Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

hard-charging La ngness bringi ng up third for seco nd -overa ll . Squeo en ded his cha nces of a possible win when h e tangled with Dal e Bro ckett in tu rn two of the first lap. Intermedia te ac tio n saw KTM p ilo t Fr ed Kalmi ck wo rki ng hi s wa y through th e field for th e first mo to wi n, wi th T om Co ms toc k a nd early leader Mark Webster in third. In mo to two , jack Bleier (Ya m ) led to th e fir st turn but got o ff th e gas too earl y, a llowin g Comstock to slip by a nd resume th e lead. First-mota winner Ka lmick cra sh ed o u t on th e first lap putting himself out of co nte n tion . With Kalmick out, Webster saw hi s cha nce for fam e a nd g lory a nd went berse rking his way tow ards th e front of th e pa ck. U n fort unately, Webster lost co nt ro l over th e whoops but still managed to pass three othe r ride rs after p artin g co m pa ny with h is bik e. Je ff Pa tterson fought hi s way through the brok en bik es a nd bodi es to hold on to seco nd, with Comstock passing the chec kered flag first for the wi n and th e overa ll. Results Nigel Gale (2 ) won both money races at the Las Vegas Speedrome in Las Vegas. Nevada . Ing le, Cl ay Li ght (Mo to X Fox ) and Mike H amilton to th e fin al directl y. A com bined 80/ 6Occ A main kicked off the m ain events. It was snowy a nd co ld o u tside, bu t th e ac tion inside warmed th in gs up a bit as Fra m pton pu t h is G rants Pass Suzu ki into th e lead over fellow 80cc rid ers Steve and Donny H ix, both o n Ka wa sakis. Bu t 60cc riders Shawn H ighland and j oe Don Irel and snuck up o n th e bigger mach in es, where th ey wo uld finis h behi nd winner Frampto n. Th e 125cc A ma in was sim ila r to th e hea t ra ce as Beck ca rved h is wa y into the lead o n the opening lap w hile Word spen t severa l laps com ing th ro ug h traffi c. Word ca ugh t up to Beck but it too k th ree la ps before th e Pro flat tra cker got by th e tr icky morocrosser. Word slid past Beck with a full throttle slide to tak e th e lead at mi dway poin t, which left Beck to ho ld o ff H onda ri de r Ga ry Scholer, Fra mpt on a nd Tony Sp ra ngle. H ar sha a nd Crou ch er put two 1986 Ka wasak i works replica KX 250's into the lead at the stan of th e 10rid er 250cc A mai n, whi ch wa s a si ngle-row-started even t. H am ilt on moved to thi rd whi le Chris H orban gave cha se, bu t th e race was q ui ckl y sw inging in H a rsha 's favor as th e local Med fo rd ri der p u lled away fro m Cr ou ch er in the lat er stages of th e mam. In the Open A mai n , it was H orb an eas ily winning h is on ly ma in of th e eveni ng: Motocro ss mach ines were th e hot setup , as th e tra ck got unbeli evabl y rough. Horban go t o u t o f sha pe severa l times, but had enough o f a lead th at h e muscled his trusty AMA junior Class Regi on al cha mpi onship winning Rotax to th e checkers o ver In gl e and Kevin Gudzan . The Pro money main event was a Hl-rider. two-row , 20-lap event . Pro class C TT riders Horban , Word, Ingl e, a nd Li ght cha sed H ar sha o n th e openi ng lap. Horban sn uck a wh eel into th e lead o n the biggest m achine (500) and on ly flat track bik e to ma ke th e fin al. T hi ngs got int erest in g wh en C ro uc her a n d Hamilton wo rked into th e pi cture . a nd mad e up a spectac u lar ba tt le behind H orba n, H arsh a a nd Word . Word cras hed la te in th e main. pu ttin g Croucher into thi rd pla ce, as H arsh a went inside H orban to tak e th e lead a ll th e way to the chec kered flag. 24 Results PRO MONEY: 1. Jeff Harsha IKaw); 2. Raben Hor an (Rtx); 3. Steve Crouch er (K8W). OPEN A: 1. Raben Horban (RIX); 2. Bob Ingle (Han); 3. Kevin Gudzan IBul ). 250 A: 1. Jeff Harsha (Kaw); 2. SIeve Croucher (Kawl ; 3. Mike Hamilt on (yam). 125 A: 1. Rich Word (Han); 2. Rick Beck (Kaw ); 3. Carey Scholer (Hon ). . 80 A: 1. Wa yne Frampton (5uz); 2. Steve Hlx (Kaw); 3. Do nny Hix (Kaw). 