Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT TRAC K Vintage di rt trackers maki ng the 20-mile jaunt sout h fro m Park City to the Heber City Fairgrou nd s found an except ionally well-prepared half-mile wai ting, and a packed grandstands crowd was treated to an eve ning of exciting racing. Thoug h the nearl y 100 en tries came from all over the na tion, California ' racers we re pa rtic u lar ly well-represented amo ng the class wi nne rs. The firs t of those was Gary Davis, wh ose Triumph bested Geo rgia Royal Enfield ride r Beno Rodi in the two-man Di nosa u r field. They were run at the same tim e as the Classic 250cc class, and that win went to nother Ca lifornia n, Jim McM urren, on a Harley-Davidson Spri nt ove r a field of Ossa s. The best ba ttle was over second, with No rth Carolina's Lee Allison holding off Utah rid er Rober t Borg. In th e ne xt ra ce, Colorad an Mark Erickson kept his Hond a ahead of a backand-forth contes t for seco nd involving Bultaco rid er Jim Neue nburg and Ga ry Neff on a Kawa saki. Neu enburg finally got himself clear of Neff, bu t cou ld n' t make mu ch of a dent on Erickson's lead . De spite pressure fro m BSA Go ld Star -mounted Davi s, Cal ifornian Ch ris Rud y kept his K-m od eI Ha rley a t the head of the Classic 500 /750 field for a win in the third of the three brak eless classes. John LeFevr e rod e to a credible third on his Husqvarn a 360. As man y as four riders we re in the hunt for the Sport sm an 250 win , but San ose, Californ ia 's Nick Nazzisi Jr . a nd his Yamaha were no t to about to relinqui sh the lea d. Er ickso n, aga in on a Honda, hung on to claim second ahead of Michigan' s John Easton on a Can-Am and Kawasaki-mo unted Neff. Th e evening's biggest class, Spo rtsman 600, also prod uced some of the best action. Park City's W. Kit Farley, riding a BSA, found himself locked in a battle fon th e le a d wi th Cal ifo rnia's Bra d Spencer on a Kawasaki. Eve ntually, Spencer fou nd a way aro und Farley in turn two and began to creep away. Tha t allowed the attention to focus on anotherexcellen t battle, between Hond a riders Denn is Spence and Erickson. They ra ced s ide by si de to the end , w i th Spence claimi ng fourt h to Erickson's fifth . Ahead of the m was Stan ley Trulock on yet ano ther Hond a four-s troke. '1 The over-eo Super Senio r win looked like it would belong to a smooth-ridi ng Mickey Alzola - u ntil the Cali fornia n' s Triumph twin eva porated and then d isappeared on the white-flag lap as he ran int o mechanical problems. That meant Larry Madrigal, Norm Gru ber and Sam Gl~a'j w ere suddenly fig hting over the lead and not second pl ace. Madrigal yes , ano ther Ca liforn ia n - crossed the line with his BSA narrowly ah ead of the Triumph of Gruber and Gra y's Hond a. Even closer was the Sportsman 7SOcc finish . Stu rg is , South Dak o ta ' s Matt Burge, Georgian James Tumlin and Davis ran nose-to-tail initi ally, but then Davis and his Triumph began to lose ground on the other two . Late in the race Tumlin put his Triumph into the lead , but the Yam aha-moun ted Burge refu sed to yield. On the fina l sp ri nt to th e checke re d flag, Burge got a better drive out of tum four to take a narrow win over Tumlin. Th e ove r-50 Senior race belon ged to Rodi and his Norton from the green flag. For most of the final it was a close race for seco nd between Joel Sw een ey, Warren Adams and Tim Wolf, but late in the race Sweeney bro ke his BSA loose from the other two to finish a strong runner-up. Like an y good show, th e best came last, in the form of the all-Yamaha Seventies Singles final. Running in tight formation from the start were Pat Schieffer, (Left) Graham Foster negotiates a boulder se ction on his way to third-place M odern Ctasa ic Expert In the trials compe tition. (Above) The Veteran class laun ches off the dlrttrac k line. The dirt trac k races were 20 miles outs ide of Park City at the Heber City Fairgrounds . Spencer and John McClelland . A couple laps into the con test, Schieffer opened a tin y gap ove r a rag