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/141019
ex> LOCKHART LURES THE WHOLE STATE Co « ~ w Z W ...J U >- U ... By Paul Hanson Photos By Richard Creed LOCKHART, TEXAS, March 26, 1972 - Motocross is one year and one month old in the small, Middle American municipality of Lockhart, Texas. If rider rosters and spectator populations are an y indicators, the sp ort if here to stay. The closer it gets to summer, the more riders and racing teams become evident around th e cen tr al Texas circuit, and Southwest Motocross Park at Lockhart is no exception. The l\IX season is gearing up ...mu y pronto . Nearly 200 riders turned out for the latest SMXP shindig, but the interesting factor was not the number of participants but the n umber of miles some of the rid ers drove to attend. Rusty Weir a nd friends made their appearance from Abilene, as did the Graham brothers, Bob and Greg, fro m Houston. Phil Snipes and Mark Moore trucked down 1-35 from Dallas, and there was a contingency of riders from Corpus Christi. (Ch eck yo ur road atlas for easy re ference to these exotic places.) • Some of the t op area contenders hav e been sidelined with injuries. Jack Hicks, of Austin, Texas, is ou t a while with a set of tom ligaments; San Antonio flash Kent Howerton has a possible broken wrist;Jack O'Leary broke his leg a couple of months ago; Brady Booth has a gimpled ankle... the list goeth on. That's probably why the prevailing opinion of the day seemed to be "Since there's S 1,500 worth of cash, co n tin gencies and trophies in the offing, what's a little gas mo ney ?" My guess is that the d udes th at showed u p h op ed to grab a piece of the cake while some of • a ~I 1.111 Central t he top d ogs were gone. The 125cc classes at Lockhart (No vice and Expert) have bulged out of proportion as of late, so a 125cc In termediate class was added this month, much to th e riders and spectators delight. There was an expected win in th e 125 Experts b y present, ever" popular Steve eve r Stackable, and there was some good racin g done. sin ce talent seems to seek it's own level, but the Intermediate 125 was a fracas which more th an j ust ified the addition of that class. The Intermediates rattled h andlebars with the reckless aband o n evident in highly competitive classes like the 250 Experts. Penton mounted Mark Roberts, who has paid his dues many times over at So uthwest MX Park, kept up a pressure cooker pace all afternoon for the first place troph y - it was only right, SMXP owed him on that score. Bob Vaughn towed his Bultaco up fro m Corpus Christi to take second place. Bob Hernlund and Louis Rowlett were third and fourth. The 250 Expert even 15 were ru nning battles that saw the lead change hands so often that the only thing for sure was an outstanding show for the specs. Key figures in the free-for-all were Kasson Team rider Steve Stackable on a DT-2, and CZ riders Gary Bigley of Austin and Phil Snipes from Dallas. In the opening moto, Bigley's maro o n CZ held the lead for two laps with Snipes and S tackab le following very closely. Snipes, in the second position was never able to put a move on Bigley because of the p ressure Stackable was pouring on. Stackable got past Snipes in the tree-sh rouded ravine at the extreme end of the course and passed Bigley o n a long uphill about halfway around. Snipes d ecid ed h e wasn 't all that t ire d and dialed on so me more power to pass Bigley, but h e was unabl e t o catch Steve's Ya maha; at the finish it was Stackable, Sn ipes and Biglcy, firs t, seco nd and th ird . Sn ip es, who said· h e was recovering fro m a bou t wi th t he flu, pu t a "live 'n well " sta rt o n t he field of 2 2 remaining 25 0 's in th e sec o nd h eat and h eld the lead fo r three lap s. Stac kabl e shadowed him un til th ey came to a section wit h a TT ju mp followed by a rock-st rew n right hairp in . T he two we re elbow to elbow over the jump. Steve opted fo r the inside line while Phil went outside. which was his undoing as he came to grief straddling the berm and stalled. Stackable walked aw ay with the remainder of the moto. The third moto was a rematch between Bigley and Stackable since Snipes didn't show at the starting line. Bigley made his points with the crowd by upstaging Stackable for the win, but it was a duel all the way. The two Austin-based riders went at it hammer and tongs for a full five lap s. Bigley overshot the tum at the end of the backstretch and nearly took a shortcut into th e 3 0 foot deep gull y. Stackab le took over for a lap, but Bigley p ut on his determined co un terrance and regained the lead on the last lap. Steve had enough points for the first overall , and Bigley took the second place cash. Fred Hanna of the Houston H&H Racing Team got the third place gold after Snipe's disappearance before the third moto moved him up one notch from fourth to third place. The Open Experts was Bob Graham's playground. Graham's big bore Maico seemed to absorb th e teeth-rattling terrain at Lockhart as he led the parade all afternoon. Bill Kasson hung grimly onto second. Graham and Kasson, old hands at motocross. were well ahead of young Jimmy Flint and San Antonio's Rick Corbin on his much-modified TM-400, in third and fourth place. (Results on page 40) • 125 Novice J ay Lacy .