Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

.. - ... I WestC!'.... . . .th.... C.ulor.I.·A . .. t ...ra H ...... . . .t ...... Call1oral..Arls••••••t ...... H. . . . . . . . .t ...ra CalU.r.I..A r i _ ~ E o .. 00 0') l-< Q,) ..0 o u o Doug Dubach leads Todd Peterson, Mike Tripes and Mike Beie.. at CMC Saddleback. getting the holeshot and never looking back. Peterson was at the front of the pack behind Dubach but on lap five Mike Beier (Yam) took over second and Peterson never regained that position. Back in fourth and fifth places, Scott Manning (Yam) and Mike Tripes (Suz) were "t each other's throats but Manning had the edge at the-flag over Tripes. The finishing po· sitions went Dubach, Beier, Peterson. Manning and Tripes. Dubach again was first to make tracks in moto two. On lap two, Tripes was out of contention for about six laps with a snapped chain whieb left Peterson, Beier and Craig Gormley (Yam) to battle for the lead. By the middle of the race, Dubach seemed to be losing ms concentration and Beier and Peterson both overtook the leader. With three laps to go, Peterson 'took the lead .but Beier was not giving up. Wheel to wheel to the finish line and Peterson's 3-1 score was best for the overall. Beir (2-2) was second then Dubach (1-3) and Scott Manning. In the 250cc Pros Marty Tripes was the show and not too many other riders could compete. Tripes won both motos with Jeff Jennings placing two seconds and Clint Hardick tallying two thirds. The real battle was between the current 250 points leader Scott Johnson (Hon), Val Tamietti (Mai) and Hardick. Johnson, sponsored by Town and Country Honda and DG Perfor· ance, placed fourth overall just behin~ Hardick and ahead of Tamietti. This battle will coiuinue all the way to the last points race in Decemberl Clint Hardick, riding his second class of the day, won the Open Pros handily_ In moto one he had some real pressure from the. current numero uno, Alan Smith but Smith retired on lap 10 with a lunched gearbox. Maicomounted Val Tamietti placed second over Dale Lewis (Mai) and Matt Tedder (SOP), Moto two was the decider and Hardick ended up with the overall money. Hardick is going to be tough in the Ope':l class in the weeks to come. Tamietti finished second overall ahead of Lewis, Scott Walker (y'am) and David Gerig (Hus). Results MINI JR: 1. K. Ft-il'lle' ISuzl; 2. J. Begin ISuzl; 3. T. 18 Cameron (!Cawl. - l00C:c JR: 1. D. _ISuzl; 2. C. Beltnicl< IVaml. 125cc JR: 1. J, McCaughev (Suz); 2. M. Hanley (Hon); 3. S. Broviak (SUll. 250cc JR: 1. S. Pianoni (Kawl: 2. P. Bassett (Yaml; 3. C. Walk", IVaml. 500cc JR: 1. C. Porto l~ai); 2. M. Downs (Yam); 3. G. TrusselilVaml. OVER 30: 1. J. Beltinck {Mal}; 2. M. Bastionell (Mai); 3. E. Beck'" IHusJ. 12Scc INT: 1. J. VanCamp (Yam); 2. L Filz-Gibbon (Vaml; 3. J. W8fneke ISuz). 250cc INT: 1. T. ~amner (Yam); 2. T. Simmons ISuz); 3. O. Clement (Yam). 500cc INT: 1. K. Saulie (Vaml: 2. G. Senecal IVami: 3. J. Roy (Mai). 12Scc PRO: 1. T. Peterson (Yam); 2. M. Beier (Vam); 3. D. Dubach IVaml. 250cc PRO: 1. M. Tripes (Yam I; 2. J. Jennings (Han); 3. C. Hardick ISuz). 500cc PRO: 1. C. Hardick (SUlt; 2. V. Tamie"i (Mai); 3. D. lewis (Mail. CRC GP series hits Carl.bad By Terry Rezek CARLSBAD, CA, SEPT. 7 The "Grand Prix" track at Carlsbad is hard enoug!t for grand prix racing tanks. The clay on the dirt portions has the surface characteristics of granite and is covered witl1 black streaks from the paws of many.passing knobbies. The best and perhaps only place for traction was on the paved drag strip, if you got through the oil slick at th'e turn. A motocross scheduled by the track owners for the morning prevented use of that portion.of the raceway and the remaining part was pre-laid by the same people. Consequently, the course was only about two miles long and at least a third of it was