Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

CTopJ Johny P81fntym8n1Tom Lund 1DOk their Norton to the tim moto win tit ~ but ..... on the . . of the eeCOIld mom. They looked good 8t . . t1mea. though.lAbonJ Doug Guthrie . . . . Gene Brown C2J end ,... PeIroII In the aec:ond hMd of 2IiOcc GP 8t PlR. Brown won both hMta, though, with Guthrie going 3-3 for tI*d end PeIroI'. 4-2 good for aec:ond overeO. OTHG.tt...... M.mmothOT MX N.t'l. By Bang Bang Bobo Ingrem MAMMOTH, CA,JUNE 20·21 Every year the OTHG looks forward to being invited to attend the Old Timer's MX National at Mammoth. This year was no ex- 38 ception. Anticipating two days of ruged motocrou, the Gang eagerly accepted the invitation. The super chaUengiDg MX coune of yean put IJIOned a new and expensive stan gate which, once let, dropped toWard tile riden wben tri~. This ~y eliminated any ~croacbing. Saturday's race brought out the colon of each OTHG chapter includin« riden from as far away as Washington state. AI usual, the Expert class brought the spectaton tot be edge of the track to witnal some fast and fancy riding. "Absurd AI" Olson (Mai) showed them that and more. Split·second timing got him out of the gate first. Skillfully riding a finely tuned Milico, Ailed the field of 51' Experts up the hill, through the rough and tonurous back section, into the woods and out again. Always fint' to the checkered flag both days for II perfect score, Al was followed by "Runny Ron" Gibson (Mai), Gordy Ocbs (Washington chapter) and Scott Davis (Capitol chapter) fighting for second place. Ocbs finished 2-5 in Saturday's motOl, Davis' 1C0re was just the reverie. He pulled a 7-4 on Saturday tben came baclt with a vengeance on Sunday to raclt up a very respectable 2-2, giving him a fmal founh overall. That. if raclt up a very respectable 2-2, giving him a fmal fourth overall. That, if you're counting, gave the second place slot to Ronny Gih80n who had tq gun his way through heavy traffic in each moto to score a final 5-2 (Sat.) and 5-4 (Sun.) for the second-place crown for the weekend. Amateur class rider Jeff Bell, who nonnally teaches school in Bishop, gave a different kind of lesson on this Mammoth weekend. Poeaibly psyched by the new stan gate, Jeff was unable to get good starts. However, in a fine display of riding sltiIl, "Bing Bong Befl," as he is known in the club, weaved his way between other riden, always finding passing room to end his motos up front. He stuck. a 5·2 on Saturday then the "coup·de·grace" on Sunday (1·1), taking the coveted first place at the head of his class. Second place went to consistently hard-ridinlt Jaclt Leiser (Mai; Capitol chapter) who finished his motOi 2-5 on Saturday and 2·4 on Sunday. A popular rider from Santa Barbara, "Buffalo Bill" Nonnan(Mai),ran away with the fint moto Saturday, but his flash diminished in later motos, 1·5 on Saturday and 7-5 on Sunday. However. this still gave him a respectable third place overall finish. Too fast to -be Novices, not fast enough to be Amateun, the unpredictable Intennediates line up 10 shon of filling the 4O-place stan gate. By moto two on Sunday, only 25 were seen drawing chips for stan positions. Mammoth was taking its toll. But that's another story. Randy Chester, a Sierra chapter rider, took fint place by scoring 5-5 on Saturday and a breezing }.} on Sunday. A hard fought second place went to Jalapeno Jose (Suz) riding for the South chapter. Mik.e Doheny. a Washington chapter rider, garnered third, finishing 11-6 Saturday and 6·5 Sunday. Although Nonh chap.ter rider "Big-foot" Bill Lombard (Mal) won his first .moto Saturday, he dropped to seventh in moto two, then scored 5·19 to fill the founh-place slot. The fight for fint place in the Novice class turned out to be one of the mOlt exciting races of the weekend. South chapter rider Burro Bernie Fuentes (Yam) and Capitol chapter rider Phil Gumm (KTM) would go to the front of the pack