60 A : 1. S hawn Hig hland (Kaw l; 2. J oe Don Ire - land (Kaw ). O'Neal takes Over The Hill win at L.A. CountyMX By Glenn Worrall PALMDALE, CA, NOV. 3 Jim O 'Neal of O 'Neal Products battled h is way to ta ke the O ver The ·Hill G ang 's Expert class vic to ry toda y at L.A. Co u n try Raceway. H onda- m o un ted SC Oll Freema n cha rged o u t o f the gat e to lead the pack in th e first mo ta , wi th O ' Neal, Ph il Cruz (Su z) and Yamah a -pilot G reg H um ber on ly inch es beh ind . Fr e e ma n ma i nt a in ed h is le ad th rough out m os t of the race, with O 'Neal slo wly gai n ing gro und . With o n ly o ne lap to go, the two got mi xed u p wi th lapped riders a nd O 'Neal decided to m ak e hi s m ov e. Aft er sweep ing past Freem an , O 'Neal held hi s grou nd to ta ke th e chec kered fla g with Freem an a nd H umber a close seco nd and th ird . Freem an grabbed th e hol esh ot in th e seco nd rno to , bu t his lead was short-lived a fter O 'Neal sto rmed past to tak e co ntrol with a n easy win for the overall win. Freeman held on to seco nd spot with Humber a nd Ron Ryer fini shing third and founh . Ra ndy Klassen pushed hi s m ighty ATK thumper to lead off th e Ama teur brigade with Carlos Marin. Sal Squeo a nd Mik e Langness breathing down hi s neck . Klassen p u lled o u t a goo d lead a nd seemed to have th e race in the bag, but th e thrill o f victory turned into th e agon y of def ea t a fter Kla ssen bailed hard righ t after the double jumps, gi ving u p th e lead to event ua l winne r Mari n. Sq ueo, Langness and Husky-moun ted Randy Wessels fou gh t it out for second spo t, wi th Squeo comi ng o u t th e victor after Wessels slid off whi le trying to make a pass. In th e seco n d rna to Marin made up for a slow start with a comfortable win a nd overa ll first. Klassen, still recover in g fro m h is earlier endo, hung on to seco nd with EX: 1. J im O'N eal (Ho n); 2. Scott Freem an (Han); 3. Greg Humber (Yam). INT: 1. Tom Comstock (Yaml: 2. Jeff Patt erson (Han); 3. Jack Bleier (Yam). AM : 1. Carl os Marin (Han); 2. Mike Langn ess (Han); 3. Randy Klassen (ATK). NOV : 1. Kent Jo h nson (Yam); 2. Dan La M ere (Suz); 3. Tim Jo ines (Han). Gale wins Vegas RRgamble By Rob Hardy LAS VEGAS , NV, NOV. 3 The So uthern Nevada Road Racers' (SN R R) second-to-last race of the season had some very close racing action o n a very wa rm southern Nevad a da y a t the 1.6-mile Las Vega s Speedrorn e. In the seco n d race of th e day, Scott C haytor took h is 900 Ninj a to th e overa ll victory in the i 50cc combin ed P rod uction/Open Pro ducti on /Form u la O ne m at ch . Wh en th e gree n flag dropped, h owever , it was Mr. T u rbo's j on Parisen a shooting o ff the lin e an d p u ll ing out a five bikelength lead in to turn two , but by turn three, Ch aytor too k th e hi gh lin e and sli p ped b y. Slim S te p h ens, Kirk Dela ine, Bru ce H aupt an d the rest of the pack followed in hot pursu it. Parisen a soon dropped o u t of the ra ce with tr ansmis si on probl em s a n d Cha ytor set a fast en ough pa ce to win by a co m fortable margin over Ste p he ns of EP Performance, who won th e i 50cc P roducti on o n a 600 Ninj a after barely making th e ra ce due to a cras h in th e seco nd pr acti ce session. While turning blazingly fast lap tim es, Stephen s hit a sm all strea m of oil goin g through turn five a nd went down hard, skidding off the track into th e gravel. Stephen s pi cked himself up, went back to th e pits and bandaged himself up. H e then borrowed some ignition parts from a friend 's street Ninja and ra ced to take these much needed points. The vintage road ra cers were out in full force tod ay, co m pe ting in th eir fin al race of th e Triple Crown Series with all clas ses of vintage bik es co m peting in th eir o wn races. Riders fro m Ca na da to so u th ern California sho wed up for th e event. The 500cc Vintage race had 17year-o ld Geoff McCarth