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/141010
'SAKIS ACED OUT BY MIGHTY .. , -~ : -' .. ~~ Talk abou t a handi cap. Th ey p ut t his SOcc'e, almost a half a lap ahea d of the l00s. By Ed Dr ech sler A DELANT O , CAL., Feb . 2 7 , 19 72 How do you run a scrambles cou rse b ackwards? Especially a fast, slic k o ne with some belly d eep sand and a j ump whic h must have b een left o ver fro m NAS A 's recent mo on th in g. At the last mo men t , th e Ligh tw eigh ts M.C. decide d that u sing the b ig jump backwards would be to o dangero us, so th ey did th e next best thing. T hey ran the en tire IT course backwards and led us over the big jump the righ t way. After pract ice, mo st riders were over heard remarking "Scary", "Too slick", hI ain't gonna ride it ", and othe r such hogwash . At th e end of the day after they had rode it for a to tal of 15 laps - most of them wanted to do it again. I ce r tai n ly d on' t know wh at happened to the riders, but enough showed up to mak e I I class es, and th ose classes rode five laps o ver a super long course. It was great. The only two classes to rid e h eats were th e 100 and 50 0 No vices. Everyone else ro de m otos , T he h e a v y w e igh ts o pe ned the program and it felt good. Of co urse, Scott Smith grabbed the 500 Jr/Ex. gol d . Kirk Redding provided t he o nly serious challenge to Scott's win during the second moto when a fier ce battle broke out. Scott had the ponies an d got him on the straightaway. Tom Jamagan was right in there fo r a third . Bob Hosford cha llenged the group on a 400 Maico . He would have had a fo r-sure fourth-place but he lost his carburetor. Jeff Sexton ch ose today to try out a new ESO at nearby EI Mirage dry lake and did not co mpete. J oh n Sp ragu e led all t hree of h is Open rno tos from wire to wire. To keep himsel f from getting bored , h e wo uld slow dow n, letting t he pa ck catch h im and the n d ust th em off. Ri ck Milner led Rob Morrison in t he 10 0 J r/Ex . class u nt il he t h rew a chain. Watch th is guy, h e is good . Rob had to settle for a fourth o vera ll with a blown bottom end. That blew a winning streak o f six consecutive. He will be back to maintain d ominan ce o f th e 100 Experts . When is the last time a Honda o r Hodak a won in t he ultra-light class? We had tw o wins here today . Mike Laney grabbed the go ld from th e 100 Jr/Ex. and Paul Kait z rod e his heart o ut to b eat all those 10 0 Novices. Don 't ca re wh at size th ey are, th ose th umpers so und good. Chuck Byber ro de right into the 250 J unio r class wi th h is Novi ce win today . The pie plate Novice has exh ibited so mu ch ta len t that D ist rict 3 7 stewa rds have elected t o pro mo te him even th ough he d oes no t p ossess a scramb les card . Newly tran sferr ed Brian Kin g ca ugh t Rick Kouns sand baggi ng an d zapped all th em 250 Ju niors. Br ian did it on a K&N approved Hu sky , one o f t he ea rly '7 I four-sp eed models . Well, righ t off th e bat, wi th th e But he did it this way every lap ,( . -