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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/140924
By Ed Drechsler A DE LANTO, CAL., J an . 9, 1971 Suffering from a lack of publicity, the Dist. 3 7 Ro ugh Scrambles by the TT l\I.C. drew only 105 entrants today. Six prospective en tra nts, wh o knew that there was a poin ts race somewhere. spent th e morning waiting for th e Perris TT ga tes to op en . They dis covered th eir err or an d motored to Adelan to in time to see th e 2nd Open Novice moto bein g run under perfect weath er co ndi tio ns . Th e turn out was so light that motos w ere run wh erever there wer e en ough riders to ma k e a class. The he avyweigh ts ran o nl y two classes, Open. N ov ic e and Open Am / Ex. Because of th e turnout and th e way the races wer e handled, we were o ut b y I: 15 p.rn. To obtain a r o ugh scra m bles type co urse, Do n Engla nd used the TT st artin g line an d a major p orti on of th e; straight-a-way, However, ju st prior t o the sweeper, th e c o urse took a hard 100 degr ee le ft th ro ugh d eep w et sand an d then an gled t o the man made Matterh orn that h e so lovin gly refers to as a ju mp . The ju mp d og legs to th e left abou t 10 d egree at th e cres t, m eanin g th at if you h ad it screwe d o n and dro ve up the h ill in a straight lin e, yo u foun d you rse lf b oth airborne and landin g off to the side, leading at an angle across th e landing zo ne. No w down the jump through deep sand and a hard righ t , bac k on the TT course at the beginning o f the back sweeper. Off the sweeper and parallel to it in th e deep sand wh oop s, back diagonally across the sweeper, leading to the start/finish line at a slight angle. Super fast course. It .....as Puch against Ya maha du ring th e 125 Am /Ex. contest. J oh n Rice took o n Scott Smi th an d Bob Hosford o nly to come out second ove rall. Scott cha rged to a n ea rly lead , d ur in g th e first moto, with John R making up fo r a bad start. J oh n R mad e it to within th ree seconds of Scott, but the Pu ch was b ein g p ulled by Scott 's seven p orted Yammie TT m ach in e. The ridin g was overwhel ming. The t op five riders in th e clas s were rid ing o n th e very ed ge o f destru ction. Third pl ace Bob H osford was a full 10 seco nds behind Scott and seven sec onds b ehind Rice. The sec ond m oto saw Scott aga in charge to a ve ry comm and ing lead over a gr oup o f gu ys wh o must hav e learned a lot fro m Pr ofessor Smith . J ohn R. wa s eigh th o ff th e lin e an d dri vin g hard. Hosford (ridi ng o u t of uniform in dark leathers an d a civie jacket) go t to within five sec onds o f Sc ott, follo wed by John en ;: w Z w ' ..J U >- U Sporting a new m ustache. John R discusses pre-race stra tegy with Je ff Sexton. up . He hung in space fo r wh at seemed like an eternity an d then sta r te d d own , making mid-c ourse c o rrec tions. But he mu st have done somethin g wrong. His landing looked go od to us, but he looked d own as to as sess so m e damage to h is fo otpeg. His p ace slo wed mar k edl y . The re st of th at lap he kep t loo king to his left foot , whenever th e whoop-de-docs wo uld a llow. Hos fo rd b egain closing an d Rice knew it. Whatever was bothering him was pu t asi de and Rice charged back after Sco tt. J ohn begain to pull Scott o nce more and was leadin g Ho sfo rd wh en the checkere d flag d ro pped. Bac k at Joh n R 's va n h e explained that he had almost had Scott that last mo to. lie was ce rtain that one more lap R. er by Sp rague. T udor and Gill espie during the last lap a gave the win to Sprgaue. With tw o motos to his cre di t, Scott chose to race for a gra nd slam . Rice , af t er b ein g caugh t a t th e line twice bef ore, got a b it qu ick on the trigger and was p laced' back on th e penalty lin e by square sh o oter Do n England. The migh t have had some small effect on John. Sco tt again ju mped in front of th e p ack , doing so me all out riding, wh en t h ro ugh the pack fr om a lmost last pl ace ca me th e great J ohn R. By th e b egin n ing of th e second lap , J oh n passed eve ryone b u t Scott, and is with in two seco nds of d oin g j ust th at. John h it th e jum p so h ard t hat instead of leaping fo rward h e was rocketed a lmos t straight Scott Smith sails eff ortlessly through th e d ust free air w hile win ning all three 125 Expert mo ros . wo uld h ave d on e it. Oh y eah , wh at was wr ong with his left foot ? John th ought tha t he h ad hurt it pretty bad, maybe even broke it. Wou ld he rid e the 500 Expert class ? We would have to wa it and se e. Heavyw eigh t practice started at 12 Noon. J ohn R wa s out th er e shooting everyone down with his Maic o, lo oking lik e h e w as ha vin g fun. Mayb e he would rid e again after all . T he resta rt o f th e Open Am/Ex . first mo to saw Rice tan gle up in the first turn an d stall h is m igh ty Maico, li e rest ar ted, but Sex ton se t 'such a b listering pace th at h e couldn 't make a mo ney posit io n. John R got a good start in the second m o to . Afte r fou r laps of ri d in g tha t you only hear abo ut now an d then, th e checkered flag fell on J oh n R . Vic Hanno n an d Jeff Sex to n in tha t o rd er. Tha t seco nd m oto gave S ex ton and R ic e a win apiece. T he th ird moto face off was a thrill to see. The speed was inconceivabl e, th e ridin g wa s fan tastic an d th e com pe titio n was first clas s. Jeff got th e win with Hann on and Rice fo llowing. A ft er the rac e J oh n R was quietly co n te mplating hi s le ft foot with th oughts th at it w as in fact b roken. He h ad it wrapp ed in an Ace bandage and when he tri ed to walk h e grimaced with obvious pa in. Again h e co mp lain ed o f th e short (fo ur lap) motos . "A co up le o f more laps and I w ould have ca ugh t h im . " The first Op en N ovic e mot o was won b y such a co m ma n di ng lead th at the qualifications of th e rid er were questi oned : The qu esti on ed rider also grabbe d th e second mo to , but had cooled it for a more reali stic win . Track officials request ed th at h e present his creden tials to them, and gave him 15 minutes to d o so . When last seen , he was q uie tl y packing hi s ca mp a nd lead ing hi s cam els a way. As t o w ho a nd wh y 1 don't know, b ut apparen tly h e go t caught. Like rough scrambles? Like p oints runs? 395 Cy cle Park in b eautifu l down- town Adelan to will b e the h ost fo r Dis t, 3 7 r o ugh scram bles fo r t he last two Sundays of January and all Sundays of Fe b ruary. Don p lan s to cha nge the course so mewha t to su it th e d esires of the promoting cl ubs. In any case , h ere are rough scrambles at th eir b est. (Resu lts o n p age 28 ) Dick Marquis mounted on his 40 inch Triumph holds off hard charging John R ice in th e last lap of the third Open Am/ Ex. moto .