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/140926
.... Everybody's Down in Reno By S teve Young and friends RENO, NEV., Dec. 18, 1971 - The stars over the Reno short track m ust have been crossed fo r the last races, as evidenced by the multitude of c rash es . It looked more like Cycle Circus than a race event. The only races were for the fastest rider into the ground, wall, hay, etc. It was a lso cold . fortunate ly the races we nt very smoothly and quickly so the evening didn't last too long. Also the track was in the best shape ever. which aided in producing an exciting program. The 250 Junior/Expert Main weII typified the difficulties incurred throughout the evening. Half o f the Main Event participants went down at one time or an other in the rac e, some of them accidentally, and some with a little help from their "friends". On e of the crashed riders, popular Bob " Carso n City flash" Foster, suffered a b roken .. N co 0- ankle w hen he smote the cement retain ing wa ll, probably due to another rid er . When the dust and debris cleared, the victor emerged. Rich ~lacMurray. Hallelujah! HalIelujah ! Hallelujah! In the hotly-contested 125cc Novice Main. the soon-to-be-J unior, Cliff Richardson. barely beat out youthful Jay Gardner, who might have won had h e started his diet a bit sooner. In turn. Stan Searle was right be hind Gardner with John Schmidt in his wake. Barclay Trehal , speedway rider. t op tracker and motocrosser, further displayed his vers atility by winning a ' sp ecial Honda ATC three-wh eeler m atch ra ce. He was not-too-closel y folIowed by the lo cal Cycle News reporter . wh o showed th at h e is a mu ch better photographer than ra cer. No te: He did have a Cycle News sti ckie on his Nevada Cycle Sales ATC. (Results on page 32~ N .... Cl '" N e .!ll j£ w Z W ...J o :> o Lonnie M urphy . Dead Turkeys for WS A By Steve Young RENO, NEV.• Dec. 19 . 19 7 1 - Instead of giving brass to winners at the Western States Racing Assn . '5 last motocross, they gave tu rkeys. Dead cines. Although they don't look as nice sitting on a shelf. they do taste a lot better. Due to the ea rly sunsets these days, t he rac e was cut to two motos in each event. Far and away th e mo st exciting and closest race was th e first J un ior/Expert moto . A lthough they ra ced for class tu rkeys, all th e J uniors a nd Ex perts raced toge th er. Barclay Trehal jump ed into the lead at the start. but was overtaken by Leroy Kay, Bill Krejci. and Bill Daane. Kay, K rejci. and Daane swapped the lead back and forth so many times that even they probably didn't know who was out in front. AlI three were riding very fast. yet with much control. At the place where a ll races end. the finish line. Ka y cam e in first with Bill Daane falli ng in his wheelsteps. In the second moto, the finish was quite differen t with Jeff Loff and AJSer Lo nnie Mu rphy among the leaders . If Lonn ie 's b ike h ad b een run ni ng a bit b e tt er , the re is no doubt th a t he would ha ve done mu ch better in the firs t m o to . BiII Daane suffered racer's fate and broke his chain at the start o f th e second moto. Kejci seemed to he riding a bit too fast and had a little trouble with a litter barrel. (Results on page 28) - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - -on - -- -- - -- in time - sit on-the-fence for a fortnight without - - 250cc Bultaco machines for the opening in Jan uary. VI SIT S FRO M BR IT AI N AN D SWEDE N New South Australian solo champion John Boulger (inside) battles with Barry Van Praag (center) and Brit ish team captain Nigcl Boocock. australian speedway By Peter White Big news of th e wee k Down Under was the an nouncement b y the Liverpool speed way (near Sydney) th a t an American speedway so lo team will race in A ustralia in february. An no uncing details, Liverpool manager Mike Raymond said that the tea m wo uld be the strongest availab le and would tackle the best of A ustralia's second division rid ers in a fu ll b looded in te rnational se ries, mainl y on the East Coast. The team is expected to be DeWay n e Kee ter (captain) , Sonn y N utter, R ic k Wo od s. Steve Bas t , J ohn Fishb urn, Bill Cod y, Mi ke Bast , an d Chuck J on es (manager). K ee ter. Woods and J ones have a ll raced in Australia previously and their knowledge of the tracks will stand them in good stead. Chuck Jones, of course. is still