Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Mann, Lackey Open Year i with Hare ScraDlbles Win ~ "- Hayward M.C. Continues Lease for 1972 Season By Bill Spencer HA YWA RD, CAL., Jan. 9, 1972 R umors of the impending doom of t he Hayward Speedway h ave been snubbed for another year as the Hayward M.C. signed a lease to keep racing going for 197 2. Some slight changes will be made, but for the most part everything will be as it was las t year. One change is the alternating of Saturday nigh ts with scrambles action at Fremont Raceway. To supplement these activities, some rough win ter scramb les will be run. The first d rew n earl y 200 rid er s. With many. of the top Experts still runn ing the indoor circuit in Santa R osa , a combined 250 -500 Expert run Was the feature att raction with Roger Brunei winning on a 400 Ma ico over Nick Nazzisi's 250 Husky. Motocrosser Bill Scarlett was on hand to race but had been suffering a bout with the flu and couldn't keep up the demanding pace. Nazzisi put up a stiff battle to overtake the more powerful machine but it was to no avai l as Brunei made a good effort and no mistakes. Mike Kenyon showed up on older brother AI's BSA MX and showed his stuff in the 500 Junior Main with a great driving win. Gary Stephenson, as usual, led it off but had his problems and with three laps down, it was all Kenyon and "the BSA with no problems like AI had on his first time out. John Randolph held on for the second over Ed Jacques. In the past two outings here only a few rid ers have been able to duplicate trophy spots and the best of them is Dave Rosenquist on a 125 Honda. In the past three races he has managed to win with little difficulty while not making much of a showing in the heat. The slippery parts of the track make no problems for the under-horsepowered bike and because of the limits of size of the track, not problem exists in outrigh t speed and so each main is handled well and ultimately ends with a win. Another consistent entry is Rod Wartzok, while perhaps not being a winner all the time, he p lugs right along and ma nages a trophy wi th ease. Coming right along in training is Dick Gracia who just got his Junior card and within a matter of only a few more races will be back in the winner's circle. The thing about these types of races, is that in most cases, there are only so many riders that ride the winter races and the guys that normally ride all the smooth races either don't like the rough stuff or leave their bikes set up for to ride the indoor. Only those select few that ride all the races are the ones that seem to manage to get up in the world of great professional racers. The likes of Mann, Brelsford, Odom, Hansen, Kenyon and Gennai got to where they are by riding everything there was to ride. (Results on page 28) Grossini Challenges D-37 By Margaret Earnest SA/Io'TA MARIA, CA L., Jan . 2, 1972 The fi rst motocross of 19 72 pu t on by th e Lo m p oc Slo- Po kes could be ap p ro p riately called a "qu iet-cross." As part of AMA's p rogram of n o ise supp ress io n all b ikes we re req uired t o use silencers and th e d iffer en ce was n oticeable and ap preciated by all sp ect ator s a nd eve n th e riders. Ther e Was a sligh t delay b etw een the 125 Juniors an d 125 Seniors when th e patrol had n ot ap peared. A rescu e ma chin e was quickl y d isp at ch ed and fo und th e patrol b roken down o n the co urse! R escu e was accomplished an d the 125 Se niors we nt off th e line with first pl ace being" exchanged between Mi ke David (Suz) and Larry Greer (Yam). The lead changed many times until Gr eer made contact with th e soil on the corner and d ropped to fifth place. Mike and Larry again fought fo r the lead sec ond ti me out but th e Ya maha d evelop ed in testinal p ro blems an d was retired for th e day. Mike took the win all three times out for th e firs t overall. 25 0 Seni o r Joh nny Grossini (Hus) had little o r no com petitio n today , holding a long lead , an d h ad time enough t o stop on th e course an d get a .. -. ,~ I ,~. _ - - - Dick Mann and Jim Hutcher discuss, of all things, motorcycles. T he marks on Mann 's helmet are to prove he made the various checkpoints. drink of water. Johnny would like to see so me of th e District 37 shoes come up and at leas t give him ~ome company on th e co urse. O pen In t ermediat es and Sen iors were co m bi ned for th eir mo tos, Interm ed ia t e Ken Earnest (Suz) to o k th e lead and stretched it o ut when h is foot slipped off th e p eg, h it h is brake and locked up h is rear w heel. Befo re he co uld recover a Senior o n a 38 0 CZ m ad e contac t and a cras h foll owed. Charles sp ectacular Curnutt 's well-known red shocks disengaged t hems elves fr om the Su zu ki a nd d i s int e grated while one Czech oslovakian machine came out of it with a sp ru ng frame. Bro ken machines, n o bro ken b od ies and many happy cameramen who got it o n film . Walt Menge (Suz) went on as the first Senior and Harvey Wynne (Suz) the first Interm ed iat e for the day. T his club has plans for 19 72 which incl ude a mo to cr oss for the AMXT tr easury , same as th ey di d in 19 72. In addi tiona, this club holds a race with all p roceeds t o a scholarship fund and they h op e t o make it b igger an d b etter this year. Ther e are rumors , also, they wi ll try an d sw ell th e tr easury of M.O.R.E. this year. (Results on page 28) ... By Bill Spencer IT. R ICHMOND, CAL., Jan. 2, 1972 Dick Mann would go by in second, t h ird With riding land being as difficul t as it is and fourth , on the rear wheel. to find, the thought