Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eMOTOCROSS ! • AHRMA Vmtage Iron National MX Series: Round 3 Butch Cochran, here riding a 1960 BSA. racked up four class wins at Sandhill Ranch. Tom Rapp (37V) passed Chuck "'Feels'" Mined (4) during the Past Masters feature. Cochran captures Sandhill glory By Mike Vandl Photos'by John Gola BRENlWOOD, CA, APR 18 utch Cochran enjoyed a near-perfect day at the Dick Mann Vintage MX National, held at the reconstructed a'nd landscaped Sandhill Raceway facility. Cochran contested three classes and came away with four wins, a fourth and a seventh-place finish in the six motos that he competed in, resulting in two overall wins and one sixth-overall finish. Cochran had no shortage of horsepower in the two classes that he topped, as he piloted a 1960 BSA to the Open Twin Expert class with ease, and did likewise in the Premier 500 IT Expert division aboard a very fast 1968 Triumph. Both bikes were prepared by Gary Bishop, who was also a winner in the Premier Open Twin Novice class on his 1956 BSA. Cochran's least-successful ride came in the Plus 30 Expert class, where he had to deal with riders on motorcycles of all engine sizes and types. In that race, the two strokes dominated the higher finish positions as only Duane Joice and Cochran on 1974 Honda four strokes were able to finish in the top six. The overall winner in this heavily-eontested . class was Pat Brown, who took back to back moto wins on his 1974 BuItaco. B 26 This year's event was a struggle to host, but all parties involved worked the necessary magic to get it all together. Host and namesake for the event, Dick Mann, had recently moved to Nevada, so his efforts were extreme to coordinate all that. had to be done at the track that used to be just a few short miles away from his former Richmond, California, home. Heavy rains in the. area on Saturday appeared to doom the event, but the sun came through on Sunday to give excellent track and pit conditions. Hap Jones Distributing and Vintage Iron sponsored the event, and both companies had several employees in attendance, some working, some racing and some spectating. Members of the Santa Clara Riders Unlimited assisted in many capacities, including helping with the public address system. The sights and sounds at Sandhill Raceway were memorable, as a Greeves 24MDS Hawkstone with its open "homof-plenty" exhaust pipe negotiated the well-manicured motocross course and a ground shaking modified 1958 HarleyDavidson raced up and down the hills with its distinctive thunderous and throbbing roar. Contributing to the sights and sounds were countless Bultaco, Maico and CZ two-strokes and Triumph, BSA, Norton .and Rickman four-strokes. Most contestant's bikes appeared to be in show, as well as race quality, and . the riders were for the most part, decked out in current-style, serious racewear. . During the riders' meeting, AHRMA Executive Director Jeff Smith said that the wonderful weather and great turn out of riders would be the ingredients for all to have great fun. He quipped that anyone who rode an old motorcycle seriously was going to be ,out of place and that this day and this event was for old bikes and some older guys and gals to have loads of fun. In all, there were approximately five practice sessions and 27 motos, including the Past Masters moto. After the Past Masters moto, the participants were ushered to a bleacher near the finish line and interviews were 'conducted over the public address system. Unfortunately, some of the expected participants in the Past Masters ran into logistic problems and were not able to be in attendance. John Hateley called to say his wife was about to present him with a new addition to their family, and Jim Pomeroy was late in getting to Sandhill because of heavy snowfall encountered coming out of Oregon. Joining Pomeroy and riding as though they were kids again were Doug Grant, David Aldana, Tom Rapp, Chuck "Feets" Minert , Buck Murphy and Smith. At the drop of the gate, Murphy and Aldana leaped out front. As they came over the finish line at the end of the first of five laps, it was Murphy in the lead with Aldana and Grant right behind. Some 20 yards back was Smith, followed by Rapp and Mined. By lap three, Murphy was missing, victim of a destroyed front hub. Murphy admitted later that he does carry more weight now than he did when he was younger, and the old Maico hub just gave up. It was his second destroyed lead on the day, as he broke his other Maico in the Sportsman 250cc Expert class. With Murphy out, the battle for the . lead heated up somewhat between Aldana and Grant. On the last