Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Ed Arnet captu red second overall in the Open Pro class and grabbed t he overall gold in the 250cc class w ith a pa ir of moto wins. Willy Musgrave (V18) fought w ith Goat Breker fo! the lead in t he Open_ Pro class. Breker won both motos for the overall v ictorv. Breker wins Four-Stroke National at Perris By David Procida P ERRIS. CA, MAY 29 Goat Breker recovered from a first mota fall to score a I -I victory at the White Bro th ers/ ATK USA National Four-Stroke Championships at Perris Raceway. Brek er riding ' a White Brothers 'Honda XR600 fol ' I o we. K/Torco 0 .~'1-spond AT sored Will y Mu sgrave mto th e first turn o f the first mo ta al ong with ATK-m ounted Edd ie Arn et. The th ree fre ig h t-t ra ine d aro u nd the track until Breker cras hed a t the halfwa y point. But Breker quickl y rem ounted and before th e lap was over, he was .aga in fighting Mu sgrave for the lead . Musgrave's lu ck ran o u t wh en Breker a nd Arn et dov e underneath a t th e sa me tim e. Breker soo n left the two AT K riders to fight for second. Arn e t beat Mu sg rav e, w ho wa s foll o wed h om e b y Gary J o nes, aboa rd a KTM 600. In moto two, J ones put h is bigbor e KTM int o a n early lead on ly to have Breker blow by as they exited th e fir st co rner. Arnet was close behind the pair, wai ting for an y error that wo u ld move him up in th e sta ndings. Mu sgrave was a no-sh ow in moto two after inj u ri ng hi s ankle in the XR80 race, lea ving it a threeway struggle for th e lead. Arnet pulled a lo ngside o f J ones o n th e front stra ig h t and o u t-powered the KTM into the hillside corner. J ones stayed righ t with Arnet and blazed through th e turn onl y in ch es from th e ATK rider 's rear tire. Breker maintained a co mfortable lead while sty lin g th e upside down , White Pow er-forks-equipped XR o ver th e jumps a nd flat-tracking the big sweepe r corner. Behind him, Arn et wa s defend ing his number two position from a hard -charging J ones. Th e pair co n tin ue d ' the ir battle all the wa y to the checkered as Arn et managed to hold o ff the exNa tio na l 250cc cham p. Breker took the overa ll via a pair of mor o win s as Arne t ca p tu red seco nd ove ra ll honor s ahead o f J ones' 4-3 scoring for third overall. A large tu rnou t o f Vet Expert s earned them th eir own first gate start and when th e gate dropped for mot a o ne , Whi te Broth ers' own To m Wh it e, sho t o ut of the gate on ly to ha ve ATK-sponsored Ala n O lso n lea ve th e thro tt le on longer and come o u t o f thefirst comer a head of Wh ite and the pack. Left on the lin e was Gary J on es, as hi s KTM refu sed to start. J ones kicked a nd kicked wi th the big 600cc fin ally com ing to life with th e pa ck half-a -lap in to the race. Up a t th e front o f th e pack , po sitions were cha nging rapidl y. Barry Hi ggins ab oard a Whi te Brothers/ Dura-L ube/ H &H KTM had now " moved into th e number o ne positio n with Olson and. White in striki ng d istance. J ones came th rough the scoring area in fourth and o n the gas as he began to reel in th e leaders. At the midway point, J o nes slip ped . by Wh ite and started to close on O lso n. O lson kept on the gas with J ones closi ng wi th every corne r. The two d iced for more than a lap-a nd a-ha lf befor e J ones slip ped by into second . Wi th two la ps rem ai n ing , Jones tucked in behind Higgins and began to a p p ly the pressure. H iggins, however, wi th st ood Jo nes ' a ttacks a nd picked up the pace a not ch , taking the checkered flag wi th J ones, Ol son , White, a nd ATKsponsored George Kohler ro u ndi ng o u t the top five po siti ons. In moto two , J ones ju m ped o u t to a n early lead with Higgin s chas ing. The KTMs of Jones and Higgins pulled awa y from the ATK of Olson, who was running a stro ng third. The number four slot was being hotl y con tested for between Koh ler and White, with Koh ler holding th e upper hand. The po sitions a t the finish remained th e sam e with Jones' 2- I good for the overa ll win a head o f Higgins. O lson's pair o f th irds kept him ah ead. of Kohler's fourth overa ll via a 5-4 set of rnoto s. White's 5-4 kept h im in th e top five. overa ll positi ons. In the Vet Interm edi ate class, T im Tollseo n rode a n XR to a pi cture perfect set of win s, wh il e Ch arl es Beck took home seco nd pl ace honors, rid in g to a 3-2 da y. Karel Kram er rounded out th e top three pl aces. Douglas Cave rod e hi s A TK 560 to the Vet Novice class win a head o f Honda pilot Weld on Nomura a nd R ich Hansen , wh o took second a nd th ird, resp ecti vel y. In the Old T im ers class, Barry H iggins a nd hi s KTM 600 sco red a pa ir o f moto wins. In mot a one, H iggins p ull ed the hol esh ot with AT K-mo u n ted J erry Young hot on his heel s. Movin g up through th e pa ck was