ing battle between Spencer and McClelland. By the halfway mark McClelland had moved to second and closed up the ma rgin between himself and Schieffer. The Cilette, Wyomin g, racer mad e his move in the final turns, win ning by just inches ove r Schieffer. ROAD RACING Whe n develo p me nt finally pulled the plug on racing on public streets in Steam boat Sp ri ngs las t yea r, the Park City Motorcycle Club decided to carryon the tradition in their community. The resul t was a 12-tu rn, 1.8-mile loop that began on State Route 224 in downtown Park City, bisected the pu blic golf course and then wo und throug h an area of homes and condos before returning downtown . Alo ng the way there was abou t 300 feet of elevation change (at an average eleva tion of 7000 feet), steeply crowned st reets, ma nhole covers, curbs and the usual array of too-close, unyielding objects that make a stree t course a potentially trea ch erous p lace to race. There was also some four miles of plastic fenci ng erected to control the good turnout of spectators, bu t that apparently wasn't enough as morn ing practice was d e la y ed for over a n h our w h ile more barr iers were put up to keep people farther back fro m the circui t. Spec tator control rema ined a problem . The initial delay came back to haunt orga nizers at the end of the l l -race program, when two sep arate red -flag inciden ts - the only ones all day - disrupted the 500 Pr emi er final. Th e second was relatively minor, but involved sever al motorcycles piling up in tu rn 10. Th at was at 5:30 p.m., and AHRMA officials didn't th ink they would be able to ge t thin gs cleaned up , run the race and then remove all th e barriers from the sta te highway before the Utah Departmen t of Tr an spo rtation' s 6 R.m . d ead line for reopen ing th e road. So, withou t a full lap run eit her tr y, 500cc Pr emi er wa s declared incomp lete. Tha t d ecision left some national-title-chasing com pe titors irate. Th e rest of the day, how ever, featured sa fe, close ra cin g rig ht from the be gi nnin g . In 200 Gra'nd Prix, Ken Lighthouse put his 7 1 BSA 250 out front early and kep t it ahead of Paul Schoen's Triumph. After getting clear of Bultaco 175-mou nted Laf Youn g in aclose race for fourth posi tio n, Johnny Demoisey (T riu m p h ) h u n ted d own and passed Byron Blend (Honda) late in the race to ta ke th ird. Ru nn in g a t th e same tim e was the Pre-1940 class, and the battl e for third ' - behind BMW ride rs Ralph Aue r a nd Norbe rt Nic kel - was th e one to wa tch here as we ll. In this one, Rod i work ed his '38 Nort on past AI Knapp's hand-shifting '40 Harl ey-David son WR to take a close third ahead of Knapp and Ind ian- mounted Ar t Farley. Th e 250cc GP r a ce we n t to Jim Neuenburg on his 70 Bultaco, w hile behind him Ligh tho use, John LeFevre and Ron Me lt on sh u ffled p os iti ons. Lig ht ho use a nd hi s Tr iu m p h arrived second to the finish, ahead of Lefevre's Hu sq varna an d Me lto n's Bultaco. Th e 250s we re paired u p with Class C, and ickel took a na rrow win on h is ' 39 BMW ove r Rod i's Royal Enfield in th e foo ts hift di vision , w hile Knapp' s H-D topped the han dshifters, Classic Sixties saw Maryland 's Josef Brenner march h is ' 55 BSA Go ld Star past the Ma tchl ess G50 of defe nd ing champ Jeff Elings. Harley KR-mounted Rusty Lowry later dis placed Elings to finish third. Ahead of them , Ducati rid er Greg Tagaris scored a narrow win over Peter Hip p in the Honda-domina ted Sportsman 350 class . In the co m bi ned Formula 750 / Sportsman 500cc race, Adam Popp howled away from the field on the M3 Racing Honda CR750. Riding a similar machine, Will Harding hou nd ed Harley XR750 rider Jon Schultz and passed him to take second on the last lap . With BSA B50 rider Paul Shoen opening a siza ble lead over the rest of the Spo rtsman field, a battle for second raged between BMWmounted Auer and Tim Sta ncill o n a Hond a 350. On the secon d -to- las t lap, Auer finally found a way aro un d Stancill to earn seco nd.' Ne ue nburg logged his second