Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

0 iii ~ , (5 . ..J e « c l: '0 u (J) > 1I3 0 >0 :r . eL t00 0') ~ ~ 0 CN >- C\l ::;E Bobby Schwartz won the Scratch main for the fourth consecutive time at Ascot Park in Gardena. Here he goes for a tearoff. it didn't hamper m y riding. It took a few hours of m y day away and a trip to th e hospital," he said. Schwartz ca me off the pole in th e main and he had a slight edge when the field came to the first bend. Schwartz took up all of the inside on the fir st bend, forcing th e rest of the field wide, and that was all she wrote for first place. The battle ended up being for th e second spot between Alan Christian Brad Oxley. Christian used every in ch of th e race track in an effort to gain th e show position, but it wasn't until th e last lap that he got by and then pulled down to secure it. The Handicap main was a replay of opening night when Louis Kossuth outdistanced "Sh ow time" Bobb y Ott for the win. The previous week a t Ascot, Kossuth sawed his motor completely in half. This week he had a brand new 1987 Jawa underneath him and he showed it the way to victory circle for the very first time. Scott Brant h ad the lead off the 20 on the start an d it took a co u p le of laps for 30-yard line sta rter Kossu th to wre stle the lead aw ay from him. Ott, the crowd favorite, was attracting most of the fans ' a tten tio n with a spectacular rid e from th e back of th e p ack. Ott worked h is way up to seco nd a nd lo oked as thou gh h e was going to keep on going ri gli t past Kossuth. The former junior star had o the r idea s. H e first held back Ott 's attempts on th e outside. H e th en shut him off on th e inside. When bo th of those attempts failed, Ott leaned on Kossuth but it didn 't work. The .checkered finall y came down a t th e end of lap eight -an d Kossuth took a well- earned win. Ott fought hard and had to settle for second while Faria clawed his wa y from th e back of the pack to take third. Results SCRATCH: 1. Bobby Schwanz (Wes); 2. Alan Christian (Wes); 3. Brad Oxley (Wes). HOCP: 1. Louis Kossuth (Jaw); 2. Bobby On (Gdn); 3. Mike Faria (Jaw) . SUP: 1. Shane Diiullo (Wes); 2. Jessee Finch (Wes). Dick .wins Seattle RR opener By Bruce Scholten 42 KENT WA, APR. 26 In its most successful season opener ever, the Washington Motorcycl e Road Racing Association welcomed hundreds of entries a nd a couple th ousand spe cta to rs to fierce racing under su n ny skies. Ca na dian ace Steve Dick managed to edge Sea ttle's Bruce Lind in t he hi ghli g h ted H onda Hurri can e con tinge ncy money race. But th e da y was perhaps m ore mem orable because no si ngle racer·dominated th e events. Perennial Kawasaki racer J ohn Moffett promised , "T here is goin g to be so me bi g tim e sn ivell ing In the O pen Vin tage class whe n th ey see m y laser quick triple two- stroke!" Moffett insisted th e H-2R 750 wi th th e Cal-Fab swingarm co n form ed to all th e rules. Grumbling aside, th ere wa s no protest after Moffett's aging stree t fighter beat Sid Collier 's Ducati Desmo, a nd Randy Sch em well's 1000 Vincent across th e line. In th e 500cc Vintage class, Bill Bro wn 's BSA Goldstar bested Chris Woodsum's H arley-Aeremachi 350. This year's favorite budget racer, th e Kaw asaki twin EX500, had a n auspicio us debut with Greg Froberg 's win in small bore BoTT. Likem ounted Mike Correll co m p leted th