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/141011
-." .., ,.,. _ ... r:-o.. ...... , --R""- __ J ,. ", " CALIFORNIANS STOMP INARIZONAOPENER; GRANT INJ R D UE By Kent Nich o lls Photos by Matt St rong PHOENI X, ARIZ ., Feb. 2 7 , 19 72 Ever have o ne of those da ys w he n no thing seemed to go righ t ? Well , AJS ride r Doug Grant probabl y wishes he never he ard of Phoenix , Ariz. He and J ohn DeSoto w ere h aving quit e a duel in the first mo t o when G rant's brakes appeared to lo ck up, causing h im to ge t _ o ff extre m ely heavily. In ex change for the lo ng t rip to Pho enix , Mr. Grant go t a broken leg. The reaso n Do ug G rant, J ohn DeSoto, Ron DeS o t o , J oh n Rice , T im Hart a nd the gang fro m Mid- Valley drov e so many miles to race was Ariz . Cy cle Park. Joh n DeSoto tho ugh t it was o f E uropean quality, Joh n Rice sai d it was bitc he n. It was . The course was at leas t 50 ft . wide all the way aro und , so pas sin g was no problem. Fo u r tho usand spectators were treated to some fantastic races, such as the G ran t·D eSo t o duel in the 500 E xp e r t s class, e nded by Grant's un timely unl o ad . Even with Do ug o ut o f co ntentio n, the 500 Ex pert class caused m uch excitement. The last moto had to be res tarted tw ice bcause of cras hes. Wh en it fin ally got u nde rway , it feat ur ed John De Soto, Tim Hart and Bob He rshey in very close formation. Later o n, Hart got by DeSoto and Bob Hershey got by both. J o h n Rice claims that he is getting old and tired. Tell that to S unday's 125cc Experts, and they will laugh at you, since all they saw of John R . all d a y wa s t he posterior of his Puch. T he good racin g wasn't confined to only the Expert classes. The 12 5 Novice class saw Ernie Hen dr icks do th e clean Flyin' Byron Ross took fifth for the best A rizona fin ish. Th at fr ont wheel peeking into the pictu re belongs to Tim H art. sw eep . Amateur Mike Patterson o n his 360 full 50-second lead o n th e numb er two Kenneth Ha llmark and crew did ma n y thing better by dragging between m o to s Yamaha came b ack from a spectacular man. mo nt hs of work in six weekends to and get more of the track in view fro m crash in th e second mo t o t o lead, O f th e 200 riders, at least 19 9 dug ma ke A riz. Cycle Park o ne of the best t.h e p its . wire-to-w ir e, th e third finish ing with a th e course. T h e p!omote rs, Dal e Ow nes, t rack aro u nd. They plan to m ak e a good • GERBER: old bike, new ways . ./ By Terry Newfarmer CEDAR FO RT, UTAH , Feb. 7 , 1972 European bike s to ride one, only to With many of th e to p riders switching have it go up in flam es in the p it s, a La classes from las t year an d newly-fitted flaming Husk y in Bruce Brown' m o vie. It seems th at som ebody slop ped gas all silencers , 2 13 Ut ah rid ers o pen ed th e 19 72 racing season with a 70 -m ile hare ov er the bike while so mebody else kicked it ov er with th e sparkplug on the scram bles at Manning Cycle Par k. T he s ponso ring Tooele Desert ou tsi.de to see if it had spark. It did. Strid ers showed th ey learned fro m th eir Fifth oyerall was Pe te r Crandall o n a . races last season, prod ucing an eve nt Pen ton , a .ride r th at promises to b e wi th no signup h assle, a fair course , an d unbeatable In th e 125 class. An array of gullies up the m id d le of acc u rate res ults. A welcome change fro m last year's Cedar Valle y Scrambles the startin g ar ea caused the formation was th at the co urse was clearly open fo r of tw o st artin g lin es, with a 100'yard all t o p ractice o n before the ra ce, gap in between, some cho o sing th e witho ut any questio n o f whether it was . smooth grassy flat o n the left, o th ers t ak ing the jeep road on th e rig h t . A t th e to be an un kno wn co urs e o r no t. And four rid ers were disqualified fo r gu n , Lloyd Lawh orn was sta nd ing n ex t course-cu tting, set t ing th e stage fo r a t o his b ike in the Le Man s start, year o f en fo rc ement o n that su bject. .p ret ending t o b e a sp ecta tor, while Pr eston Gerb er is riding a Bultaco Kevin Cro ft insist ed o n being t en feet in this year, and a 2 5 0 at th at - with no front of th e general lineup. Bu t then ch an ge in h is perfo rmance, first overall . Lawhon is ov er 4 0 , and Cro ft did b reak Following was Dave Blaylock fo r the d own. Open class win, a nd Lamar Walker, who The course itself wa s mostly a fun gave up h is Rat fo r a new Yamaha 360 trail th rough th e junip ers , with nothing MX ; definitely a rider to watch this really hairy, excep t that everything got season. progressively slicker, due t o a light Speaking of new Yamahas, Dennis snowfall. (Results on page 32) Packard has given up all those fancy Warren Burrel braves th e bottom of a dow nhill , eyes closed and alt . ShuDlan on 2, for a change Lamar Walker, up from th e 100s: Sec ond Open. t hird over all . By Ned Said PHOENIX, ARIZ., Feb . 20 , 19 72 Li ttle Billy Shum an a t en-y ear pro car driver with US AC still remembers when it was fun to race a mo torcycle as he mounted a borro wed 125 Yamaha a nd wo n th e Sweepstakes race in the TT at .Bear d sley Raceway t o day . Young Pa t Kle in on h is new 125 BuItaco was right b eh in d him all th e wa y. A fte r the ch ec kered flag Billy showed a perfect full power, peak RPM slid e, through a righ t hand sweeper . What eve r h appened to Billy 's yo ung b rother R on? In th e 65 0 E xp ert Main , Rick Kraft (N or) was o u t fro nt all th e way ridin g the inside groove wi th a n ice lead. D et e ct iv e R on Selle rs and Ken Kill eb rew o n their Trium phs we re ex ch an gin g p lac es d uri ng a slid ing contest. Ken wo n t he slid ing co n t est the reby co nced in g second place t o Se llers who went to th e in sid e groove on th e last lap. Once in a wh ile, a b unch o f old retired , or tire d mot o rcy cle drivers, bo rro w th eir so n's b ikes a nd ho ld a fa ther's rac e. Wen th e race st arted with Sonny Crawley, t h e flagman, lead ing, when a black flag went up for a downed wheelie start driver . On the restart, Co n ny Crawley wa s las t o ff the line and So nny Spiel man, th e track op era to r was first. Crawley d id so me fine pass in g to mo ve up to a legal seco nd place b ehind Spielman who was us in g an ille gal active pro rider Byron Boaz fo r a bloc ker. Anyway, Sonn y Spielman wo n - aft er all h e o w ns the tra ck . T h e wild bunch, the 25 0 Ex p ert riders , j am m ed the tr ack wit h riders going wh eel to wh eel, handleb ar t o hand lebar for many laps in real t ogetherness, u n til But ch Beard an d Jim Boat got o u t fro n t w ith J im in the lead . Eii \ly Butch m ad e a neat insid e move to t, :e th e ch eckered flag first. (Results o n page 3 2) ..