lap, a determined Grant had studied Aldana's lines, strengths and weaknesses well enough to find a way around and took the checkers slightly ahead of Aldana. While the participants kidded each other and caught their breath, Jim Hunter was the first to be interviewed. The former two-time California Scrambles Champion had flown to Sandhill with good friend and lengendary BSA rider "Feets" Minert. Hunter, always good natured, admitted, he was not anywhere near the hard charger he used to be and slyly avoided answering how old he was by just saying, "Getting old sucks." The crowd roared. Hunter recounted his early successes and those with whom he raced: Don Spargur, Skip Van Leeuwen and Eddie Mulder. Not many people remember that Jim Hunter was a regular participant in the famed, old East-West Scrambles Challenges, nor that he was not considered young when he began racing. " I got out of the military, and then along about age 38 decided to try racing," said Hunter. Hunter is the man to have along on any Baja adventure. He has participated in many of the Baja 1000 events, and some of his better stories were about the times he was co-pilot in one of the truck classes. When asked if his scrambles successes came in the rough or European type, Hunter responded, "Hell, if it was rough I wouldn't ride!" Those of us who remember and have seen the pictures know that it wasn't all groomed tracks upon which Hunter • spent his days in the sun. Two-time World 500cc MX Champion Jeff Smith thanked the crowd for attending and his fellow racers for being such gentlemen. Smith again stressed that he was having fun and really wasn't winded. When asked what if anything was missing from the event Smith replied, "Well, I did sort of miss riding around with myoid buddy Dick Mann. I really enjoyed watching Aldana and Grant play, and I had a good dice with Tom Rapp and Feets Minert." Grant and his beautifully-prepared AJS had it all together and when asked about his having such a good performing mount, Grant recounted, "A year ago DiCk Mann asked me to come down and ride his event on an AJS he had and that started something. For quite some time after that I contemplated the vintage scene, it has been 20 years since I've done any riding. After making a decision I called Dick back and ended up buying the AJS from him. I'm a mechanical engineer so I've had some time to tinker and change so~ things, and now she is really strong". Grant further remarked that he thoroughly enjoyed the races and was quite glad to be able to race with the Past Masters, especially Aldana, whose career Grant has closely followed and admired. Tom Rapp was on a beautiful Bultaco and seemed to have horsepower aplenty. Rapp remarked that he needs to ride more, but by the day's end he expected J some of the "old" style to return. Rapp was also vocally appreciative of the event sponsors inviting him to participate, and along with the others agreed to attend in 1994. Buck Murphy expressed his concern about how to explain to his, Washington-based sponsor how he broke both of his provided motorcycles. ~ When reminded that he had two wins in his pocket prior to the failures, Murphy said, "That won't make any difference. I _ still ended up out of the results, but I've got a lot of miles to drive, and time to I think what to tell him when I get there". When it got to be "Feets" Minert'sf) time to get on the P.A. system, he was just as shy as he was 30 years ago. Minert did convey to everyone that he was glad to be a part of the festivities and to race around with his other grey hair buddies and that he always has been a BSA man. [ Next up and delivering the absolute last word was the always smiling Aldana. He said, "I, too, am a BSA man. But dam it, Feets, where do you see any grey hair on me?" Then, while running his fingers through his coal-black hair and grinning ear-to-ear Aldana added, "And there is no Grecian Formula either!" . Washington State was represented by a sizeable turnout of riders and a load of them took trophies. The real standout rider was Terry Kyle on his 1974 Suzuki TM. Kyle took home a second in the Plus 30 Expert and a third in the Sportsman 5UOcc Expert. Other Washington riders doing well were previously mentioned Grant and Reese Dengler, who captured back-to-back moto wins in the Plus 30 Novice class. Bl:lck Murphy would have added at least a couple more trophies to the Washington mob had he not suffered mechanical gremlins. A local rider who had a pretty good day was veteran Bill "The Ripper" Ripley, who rode two classes and trophied in both. His better performance

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