Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

----------- -- Stomp a Pit Racer--It'U Make You Feel Good c. < ~ w Z W ...J o >o By Alic e Rhea Ph otos by Dale and Ali ce Rh ea NEA R FOUR CORN ERS , CAL ., Marc h 26, 197 2 - The first th ing to gr eet my weary eyes as we approache d th e camp area was a large sign: "Sto mp a pi t racer...it'll ma ke you feel good!" O h, I just knew that I was going to like this club. The weathe r was real ly miserable, but I talked to Huntington Beach ~I.C.'s referee and he promised to d o wh at he co u ld . By starting tim e th e clouds were go ne an d b y I I :00 it was almo st warm . He never d id get th e wind to sto p . but yo u ca n 't have everyt hin g. Last year Huntingt on Beach M.C. held th eir ma iden Wild Hare Scrambl es o n th is very site an d Howard Utsey won it fo r his maid en First Overall. Utsey (Suz ) di d it aga in today . (CZ) was first J im Fishback Ligh tw eight Ex pert and second o verall . I learn ed that th e reaso n a guy with a number lik e 148 8x can do so well is that in real life he is a m o to cros s hot-sh oe, Fo llo wing Utsey and Jim were Dave Winch ell (Bul ), T om Muto (H us) and Larry Pfutzenreuter. Pfutz p ull ed into his Sled Riders ' pits with a strong lead over Ut sey. T he crew gave him a six -second pit and was gone before Utsey ho ffed into sight, but somehow it just was n't h is day. Pfutz got on his h ead three times, got lost three times and had a spectator b ack into him, k nocking Pfutz and pedestrian to the dec k. Pfutz wasn ' t too specific about t he o rder in w hic h these eve nts occured. Perh ap s I sh ould remind everyone t ha t (a) th e p it ar ea is a dan gerous place and (b) th at the co urse through th e p it are a is 50 feet wide. (A rt icle VII , sectio n 7), AMA District 3 7 Sports Committee Rul ebook, and (c) at no time is it safe to get anywhere near th e trail during a rac e. Steve Ellsworth (Bul) cro ssed th e finish line next, almost unnoticed. This is th e first time anybody has ever seen Ellis wh en h e wasn 't following George Walker. Four places behind Ellsworth, was Mitch Mays(H-D) first Division II Lightweight an d lOth overall. Eddie Crowell must hav e really done some supe r tuning on Cordis Brooks ' Hodaka, Cordis was first trailbike again , Com e o n, Cordis, give someone els e a ch ance. . A.C. Bakken (Hus) was first Amatuer again today . I mean, fellas , these resul ts are really getting dull. Oh, here's one I haven't seen ... Paul Shaw (Bul) was first Division I Ligh tweight, Am ateur, J im Gilchrist (Ya m ) was first Division II Lightweigh t, and A mateu r Dean Dailey (Hod) was first Trail Am . A fellow nam ed T om Sawyer on a Puch c ame in third Division II Lightweight Amateur, held up his righ t hand, and sol emnly sw o re th at th at was his true name. Bob Hogan, J r. (Hus) go t first No vice today. He didn't see m as excited abo ut it as I th ough t h e ought to but ma yb e he was t ire d fr om holding off Mar k Windsor (Bu l) wh o wa s second No vice and first Division I Lightweight No vice. Mark got 0 ff hard and was pretty sh ak ey, but he finished. Down th e lin e a bit, Ron Music (Bu l) was in the fifth position overall Novice and third Heavy Novice but Ron lost his tank card and we'Il just have to wait for the official results to see whether his number is on all the lap checks and whether lap- checks are okay with District 37 or if you just hav e to have that tank card. About 12th overall Novice was Mark Steel(Bul) I usually don't get down this far with any class , co ntend ing myself with the first three in each group, but Mark's wife (girlfriend?) was vibrating worse than his motorcy cle and shouting and hugging