mod ZI in runner-up. Jay McCurry of Fort Worth of M&M Enterprises won Youth Eliminator on his '78 Suzuki DSI00. while Pro ET went to Benny House's Kawasaki dragster out of Sand Springs, OK, with Ben Johnson of Wichita, KS. runner-up on his ZI. 28 By Mitch Rorabaugh Street ET fell to the Shennan, OK, based '79 LTD Kawasaki of Joe Myers while Steve Baker of Norman, OK, was runner·up, also on a "Z." Weaver dropped out on the second lap with stomach cramps and Bargell moved up to closely trail Walker in, unable to make his way by. Bert Weaver overtook early leader Russ Pickering in the first moto of the 100s and went on to win that moto over Pickering and Dwain Worley. Pickering took the second moto holeshot and held the lead throughout for the overall despite a last lap charge that fell short for Weaver. Coming in third overall was Walter Schultz. Open Junior honors went to Atwood's A.J. Warta whose first moto showing of second place was backed up with a runaway win in the second moto. Tom Bohl led the first moto all the way and worked up to second in the second moto for second overall ahead of Paul Shartz and Jerry Jones. Vitus Meier ran away from everyone in the first moto of the 250cc Juniors and came back with a secure second the next time for the overall. Winning the second moto was Bret Weaver on his Uni-Trak, after taking the lead from Meier midway through the first lap on a downhill jump. Rod Steinmetz's consistent 3·3 tally was good for third overall. Brian Luedke led the first lap of the 125cc Juniors before sliding out and letting Russ Pickering by. Luedke was .back up quickly. losing very little. time. and harassed Pickering all the way to the checkered flag. Luedke tried every trick in the book on the final lap, but wasn't able to slip by points leader Pickering. Kurt Ross ran a steady third throughout the moto over Jeff Dechant and Lane Custer. The second moto was stopped after one lap when Luedke lost control of his Yamaha at the end of the very fast back straight and bailed over the highside. All the riders near him at the time immediately stopped to aid him and the ambulance was brought out. Fortunately, his injuries were slight and he didn't require hospitalization although he was badly shaken. Since it was the last moto of a long day. with a long delay for the ambulance, the sec· ond moto scores after the first lap stood with the riders' approval. A free keg of sponsor's finest was tapped during the trophy presentation for riders and spectators and a full session of bench racing and joke telling ensued into the evening. Results MINI JR: 1. Jonathan Pancake (Varni; 2. Jared De8oet' IYaml; 3. Bract Richards tSuz). MINI SR: 1. Bert WeaVff( ISuz): 2. Wayne Lanning lKaw). 100: 1. Russ Pickering (Yam); 2. Bet't Weaver ISuz): 3. Walter Schultz (Suz). 125 JR: 1. Russ Pickering (Yam); 2. Kurt Ross (Suzl; 3. Lane Cust", ISuzl. 125 SR: 1. M;ke Walker lHon); 2. JeH Bargetl (Sull; 3. Mitch Rorabaugh lSuzl. 250 JR: 1. Virus Meier (Yam); 2. erel Weaver (Kaw); 3. Rod Steinmetz (Yaml. 250 SR: 1. Dan Hoover lVam); 2. J.D. Sanderson lVaml; 3. Tom Kuhl (Vaml. OPEN JR: 1. A.J. W."a (VarnI; 2. Tom BohllVaml; J. Paul SchartllVami. OPEN SR: 1. Steve Ellis (Sull; 2. Dan Hoover lVaml; 3. Jesse Wessels lMaii. POWDER PUFF: 1. Annette Goekan lKawl; 2. Deb Jones ISull; 3. Carol Swenson lHenI. Lumberjack Trials to Peterson By Larry Hamilton LOLO. MT, SEPT. 7 Tom Peterson topped a disappointingly small field at the Lumberjack One-Day Reliability Trials, the first off-road motorcycle event held in the Lolo National forest in almost 10 years. The course was originally to be 66 miles with three checkpoints, an acceleration test, a cross country test and a grass track motOCl'Cllll test. The prom- ised course markers did not arrive so the course had to be shortened and last minute helper no-shows eliminated two checkpoints, the acceleration test and the cross country test. Riders left at one-minute intervals starting at 10 a.m. to tackle the 60mile course. It took slightly over three hours to complete the course that consisted of jeep roads, overgrown skid roads and Forest Service trails. Of the 22 starters, 15 completed the course with no late penalty points. Everyone knew that the five-lap grass track motocross would be the deciding factor in how each rider placed for the day. After the dust cleared, only 17 seconds separated the first eight finishers. The first five-bike heat race was composed primarily of AGETCO riders on KTMs from Spokane includ. I ing 1979 National champion Dan Dillon. Chuck Dillon won the moto in six minutes 32 seconds (392 pts.) on a 400 KTM fo\lowed by Joe Klokkevold (125 KTM) with 398 points. Jeff Kincaid 2 had a good run going until he endoed w over a log left over from the logging~ contests held two weeks before. The second moto times were protested by the first moto riders who I claimed that course markers had been knocked down resulting in fewer cor· ners and therefore faster times. But r the second moto riders rode the course'l in good faith so the protest was not a \lowed. It almost certainly did affect the results, though. Tom Peterson won the second moto with the fastest time of the day (388) on a 175 Honda. He was fo\lowed by Rick Anderson at 394 on a KLX250. Dave Covert with 401 and Orland Leland, close behind at 402 seconds (pts. ). The flags were repositioned for thr third moto and Larry Hamilton pullrd away on his 370 Can-Am to a 15· second win over Dick Brass on a 390 Husky. But the large lead wasn't enough for a class win (Chuck Dillon got that). though his 402 held for second. In third for the moto and first Mountain Man was Don Gaustad on a r 175 Yamaha. After this, the fifth race In the Montana Idaho Motorcyclists Association Cross Country Championship Series, the contest for first overall drew even tighter with only one point separating the top three places. Rick Anderson is first on a 250 Kaw at 125 points fo\lowed by Dave Covert (175 Can-Am) and Larry Hamilton (370' Can-Am) at 124 points. First 125 to date is Rud Brown of Darby. Two more races remain this year: Sept. 28 at Belfrey, MT, and Oct. 5 at Sleeping Child Hot Springs. D Results OVERAll: 1. Tom Peterson 11 75 Henl 388 pts.; 2. Chuck Dillon 1400 KTMI 392 PIS.; 3. Rick _ l250 KIwi 394 pts.; 4. Joe Klokkev04d 1125 KTMI 39ll pII.; 5. Da,., Covert 1175 C·AI 401 pII.; 6. (TIEl larry Hamil10n 11 75 C-AI/Orland leland 1175 Kawl 402 PlO< 125: 1. Joe Klokkevo4d (KTMI. 200: 1. Tom Peterson lHonl; 2. Dave Covert lC.-A): 3: Orland leland IKlwI. 250: 1. Rick Anderson IKawl; 2. Dan TaIber1IC·AI; 3. _~ Rod PIeper lHusl. OPEN: 1. Chuck Dillon lKTMI; 2. larry Hamil10n (GAl; 3. Sian Styger lKT.MI. MOUNTAIN MAN lOver 351: 1. Don Gaustad lVam!; 2. Dick Staton (Hanl. Steele, Howard, Davis sweep Sid Tarbett Memorial MXBy Wayne Gales and Chuck Harper KANAB, UT. AUG. 31 Racers from three states con-

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