Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128109
D in o Daze V in t a ge Motoc r ossIDirt Track Thurston County O R V P a r k (Left) Grayson Ha rt (7 2) sloshed his w ay to the 125cc A, Over 3 0 an d Gran Prix victorie s at the t 7th annual Din o Daze Vintage Motocross in McCleary, Wash ington. Here, he le ads Rick Pugh late In the 125cc A final on Saturday. (Right) Dallas Nyblod (2 YJ was a two-class winner at the Northwest's premier Vintage Motocross event, topping the 250cc A and Over 40 classes aboard his 1974 Yamaha VZ250. S T O RY BY CLAY L IGHT P HOTOS BY C LA Y L IGHT AN D AL EATON MCCLEARY, WA, JUNE 2-3 here's one th ing you can always count on in the Pacific Northwest: rain - and lots of it , wh en you least want it . This time th e wet stuff ham pered one of the West Coast's pre mier Vintage Motocross extravagan zas, th e 17th annual Dino Daze, hel d at the Thurston County ORV Park near Ol ympia. Luckily , Sunday's dirttrack portion was blessed wi th an im pro vem ent in the weath er. A no the r thing that's almost as certain as the rain is a string of w ins by Oregon 's Grayson Hart. On this da y , Hart was a three -class w inner , contin u ing h is stra ng le hol d o n t he North wes t Vintag e M otocross scene w ith w ins in the 125 cc, O ver 30 and Gran Pr i x cl a sses. W as h i n g t on ' s D a ll a s N yb lod joined Hart in the winner's cir- T c1e after scoring im pressive victories in the 250c c and O ver 40 A classes d uring Satur day 's m otocross. On Sunday , thi ng s got better long enough to run the dirt-track portion of the event on the qua rt er -m il e oval , whe re Yam aha- and T rium ph -m ount ed Dick Wascher notched a pa ir of A main -event wins in the Over 50 and 250cc classes and also finished sec ond to AMA National number ho ld er Chris Fitzhugh in the Open T win fin al. Th e ex p o si t i o n hall w as a good p lac e to hang out on Satu rday , as the bik e show went off without a h it ch. Just when it loo k ed li k e the rain would stop , an other hea vy d ou sing c ame al ong t o add t o t h e already substantial quagmire that ran through the pi t area an d ex t ended onto the 1.5 -mi l e c our se des i g n e d b y the Tacoma Du ck s Mo to rcycle Clu b - an app ropria te nam e this year. Saturday 's program , which also included a swa p meet that dr ew rid ers , spectators and bik e-show p artici pants from as far away as Texas , st art ed off with the motocross pro gram, wh ich is run in a scrambles for mat. Hart first netted a win in the first o f a seri es of prel i m inaries i n th e 125 cc class ; then he came right back to w in one of the three 250cc quali fie rs , na rrowly beating fo rmer AMA Nat ional number ho lder Scott Ty ler. Oth er r i der s posting v ictori e s in cluded O reg on ' s J o e Ca sey a nd Washington's Nyblod. M ont ana ' s Tom Rapp a n d Ore gon 's Chris Cl ark scored v ic to ries in Open Two -Stroke heat ra c es, wh ich took the top two di rectly to th e elite A fi na l. Rapp , Bu ck Murph y , a nd th e en tire Po m er o y cla n fr o m Yakim a , Washingto n, were j u st a few o f t he stars of th e ' 7 0 s o n h an d , al thoug h neither Jim Pomeroy nor Murp hy competed . (Left) Montana's Tom Rapp used his mud-riding expertise t o finish second In the Open Two-Stroke A fi na l aboard h is Bultaco Pursang after ea rlier w inning one of the two preliminaries. (Right l Despite the in c redib ly muddy conditions, former Team Bultaco and LOP rid er Ron Pomeroy (101) finished third, behind Ch ris Clark and Rapp, in the Op en Tw oStroke A main. 32 J UNE 20, 2001 • cu e I .. n e 'IV S A massive thunderstorm was unleashed at the staging of th e day's first final, the 125cc class , but Ha rt used his mud -r iding expertise to snare his first win of the day. Another good m u d r ider, Jeff Pugh , stayed close to Hart to net second ahead of Suzuki rider Ror y C l evenger and Honda riders James N ein stadt and Co rey Poitras. Several classes ran combined to short en the rain -soaked program; th is was the case with th e Pre-1970 , lightweig ht 2 5 0cc a n d Al most Vi ntage 125cc cl asses. Husk y -mo unted Ne il Giertsen led from start to finish , while Ossa -mounted Dirk M urphy ran second until he succumbed to the soupy c o n di t i o n s , pl a c ing Bult a c o r id er St ev e Sprague in se co nd, ahead of Triu mph -mounted Can ad ian rider Ken Burningham; these were th e top three in the Pre- 19 70 class. Erik Giertsen , who rod e a Bu ltaco Metisse, won the