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National rider Mickey Fay was top rider of the weekend, winning the Open
Expert TT main at Boise's 31 st annual TT weekend.
Fay's closest competitor in the TT was Randy Green (24). who won the
Open TT semi; Fay finished third. Green finished second to Fay in the main.
31st AnnUlI. Boise rr weellend:
tures up 10° a nd onl y gentle breezes
in pl ace o f real wind. T he Sportsm an
TT under th e lights a lways ha s a few
surprises in sto re for fa ns a n d a good
crowd lined th e big trac k. T hey were
not to be d isa p pointed, for the Mickey
Fay show had ro lled in to town during th e day an d " Ma d Mickey" h isownself, Ron Yamamoto (Yam) and
Rand y Green (Hon) looked lik e the
guys 10 bea t in th e Open Expert main.
As it turned o u t, Green was th e
man 10 beat . . . excep t no one co u ld
do it. Green ci rc u la ted o n hi s Woodland H onda sponsored XR tra ck
racer lik e it was o n ra ils, leaving
Yama moto and Fa y to duk e it o u t for
second and third with Yamamoto
holding off the streaking Fay at race's
end. One of the aforeme nt ioned surprises came in the form of a green
Kawasaki KX500with a 21-inch wheel
(shod with a un iversal!) that Mickey
said was h is "trailbike."
The 250cc Expert main was up for
g ra bs with Yamamoto faIling in his
heat race, Marty Zirbel having his
problem s and Rodney Reynolds (Kaw)
crashing himself into a must-transfer
situation during his heat. One section o f th e hill sid e (if this wa s baseball - th is bunch would be kept on
short lea she s in th e upper right field
deck ) was looking for an upset in th e
form o f return in g lett erman La rry
Cowles aboard th e Bob Lawren ce
Yamaha. Co wles, who raced Bulta co
Pursan gs o n this track in th e late 60s,
had a real shot wi th a fir st -row sta rt
in the main event. Co wle s ca me o u t
stro ng, but no t as str on g as Kirk
Strong, who head ed for th e front.
Ba tt lin g Yama ha [o r fourth, Co wles
had his steel shoe torn half- o ff by th e
Spokane rider's tire thro ugh th e dogleg and, o n th e su bsequent lap , ro lled
and bo un ced ou t o f co ntention as
Stro ng (Hon ), Yamam ot o and U ta h's
Shaw n H art (Yam) ro lled across th e
fini sh line. T he re wa s n o joy in o ur
" Muddsv ille upper dec k," but a h ell u va lo t o f pride in o u r o ld gu y o u t
th ere bum p in g elbo ws with yet another ge nera tio n o f TT racer s.
Robbie Blagg (Yam) repeat ed h is
ac t from th e short track by doin g it to
th e 125s o n th e big track wh il e J ames
Cyr and J eff Amen reversed th eir finishing of th e previous n ight. Also . . .
let the record show th at Denny Feigen span (H an ) put a beautiful pass
on his fellow Open Intermediates in
th e heat race only to fall victim to
dreaded overcook in the dogleg and
end his evening bruised and shaken
in th e main.
In the crashing department, Zirbel
The da~ to Fa~
By Marty Gregory
BOI SE , 10, AP R. 25-28
Charging the nearest rail birds with a wellshaken bottle of champagne, Mickey Fay
shared the thrill of victory with fans lining
Boise's Peaceful Cove TT track. Fay added to
his reputation as the TT specialist with a con vincing win
.
over a strong field which ineluded several past winners of
th e Northwest Regi on al event. It took
a driving pass of earl y lead ers Mike
Sullivan (T ri) and Frank Word III
(KT M) to ro cket Mickey's p riv at eer
Honda into th e lead o n th e third lap,
and it took 17 more mi stake-free
tours of th e track to n ail down th e
win ahead o f smoo th Randy Green
(Hon), SCOll Pea rson (Hon), Word
a nd las t year's win ner , Ron Yarn a rnoto (Hon).
Jo in ing Fa y in th e win ne r's cir cle
were Junior ma in event ki ng Rob ert
Hor ban (C-A) and go-fas t Novice P.).
Sa nc hez (H -D). T hey were a ll part of
the thrill in g cli max to a four-day
weekend of raci ng a nd a tradit ion
whic h ha s bee n goi ng o n in Boise for
th e pas t 30 years.
T his weeke nd's 31st ru nning of the
TT was ded ica ted to lo ngtime supporter Weldon At ki nso n a nd wa s
graced with increas ingly sple ndid
wea ther. It started o ff look in g grim
wit h mi d-40° temperatu res a nd co n sta n t wind o n T h ursday for the short
track kickof f. Bu t th e wi nd was n' t
ba d with th e MX co urse's famous
Sa nd Hill loom in g ove r th e refurbish ed one-eigh th m ile a t th e O w yhee M.C.·s facili ty a few miles north
of Boi se, a nd though th e chi ll even in g
may have kept so me less-than-to tall ydedi cated fans a way, th e ac tion was
h ot 'n heavy on th e track !
