Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

IAbove) Dennis Bums (4 2 ) gets clobbe red by Chris Corum In th e Decade class. (Left) Tom Sanders gets ready for the Pre-'7!5 2!50cc race on his CZ. (Above) Full gates were a common sight at the Vintage Iron Wo rld Championships" BRIEFLY• •• America's firs t W orld Motocross Champion. Brad Lackey. traveled from Nort hern California to com pete in the Vi ntage Iron World Championships. Lackey. who won the 1982 500c c World Championship for Suzuki. compet ed in Saturday's Vintage 40 + Expert class on a CZ but was beaten by a rider wh o came from even further north than he. After nnishing second to Lackey in the nrst moto . Ra lph Blanchard . who hails lrem Alaska. edged out Lackey to the checkered flag in the second moto to claim the overall win . It was Blanchard's first visit to the Vintage Iron World Championships. Even though the Yamaha Race Of Ch amp ion s w as intended to be a fun. no-pressure kind of race among old racing buddies. one could easily feel the a u ra of com petitiveness within the YROC pits . After all. when you have forme r champs such as Broc Gl over. Marty Smit h. Kent How erton . Mark B ar ne t t and Ron Lec hie n . among ot hers. all pitting under the same roof. you can understa nd the ten sion tha t cou ld arise. So me of t hat t ensio n could readily be felt · or more accurately heard - after the first YROC moto on Saturday. when Smith edged out Jim Holley for the win. Apparently. some paint was traded betw een the two during the race when Holley was trying to pass Smith. Aft erward. Smith had a little talk with Holley. pretty much telling Holley not to bump into him again. but not in those exact words. Aft er the sec ond -moto fi rs t ·t urn p ileup that claimed Gary Jones. Mi ke Bell. Mark Barnett . Marty Moates and Kent Howerton in the YROC race . the race was red-flagged for a restart. Jon es. who dislocated his shoulder in the crash. and Bell. who later went to the hospit al with a broken leg. and Barnett . Moates and Howert on . all dusted themselves off and joined the gro up on the line for the restart . When the riders were asked by race officials if they wanted to race five laps instead of six (since the riders who had not fallen raced that nrst lap before taking the red flag). all five of the riders involved in the crash voted for six laps. Speaking of the first -turn crash. while a shaken Mike Bell sat on a hay bale recovering from the fall. Jim Holley rode up to Bell afte r the race had been red-flagged and asked Bell how he was doing and what had happened . Bell explained that he had slid out and was run ove r by somebody. Holley replied. "That was me who ran you over. Mike. Sorry about that. " Bell said that it was okay and not his fault. Holley later said that he had no place to go when Bell went down and did everyth ing he could possibly do not to hit Bell in the torso area. but instead clipped his legs. M ulti·time National and Supercr oss Champ ion Bob H annah hosted a motoc ross school the Friday before the weekend's racing. During the class. Vint age Iron 's Rick Doughty participated in one of the riding segments of the class but fell down in a tum . When Doughty crashed. another rider ran into him and crashe d as well. As it turned out. that other rider was the teacher · Hannah. Oops! Neither rider was injured. but Doughty 's Maico 490 was left with a nasty scratch in the fuel tank. Doughty responded by saying . " Bob. the next time yo u autograp h my tank. could you please use a pen?" Later on. Doughty let Hannah ride his Maico . since Hannah had never ridden a Maic o be fore . Accor ding to Dough ty . Hannah loved it. " He [Hannah! looked real good on it and said that the bike turned so good it' s scary." Doughty said. "He also said that the bike does everythi ng we ll and does n't do anything it's not suppose d to do . I think Bob might have a new appreciation for vintage racing." And this leads to a question: Wi ll Hannah ever compete in a vintage race? " I've asked him before ." Dough ty said. "and it was always. N o !' Now. he has said some things that make me think that he might be crac king. Maybe next year? " Marty M oa te s . whose claim to fame is being the first American to win the 500cc U .S. GP at Carlsbad in 1980. was com peting in t he YRO C rac e w ith chronically sore back . M ore tha n once. Moates was about to throw in the towel. when that competitive itch alw ays go t the best of him. M oates competed in all