Bultaco win of the d ay after getting a rou nd early lead er Stua rt Carte r's Seeley in 350 GP. Dem oisey then reeled in Carter and began a ba ck -and -forth dispu te o ver second position, a con test wo n by Cart er o n the fi nal lap . El in g s, rid in g a ' 72 Yama ha tw o-st roke, took th e Formula 250 porti on of the race, ahe ad of Ho ndamounted class champ Jer ry Herman. Th e Spo rts ma n 750cc contest w as an oth er tight on e, w ith Park City Iron Man Matt Burge successfu lly keeping his Yama ha tw in ahea d of Rodd Ligh thouse's Triumph. A close race for third sa w Stua rt Knigge (No rton) prevail over Tod d Welch (Tri um p h). The com bine d race saw Da ve Rosno, rid in g a fourcylinde r Hond a, ou tru n the battle over secon d betwe en Kyl e Co r ser a n d Chr istoph er Sparg o in ,Fo r m u la SOD, with Co rser taking the runner-up pos ition on the final lap. Steve Brown and h is 75 Honda 400 prevailed in clo se Production Heavyweigh t action . Burge also too k the Form ula Vintage w in on h is Yamaha 750, with Co rser again relegating Spargo to second . The BEARS class wa s a battle of the Beemers won narrowly by Glen n Campbe ll ove r Ivan Messina . Jona tha n Glae fke was the scourge of AHRMA's mod ern classes, riding h is Suzuk i T Ll 000 to wins in Ba ttl e of Twins F-l, BOT Open a n d So u nd of Thun der. In BOT Open, Glaefke went at it with Robert Schwartz on a Duca ti 955. Glaefke w asn 't p ressured in F-l, but Schwartz ha d his w ork cut ou t earn ing secon d a hea d of C lark Dod son a n d Brian Kohl, both on TL1000s. Second in Sou nd of Thunder went to Dod son after d icin g w it h Ant hony Johnson , David Pod olsky and Schwartz. Pod ol s ky, rid in g a Hon da RS125, pre va il ed in Sou n d of Si ngles TwoStroke after a back -and-forth, race-long ba ttle with Mar k Loveland on a not her RS, Ma rk Eric kson o n a co nve r ted Kawasaki KX500 mo tocrosser and Nate Franson aboard a Yama ha 125. Thr ee other s mall singles classes were combined, wi th the participant s racing one another as if it were all one class . Stuart Knigge prevailed in Super Mono on his Dubbs, followed by Gary Dav is and his MuZ in the Skorpion Cup a nd M ike Gontesky's BBMin Super Mono 2. MOTOCROSS After a glorious week of sunshine, the final day of Park City Motorcycle Week dawned gray, dreary and chilly. Soo n "rainy" ad ded itself to the d escript ion . The mile-long, Dick Man n-insp ired course was ' d raped over the foot of Park City's ski slope, with some very steep climbs, descents and off-camber traverses. Organizers were worried about the potential for d ust with 460 en tries and nat ura lly d ry soil, and so they had been watering the track regu larly for seve ral d ays. Once the racing bega n, howe ver, th e co nce rn was mud a nd ju st bein g able to negotiate the course. Before the first se t of 16 motos w as complete, the rain had stopped and the su n p eeked through the cloud s occasiona lly. The track began to dry. But that only caused the mu d to get thic k and s ticky, p ackin g itself into th e s p ac es aro und low- mou nted fenders, 's prockets a nd s wi nga rms. It was obvious th ere wou ldn ' t be tim e enoug h to run the secon d half o f th e p ro gram, even if th e four-lap motos were sh ortened , so th e day en ded after the firs t round of motos. The resu lts lis t a lread y showe d a few d oze n DNS a n d DNF en t ries, so th e decision to cut short the program wasn't too unpopular . Despite th e horrid co nd itio ns tha t in s ta ntly tu rn ed beautifully p repared vi n tage mo u n ts in to roll in g mud clumps, the re was no lack of close racin g . Col oradans Morrill Griffith a nd Terry Kyle went at it in +40 Expert. Griffith, aboard a 7 4 Yama ha YZ2S0, was all over Kyle's 7 4 Suzu ki TM400 until the las t lap, w hen Griffith mad e h is move and scored an u ltra-narrow wi n. The pair w ent a t it in Sportsman 500 too, with Griffith winning on a YZ360 and Kyle on his back fend er at the checke red en en en ~ cD ~ o U o 39

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