pavement. The Mini race is easy to report in two words: Barry Crawford. He jumped to a lead yards off the start and just kept right on jumping. Yards hefore the finish, 50 minutes later, he completed the jump by lapping the entire field, including second place. This is not to take anything away from the other riders, some of whom turned in great rides; it's just that Crawford was flawless today. Back among the mortals, Mike MacNeal, Scott Sutton, Terry Woody, and Ray Amery spent a few laps swapping second place among themselves until they agreed that Mac Neal deserved it. By the halfway point, the rest had settled on Sutton in third and Woody in fourth. That was the way they finished. The 125s provided some real excitement and few moments of drama, Skip Blake and Troy Smith took off together and led the first one and one- half laps like motorized Siamese twins. In the latter half of the second lap, bad luck dumped all over Smith. Entering the downhill pavement run, his rear wheel caught a' hidden rock and pitched the bike sideways. When he came down, he was in the middle of the gravel that all the bikes had carried out onto tht; pavement. He went down like he had been hit by an elephant gun. At that speed and without the full leathers road racers wear, it was like jumping onto a giant bench grind· er. By the time he stopped sliding on his shoulders, he had left at least two square feet of his skin ground into the asphalt. He lay there for what seemed a very long time. When he got up, be was furious at what he felt was a bad error. As the anger subsided, the pain struck, and those who were trying to reach him saw him clutch his sides in agony. We all though he had broken his ribs but when he turned around, we could see his back. The jersey ripped away, it looked like a freshly cut steak and you knew he was really hurting. By this time about 12 riders had passed and having the bike laying on the track was becoming increasingly dangerous. Several spectators lifted it up to push it off the track but Smith grabbed it, jumped on and took off on what was to become one of the greatest comeback rides I've ever seen. Possessed by a demon only he understood, Smith demanded of his machine performance to match his· own coruage and began picking up riders li~ a sharpshooter in a mechanical gallery. While Smith was mounting his incredible charge, Blake remained in the lead and Bob Maxwell moved up to give him a close challenge. Midway through the race, Maxwell came around by himself in, the lead and Blake was not in sight. He soon appeared but was noticeably slower than before. The Kawasaki had fallen victim to the overstressed ,frame syndrome and had broken at the _swingarm pivot. As if that weren't enough, he had also lost fourth and fifth gear; on a narrow power band 125, the step from third to sixth is a lo.ng one and costs a lot of time per lap. Still, Blake was able to work his way back to second by the end of the race, just ahead of the indomitable Smith. Of course, the winner of the "It only hurts when I laugh, Coach" Award has got to be Troy Smith. Randy Anderson got the jump Qn the bunch at the start of the 250cc race, but Mike Baker grabbed the lead by the end oflap' one and cruised on in that spot to the finish, conftdent enough in his margin to do a little showboating over the big jump at the home turn. Craig Adams and Mike Johns were dukin' it out for second for several laps but Adams had some troubles and was sud!ienly missing. Johns settled into second and stayed there, knowing he didn't have a snowball's chance of catching the high flying Baker. Craig Adams' problem in the 250cc class appeared to have left him for the Open race, for he grabbed the lead over Eric Graves, .Lynn Vick and Lars Larsson and stayed in command. Vick and Graves battled at least half the race for second place