y p u tt in g his 450 Duca ti in to th e lead with Don Vesco o n a 500 short-stroke Norton and Murray Niebel on a 500cc longstro ke Norton fo llo wi ng. By lap six, Vesco had the lead aft er .p ow ering by McCa rt hv in tu rn two. Niebel a lso m oved by McCa rt h y and tried to close the ga p betwee n hi m self and Vesco . This was th e fi nis h in g order with Vesco ta king th e checkers, Niebel in seco nd and McCarthy ho lding on to the th ird spot. In the 250 an d 350cc Vintage race, yo u n g McCa rth y aga in shot into the lead, th is time o n a H onda en gine/ Du cari -Iramed bik e. H e led the race until lap six, whe re Colin H ancock slipped by o n hi s 360 Bultaco to lead for th e next co u p le of laps. Oil lap eig h t, Hancock hit a ha ybale coming out of th e ch ica ne an d McCarthy took advantage a nd o pened up a lead while Hancock dropped several places before recovering. McCarthy took th e win, with james Craig, on the Dick Mann replica 250 O ssa , fina lly besting Dave White for th e 250cc Vintage h onors. Cal Ra yborn jr. had th e lead in the Open Vintage class wh en th e pack ca me through [urn four. H e was ridin g a Don Vesco-owned 350 Yamaha, which is th e sa me bike Vesco prepped for Kel Carruthers a t th e 1971 Daytona 200. Fred Eicker , Mick O'Fieid a nd j im Schm idt, on h is custom hand-bu ilt Norton were tryi ng to keep Raybo rn in sig h t after h e set a very fas t pa ce from the start. Eicker grad ua lly p ulled him self clear of th e second-place battle and set his sig h ts on Ra yborn . O nce Eicker ca ught up to Rayborn , th e fig ht for th e lead intensified as they swapped the lead bac k and fort h in the closing laps. Eicker finall y pu lled a head for good when Rayborn lost power when an expansion cham ber borke on his ear ly Yamaha. The Formula III race featured Mike Williams, a former AMA Superbi ke pi lot, ridi ng his 1982 Honda C R 480 dirt bi ke to a n easy win. Williams entert ained th e kart-and-bike crowd with close to 100-mph wheelies down the front stra ight before setting it down for turn o ne. T eam Double Down Racing , the br and new n u m ber o ne AMA GTU Endurance team, showed th eir stuff a ll day with Ni gel G al e, H enry T ecza a nd jim Cox for m ing th e team. These indi vid ual riders . led by Gale on the Bill Dal y-tuned Fj600's, co llected a go od sh ar e o f th e da y's points in the 600cc Production and Formula II races. In th e 600cc Production m oney race, Nevad a Yamaha's Ga le put on an exhi bi tion of speed as he bested teammat e a nd cu rren t SN R R points leader T ecza. J oel H an son of EP Performan ce ro de the wh eels off his preNinja GPz5 50 to take a much -deserved third ove r o the r Fj600 and 600 Ninja riders. In th e 600cc Superstreet ra ce, Nevada Yamaha / Sam' s T own / Ker ker sponsored Tecza ra n uncontested for th e win. Second place, however, was not so clear cu t, as Eri c Seward and Cox had a good dice throughout the race. Cox got th e nod for second at the checkered. The last race of the da y was the Formula II money race. The sun was dippi ng pretty low and loo ked like it wou ld be a factor in h ow easi ly braking markers could be seen and correct cornering speeds reached. In tu rns three, four, a n d six the sun wa s a factor, with six being the hardest to navigate as sha do ws and light streaked across th e turn. When th e green flag dropped, the pack o f riders sto rm ed through the fast turns of one a nd two. By turn fou r it wa s G a le out front, followed closely by T ecza , Fred Eicker, Joel H a n son, Bru ce Ha upt, an d Stephens. Gal e opened up a lead, turning low 1:07 lap times. Second place wa s a hardfo ug ht battle bet ween Tecza, and Eicker. Eicker had an off-track excursio n when he p us he d it too hard try- . ing to pass Tecza o n the o utside line coming aro u n d tu rn one. Tecza breathed easy for awhil e, but Eicker

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