LIKE RUSH HOUR
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Stevens
and Sanner three wheeled their Honda four into number one spot .
to Open A m ateur/ Exp ert riders. Prio~ t o
the conclusion of the two hour ride,
Gene lap ped the hard riding sec ond
place Gene Smith who was mounted o n
a 650 Triumph.
From th e beginning' of th e race , it
became evident t h at the o nly thing th at
co uld stop Cannady from winn ing
would b e Ole Lady Fate. She chose to
leave the driving up to Gene.
It wasn't easy . Prior to Sunday's rac e,
Gene got off on some pavement and
turned his hands and fo rearm into
hamburger. At sign- up, he wasn't sure
whether h e could even ride. At the st art
of t he Open ra ce he said that he would
try a lap or two to see how it would go .
The entire field tried in vain to cat ch
him.
Mid Val ley Cycl es' > J ack Knebel
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see med to have a lload ch ance, but lost
his expansion ch amb er while in second
place in the final min ut es of th e race.
This put Gene Smith in solid second.
Gene came into the pits wi th raw
bl eeding hands from hauling his 40
in cher around the bad spots. He was
'h urt in g but happy with h is second
pl ace .
J ohn Rice seemed t o hav e th e best
chance a t catching Cannad y . John got
it o n after the first few laps. A t 30
minutes out h e was closing in at a rate
of 5 to 10 seconds per lap. At 4 5
minutes into th e race, John was late for
a scheduled p it stop. He had whiskered
a plug. The time that it took him to
diagnose and correct the problem put
h im well into the pack.
The surprising th ing ab out th e Open
race is that not only did a 40 in cher
take second place, b ut T riu mp h
J .E. Coburn did it to th e 250 Novices.
mounted B. Bubar took third. You guys
on those super light two-strokes think
you were tired when yo u go t in ? Sh ould
have seen the four-strokers.
Right from the beginning o f th e 500
N ovice race it looked lik e a spectator's
race w ith a massive pil e-up in the first
tum off the starting lin e. We had some
broken toes, a busted shoulder and o ne
punctured lung on that o ne.
T h e survivors plunged h eadlong into
the first bad downhill. About one third
of the pack made it through and it
lo oked lik e everyone was going t o make
it when o ne guy went down at the
bottom. Thar she blew. At an yone time
during the next several minutes there
mu st have been at least 50 riders in
various st ages of crashing. When th e
dust had clear ed , only Steven Lowell
and his downed Mo ntesa remained on
the hill . Steve had b een center punched
in the b ac k and wa s hurting. After he
was removed from th e course, he
flagged off R escue 3, saying that he
thought he could wal k it o ff. Next thing
we knew, he had some dude starting
his flooded st eed. He was helped into
the saddle in excruciat in g pain, and off
he rode. That's Novice d etermination
for y o u .
John McCown ch ose to rid e the first
lap of th e 500 N ovices solo. Maybe it
wa s a goad th ing with all that crashing
going o n . On the sec o nd lap he stopped
and picked up Kookie . The fantastic
duo completed t his race to ad d yet
an other ach ievem en t to the history of
this marvelous l Ovyear-old dog and his
master. Art Stevenson, o ffe red S 100 to
John to hire Kookie for lessons in down
hil l racing. Art feels that Kookie would
serve as a super guide dog through the
dust and fallen bikes.
Favorite riders in th e 250 Am/Ex.
bash incl u ded Larry Pfutzenreuter,
Gene Cannady and Jim Fishback. Two
desert riders and a rna t ocrosser, Larry
jumped t o t he lead in the first lap . Jim
go t him on th e b acksid e o f the c o urse
and h eld it for th ree laps. Steve
Ellsw o rth grabbed the lead and nev er let
it go . Pfu t z came h opping aro und with a
ben t shock, and managed to take seco nd
p lac e . T . O kamo t o and his Bult aco ro d e
a co nsist ent race and place th ird .
T om Zah n t er o n a R ickman was o u t
t here w it h the fast guys. He h ad worked
his way fro m the 15 th row to th e
leaders. He obviously had.the 125 class
sewed u p when he though t he bad a fla t
tire . "/1;0 sweat" says h e, "I'll just keep
going" . T hat was his last lap. The flat
tire tu rned out to be the com plete loss
of spokes. As he reached the pits, only
the rear fe nder held the wheel in place.
Jeff Wrigh t appears to be a power t o
be reckoned with . He re he is out there
wit h the 2 5 0 's, and he is do in g very
well. During t he fourth lap, Jeff was in
third p lace and getting ready to se t u p
fo r second. Bang, no transmission.. From
th e desert rep orts that I have b een
read in g and no w seeing h im fo r m yself,
I ca n o nly say , look o ut when h e gets a
25 0 or an o pen rid e. He is good.
Fo r th ose o f yo u t hat we re th er e and
di dn't stay fo r th e sid e h acks , yo u
missed a trad it ional show worth well the
pri ce of ad missio n. J ohn Palfrey man
an d Marvi n T omlinso n were th ere on
th eir 3 9 0 p ound T riump h Wasp . The
machine is im p ressiv e, and I th ink that
they would h ave won it if it were not
for the tu m bling grind ing crash they go t
into on th e d own hill j ust prior to the
fin al st raigh t at th e co mp letio n of th e
firs t lap . T h ey w ere leading at the time.
The team of Steven s and Sanner on a
Honda 750 t oo k over th e lead after the
crash and never let go . They haul dass
around the sh o rt ened co urse to lap
many of the field,
Several pit racers were warned mo re
t han once. Al Ferdman, Referee for the
4 Aces informed me that there was a
very real possibility that so me of th e
fore runners in this Grand Prix migh t b e
disq ualifed because of their lack o f self
co ntrol. For this reason, all res ults are
provisio nal at this time.
(Resul ts on page 3 9)
