By J ohn Grout
VALENCIA, CA L. ,Marc h 2 6 ,-Tracy
Oswell , a resident of t he local Saugus
area, ro lled h is CZ to trac k-sco rching
victories in all th ree of his heat races to
collect the day's overall win against the
250 Ex perts at Indian Dunes Park.
Even though great pressure was
ap p lied to th e eventual winner b y R ick
Salmon, Randy Nordyke and Jim Hale,
each o f wh om held brief ea rly leads in
t he three m o to s for the divisio n , Oswell
shattered th ei r hopes with a bike that
had m o re top-end than an I tal ian film
classic.
Each time t he C Z racer thought the
time was ripe - u su ally down th e long
front straight beside the mountain, up
came the wick .. and the rest of the
crew was treated to a view of the south
end of Oswell, going north .
Young Mike Todd, who had to switch
bikes in the mid-steam, so to speak, for
the final moto, collected a 1·2 ·2 score,
thus becoming the day's "big gun"
among the Open Experts. Mike had to
borrow the other Maico from his dad,
Bill, before appearing on th e st arting
line for the final class event. And it was
obvious that he hadn't sacrificed a bit of
horsepower in the tra nsact io n.
In that final heat, both Todd and Jim
Mercier, still another Mai co-mounted
fireba ll, fought each other to such a
fantastic lead, that they probably could
have finished as winners in next
Sunday's first m o to , After five laps,
th cy were still side-by-side, heading to
the finish line.
M
Czech Motor Like Italian Movie
This Sunday's action at th e Dunes
will fe ature the first round of the
Can -Am Motocross seri es . A crack crew
o f Canadians will be o n hand .. hoping
Even though Mercier did win the final
go -round, Todd still got the overall
victory because of a better first race.
Russ Mortensen was third.
e
"n
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11.
to regain the go ld cup which they lo st
to us in 1971. This c o u ld well be one of
this year's outstanding programs. First
race a t 9 :30 a.m,
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You take the'high
road ~an
