Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ <; ~ ., .. '" Q. N .... !!! N . ~ ::> ~ w z W ..J 0 > U Frank Mathews Wins a Hodaka at Muntz Tri-Am By David Swift MOO R PA RK, CAL., Marc h 5 , 19 72 This is ac t ually two articles in one. First: Sev eral months ago I received a phone call from the P.R. man fo r Earl Muntz. It seemed as if Earl Muntz was getting in to b ik es. Those b orn before the Big Boom probably remember Earl Mun tz as the used-car dealer who made a mill ion wit h an absurd ad cam paign th at earned him the nic k-name, Mad Man Muntz . Mad Man later o pe ned up th e first Kaiser-Frasier dealership and cle an ed up th ere. La ter, he invented th e Muntz Stereo -Pak an d made it p ossible fo r everyone to have tap ed music (o r Musak ) in the privacy of th eir very own auto mo bile. Mu ntz, always t h e lo ver o f fine gadgetry and fun ct io nal ma ch in ery , b lew a b und le o n th e now -classic Muntz J et, t he ca r h e st ill proudly calls " America 's first spo rts car ," and made a co uple of fortunes in places tha t are wr it ten down in one o f my long-lost no tebook s (Yo u see , I was su pposed to have t his story in p rint a lon g tim e ago but so meho w fell a b it back o n my work. ) A nyway, Muntz sold h is most recen t e n terpr ise, th e St ere o -P a k s , fo r ga wd- kno ws- how-m uc h, w en t into re tirem ent fo r a while, got b o red wi th th at , and decided to go in to th e moto r home rental busine ss. He always suppl i ed a trail bike as o p tio na l eq u ipment for t he motorhomes and wh en peop le start ed ask ing to rent j ust th e b ik es, one of th ose litt le ligh t b ulbs in hi s he ad lit and h e wa s in t h e bi ke ren tal busin ess. Enter his son, J im . Jim Muntz has been rid ing bi k es for a long time an d knew th at th e ti me was righ t to get a cy cle park started. Land was closing up everywhere. He talked his father into invest ing in a nice chunk of land. Jim opened up Muntz Cy cle Park last July and has rarely left it since. He works on the thing 16 hours a da y , learning as he goes along. When th e park first opened Jim took me on a tour of the terrain. Standing on the pegs of his Rickman Yamaha, he picked his way through b o uld er patches and sandwashes with precisio n whil e he pointed out the park's features. A motocro ss course would go in right here, a TT track over there, there 's some neat trials terrain back around there , and so me people are interested in having a hillclimb up o ver there. He said all this with bubbling pride. Sin ce th at day Jim has been watching over every im p ro vem en t. The place has grown steadily since its inception and th ings are lo oking even b ett er in th e fut ure. Wha t abou t Earl? Oh , he 's watchi ng the p roj ect and occasionally invests money in it, alth o ugh h e is a bi t dubious. But Jim is pretty much on hi s ow n. Mad Man did n't get rich by no t knowing wh at he was doing. • • • "I like to make it so th at everyone has a chance to win ."That'sJim Muntz talking. He was up on top of the b uilding that headquarters Muntz Cycle Park , handling the PA chores for his last Tri-Am All-J uniorMotocross. This time, he was giving a contingency prize to someone named Jenkins. Jenkins won the prize because he finis hed dead last in the second mo to of the 125 class . All -Junior races are, at best, terribly boring fo r me. If your kid brother is racing, you have so meo ne to watch but for so meone who go es to a race every week, it 's just a parade. Around and aro und they go u nt il th e checkered flag comes out. Every so o ften, someone steps' o ut. There were two good battles. First one cam e in the seco nd heat of th e John Hrynk iewicz, top 125er at the Muntz series, won a vveekend in a houseboat. Combined 250 Juniors Division II and Open Juniors. J im Merc ier wa s leading Frank Mathews but Mathews was clo sing in fast. They co vered a couple o f laps, pushing each other hard; they barreled into a couple of com ers so fast only sheer determination kept them off their head. Mercier, riding a 400 Maico, finall y let his tail end go over a b erm and Mathews, on a smaller 250 Bultaco, won the race. They were both so far in front that Jim co uld gather his things together an d re-enter the race without losing any more positions. As it turned out, Mathews won his class and overall h igh po in ts for the three-race series , which was worth a ' brand new Hodaka Super Rat, donated by Tiger Distribut ing of Glendale. As for Mercier, he could do no better th an second in th e Open clas s b eca use he DNF'd earlier with a broken throttle cable. The win we nt to Steve Go rd on, the second o f th e three Open riders entered today. Steve also gathered t hird in th e overall points standing for the three -race series, whic h was worth .a $50 gift certificate. While we 're on the subject of p rizes - and there w er e plen ty of them - we mu st mention the prize for second in the series. It was wo n by John Hrynkiewicz. T he booty: a houseboat for a weekend. Hard to say w hat the young teenager is going to do w ith it . Hrynkiewicz did put in a fine performance towards th e boat. He had the 125 class pretty much to himself today . His only oppostion came from Steve Graham, who would scamper out of the pack from time to time to give John a bad ti me. A bit of luck and a lot of hard riding kept John at th e fore all day. _ Smoothest rider of the d ay was Kent Graham. He won the first d ivision of the 250 class on his Maico (except for a single lively moto from Peter Penland) and looked bored out there. He would have a IOO-yard lead before the first lap was co mpleted . From then on, it was merely a matter of staying awake until the checkered flag came out. 100 Junior Dan Spaethe had the same proble m o n his Hodaka after firs t mo to winner Mike Stephenson broke in the early stages of the second round. Bummer. Mike was on his way to win n ing that Hodaka. The final mo to of the Powde r Pu ffers feat ured an exciting race in slo w mo tion. Ch ery l Acres to ok th e lead , followed clos ely by Nancy Daggs. A lap lat er , Nancy takes th e lead. T hey ride like that for a few lap s until Ch eryl gets the lead back . Then th e race ended. It wa s Jim Munt z ' fi st attempt at r pushing a full-b lown event. Entries were down because (a) of the Viewfinders GP just over the hill, and (b) th er e seems to b e mo re A ll-Junior events these days t ha n th ere are J uniors. Mu ntz had a lot of backing from C h am p i o n Helmets, Yamaha of Thou sand Oaks, Tiger Distributi ng, and other o utfits who realize t hat those lovable Jun iors are th e ones who buy everything. Next mo tocro ss at Muntz is for both J uniors and Seniors March 19. Riders here seem to be enthusiastic about the whole program so it might be worthwhile to drop by. (Results on page 36) Frank Mathews , winner of a brand new Hodaka Super Rat. A ll it cost him was some entry fees and a lot of work .

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