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/128132
By Final ""010 CHRIS JONNUM 30 YEARS AGO.•• DECEMBER 7, 1971 A montage of pictures graced the cover of Issue il47, including a picture of J.N. Roberts at the Ba rs tow· To - Veg as desert race and Bob Grossi at a motocross event ... Roberts won his fourth Barstow·ToVegas Hare (, Hound in the race's fifth running with stitches holding his face together after a stunt-riding accident the week before. Some 3500 riders started the event, and Roberts crossed the finish line after 170 miles of oesert racing in just a little over four hours... Suzuki's Roger DeCoster won the Uvermore, Cali· fornia, Trans-AMA event with a 3-1-1 moto taUy. He was also the only top rider to finish all three motos, which meant Andy Roberton (Hus) finished second overall with a 6-3-2 score... Ascot Park in Gardena, California, hosted its last motocross race on November 25, 1971. Bill Payne topped the 125 and 500cc Expert classes, while the 250cc Expert class was won by Werner Schutz. 20 YEARS AGO... DECEMBER 2, 1981 Cal State MX winner Jim Tarantino jumps toward the camera on the cover of Issue il47, while AMA Athletes of the Year Donnie Hansen, Chuck Sun, Bruce Penhall and Danny LaPorte pose for the camera ... Tarantino topped the 250cc Pro class at the California State MX Championship in Orange, California. and George Holland beat Roo Lechien t9 the line to win the 125cc Pro class. Greg Zitterkopf won the Open Pro class... Yamaha's Mike Bell won his third consecutive Stefan Superbowl of Motocross at the Lang Park Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. Honda's Danny LaPorte finished second in the third running of the event... The NMA/Suzuki Fall National Finale at Saddleback Cycle Park in Orange, California, featured some of the top Mini racers in the country. Some of the winners included Dustin Evans (Pee Wee Modified), Jimmy Button (Junior Cycle Stock Age Group), Kyle Lewis (Junior Cycle Stock Age Group), Shaun Kalos (Junior Cycle Modified), and Mike Young (80cc Modified 9-11, 80cc Stock Intermediate 9-and·up). . 10 YEARS AGO••. DECEMBER 4, 1991 Team Honda's Jean·Michel Bayle graced the cover of Issue il47 on his way to the King of Bercy title in Paris, France. Bayle barely edged Damon Bradshaw (Yam) for the title and Larry Ward (Suz) finished third overall. AU three riders won one main 'event over the course of the three nights. Jeremy McGrath (Hon) topped Yamaha's Jeff Emig for the Prince of Bercy title... Terry Altmann was the top rider at the 11th annual CZ World Champi· onship/AHRMA·West MX Series finale... Larry McBride topped Brian Johnson to win the Top Fuel Classic final at the PreStar National Championship Drag Race Series' final round ... Jeff Matiasevicb made his return from racing after suffering a broken femur a triumphant one as he topped both 250cc Pro motos at Perris Raceway. Dana Wiggins won the 125cc Pro class... Mike Young (Suz) topped the 125cc Pro class at Adelanto, California's Sunrise MX Park, John Ray (Suz) and Chris Young (Suz) rounded out the top three. Chris Young came back to with the 250cc Pro class, however. was a hard-core off-road snob. For haVing a blast. Riding with Kit is of being blown sideways off jumps during a windy test session at the years, I looked down my nose at always enjoyable, as our speeds are any form of off-road racing that didn't nearly identical, and we were hooting local mota track. Last week, however, the Cycle involve long loops over unfamiliar at each other as we navigated the varied, interesting circuit. There were News crew headed north to a new terrain, and I pooh-poohed events track called Honey Lake MX Park in that didn't reduce bike and rider to tight woods sections and steep downMilford, California, where we conductquivering shadows of their former hills, as well as an MX track to allow styling for the crowd (a non-possibilied a shootout (soon to appear in this selves. After all, I was brought up honoring old-school heroes like Kevin ty in most long enduros), but it was publication) of the 2002 crop of bigbore four-stroke motocrossers. Hines and Terry Cunningham, and all broken up by fast, swoopy sections that allowed one to catch his or Incredibly, the experience was more although I couldn't come near to pleasurable than the most epic of offmatching those masochists' ability to her breath. After receiving a quick splash of gas, we lined up for the road adventures I've taken part in improve as conditions worsened, I thus far, a turn of events that really four-lap Vet contest, and I again never believed that the lap-racing forfound myself giggling aloud throughcaught me off-guard. Again, a key mat inspired by the Grand National out the entire race. ingredient