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/141017
N . 1l, e, N .... '" .; a « ~ w Z W ...J U > U .- St eve Bast , Mike Con le, Bru ce Haserot m ix it up. CODY JUMPS OUT TO FAST START By Bruce Fla nders Photos by Dennis Greene INDIO; CAL., March 25, 19 72-The Speedwa y season opened with a fast and furious show at the Ind io Showgrounds Saturday night. The 207 yard long track created some fantast ic racing with the heavy favorites performing in fine style. The cushion of decomposed granite was a little thick and m ad e for interesting action as it mo ved around on the clay base. First time promoter, Bob Da nforth , was enth u siastic about the . c ro w d ' tu rn o u t and sai d that track cond itions would b e imp roved for th e next meeting o n Ap ril 8. S tart er , Pee Wee C u llu m, was busy all n igh t keeping t he p umped-up co mpe titors in proper seq ue nce as t hey ap proached t he tapes. The rid ers that just re turned from A ustralia were defi netely gett ing m uch better "gates" probably because they h ad practiced against some of the world's best. Mike Bast, cu rrent number one rider, was the only rider to go through the tapes, b ut this happened in a semi and the other riders were Woods, Ko nl e and Nutter this would seem to add pressure to even young Mike and his attempt to keep the number one status. Someone had to be the first tapeb reaker this season anyway. A large pil e-u p in the thi rd heat of second division riders mad e for an unscheduled ri de in the "great wh ite w hale" for Da n Gwinn. Dan had that terrib le c hoice of riding over a fallen rider o r steering an alternate course over the fa lle n rider's bike. Gwinn c hose , of course , the scoote r and d id th e sk y roc ke t shot la n d in g hard a nd inju rin g h is shoulder. S om eone o wes D an a b ig t hank-you and we d idn't get the other rider's name. Rod Muzzy was the victor in the seond d ivision main and Mark Cherry was the man putting the pressure on for second. Eric O lsen was looking very much in control of the situation as he led h is h eat, the semi, and the final from his 0 yard start to the checkered flag. Second in that event was S teve Bast w ho seems to have learned to get by riders whenever he wan ts . Steve came all the way from the 60-yard line to wind up second. The two hig h school trophy girls were awe struck at the thought of planting a victo ry k iss on O lse n and Muzzy. So the be st show at intermissio n was the beautifu l 1935 Aub urn trophy car. Cody put a beautifu l ga t job on the main and went o n to wi n. \Vo ods was charging all th e time b u t couldn't do t he job on Cody. Steve Bast was a supe r close th ird an d proverbial b la nke t wo uld have at least touched a ll three motorcycles at the finish lin e. Experimenting with the release of the gate timing created contro versy among the riders. Some of the riders wan ted to have a lo ng hold at the line (a la Cos t a Mesa) while others were digging o n the q ui c k gates lik e international competition. Anothe r controversial point was the lo cat io n of the referee. Many of the fans wan ted the re f to stand out in the infield wh ile t he current (trial) p o sitio n calls for h im to be in the grandstands. RESU L T S SPEED WAY I n dio Sp e edw ay I nd io, Calif. March 25. 1 972 SCRA TC H MAIN Bi ll Co dy Rick W ood s S te ve Bast HANDI C AP MAI N Er ic O lsen Ste ve Bast Mike Bast DI V II MA IN Rod Muzzy Mark Cherry Jeff Sexton Eso Eso Eso Eso Eso Eso Eso Eso Eso