Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

CMC Golden State Nationals North/South Championship (Above) Brett Racine swept every moto of the 125cc and 250Cc Pro classes during two days of racing at the CMC Golden State Series Championship at Badlands Raceway in Victorville, California. (Left) In addition to winning the 60cc (9-11) class on both days of racing and the 80Cc (7-11) class on Saturday, Mike Alessi also won the series championship in both of the ultracompetitive classes. By Tony Alessi VICTORVILLE, CA, FEB. 27-28 wasaki Team Green's Brett Racine saw a lot of green, as he bagged early $5000 in cash and contingencies after posting an eight-moto sweep of the 125cc and 250cc Pro classes during the Sunstat Sprockets CMC Golden State Series Championship showdown, held at Badlands Raceway. The showdown gates racers from the Northwest (Oregon and Washington) against champions from Northern and Southern Californian to determine the best of the best. "Riders are issued full race points on a per-moto basis," said director of opera-' tions Stu Peters. "So it's up in the air. Anyone can win from these various regions." Racine's remarkable weekend will certainly be one to remember, as he won all eight motos that he entered en route to both the 125cc and 250cc Pro-class victories on each day. Racine was backed up by his teammates Tim Langdon and Mike Corder in most of the motos. "I have been riding, like, 40 hours a week," Racine said. "We are doing evaluation and endurance testing on the new Kawasaki 125cc and 250cc, and when you do endurance testing, you ride motos all day. I guess all the riding is paying off." Not even bad starts could hold back Sean Hamblin this weekend after he, too, recorded a perfect eight-moto sweep of both the 125cc Intermediate and Schoolboy classes. Hamblin fought his way to the front with true grit and .determination in each and every moto and was ultimately rewarded with the championship crown in both divisions. R.J. Thompson turned in the runnerup performance, but he had to deal with the trauma of a protest for jumping on a yellow flag. ' "Lucky for us, Craig Martin, the new ~ Team Green race manager, was here to get it worked out," Thompson said. "He understands racing and was able to get the protest lifted." This weekend also marked the return of Jonathan Shimp, whose eight-week layoff due to a broken collarbone did not seem to faze his race speed. Shimp raced near the front early in almost every moto, but arm pump and lack of endurance ultimately kept him off the podium all week long. Mike Blose kept his Thousand Oaks Yamaha-sponsored YZ80 singing all weekend and went home a double class winner by scoring the overall wins in both the 80cc (14-16) and Supermini divisions. Blose was kept h5Jnest all weekend by Team Suzuki's Shane Bess, whose race battles during the weekend were reminiscent 0 those that took place in the early 1980s between Suzuki's George Holland and Yamaha's Erik Kehoe. Brandon Layton and Team Green's Daton Beavers battled all week long in the 80cc (12-13) classes. Layton won most of Saturday's races, while Beavers came back with a vengeance during Sunday's events. In the end, Layton secured the championship while Beavers placed second in front of Sean Collier and Kyle Partridge. Mike Alessi continued his successful year by posting overall class titles in both the 60cc (9-11) and 80cc (7-11) classes. In fact, Alessi won every moto he entered in the 60cc (9-11) class throughout the length of the series, and all but one in the 80cc (7-11) class. Mike Alessi topped his brother Jeff and Oregon's Justin Keeney in the 60cc class and Yamaha's Chris BJOS!! - and Mike's brother Jeff again - in the BOcc division. Team KTM rider Bruce Rutherford seems to be a rising star in the small-bore classes, as he posted overall class wins in both the 60cc (6-8) and 50cc (7-8) divisions. Rutherford battled his teammate Cole Seely all week long in the 60cc (6-8) class and his otl1e~ teammate Donnie Kearney in the 50cc class. [n the end, Rutherford won the 60cc class with a 13-point spread and the 50cc class with 15 points to spare. Blake Baggett took home a new Lem 50, courtesy of Moto Man Distributing, after he topped the charts in'the 50cc (46) class. Baggett battled with Nic Paluzzi in almost every race in the series, but in the end Baggett went out a winner. Baggett, who recently turned 7 years old, will move up to the older 50cc class and says he hopes to begin racing a 60cc Kawasaki soon. _ Badlands Motocross Park Victorville, California . Results: February 27-28, 1999 S.. turday 50 (4-6): 1. Blake Baggett (Cob); 2. Cody Farrar (KTM); 3. Michael Truglia (KTM); 4. Bryce Stewart (KTM); 5. Nic Paluzzi (Cob). 50 (7-8): 1. Bruce Rutherford (KTM); 2. Donnie Kearney (KTM); 3. Webb Massey (KTMl; 4. Cody Tithof (Cob); 5. Jake Canada ()("I'M). 60 (O~8)~ 1. Bruce Rutherford (KTM); 2. Casey Huntley (Kaw); 3. Donnie Kearney (KTM); 4. Lance Coury (J

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