recovering fro m serious injuries sustained in a crash at the Sydney Sh o wgro und but it is w it h great pleasure and expectation that Aussie fol lowers have learned of his proposed re turn. As m anager , he is j ust th e man capable of gu id ing h is b o ys to success. Everyone in Syd n ey wh o ca me t o know Ch uck duri ng h is ridin g st a y and then d uring his h osp italizatio n is anxio us to see h im again so it sho uld b e li ke a real h omec oming f or th e p opular a n d p lu ck y Cal ifornian when h e rea ch es S ydney. The A merican riders are ce rtain to be big d raw cards wherever they appear and capacity crowds are expected at all venues. I n Keeter, the team has an ideal ca ptain. Although currently riding flat track in li eu of speedway in the States, De \Vay ne is America's most accomplished and proficient speedway star. After a hig hly successful initiation period in A ustralia in 1969 . DeWayne went to England - the real hurly-burly of w or ld in ternatio nal speedway - and spe nt a season w ith th e Leicester Lions in the ' First Division. Desp ite gloomy p redictio ns from the British p u nd its, Keeter proved the goods and maintained his position in the team throughout the season. He is a true world speedway rider. rather than a 'Costa Mesa' expert only. The visiting Briti h and Swedish Test teams hit back against weakened Australian sides on t h e weekend of November 26 an d 27 to win their first ma tc hes of th e t o ur. Britain w en t into the third official test match at the Exh ibition Ground, Brisbane as th e underdog. being down 2-0 in the series. However. against an Australian line-up that did not include Aussie Champion. John Boulger, who had scored a paid maximum o f 18 points against Britain at the same track the previous week . the Poms ran riot and romped to a 61-46 success. HOLI DAYS The Christmas holiday b reak was a relatively quiet period for Australian speedway with no tests or cham pionships staged during th e two weeks of festivities. Both the Br itish a nd Swed ish to uring test teams spent Ch ristm a s Day in Sydney w here the hea t d rove them, and thousands of other Sydneysiders , to the beach fo r a salad lunch instead of the traditional turkey! Weather h as been hot and humid for some weeks now but rain in the eve nings has almost played havoc with the fixture lists. Almost...but not quite. We're a hardy lot ou t here in Aussie! The British riders have been forced to the chance to earn any money - a situation that didn't exactly please them, to say the least! - as no meetings were scheduled between the Queensland Best Pairs Championsh ip in Brisbane on December 18 and th e New South Wales Best Pairs Championship in Syd n ey on J an uar y J. T he Swedes we re a little m o re fo rtu nate and were booked in against a loca l Liverpool team at the Raceway on Boxing Night. Sunday, December 26 . The Scandinavians finally hit top form in this encounter and emerged worthy winners to the tune of 62-46 . Top rider was Anders Michanek who scored 17 points. He was de feated only once - by World Champion Ole Olsen. Earlier he had beaten Olsen to also deprive the Dane of a point. Other Swedish big guns. Bernt Persson and Soren Sjosten, also cli cked and piled up b ig scores. O n the other hand, the Liverpool riders flo undered. Apar t from O lse n, the o nly com pe titor to show a ny resist an ce was Big Bill Landels, the flyi ng Scotsman-cu m-Kangaroo. Remainder were troubled by mechanical problems and never really got goi ng a ll night. Racing was hard and furious with no quarter given by either side. Next tests are as follows: Britain versus Australia (fourth test) in Melbourne on January 8. Sweden versus Australia (fifth test) in Brisbane on January 8 . SPEEDWAY FOR MAJO RCA As if enough countries aren't in on - the speedway act, now co mes the news that the sport is to b e introduced to M a j or ca . t he jewel of the Mediterran ean l G lasgow (Scotla n d) p ro m oter , Ia n Ho skin s, plan s t o start raci ng at a stad ium recently ac qu ired in Palm a. H e has hir ed English in terna tio nal rider. Re g Lu ck hu rs t , t o train loc al riders - th ey ar e ex p ec te d t o compete 1 Members of the Sw edish speedway team relax for a bit with t heir souvenir boom erangs. L·R : Soren Sjosten, Bern t Persso Anders Mich aner. Bengt Larsson, and Sengt Jansson. Photo by n, Geoff Davis.