Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

TEN YEA S AGO Roger DeCosl er (Suz) a nd H eikki Mikko la (H us) fini shed o ne- two in both rno ro s o f th e June 15 Fren ch 500cc Grand P rix !\IX , whi ch will give Mikko la a slim six-point lead going into th e U.S. G P sch ed u led n ext week in Carlsbad, California. T he team of Bruce O gil vie a nd Larry Roeseler, rid ing a Har ley-Davidson 5 X250, took eig ht hours, 16 minu tes and 53 seconds to cro ss th e finish line and win th e SCO RE Internacion a l 400, run in Baja California, Mex ico. Ogilvie and Roeseler bested a field o f 65 mot or cycles to cli nc h the lar gest purse in Baja h istory: 52600 in prize mon ey and contingen cies. Mary McGee rode a ll th e wa y sol o in a bid fo r th e Penn zoil " Iro n (\ \' o )Man Trophy," a nd p laced 33rd o vera ll,- in spite o f losin g her rea r shoc ks befo re th e first checkpoi nt. Roo kie Ja y Spri ngsteen agai n took th e chec kered £l ag a t th e A ~I A G ra n d Na tiona l Championship Camel Pro Series / l LC Cvcle Classic Ha lf Mile a t Harrington , Delaw a re - h is seco nd vic to ry in a s m an y weeks. Fo llowi ng " T h e Springer" to th e chec kers were H arley teamsters Rex Beauchamp a nd Gary Scott. Kenn y Rob erts took hi s Ya maha to fourth pl ace, an d Doug Seh l p laced fifth . Ton y DeSlefan o finished in second place behind Kent Howerton at th e fi nal round o f th e 250cc National Championships held in Whitn ey, Texas. T hough Howerton took the lion 's sha re o f the S8000 p u rse, DiS tefan o cli nc hed th e Na tion al Champ io ns hip - break in g Gary J ones' three-year winning streak. T he speedway season was in full swi ng, and a t th e races held in Costa Mesa , California, on June 13 Jack Milne and Harry O xley ma rked th eir seventh year o f promoting th e sport. Jeff Sexton took an ea rly lead in th e Scratch main over Dan Becker, Bill Cody and Steve Bast , a nd held o ff their combined efforts to take the wi n. Sonny Nutter took the Feature Match Ra ce win over Sexton , and Ma rk Cherry claimed the win in th e H andicap main after a neck-and-neck Iight with Becker. T he Ca lifo rnia Air Resources Board (CAR B) sched u led a publ ic meet ing to be held in Sa n Franci sco o n Jul y 15. The topic? P ro posed em issio ns regula lions for m otorcycles. Berni e Sc hreiber edged Ma rl and Wh aley by two points a t the AT A Poway T ri als in Poway, California . giving Schreiber th e points lead for th e 1975 ATA Cha m p io ns h ip. J oe Gugliem elli ca me back after a dis astrous 24-point fir st loop to lose just 12 more points in the seco nd an d th ird loo ps for a third pl ace finis h. The Honda MRI75 wa s tested , and ultimately rat ed as " Honda 's fir st true end uro bik e." With a retail price of less than S9OO, th e MR 175 wa s an attractive alternative to pricey European machinery. •• Temperat ures ranged from . fOAAY ';() degrees o n the COL, t (0 3. sl imn~ 105 desert degrees . The cours e cover ed 500 m il es of Me xico 's ro ug hest terra i n . T hat 's what Tam HUMJ\' :;una ' ~ SCot Harden a nd Kurt Pfeiffer di vided and co nq ue red . Aboard their 198'; liq uid -cooled twin radiat o r Husqvama 500XC equipped with. Husk y Products large ca p acity fuel tan k , the pai r d omi nated the co mpe titlo n at the Baja 500 , wi n ni ng hy mo re than 40 minutes . In fact , the onl y o the r vehicle to th reaten Scm a nd Kur t' s lead was the ';OOXC of Dan Ashcrafr a nd D3n Smith . But . Ih 2r' S nOI surprising. Every 500XC comes with a n ine-inch fro nt di sc brake , alum in um swi ngarm, :;I six-speed transmission des igned fo r the de m ands of B.j. racing and suspension rea d y to attack ';00 m iles of anything that pas.. cs under th e tires . All sta ndard . s Both riders had nothi ng bur praise fo r th e plr crew netwo rk made up o f Husqvarna e m h usias ls whu d onate their time and ex pe rt ise . " Luc kily w e ne ver needed mu c h more tha n fucl and a l ire ch an ge." comment ed Har de n , " bUI th e c rew was always ready and go t us off fast ." The two riders also had praise fo r thei r c ho ice o f moto rcycles . " Husq varn a' s new single-shock design fram e , the engine's pow erband and the versatile six-speed transmissio n all co me together in an event like this," co m me n ted Pfeiffer. " Eve n th o ugh the temperature was in excess of 10 5 degrees: ' said Hardenv'the Ohli ns sing le-shock performance remained consis tent the whole wa y through ." BUI you don 't have to ta ke thei r word fo r Ir, Go check o ut o ne o f the few re main ing ';OOXC', yourself. It's o ne tough enchilada. ~ Husqvar na Motorcycle Co mpany 49 25 Merc ury Street . San Diego . CA 921 I I ~ Husqvarna Ii THE F I NAL STE P ' U P . -- -,,1 Husqvarna Divides and Conquers Baja ETZELER WINS S ummit P.oint Raceway Summ t Point, WV, J ne 1 I· ii\-+- FIRS I I . I I' VE AI:t:-A D-FIRSTGTO -t--+---~P£EDBO-~",-4---+-~ · , ,'. 'I Y1M~1A_tu~, =F---t---I---METZ Et:E R-~' Ed·!:~~I~~A ;:h~6 #1 1 Whe re It Countk ~ (206)774,1581 19

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