and swap leads in each moto, bringing cheen from different sections of the crowd depending on who was leading. In the end, the two were tied for points, but the overall win went to Burro Bernie who finished ahead of Phil in the tie-brealter last moto. Bubbles Bruce (Yam) from the South finished 5-6 (Sat) and 4-4 (Sun) for a decent third overall. Trophies went to the first 10 riden in each c.lass, but that's too many names and not enough space. The "really big" news is that the team trophy was won by parent chapter, Southern California area, breaking a long dry spel1l Many tbanlts, again, to the Old Timer's MX AIsociation for the invitation for another weekend at Mammoth. Results EXPERT: 1. AI 0I0an lMlll: 2. Ron Bill-> lMlll: 3. Gordy Oc:ho tvom). AMAlBJIl: 1. AIf IIeIIlHonl; 2....... L-. tvom); 3.l1li_ CM8iI. INTeRMEDIATE: 1. "-'dy C _ tvom): 2. . IIoclrillt* lSuzl: 3...._ tvoml; 2. Phil Gumm Dct.ty tvom). NOIIICE: 1. _ lKlMl; 3. Bruce s - t tvoml. Day_takes DRSGO to Monterey IT win By Bill Spencer MONTEREY, CA, JUNE 27 Combining a big weekend of sporty car racing and NASCAR stuff at Laguna Seca with a Saturday night show of D-S6 short traclt at the Montery County Fairgrounda gave many motonpon fans a true taste of what i's lilte to live and race in nonhern California. Keith Day ~t up the Suzuki stock a bit more with a fine win OD the SOOcc single fourstroke out of Jim Chisum's shop in Salinas, perhaps malting that its fmt win. One of the finer racing battles in some time showed Danny Moore and Chandler doing the finest in dueling, a,m tonight's show was good enough for a standing ovation by the crowd. Dou, JOIh Chisum continued to dominate the Pee Wees with his JR Suzuki wbi1e a new rider, S. Raymond took the 80cc Novice show with Jeff Pestana the 80cc Junior winner. Kun Chandler made mincemeat of the 80cc Experts with Craig JObDlon coming on strong for second on the Seaside Sports Center . Yamaha. Jon Nunez got himself a 100 Yamaha out of tbe Salinas dealenbip and won lOOcc Junior while Ron Hayes mrvived the lOOcc Expert onslaught the best for a great win. Eric Green got the shot on the stan of 250cc Novice and never let go with Gordon Heavren taking the second spot. Mike Anhur and his Bultaco have been the rage of the 2~J:mor class of late, but he had to the baclt seat tonight as P.J. Sanchez and the Bob's Garage Kawasaki led the entire operation with Steve Spenlter banging his way to third. The 250cc Expen bash was a bam bumer displaying some of the finest close-up, handlebar-to-handlebar racing seen around these parts in years. Danny Moore and family left the Panland area .Iate late Friday night after finishing third in the Regional TT at Claclwnas and drove home to race this show. He rode the Championframed Yamaha off the line first with a full paclt in tow. Doug Chandler and the ND-spaJted Salinas Kawasaki made all the right moves to take second and the cbue began. This traclt baa a very small cushion, and mistakes are very COIt1y. Theae two didn't do the mistake pan, just the son of w.hee!-on-wheel racing that makes for big time proe out of this area. The courage of good competition came out from all as tile checltered fell with leIS than a foot between the two. A rousing cheer came fromt he grand. stand for a great show with Moore in the fint spot and Doug second. Geoff Lowe had a good night in coming from the baclt of the paclt for third. Doug Franltlin got the best of the combined SOOcc Novice/Junior class with Lee Yetter second on his Honda and Jon Teraji third. baclt to racing on his 500 BSA. The all-important stan on this ltitle track was the history of . the race in SOOc ;.xpell ~ --l~t; ion. One of the new D 500 Suzultis, set up for the TT and ST racing that appears to be the new br,d of racing for AMA competition .>.Jwed, and Keith Day ''ilV ha e made history with the wirevin for that marque. It was a

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