KERPLUNK ••••••
JUST
co
C.
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By Ed Drechsler
SATURDAY . .
MOORPARK, CAL., April 8 , 1972 On o pe ning day o f th e 4 Aces Grand
Prix a cry rang out from one and all: A
fantastic improvement o ver . Willow
Springs. As one of th e promoting club
members put it, " Ro cks? Oh y eah, if we
found any, we just threw them off t he
co urse". One rid er claimed that th e
co u rse was th e "best damned Grand
Prix c o urse " th at h e h ad ever ridden.
The location, of course, was th e
world famous Muntz Cycle Park located
on the edge of Moorpark. The terrain is
virtually rock free and features some
go od up and d own hill ra cing, as well as
a good sized sand wash and two water
cross ings.
The 100 Novices started the day, on
sched ule . Over 100 of the little bikes
charged o nto t he co urse with the
enth usiasm that was to be shared by all
rid ers. At no p oi nt d id th e little guys
seem to have tro uble wit h the runs or
the sa nd. A few now wis h that they had
water proofed the ir scoots a littl e bit
better.
I
no ticed
that most of the
comp etito rs belonged to desert clubs.
T his seems to be the way to go,
esp ecially if you have trouble on the
back side of the course. I came across
two members of the Master Links who
were feverishly working to switch
wheels on their mounts. Jim Caudill lost
fire after the first downhill. His riding
b uddy, Ken Ames lost the rear bearing
and chain. By chan ce, it hap pened at
the same spot. They p ut Jim's wheel
and chain on Ken's bike, and Ken rode
to a finish. Later, Ken re tu rn ed and
towed his benevolent benefactor back
to the pits.
About an hour and a half into the
two hour race, the riders stopped
co ming by. Just like the race was over. I
was in the extreme back section of the
course at this time and noticed members
of the 4 Aces re-routing the trail.
Further investigation revealed one very
indignant la nd owner overseeing the
operation. First reports from Resc ue 3
indicated that he was armed and
hopping mad. 'Bout the time I got to
him, h e h ad calmed down considerably.
Seems that part of the course clipped
h is property and he felt th at "those
damned cycles weren't doin' an y good
to my grazing land" . Bes ides, it seems
that h e hadn't given permission for the
actual use o f his property.
The course now re-r o uted with
everyone in th eir pl aces now saw th e
250 Novi ces bonzai the first run . Over
200 rid ers in th e 250 N ovice class were
stuffed into the first tum. The first
down hill lo o ked like th e suicidal tr ek
o f lemmings as th ey kep t cascad ing over
th e crest in to a 'm assive pil e o f d owned
bikes and rid ers . T h ey were everywh ere.
After a few minutes to cl ear h eads and
straighten o ut handlebars, they were off
again. The next obstacle was an uphill
run just acro ss the wash . Once again
someone had a little trouble and went
sideways. Bonk - smash - ke rplunk.
J ust like 5 p. rn. o n the freeway.
Back to the first d own hill . Only one
ride r there now. His ~eet legal m achin e
is lying o n its side, he's st anding th er e,
h old ing his shoulder looking co nfus ed no t kn owing wh at to do next. The
familia r Rescue 3 truck b ounds to a
stop a t the b ottom of th e h ill an d o ut
co me s th e angel of mercy clad in red . In
a very few second s, a broken shoulder is
di agnosed and field wr appings are
ap p lied . In credibly, all is d one wi th
ab solutely no pain t o th e injured m an.
Th e man is helped to the truck and b ack
to the pits and friends .
Earl y 250 Novice leader T odd West
had to quit after only o n e lap. H is
silencer fell off and he suffered a fouled
plug because of a too large carb ureto r
hastely installed late Friday nigh t in
ord er to get his ma chine running just so
he could ride.
Dave Fiala had an o uts tanding rid e.
By the fifth lap he had come from last
place to fifth. In lap fo ur he passed 30
bikes. But, alas, a t t he finish he was no t
in there . Do n' t even know what
happened to him.
J.E. Coburn picked up the lead on lap
three and held it.for the first place gold.
J erry is 2 6 and says that this is his first
win in any kind of a race. He lik ed th e
rac e much better than the Viewfinders
GP at the Dunes.
Yamah a riders were surprised b y a
special engine number check at th e
co nclu sio n of the 2 50 Novice event.
Seems lik e it is getting harder and
harder to tell the difference between the
250 and 3 60 engines.
Back at the first water crossing, a
. couple of the flagmen had fun building
a dam to make the water deeper. A two
foo t deep cro ssin g soon developed
whic h very quickly started to claim
no n-waterp roofed bikes. T his same
gro up of jokers kep t moving stakes to
di rect the rid ers into t he deepest
po rtion.
T hro ugho ut all of this, Bob A lderman
(DKW) m anaged to pull th e win with
Janene Pennington lapped the whole Powder Puff fiel d.
Robert Morrison (Pen) riding in for a
second in Lightweight Novice Division
II.
36 girls managed to get together and
form a Powder Puff d ivision. They
shortened the cou rse for them, but not
by much, and reduced the riding time to
one hour. They really didn't have to
' cause ' I truly believe that they co uld
have ma de it all th e way. Janene
Pennington led the ra ce , wire to wire,
with absolutely no competition.
J. Allen is typical of the determined
and courageous riders , ma le or female,
who love this sport. Miss Allen started
the race on h er brand new Bultaco. She
crashed ma ny ti mes. Sh e was near
exhausti o n at the finish line. She is
q uoted as saying "I never worked so
hard in all my life " .
SUNDAY
Riding
a
360
RT·2
Yamaha
sponso red b y Van Nuys Cycle, Gene
Can na dy lapped t he 'en tire field of 251