everybody....well, I'm a softie fo r a success st o ry. Mark just go t that brand new Bul taco, he fell o ff three t imes (p ro bab ly trying to emulate Pfutz's style) and st ill managed to do ra ther w ell.Mark, I st ill say you gotta go j us t a lit tle faster . I th in k th e transfer p oin ts end at II tho Bill Van ett s (Yam ) was firs t Divisio n 11 Novice and fa r fro m last was Frank Keep ers (Hod) as first T rail Novice. J udy Lovell (D KW) probably would have been first femal e Novice, b ut they pl ugged up the second loop at I pm . Som e wh ere in this me ss I saw a round white pl at e with a gre en 35 on it . The number looke d strange, an d closer inspec tio n revealed a 36 0 Yam ah a sidehack , toting grinning J ohn Mo nohan and Rob Norris. First and o nly sidehack. Bravo for th e Huntington Beach M.C. Thanks to their efforts there was Why is this man look ing at the camera ? virtually no pit-racing this weekend. HBMC did a really terrific job, co nsid ering that the club is made up entirely of Novices. There is not one Amateur or Expert in the club. Gary Brannon, mounted o n a 1902 vintage Greeves, did manage to obtain one transfer point once upon a time, but nobody is su re how he did it and Gary has not b een able to duplicat e th e feat. T he re wer e sever al co mp lain ts fro m riders wh o go t lost today . Havin g h eard the same t hi ng last year, I looked aro und and talked to people and ca me to two co ncl usio ns. First, th e weath erman b lew away the lime as fast as th e club cou ld put it o u t, an d sec ond, th e club colo rs of blue and yellow , wh ile an attract ive combination , would make exc ellent d esert ca moflage clothi ng. The clu b h as com e a long wa y since last year an d they learned more toda y, so th eir ne xt run will be b etter st ill. I wish every club h ad public relations men like HBMC s Ben Kar cher, re feree, and Glenn Henley. They re ally had the behind-th e-scenes act ivit ies programmed and I'll bet everybody has their results within one week. Somehow their "Banner-Bomb" ended up in Barstow (th ey think) but they ran up a couple of By Alice Rhea uWe have three enemies in the desert. Noise, litter and Pit-racers." These were the words Invader John McCowan used to open Saturday night's anti-pit-racer meeting which was very appropriately held at campsite o f a desert race . Attendance was not large , due in p art to th e nasty weather, and partly b ecaus e o f some del ay in notifying th e various clubs. However, about 50 very en t husiastic d esert racers go t to gether and tossed aro u nd som e ideas whi ch will b e presen ted to the District 3 7 Sp orts Commi ttee fo r co nsideratio n . "Sic Kookie o n 'em." "Beat 'em up. ,. "Impound th eir bikes." O fficiall y , pit racing is d efin ed as "riding a motorcycle in a man ner hazardo us to other riders or spectators. " I would en large on that to incl ude terrorizing spectators and other rid ers , " d us ting" others wh o are trying to use th e area on or n ear th e road, an d entering or p assin g close to camp ing areas with no regard for o thers' rights of p eace. According to th e ru le book a club may disqualify an y rider fo r p it -ra cing. I was happy to note that the Fo ur Aces took advantage of that rule and smaller flags and nobody had trouble finding the place . A much improved race over last ye ar 's HBMC. If you co n tin ue to improve at this rate y ou rs will soon be one of the best. Oh, I almo st forgot. Tracy Hu yck (no. 96x) lost his motorcycle (a form er DKW) near the fini sh line. Th e parts w ere scattered over a mile or so; however, Tracy was fortunate to land n ear th e p ieces carry in g his tank ca rd U NOFF I CIAL