U
By J oh n Blanton
Pho tos by Ike Massey
SAN ANGE LO , T EXA S, Feb. 2 7,19 72
- Resu lts are ou t on the Texas road
race season opener, and the big winner
so far is Mike Co ne of Sherman. posting
fo ur big wins on the airport course near
San A ngelo and nearl y scoring anothe r
one , brough t down by mech anical
failure . Mike sco red big w ins in the
Ope n Productio n class, th e 250 h eat and
final , th e 500 he at and th e Op en Class
Fin al . The clo sing race at San Angelo
last seaso n saw a race -lo ng duel b etween
J on Min onno 's T riump h and Mike
Co ne 's Y am ah a T R2, a duel w hich Mike
finally lost.
Not so this time . T he Op en Cla ss
Final fo u nd the Yamaha first at the
fin ish , ah ead o f th e Triumph . All o f
Mike 's GP rid es were aboard Ya mahas,
b ut his mo unt fo r the Product io n class
was the Sto rm-sp o nso red Norton. In th e
Op en class h eat his No rto n w en t so ur o n
him fo r a change, giving him his o nly
d efe at of the da y.
O nce again th er e we re hybrid races ,
partly o n d irt, partly o n asphalt , and
surp rise wi nner in th e 250 clas s aboard a
flat track -fr am e Bultaco wa s Robert
J andeb eur, p reviously no ted for his road
racing ac tivities o n a 750 Honda. What a
switc h! Rob ert no w rides a b ig Triump h
o n the ro ad course.
Jo n Min onno wa s t h e top dr ag
winner,
taking the N umber One
catego ry on h is Triumph .
The last wo rd h ere on Larry Bea ll
J r:s injuries is that he was rep o rt ed in
good condition after remain ing in
intensive care at Sh anno n Hosp ital
Sunday night. Larry had ridden in the
250 class early in the meet and was
riding in the infield between races when
his neck caugh t a w ire strung between
posts . This sounds like a grim tale told
before. Larry Jr. is the son of
motorcycle racer Larry Sr., and is a
racer of great note in h is own right.
(Results o n page 56)
Tongue sticking out, Joe Patto n apexes a turn and eyeballs the next one.
One must have knobby
ones in Hutchinson.
By Kent Nic holls
WILC OX , A RIZ., March 19, 197 2 - As
motocro ss b ecomes mor e popular in the
U.S., tracks are p opping up all over.
Wilcox Cycle Park is part of the present
boom. It s remote locat io n caused the
field to b e a lit tl e small, with on ly 45
rid ers Sunday.
Wilco x Cycle Park is a ma n-m ade
co urse abo ut 34 of a m ile lo ng. The
surface is wet sand. maki ng fo r some
neat
berms
an d
so me
nasty
wh oop-d e-des .
At
first,
it
was
co mparable to a twisty IT co urse, but ,
with a t h ree ho ur practice, rid ers mo re
o r less b uilt th eir own co ur se.
Racing go t underway aro und 1 :00
with t he minibik es. T his was really fu n
to wat ch as th e mini-racers had to rid e
the same course as th e bi g b oys. Even if
they lack size, th ey d on 't lack
det ermin ation. Reed Soss o ng and Brad
Lax dueled for th ree motos finally
ending up in that o rd er .
In th e 125 Nov/A m class, (no
Experts came at all) Yam ah a-mo un ted
Ken Hardy mad e a clean sweep .
T he :1 50 Combin ed class with two
Experts and "12 Nov/Ams., was su rely
the best racing of th e day wit h Experts
Keit h Coult er and Paul Lax in tigh t
forma t io n fo r th ree motos. Poor old
Paul (Gre) had to figu re h ow to get b y
seemingly
10-fo o t wide
Co ulter's
Yamaha, pl u s keep AJ S pilot Ralph
Grinstaff fro m ge tti ng by h im. Paul
never d id ge t around the Yam ah a, b ut ,
t he Nov/Am riders didn't get by eit her
so all was not lost for Paul Lax .
Land owner-pro mo te r-water tru ck
driver-nice guy Earl Hack, a nd tr ack
manager-equally nice guy Jim T horne
gives o ne th e impression th at o ne is
raci ng in th eir b acky ard. T ro p hy
winne rs go t th eir p icture taken , and
everyone was invit ed to co me b ack for
th e nex t race in thre e weeks.
(Resu lt s on page 5 6)
Lax Wins Expert no - show
on 10 - foot - wide Yamaha
By Mel Gere
H UTCHI NS ON, KAN. , March 26 , 19 72
goi ng away and no one came close . CZ
Th e sa nd hills northeast of
mad e it eviden t that it was th er e in this
Hutchinso n, Kan sas, normally are t he
class as Pet e Kaufman, Danny Dixon
playground o f coyotes and rattlesnakes,
and Dan Dri skill fo llo wed Bahm in that
but on this windy and ch illy Sunday the
order, all on the same mak e.
The popular Junior events proved to
pl ace belonged to th e motocrossers. An
enthusiastic gro up
of riders and
have just as much excitement as the
spectators braved the winds fo r a
Experts. T he 25 0 class went to th e wire
with J erry Atkinson (Mai) and Mik e
successful d ay of racing.
Horn (Yam) t ied in points at th e finish .
T he big race in the Open Expert class
At kinso n got th e first place gol d as h e
wa s for second pl ace as Nick Warren
clean ed hou se o n his Hu sk y w inning all
won th e last m oto, but had to pass Ho rn
at th e tw o lap s to go mark.
three h eat s. St eve T wineha m (C·Z) an d
Don Bachura (Yam) go t off to a poor
Harl ey Phill ip s (BSA) , b o th local shoes,
st art an d finished fif th in th e first heat
fough t tooth an d nail for seco nd pl ace
of 125 's. He got things lined o ut and
mo ney. Twineham held th e edg e with
put it all b ack togethe r in t he n ext two
two seco nd pla ces against o ne for
Ph illip s.
heats an d won both of them to get th e
first pl ace trophy.
Gar y Clem ent made it a do ub le
Ch arli e Hans on (S uz) was co nsiste n t
vic to ry fo r Hus k y as h e also swept all
and fin ished near th e to p in all t hree
t h ree h eats in th e 125 Expert class. He
was fo llowed b y a brace of D.K.W .
heats of the Junior Op en and
acc umu late d th e proper amo un t o f
rid ers, Mike Levally and Robert Evan s.
p oints to cap th e firs t pl ace tro ph y .
CZ rid er St eve Bahm of Wich ita was
having the day you dream of in th e 250
Remember: "Yo u have to have
kno bby o nes to rid e motocross :'
Expert event. He wo n all three heats
Edward Green at Mansf ield hums along on his littl e Suzuki.
