Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

M Watching Them Gr in d Away f or 2 Full Hours By Bill Spencer FRDIONT. CAL .• Jan. 22. 1972 Opening its gates for the first time in the new year. Fremont Racewa y hosted a two-man motorcycle marath o n and despite driving rains just before the lightweight eve nt got u nderway. the race was an unqualified success. T he idea of the marath o n came abo ut from a 1969 event held a t De Laveaga park in Santa Cruz. d ub bed Mobl ey 's Old Man l\larathon, in w hich members of t he Ridge Ru n ne rs l\lC invited so me . other racers to come over and run o n the cl ub gro unds. T wo guys t o a m otor, alternating so t hat at the end of the t wo ho urs th e bike wi th t he m o st n umb er of laps com p lete d was the winner. T he system has b een revised sligh tl y in t hat while two ride rs are req uired to sign up . the re is no requ ireme nt fo r any specific num b er of rid er changes o r pi t stops. A rider co uld th eoretic all y rid e th e entire tw o h o urs if he had gas o r could hang o n th a t long but because t he course is fas t it is advisable t o have so me relief fo r both rider a nd bike. In th e ligh t w eigh t div ision, 34 ride rs started the t wo hour grin d and w it hin one h our mo re than half were sidelined. The fast t hree to the front were John Randolph on a 250 Yamaha with Terry Graham on a 125 C-Z and one of the Castillo brothers right close on a 250 Husky. The Husky lasted the distance but had to settle for second behind the very apt leadership of Dennis Silva and Rich Dickson on a Selby Motors, Rickman Montesa. The Rickman took the lea d on the 24th circumference and never gave it up and with five laps of th at time around. had ma naged to lap through second palce, His secret to success was not speed. but the fact that t he mo tor never stopped fo r the entire distance even tho ugh they changed the rid ing chores m any tim es. More t han one t ype of ph ilosp h y prevailed with so me riders trying t o run • lik e heck fo r as far as th ey could d own to th ose th a t wer e alt erna ting every five laps. As for th e latter. a lot of time co u ld be spen t t alki ng an d celeb rati ng on e's acc omp lishme n ts. Th e heavyweight o pera tio n go t u nd er way alm ost 4 5 minutes late but with as m u ch en thusiasm as the lit tl e bikes. if not more. For both even ts a dead engine was called r or with a LeMans sta rt. Le ading o ff was a terrific b attle b etween Cr aig Michie and Carl Rodrick. Michie k ept R odrick a t b ay o n h is Murrell Sportc ycle Bultac o EI Mon t adero fo r th e first 10 lap s a nd eve n st art ed to get a lead going b ut on th e rid er change, lo st q u it e a b it of gr ound. Rodrick rod e h is .Maic o fo r one ex tra lap a nd set up a good p ace with his Novice p artn er Wayne Morrell keeping a goodly dis tance be tween he and Do ug Murrell. now rid in g his dad 's machine. Doug had trou b les wi th the mud hole right away but brought th e bike back to the tail of t he Maico after a couple mo re changes. In between. De nnis Spence a nd Dan Wha ley b rought their Suzuki to the fo re and took over t he lead on lap 32. Mic hie and Morrell h ad caught back up and had even narrowe d the lead to jus t a few feet w it h Do ug riding whe n on the back st raigh t he go t sideways and fe ll. They n ever were in contention fro m th at poin t. Th is br o ught up Rod Sim as and Wes Mo rr ell , o n another Mai co , t o second. The Sp en ce/Wh aley t eam drop p ed back with troub les w hile th e Sim as /M o rrell wo rke d up to second fr om th e midd le o f th e p ack. Fin ishi ng six lap s off th e pace wit h on e add it io nal lap added fo r cu tt ing t he co urse was Bill lI ardist y a nd Osker Lop ez. T he ir Maico comb ined wi th th e winner to give th e Fre mo nt M.C . th e ne cessar y p o in ts t o win the cl ub t ro phy as well as th ird spot. T he nex t run will h app en o n Feb. 19 th a nd w ill contain t hree d ivisions. A pre-e ntry system will be used for 125, 250 and Open classes. A limit of 75 bi kes will h ave to be ins t it uted and no mo re effort than a telepho ne call can en ter one in the race . RESULTS LIGHTWE IGHT Sliva/Dickson 67 laps Castillo/Castillo Madieros/Etchlson Selby/McMurray Pete Francini/Contreras Reaves/N ower r Kopriva/Stenstrom HEAVVWEIGHT RO drick/Morrell Simas/Morrell H a r ist y /L opez Trammell/Bo lton Se lb y/M cMurray .g LL cr. ~ w Z W ...J U >- U Toboada Survives Santa Rosa Riots By J am es Brammer SANTA ROS A . CAL. , J an. 30. 1972 The Experts w ere keyed up lik e Olym pic sw im me rs for th e Main Event in the rough scra m b le called indoo r sho rt tr ack racing at the S on oma County Fairgrounds. In th e end, Ro y T aboada fro m Millbrae won with three riders down and Ni ck Nazzisis hu rt in g with an in jured ankle. Joe Sima s won th e first Expert heat o ver Gary T onda and R o y Taboada in third. Second' Expert heat went to Rock y Malyan w ith N ic k N azzisis in second : Simas led the ear ly lap s of th e Main wit h T aboad a second and Ro ck y t hi rd . Simas was leading the chasers into the corners at an uncontrolled speed and getting fas te r o n eac h lap, yet somehow Toboada slip ped b y o n the o utside on the back st raigh t in abo ut the fourth lap . On t he n ext lap Simas ov ershot the north corner with R ocky pacin g his speed. Simas dipped h is throttle t o ge t back on th e insid e line with R o ck y t aking one sidewa ys b ounce apparentl y under fu ll throttle hittin g Simas h ard with his front wh eel and fork. Bo th ride rs he ld a firm b alance with Ro ck y lo cked in a positi on to get by Simas for second p lace co ming o u t o f th e co rn er. In the m eantime three other rid ers h ad fa llen in th eir wa ke at other p o ints o n the track. Wh en asked h o w did those guys get by hi m, Simas said he really didn ' t know: H guess I went wide." I S imilarly, a wild 8,Iap Novice final was stop ped a fter six laps wi th an un injured rider hanging d o wn -side-up fro m a pile up aga inst t h e n orth comer fen ce. The big rew ard fo r that event went t o th ird pla ce fi nis h er Milt o n Heimlich fr om Daly Cit y who rece ived a new tire and tr op h y. The con trib ut or , An g R ossi wanted it t hat way. He says the first pl ace men o ft en don't need t ir es. Al and Dennis Kin g wer e 1-2 in th at Nov ice final. (R esu lts on page 3 2) R iC Hus CZ Ric Hon Pen Bul Mai Mal Mai BSA Rle Novice R ust y Maggio h as the same idea as Malyan. Here he gets readv to Shura'sbikewith his front wheel. _ _ ... .:J . eass William .Shurs- (230GI. LHeck , if he.was really good h,e,cQul d downshift _ - . .. '

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