e J apanese invasion o f Ital y. Corr ell's Totem Lake Kawasaki was seco nd, Kirk H ogl e's Duca ti Pantah th ird a nd J ay Pringle's Ca gi va 650 ga rn ered fo u rt h. NESR A/M et zel e r sponsored Greg Froberg ea rned more season points in O pen BoTT with a seco n d beh ind Randy Schemwell's Reed G alb ra ith Du ca ti. All th e top guns of Northwest road racing kn o w abo u t Zlock Racing 's Keith P inkstaff, and P inksta ff won the 750cc Superb ike race. Although today's 750cc Production ra ce d id not pay Suzuki contin ge ncy m oney, GSXRs sco red a ll but seventh a nd eighth ou t o f the firs t 12 spots. Already a co u ple th ousand dollars richer with GSXR money / earned last week at P ortla nd, Bellevu e Suzuki's J oe Pittman won th e m orning heat race ahead of Au stralian Craig Trinder , Dal e Fra n kli n and Doug Renfrow. In th e fin al , Insulate . Industries- sponsored Trinder pl ayed a wa itin g game, holding secon d while h e an d Pi t- . tman m oved ou t ahead of th e p ack. On th e last lap h e moved aro u n d Pittman for h is first Seattle win. J oe Davis took third over Doug Renfrow, Zlock Racing's Ward Rod gers, Mark H askins sixth an d G reg Froberg 's NESRA Honda in seventh. While the GSXR folks p racticed racing for trophies, Honda Hurri- Bruce Lind (78) leads the 600cc Hurrica ne class at the WM RRA season opener, pacing Joe Pittman (171) and Keith Pinkstaff (1). ca ne riders were on cen ter stage. Many raced o ther classes j us t to be sharp for th e Hurricane ' cas h dash. Bruce Lind even had the audacity to win th e Formula 2 qualifier (w hich is traditionally Grand Prix territory) on a four-strok e Hurricane. Mike Sullivan p ut a stop to tha t n ois e in th e final , nudging L ind to seco n d, with his h onest-to-God tw o-stroke Ri ck S h epard DDS-sponsored RS250R H onda. In th e 600cc Superbike trophy cl a ss, WASCO Frames ' R ichard Wascher won th e h eat ra ce. Behind Wa sch er , David Deveau and J oe B. Williams merited secon d a n d third grid spots for th e afternoon. Wascher ran away with th e final , way out in front until lap five wh en h e cras hed hard wh ile on th e gas in turn eig h t. Canadian Stewart Graham took th e lead n ext and even tu ally won th e argument for first place with Deveau and Will iams, who took secon d and third respectively. Shaken , but otherwise oka y, Wa scher would have gridded third for th e Hu rr icane m oney /600cc Producti on ra ce. But th e tal ented , m oney-hungry rid ers barel y n oticed a ny drop in pressure, even wh en tim e co ns ide ra tio ns cu t th e fin al from 12 to eigh t laps (or abo ut 27 to 18 miles on the 2.25-m ile circuit). The su n was o ut and this would be one lo ng, hot race. At the green £lag Keith P inksta ff's RP M H o use/Broth ers H onda took a n ea rly lead. Bruce Lind 's Hurricane gra bbed it o n lap two , th en J oe Pittman drafted past an d led laps th ree a n d four. Most o f th e race you co u ld throw a blanket over the fir st five, and the re were al ways seven or so in co ntentio n for th e win. " The Hurricanes are just so easy to ride, a n d so far, the Canadian , U.S., and Ca li fornia-on ly models seem equally fast. " L ind's com me n ts were borne out as each type o f Hurricane fought for th e lead. Lind wrested th e lead once more o n lap five, but behind him as they passed the turn 10 lap checkers wa s Canadian Steve Dick. Dick had h ad to