RESULTS OVERALL H oward Utsey Jim F ishback D ou g Winch ell Tom Mut o Larry Pfutzenreut er Steve Ellsworth Bill Sal t zman S ob Kaskel Jerry Jones Mit ch M ay es EX DIV II LTWT Mit ch Mayes Wayne Cook Er ic Jensen E X TRAILBIKE Cordis BrookS Larry Rceseter M ike Johnson and numb er plate. Fleet-footed Tracy snatched these items and sprinte d across the finish lin e a la Tom Poteet and b y gum, HBMC, good sport s, gave him the finish .... If you sc ro unge through this issue yo u will find several in teres t ing things that happened this weekend th at th e editor just won't give me room for here. Better find it an d read....and yo u pit-racers ca n read it and weep . Hod H -D H od F rank Sno ok T om Sawyer lCOcc D ean Dai ley T om Sragton T erry Harris NOV HEAVVWEIG HT BobH ogan,Jr Scott Esteran Ron M usic Joe Jon es John Dy kstra D on T or~son Ric k Smi th Brad Gosche NOV LIGHTWEIGHT M ark Windsor Dave Lapra lk Benny Pad illa Mark Steel HEVYWEIGHT A. C. Bakken Eugne Sragg Gene Weller Hus Vam Hus B ill Vanettes Neil Christman John Pettis Jim Bu rch Pau l Shaw Randy Milligan Rick Lee Bul Hus Su x CZ Su i H us Su i Sui 400 Hus 400 S uz 4 0 0 H us 100 H -Q 400 25 0 250 400 25 0 250 H -Q H-O DKW AMA LIGHTWEIGHT DIV II Jim Gllchri"t DIV II LITEWTE Bul Vam TRAIL Frank Keepers Jack Dalley Mike Thill SIDEHACKS John Monahan/Rob Norris o ss Puc Hod Vam H·D Hus Hus Bul H us H us Su z Hus Suz Bu l AJS Hus Bul Vam Puc Vam Vam Vam Hod R ic Yam THE DEATH OF A PIT RACER disqualified two riders for this offense during their recent Moose Run. Huntington Beach M.C. used a l O-year-old girl as pit patrol to flag down children who were speeding and to advise them of the 10 mph speed limit. She got cooperation from all but t wo , which ' sh e reported to their parents. The parents were more th an happy to h ave it brought to their att ent io n and locked up the kid s b ik es for th e rest of the weekend. Last summer, so me o ne threw d ynamite at p assing pit-racers during th e night. . .a little drast ic, pe rhaps, b ut te rnbly effective. A lot of p it-raci ng ste ms from t houghtlessness . It sometim es d oes no t occur to people th at they are scari ng th e wits o ut of you r wife an d kids when the y blast by them o n th e road at 60 mph. . .t hey always rid e th at fast . Or perhaps the p ath th rough your camp ma k e a co nvenient short-cut to their cam p and th ey don't realize that yo u fin ally got th e baby to sleep j us t a moment b efore. Some of it is malicious. Smart-ass es who know everybody in your camp is asleep and could just-eare less. They are having a real good time blasting along in the middle of the night with their wid e open expansion chambers . The serious suggestions came in the order of a pit patrol. Hopefully, we will be ab le to get District 37 to back us on one of these suggestions. First, a weekly pit -patrol made up of six people, mal e o r female, each from a di fferent club. Or, a six-ma n team fro m each club to alt ernate every w eek. w ith over 6 0 clubs in District 3 7, th at is less th an one wee k a ye ar you r clu b would h ave to sac rifice to end this b ligh t. Anothe r sugge stion, an d one we all can start em p loying right now is fo r each club to station a member near the road to flag down any pi t-racers h e sees an d info rm h im /h er th at they are o ut of line. Sometimes a word is all it takes. T he Distric t 3 7 me e ting is the first T hursday of each month. We ca n all go . lf you h ave an y ide as o n ho w to stop pit-ra cers drop me a line at Cy cle News . Desert racing is supposed to be fun. Let's not let pi t -racers, sp oil ano t h er minute of it for us.

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