and suddenly found themselves fighting for first. Whatever gremlins were plaguing Adams today had returned from lunch and worked their mischief. Adams was in third and doomed to stay there. The two Yamahas of Graves and Vick ground towards victory hut the long paved dragstrip made the difference as Graves' machine picked up yardage on each pass. That slight extra horsepower put Graves in first at the finish, with Vick next, Adams in Larsson remained fourth. third.and Results ATC/ODVSSEV: 1. Ronald Brown IOdy 31; 2. ROber1 Brown IOdy 31; 3. Tracey Dickson IATC 51; 4. r;orki Moor. IATC 41; 5. Todd Carmodv IOdy 11; 6. T"Ild Johnson IOdy 1I; 7. Joe Moore IATC 41. ATC 6: 1. Craig Calkins. ODV 2: ,. Doug Goodenough. ATC 2: 1. Chris Kedetka. MINI: 1. Barry Crawford IExl; 2. Mike MacNeal (Beg I; 3. Scon Sunon IBegl; 4. -r",ry Woody INovl; 5. Tim Monon IBegl; 6. Robert Cross IBegI; 7. Ray A",,,,y . IBegl. 100·200: 1. Bob Maxwell IEx/Vaml; 2. Skip Blake (Ex/Kaw); 3. Troy Smith (Ex/SUll; 4. Steve Gabrielson IBeg/Vaml. SR/JR-SR: 1. lars Larsson (ExlHusl; 2. lynn McGraw IExlVam); 3. lynn Vick IEx/Vaml; 4. JIm Ribley IEx/Husl; 5. Charlie Conwav IEx/KTMI. WOMEN: 1. Kelly Maine. 250: 1. Mike Bak", (Exl; 2. Mike Johns lEx); 3. Rick Lee lEx); 4. Todd MacDonald (Nov); 5. Randy nWemter (Nov); 6. Norm FranciS IAmt: 7. Ian McCafferty (Beg). OPEN: 1. Eric Graves IEx/Yaml: 2. lvnnVick IExlYa'l'l; 3. Craig Adams IE'x/KTM1; 4. Lars Larsson (Ex/Husl: 5. Paul Huffman tAm/KTMI. TEAM: 1. Rick LeefNorm FrancIS; 2. R,ck Johnson! Steve Rawlinson; 3. Lee Patton/Jack Frederich. Burnworth, Johnson baftle at CMC Speedway J. J. 7 MX By Rod Eschenburg CHULA VISTA, CA, SEPT. 10 Suzuki rider Scott Burnworth returned from the AMA National MX w-ars to Speedway 117 after over a year's absence and turned the 250cc Pro class into the greatest two-moto show of the 1980 Coca-Cola Championship Series. In the first moto, Burnworth haa a beautiful holeshot and held off a charging Rick Johnson (Yam) for seven of the 10 laps on a course he had never seen before. Johnson finally made an outstanding down low pass on one of 11-7's high banked turns and BurnwoTf.h quickly tucked in behind to-as he said at intermission~"leam the course." Come the second moto and everybody was in the stands to see what was going to happenl Well, it was fi n'works from the gate on, as Kirk Grissom (Hon) was second and Burnworth and Rick Johnsol) were third and fourth. Burnworth moved to second and looked in command for the overall, but then Scott Johnson moved \lack by and Rick Johnson was pressing; then both Burnworth and Rick Johnson blasted hy Scott Johnson and the race was· on! Rick Johnson looked to be closing just as he had in round one, but then on lap eight Rick slid down and it was a ride-il· . out for Burnworth. Grissom's second moto win gave him the show place over Scott Johnson as RickJohn· son got up -quickly for the runner-up spot. In other action, lots of riders were out to try to move up in the point championships for the big Coke, Factory Rider, DG, IRC, Bel-Ray and Cycle News 1980 contingencies. Super hot Mini Junior rider Mike Gil· martin (Suz) took another two for nl'o blast to charge into the top five point spots and second place Mike Craig fu,ther solidified his hold on third place with third place rider Tim Schoos moving past Lance Barnett for fourth place, In the 250cc Intermediates, winner Rick Kenyon moved into a tie for second place in the standings with Todd Leser who had the third spot last WeClnesday. And in the 125cc Juniors T &: C Kawasaki teammates Rodollo Sevilla and David Crowson tightened up their battle for second place in the Coke standings as Crowson took a Iecond behind point leader Mike Kincheloe with Sevilla way back in the pack, One more point night race and then

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