start without a tire warmup lap, but worked his wa y to fourth place on lap three. On lap six Dick made a close pass on Lind, and fro m then o n the battle wa s for third and below . The order was Dick, Lind, flat tracker Dan Bennett, Joe Pittman; Keith Pinkstaff, four-tim e AMA . Formula Two cha m p Don Greene, Dale Franklin, Gene Brown, J oe B. Williams and U niversi ty Honda's Stu Hutchins a t th e end o f lap six. Pittman eventua lly won hi s tu ssle with Bennett for third spot while Pinkstaff fin ish ed fifth. Franklin and Green e, longtime competitors in the 250cc GP wa rs, sett led into sixth a nd seventh. Canadian Tom Walthers, and Californian J oe B. Will iams sco red eighth and ninth and Marush i n H elmets ' Dou g Renfrow rounded out th e top 10. Results 450 PROD: 1. Chris Denzler (Yamt. 2. Paul Mapper (Yam); 3. Alan Schwan (yam); 4. Edward Sadvar (Yam ); 5 . Bruce Terrell (Yam) . 450 S/BK: 1. Rod Morse (Yam); 2. Tom Ma", (Yam); 3. Chr is Denzler (Vam); 4. Ed Sadvar (Yamt. 5. Tom Guguid (Yam). OPEN GPSGL: 1. StanJauJou(Yam); 2. Kenneth Brynn (Han) ; 3. Morgan Slim (Vam); 4 . Jim Tenneson (Yam); 5. Dave Crockett (Yam). F-3: 1. Ray Doane (Han); 2. Dave Wh ite (Duc); 3. Doug DuBuque (Yamt. 4 . Greg Reid (Han). VlNT OPEN: 1. John Moffett (Kaw); 2. Sydney Collie r (Duc); 3. Randy Schemwell (Vin). VlNT 500: 1. Bill Brown (BSA); 2. Chris Woodsum (Aer). . VlNT 250: 1. Ron Johnson (Suz); 2. Dave White (Duc); 3. Ant hony Rivelli (Duc); 4 . Jim Rivelli (Duc). 75 0 PROD: 1. Craig Trinder (Suz); 2. Jo e Pittman (Suz); 3. Joe Davis (Suz); '4. Doug Renfrow (Suz); 5. Ward Rodgers (502). OPEN Bon: 1. Randy Schamwell (Duc); 2. Greg ' Froberg (Kaw); 3. Larry Vevig (BMW) ; 4. Kirk Hogle (Due); 5. Jay Pringle (Cag). 600 S/ BK: 1. Stewart Graham (Han); 2. David Deveau (Han); 3. Joe B. Williams (Han); 4 . Terry Williams (Suz); 5. Devin Saferos (Han). OPEN S/BK: 1. Ward Rodgers (Suz); 2. Steve Littlejohn (Yam); 3. Craig Trinder (Suz); 4. Lars Gilmore (Han); 5. Ken Weipert (502). 750 S/ BK: 1. Keith Pinkstaff (Suz); 2. Stve Dick (Han); 3. Tom Walther (Suz); 4. Doug Renfrow(Suz); 5. Bruce Behal (Suz). F·2 : 1. M ike Su llivan (Han); 2. Bruce Lind (Han); 3. Stuart Hutch ins (Han); 4. Rod Morse (yam ): 5. Steve Schaefer (Vam). 600 PRO $ : 1. Steve Dick (Han); 2. Bruce Lind (Han); 3 . Jo e Pittman (Han); 4. Dan Bennett (Han); 5. Keith Pinkst aff (Han). 650 Bon: 1. Greg Froberg (Kaw ); 2. M ike Correll (Kaw); 3. Kirk Hogle (Due); 4. Jay Pr ingle (Cag). OPEN PROD: 1. Craig Trinder (Suz); 2. Joe Pittman (Suz); 3. Joe Davis (Suz); 4 . Greg Froberg (Han); 5. Mark Haskins (Suz). F-1: 1. Dale Franklin (lZ); 2. Doug Renfrow (5 02); 3. M ike Sullivan (Han); 4. Bruce Behal (Kaw ); 5. Jamie Dick (Suz). NOV: 1. Steve Beach (502); 2. Skipper Nelson; 3. M ike McBrady; 4 . Mark Clark; 5 . Rick Salmon. Young tops Scotch Valley Trials By M ike Du nfee SCOTCH VALLEY, PA , MAR. 12 Scotch Valley was the site of the 1987 AMA District 6 trials opener. The tri al was th e design of th e Su squeh anna Trials Riders. The 13 section, two-mile loop was laid out on ideal trials terrain, a n d the club did an excell ent job la ying o u t their fir st ever tri als even t. R yan Young on his Co sm o- sponsored Beta won the Expert class, while Gary Sampsel, who was also riding r ea l hot , power ed his Yamaha to second. Louie Bolopue was third followed

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