four motos in spite of the pain. Speaking of Moates. his je rsey was sold for $35 0 in an auction that was held on Sunday at the track . Moates then gave the person who bought the jersey $350 worth of merchandize fro m No Fear. of which he is part owner. Moates also purchased 12 Hot Wheel mot orcycles that were being auctioned and gave the toys to kids in atte ndance. The most profitable jersey that was sold in the auction was Danny " Ma goo " Chandler' s jersey. which was sold for $400 . But the big sell of the day was a Team Honda Helmet that was autographed by a number of former Team Honda rider s. such as Brad Lackey. J im Pomeroy . Tommy C roft and Ma rty Sm it h. The hel met wa s purchased for $ 1700 by Craig Anderson. a vintage racing enthusiast who recent ly had both of his legs amputate d in a work-related accident. All of the proceed s were donated to the Cl ayton Foundation. a non-profit organization that benefit s injured motorcycle racers. taco rider Ji m Pomeroy showe d up S aturd ay t o w at ch the weekend's activ ities. but fo und himself suit ed up and sitt ing on t he s tart li ne for Su nday ' s Y RO C rac es . Po me ro y , his career on Team Hond a in the early 1980s. filled in for t he inj ure d M ik e Bell. Pomeroy wore his signature open - fac e " sk unk" helmet and period -cor - event was o ne Y ROC rider w ho just seemed to get f a s t er an d faster aft e r each mo to . and that rider was Ro n Le chi e n . The fo rmer fac tory Yama ha . Ho nd a and Kawasaki team ride r w a s o ne of the fas t e s t riders on the track by the e nd of t he week end . In fact . " The D o gg e r " wa s t he top -fi nishi ng 125cc rid e r . wh en he p laced se c o nd in th e fin al moto de sp it e be ing the biggest rider on the trac k. Even th ough Lechien is no longe r the " skinny. " lanky kid he used to be. he still rides a motocross bike as smooth as ever , rarely making a mistake. A few times prior to the VAOe, practice sessions we re made available to the YROC com petitors. but Lechi en did not atten d them. Instead . Lech ien relied on his natur al talent and j ust show ed up the day of the race and loo ked as tho ugh he hadn't missed a beat. Two-time 250cc C80 . "8 3 ) and three -time C8? '9 1. '9 2) 50 0cc W o rl d C ha mp i on George s Jobe competed in t he Yamaha Rac e o f Ch ampions . J o be said t hat he doesn't ride very much anymor e and that armpump got the best of him. as we ll as a nasty - w ho f ini sh e d o ut crash during pra cti ce on Saturday that nearly de s t ro y ed his VZ4 26F and tweaked his neck . knee and Ca rre ra gogg les . T he re Three-time Nation al MX Champion Kent Howerton never really got ont rack at the YROC event. which had a lot to do with him cartwhee ling off the track in the second moto pile-up and getting track banners wrapped up in his rear wheel in another mota . Howerton. who still rides regularly and is still extre mely fast . ended up nnishing eighth overall. Forme r Team Bul - rect he dies . he's going to be cremated and have his ashes sto red in the Bultaco 's gas tank that Pomeroy just signed. wh il e sponsor Thor provided him with pants and a jersey . and he got around the Glen Helen track quite well. every now and then perfo rming classic oldstyle cross -ups over the ju mps. Pomeroy . who hadn't ridden a "m odem" bike in quite some time. looked a little winded at the end of the motos. but he said he had an absoi ute blast racing again. Pomeroy's broth er. Ron Pomeroy . finished fourth in Saturday's Vintage 40+ Expert class. A true Bultaco fa natic: Jim Pomeroy said he was cruising the arm. N o one would've questioned Jobe if he didn 't rac e aft e r t he get -of f. but Jobe. the champion that he is. wasn't about to quit. " I was invited here to race and that' s what I'm going to do.' the friendly Belgian said. " This is good fu n and am glad to be here . It' s great to here around these great people ." Jobe still nnished a respectable seventh overall. pits when he came across a person who owned a Jim Pomeroy- replica Bultaco from the early ·70s. The guy asked Pomeroy to autog raph the Bcltaco's gas tank. which Pomeroy gladly did. The guy then to ld Pomeroy that he likes Bultaco' s so much that when Tom Mart en' s immaculat e 196 7 650 Triumph won the Wh it e Brothers/ Follmer Vending /Mot or cyclel ndust ry .c om-sponsor ed Best of S how contes t. For winning. Martens pocketed $500 . cue I e n e vv s J ULY 1 1, 2001 57

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