Portland-area Pro Marty Zirbel
(Yam) served n otice in both his 250cc
and Open h eats, as did Randy Green
(Hon ) who ca me from a secon d -ro w
start to n ip local sta r Rod Reynolds
(Hon) a t the line in th eir Open preliminary. Wh en ma in event time
rolled a ro u nd for th e 250s, Zirbel just
, .. ~ t ok-com m and of the race auer iowr-
32
stroke pilot T erry Ande rso n's H onda
holesh ot. A'purnped-upTroy Norris
(Hon ) h eld off Don Wil son (Hon) for
a wh ile, bu t Wil son wa s not to be
denied a nd round up seco nd. Rod
Reynolds was momentarily bottled-up
inside Anderson on th e sta rt a nd as
Zirbel str eaked around o n the o u tside
to sna tch a lead h e was n't bound to
relinquish , found h imself scra tch in g
to get into fourth place by th e en d o f
the race . Sh ort track races a re ofte n ,
decid ed within th e fir st five seco nds.
T ha t wasn 't th e case with th e big
bores, how ever. Jeff H ar sha (Yam)
Io ug h t tooth-and-nail with Rod Reynolds befo re pull in g it o u t as Zirbel
and G reen battl ed fo r th ird wit h Wi lson brea th ing down th eir n ecks. Ro bbie Blagg (Ya m) flash ed stylish ly in
h is thorough trouncing of the 125cc
Experts and Boi se' s J im Cyr (Hon)
h ad h is wa y over J eff Amen (Hon) in
their two-man 80cc Expert co nfro n tation.
·
Jeff Ru ssell may ha ve wished for a
d ri n k befo re the night was over. Jeff
came o ff h-a-r-d in th e third turn and ,
though he said it was "a lill ie sore but
probabl y o kay for to morro w," turned
out to have a broken co llarbone. Jeff's
m isfortun e let younger brother AI
Russell ta ke th e win, so th ere mav be
so me conso la tio n a t Dad d y Ru ssell's
Yamaha store co me Monda y.
In th e hotl y-contested Mini B main,
young Rich ie Reynol ds (Kaw) upheld
the h on or of tha t racing fa m ily with a
gu tsy perform ance to bes t R yan An der son a nd Scott McP herson o f Micro
fam e. And we shou ld mention th e
Powd er Puff event whi ch saw Tricia
Lyons (Yam) lap th e field with ease.
'Co urse Tricia carries a Class C Novice
lic ens e and Boi se wa ited to see whatever would become of her agains t the
boys on Sunday.
But Friday still comes before Sunday and th at eveni n g's weather saw a
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the dogleg a nd wadded th at scoo ter
into a piece o f modern art . Zirbel la y
on th e ira ck in this Open Expert
m a in for so me time a n d, to th e a ppl ause of th e crowd, fin all y mad e hi s
way back to the p it s -the motorcycle
had to be ca rried o ff, th ough. The
Open contes t was sto p p ed at th at
point a nd (as noted a bo ve) it was
Green, Yamam ot o an d Fa y, in that
orde r.
Amateur M X
A pi cture-perfect Idaho morning
greeted th e Amateurs arriving at the
Peaceful Cov e motocros s track for
Saturday's knobby tire racing. Startin g at 6:00 a.rn. with sign-up, the
trophy seekers had it out on a redesigned course which followed
more-or-less the traditional layout .. .
only with more stadium-type jumps
than anyone has seen around here for
a long time! The Beginner and .I m erm ed ia re
classes ran with speeds and stunts
ranging from mild to wild. Over the
jumps with style went 250cc and
Open Intermediate walkaways Sid
Morris (Suz) and Chris Hutzelman
(KTM), respectively dominating both
motos of th eir cl asses. In the 250cc
Intermediate clash , local J eff Creek
(Han) came from a first lap get-off to
pl ace in th e points in th e first mota.
Second race: sa me sto ry only worse.
Cr eek wa s brin gin g up th e rear co m o,
in g a ro u nd on the firs t circui t of the
seco nd mot a an d , as the race progressed with winner Morris skyshotti ng off th e fin ish line jump a nd
packing hi s whee l a ll th e wa y up th e
approach to th e C lubho use Jump,
Cree k began to pi ck o ff th e u n wary
an d less-ball sy backm ark ers. Creek
was do in ' fin e a nd had reeled in severa l of the m before tr yin g to a void a
fall en man a t the ba se o f th e San d
H ill (Intermedia tes ra n a shorter,
modified version ). Cree k stuffed hi s
h ead in the dirt an d everyo ne he'd
worked so h ard to p ass ca me strea min g back by h im . Even th e guy Cr eek
was trying to m iss wh en he fell was
up a nd going aga in before Cre ek.
Ch ad Case (Kaw) won hi s first
l25cc B rnot o onl y to fall vict im to
mal adies in th e seco nd. Mountain
Home's Tom H iler (Kaw) didn 't mind
as h e went 2-1 [or th e ov era ll . Ritchie
T h u rs ton (Kaw ) sh o wed th e l25cc
Intermediates that his unofficial reo
tirement/layoff doesn 't mean he's forgotten how and that crafty, old desert
guy, Rick Davey KDXed his way to a
sm oo th win over the B Vets.
If it looked like a lot of green bikes
were winpi s··· thaI'.:; because they
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