was the people. As Milford Cross Country Series could hold a candle to "true" off· road events like After dismounting our (non-wasttransplant Cashel Hackland puts it, the Tecate, Greenhorn and Jackpine ed) bikes, we changed clothes and "There aren't many people around enduros. here, but I look at quality And motocross? I have instead of quantity." Indeed, track owners Larry respected its top·level practiand Lise Wosick (he, a former tioners since I was a kid cutting National MX hot-shoe; she, a Bob Hannah pictures out of former pro watercraft racer) are magazines, but rare were the times when I would actually the salt of the earth, and their track is beyond description choose to partake in the discihad plenty of energy to hang out and but I'll try anyway. Laid out at the pline myself, instead hitting the track base of a mountain, the snow-fencewatch a couple of other classes do only when magazine testing mandatbattle. And the following day, we lined, mile-long circuit features a ed, and then either wishing I was out came out to watch the Pros go at it in monster uphill, off-camber portions in the desert or up in the mountains an action-packed two-hour race. It and a super-steep downhill. As in instead, or treating the track sessions took place on a shortened version of Oregon, we were blessed by the rain as training for future off-road endeavthe track, and although I would have gods, who doused the area the day ors. normally considered its 4.5-mile before our arrival, then backed off to All of that was before my recent length to be nothing more than a long leave loam so deep and dark that we epiphany, however, a transformation felt like snowboarders shredding fresh that was brought about over the motocross, I appreciated the opportunity to better see aces like Shane powder. Far from the trapeze-like course of two separate experiences. Watts and Rodney Smith in action. supercross tracks so common these The first was the recent Roseburg, Interestingly, part of the appeal of days, Honey Lake limits its jumps to Oregon, round of the Parts Unlimited WORCS (and I know this is also true a flat-lander launcher and a few W~rld Championship Off-Road of GNCC racing) is that the people rolling, sandy doubles, but don't think Series, a circuit patterned after the for a minute that this is a wimpy eastern United States' highly successful GNCC Series, but track. To the contrary, it gets so rough that a single full-tilt blast situated entirely west of the up the hill is enough to reduce Mississippi. Colleague Kit Palmer and I attended this one's arms to a pair of twitching noodles, and the place reminds penultimate tour stop in order me of what I imagine old-school to evaluate the bikes of Mike Euro GPs must have been like. It Kiedrowski and Destry Abbott was with a tear in my eye (literfor a Cycle News story (Issue #45, November 14), and - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ally) that I loaded up and drove I We 1Nere hooting at each other as 1Ne navigated the varied, interesting circuit. The rain gods [left] loalll so deep and dark that 1Ne felt like sno1Nboarders shredding fresh p01Nder. although Kit had ridden a previous WORCS race, it was my first experience with the multi-lap format (apart from the occasional local grand prix). Rain doused the area during the week before race day, making for Super Glue traction and absolutely no dust. In order to get our blood flowing and familiarize ourselves with the course, Kit and I rode the morning Unclassified division, and although I barely even got warmed up (we only did two laps around the eight-mile loop), I was surprised to find myself off after our two-day evaluation. To be honest, I don't know quite what to make of my new outlook on forms of motorcycling I used to dismiss, but I can tell you this: In 2002, the WORCS circuit is making a stop at the Honey Lake facility, and I'm going to be there, happily taking full advantage of my newfound openmindedness. GN putting it on are so nice. Jeff Phillips and Dave Hamel are truly cool guys who are fun to hang out with, and when Kit and I headed home, I barely even minded the nasty case of poison oak I had picked up in Roseburg. I don't know if this is true off-road or not, but whatever you want to call it, I'm a new fan. Fine, so my off-road preconceptions were being eroded, but my opinion of motocross could never undergo a similar conversion - especially after a particularly dreary day CDmlngupln Cycle News (01001 ~ To learn more on WORCS, log on to www.worcsracing.com. For more information on Honey Lake MX Park, call 530/827-2639. • Worchester Arenacross • Yamaha TOM900 Test • Benelll Tornado 900 5uperblke Test • British 5upercross cue I e n e _ s • NOVEMBER 28, 2001 87