.
TEN
YEARS
AGO
A man and a machine, both of wh ich
have th eir own special niches in
motorcycling history, graced the cover
of Cycle News. The motorcycle was
the new Honda 250 Elsinore rnotocrosser, a truly revolutionary machine
in terms of production Japanese racing mach in ery. The man was a guest
tester who was "i m pressed" by the
b ik e , a cto r /motor cycli st Steve
McQueen.
Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) totally dominated the seco nd round of th e Florida Winter-AMA Series in J ackson ville. Karsmakers won all three 500cc
Expert rn oto s to defeat Bob Grossi
(H us), Brad Lackey (Kaw) and Tim
Hart (Yam) . The 250cc Novice class
went to CZ-mo unted Steve Stackable.
Dick Mann (BSA) topped Danny
Davis (Bu l) to win th e Open Exp ert
class of a motocro ss at Pl ymouth,
CA. The l 25cc Experts feature d a
Pent on parade led by Carl Cranke,
Rick Clement a nd Kevin Henry.
MarIand Whaley (Mon ) scored a th reewin over Mark Eggar (Oss) in the
Masters class of a Pl onkers ob served
tria l. Bernie Schreiber pl aced fourth
in th e Expert class behind J . Armstrong, Larry Schmidtke and John
Wirth. Scott Parke and Debbie Evans
were th e top two No vices.
Nancy Thomas (Pen) sm oked th e fellows as she took the 125cc Novice
class win in a Medford, OR, mo tocross. Thomas took th e seco nd and
third motos for th e win, giving th e
com petitio a view of a sm iling face
stitched across the rear of her leathers.
Hurley Wilvert a n d Gary Nixon
signed contracts to join Kaw asak i's
1973 road racing effort. The year
before, Wilvert was th e tu ner for Paul
Smart, who had since switched to
Suzuki.
At an indoor short track race in British Columbia, American ace Randy
Skiver rod e a machine powered by
on e of th e only two Honda 250cc twostro ke engines in the co un try. Skiv er
won his heat, the trophy dash and
then led 14 laps of the 15-lap main
event. However, on the last lap, he
nearly tangled with a lapped rider
and that allo wed Mike McClain (Bu l)
to slip in front for the win. Steve
Baker finished third on a Yamaha.
Chris Heisser (Hon ) won the 70cc
Mini class of a Muntz Cycle Park allJunior motocross, defeat ing fellow
Horida riders Dave Ewing and Jim
Cote in th e process. In th e I25cc Junior ranks, th e Pentons of winner
Tom Morris and third placer Scott
Farris sandwiched the Hodaka of
runner-up Alex Solis.
T he father and son combin ati on of
Don and Kevin Wilhite com bined
with Lloyd Thompson to win a cro sscountry team race near Murphy, ID .
Un like mo st team ra ces, this event
req u ired th e three-man teams to ride
together through th e course of th e
race.
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HONDA
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