David Breetw or o n a n ATK 560. As Higgins ope ned up th e gap between firs t and second, Breetwor was bu sy closing up th e gap between second and third. Steve Dunlap was ho ld ing do wn fou rt h pos itio n with Irw in Moon keep in g him in sight. O n lap five, Breetw or was cam p ing o u t on Young's rear fender. Using a n ins ide lin e, Breetw or dove under a nd by You ng into th e number two position. You ng dr opped off the pace as Hi ggins was u p front taking the checkered flag. In moto two , Higgins aga in pulled the hol esh ot with Chuck Minert o n a BSA running in second ahead of Ho nd a jockey Tom Rowen , Young a n d Dunlap. As Higgin s again o pe ned ' up a large gap between hi mse lf and the pack, things began to heat up for Minert's BSA, wrung o u t for all it was worth. But it wasn't enough to hold off the newer iron o f Rowan a nd Young. The pair went by Minert o n the next lap, but th e BSA rider never gave up. On th e whi te flag lap, he came th ro ug h th e scoring are a beh ind Higgins a nd Br eetwo r. The posi tio n s we n t u nchanged fro m there a nd th e to p five in mo ta two wer e H iggins, Breetw o r , Minert , Yo u ng , a n d Rowan. Whe n the tota ls were all added up, Higgins sewed u p the overall with a perfect ,I-I , while Breet wor - too k h ome th e seco nd pl ace trophy. BSA a nd a ll were not enough to slow Minert from taking thi rd overa ll as Young and Dunlap rounded o u t the top five. In the Dinosaur class, Matt Hil. genberg brought out a beautiful vin tage Triumph twin, and almost ra n aw a y with both rnotos , leading th e first wire-to-wire. In mota two Hilgenberg led the better half of the race before problems sidelined the Triumph. Greg Beloit, who chased Hilgenberg in mota one, inheri ted th e lead late in mota two o n his vintage Honda single and captured th e overa ll win. The battle for third in both motos ca me in th e form o f a no the r classic T r i u m p h twin a nd a n o ld TT Yamah a. T he Triumph, belon ging to Rod Lake, held o ff TT-m ounted Doug Fergus until late in mot o o ne and chased the Yamaha rid er in mota two. Fergus captured seco nd overall honor s with a 3-2 da y, while Lake went 4-3 for fourth overa ll behind Hi lgenberg. H orst Leitner 's son, Harry, made his name a fa ctor in the 600cc Intermediate class . In moto one, Robb Mesech er not o nly to ok the holesbot, but rode hi s endu ro -model KTM 600 to a wire-to-wire win. The KTM Ameri ca/Dirt Bike magazinesponsor ed rider was kept co m pa ny by Leitner 's ATK 560. Leitner had to work hi s way arou nd Kirk Brown early in th e race a nd spent th e rest of th e mo to in pursuit of Mesecher. In mot a two, it was Leitner doing th e leading and Brown, just ahe ad of Mese cher , do in g the chasing. Leitner cou ld do no wrong in moto two and it seemed as if nothing was goi ng ri ght fo r Mesecher as he finished fifth in mota two. Between th e two were Brown , ATK pilot David H alv erson and J on Ni chols on a Yamaha TT600. When the results were tallied up , the ove ra ll win went to Leitner via a 2-1, with Brown, Mesecher, H a lverson, a nd N ichols rounding o u t the top five, The action in the 600cc Novice class was just as intense as a ny of th e upper class races. In mota one, Yamaha rider Ross Hoecker rocketed h is 600 into th e first corn er , barely a head of Randy Banks' Honda XR with the pa ck on ly a heartbeat behind them. As the y completed the fir st lap, Hoeckler and Ba n ks were joined by T odd Stee le on an ATK. The three big-bore rid ers were tightly bunch ed with Curtis Uda ll o n an AT K-fra med XR -p ow ered bik e clos ing qui ckly. Running in the next two posi tio ns were J ay Pr en ot and Tri -Cit y H o n d a ' s Kirb y H en ningsen. The top seven riders were all wi thin 10 seconds of Hoeckl er and stayed that wa y for three laps before fourth through seven th dropped off th e lead er 's pace. During those three laps, Banks a nd Hoecker swa p ped the lead back a nd forth a half-a -dozen times. Late in th e mota, Hoecker ' displayed th e upper hand and held off Banks for the win. Steel e finished third with Preno t and Udall making the top five slot. In moto two, Hoecker pulled the holeshot at;;ain and led for four la ps before fail ing to show on la p five. Stee le inherited the lead with Udall and P renot now behind him. Steele too k the second mota win and the overall victory with Uda ll fin ishing second in mota two and third overall. Banks finished fourth beh ind Prenot , but his first mota second gave him second overall ah ead of Udall. In the 250cc class , Ed Arnet manhand led a White Brothers 250XR to a pair of mot o wins ah ead o f Mik e Dunlap a nd Ron Wood. All three riders repeated th eir first-mota perform ances in mota two , with Karel Kramer a nd Rob ert Nunez rounding au t the to p five.

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