of riding a hare At one juncture, I stopped to shoot a scrambles over rough terrain on a three few shots on my super Instarnatic and mile course within 20 minutes of tried at the same time to figure out who downtown San Francisco seems was doing what to whom. The only downrigh t insane. Truth of the matter thing I could really get to was that is, the Ri chmond Ramblers Motorcycle Lackey was lead in g and Mann was Clu b grounds are only about 15 m iles second although I m issed hi m away fro m Sa n Francisco over the Bay so me w here on the road back , or maybe an d is wi thin sigh t w hen o ne gets t o t he I wasn't on the right road back. At any top of one o f the su rro unding h ills at Pt. rate, after only a few laps, I retired to Richmond o n which th e cl ub grounds the L uck y stand and p roceeded to te ll situate. o ne and all how great the course was F or quite so me p eriod of time the and ho w it realy wasn't that t ou gh . A ll land was not to be u sed b eca use of the while guys were dragging b od ies a nd litigation by surrou nding owners but bikes in . eno ugh pressu re was asse rted b y club most p art it was F or the m ember s an d legal elemen ts to regain wel l-organized and when th e sweep was th e us e of th e land some fo ur m onths made afte r three h ou rs, n o o ne was ago and so the"club h as b een runnin g fo u nd laying in an y great h eaps. T he eve n ts in h op es of estab lishi ng its elf as cl ub , as u su al, is one of th e best around o ne of the leading cl ub s of Dist rict No. an d eve n w ith Bu gs Mann saying th at 36 as th ey had b een in th e p as t. the run Was too lo nz and zot b oring a t T he fi rst r un o n the ' 72 seaso n the end, it was a lo t of f un. brough t o ut n early 150 h ear ty souls in With Lackey winning th e Open 4 0 d egree wea ther; that included the Ex pert b y a t on, J err y Par sons was quit e likes of t he Grand Na tio na l Ch ampion n otice able o n a 500 MX BSA (or was Dick Man n and one of the top A merican that a dressed up Victor?) H e fin ished mo tocrossers, "Brad Lackey. Bo th of so mewha t ahead of Russ Po we ll o n a these great riders live cl ose by and t his is Husky and q uite a bi t ahead o f Ken their cow trailing area. Ha rvey. Whil e the res ults say " Har ley", Ge nerally, a Hare Scram b les will be d o n 't you believe it. He rides a lo t of ru n w ith so me designation by classes thi ngs b u t no hog was out there that and time but with less than 200 rid ers day. electing to ride the treacherous course, Bugs won the 250 but didn't stay the referee decided to run everyone around to collect the trophy and so Bill together and for a total time of three "Biscuits" Verbiscio was next in line. hours. This for sure would dispell any Biscuits is senior to Mann and do n't get gripes of no t !!;ettin!!; enough riding. in between those two when the stories The course started with an uphill fly. For two old dudes, t hey really behind the club house which know how to handle the dirt machinery. enco"?passes the scrambles course and (Results on page 28) .......... then some. The h ill is deeply rutted and when the flag went up it was a free-fo r-all t o see who wo uld get stuck hal fway up and t hen get run over. T he firs t fig u re over the t o p was Lackey o n the CZ and th at was the end of t he first place competition as Ma nn had so me tro uble star ti ng and was about five m in utes b eh ind at the en d of th e firs t lap. T he fiel d b ecam e qui te st rung ou t o n the first lap al though there wer e so me good Experts w ho ke pt up a good pace. As th e course was laid o u t, th e fastest way to the two checks (at least that 's a ll I hit) were by following the course . A liberal amo unt of red kep t everyone from going too far astray although the wind did b low some of the green around. T his proved to be no problem as after the first lap all were quite fa miliar with the layout. Due to the steepness of the surrounding area, it is hard to get off the track because one would find oneself in deep troub le if one got too far out of the way. The best parts seemed to be the steep uphill o n t he backside in which you changed gears o n th e way up _ at least those th at went fas t changed gears o n th e way up. I would p lod along in second on my ancien t Montadero while t: .·oJ .. .... , . ....... _ .. ' '''' ......, ._ .... 1 "~ ""' ""t ... • _ _ , .. ...l"o . .... T H E CASH OF 71 T he 1971 Grand National Championship year was hig h lighted no t on ly by increased attendance at eac h event, but prize mon ey and con tingencies. • ... Of t he season's 21 Na tio nal Ch am pi onship s, m o re than $3 00,00 0 was paid in p urse money alo ne. In addi tio n, co ntingencies paid d uring t he year brough t t he p rize m oney tota l t o well over $350,000. An additional $3 I ,0 I 0 was also availab le to t he top 10 riders from the 19 7 I Rider Point Fund. Mo ney for the fund is collected from pre and post entries and a percentage of the purse, paid by the promoter. At the end of the year, 10 percent is paid to the number one rider, with the balance distributed on the basis of points earned: Dick Mann 10% 1054 PIs. Gene Romero Jim Rice Dave Ald ana Dave Sen l Jim Odom Mark Brelsf o rd Kef C ar ruth ers D o n C astro Jon n Ha teley 924 893 706 561 pts. pts. Pts. c ts. 557 n t s. 534 ets , 521 n t s . 4 7 9 p ts. 4 52 P t>. $2.8 92..57 4 10 7 ,~ 6,999. 3,600.45 3 ,4 7 9.65 2,7 50.99 2,185 .99 2,170.40 2 ,0 80.7 8 2,030 .12 1 ,866 .46 1.76 1.26 $28 ,925 .6 7 ttl '" e . .., ~ w Z w ~ U >U

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