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(Top left) "Old Man" Gary Jones used a smooth riding style to outdistance his younger competitors and take the Class 22 win. (Top right) Chuck Minert,
the 43-year-old winner of Class 38, aboutto jump from the course's asphalt section onto the dirt. (Middle right) Class 21 winner Mike Sixbery leans it
over. (Above right) The winners whoop it up on the victory podium. (Above left) Class 20 winner Kevin Hopkins takes an early lead.
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SCORE Off-Road World Championshi~
Jones runs up the
SCORE in Riverside
By David Edwards
RIVERSIDE, CA, OCT. 1-2
Former National Motocross Champion Gary
Jones overcame a miscue on the starting line
and competitors 10 years his junior to take
the top motorcycle honors at the 11 th annual
Bridgestone SCORE Off-Road
World Championships.
.
When thehrst waveo£motor8 ..,q.des tw¥,o£{mwQ.tAe start
.
straight - a long, wide affair that
prompted one specta~o~ to describe
the action as a "mml Oklahoma
Land Rush - Jones didn't have his
PrQ~rcu'w'PonSQl"&P HlllAvar~ l.
XCSOO in gear. "1 was still in neutral
when they gave the two-minute sign,"
said Jones, explaining his poor start.
"Then they dropped the green flag
and away everyone went."
It didn't take the 1972-74 250cc
motocross champ long to get going
and recoup the ground lost to his
Class 22 (Open) competitors. By the
second lap of the 10-lap race he had
moved through the sparse field of
Open riders and closed in behind
early leader Chuck Miller, riding a
Team Honda CR480. He soon dispatched Miller to second, and for the
next few laps, the two pulled away
from theiestof the field. On lap nine,
Miller's chase came to an abrupt end
when he pulled off the track with
mechanical problems. "It seized," was
Miller's simple comment as he began
the long push back to the pits.
From that point on, Jones cruised
to the victory. "No one figured I
coukll4b it because I Vias iM..oId,"
said the 31-year-old Jones, "but I
smoked 'em just the same." Jones
described the Riverside International
Raceway course, which was laid out
to accomodate the much less manueverable off-road cars, trucks and buggies, as "real fast and not very rough."
Jones commented further, saying, ''It
was more like a road race. I knew tha
whoever had good power and gOO
