Story and Ph otos b y Mon ty Evert
MONTEREY, CAL., Mar ch 26,197 2 As most track ers will ' agree, th e
neighb orhood co urse see ms somewhat
r ep etit ious we ek after week. T h e same
0 1' tum h as th e same 01' groove and t hat
jump
was p erfected
weeks ago.
Un derstanding th is, T im Myer, the MRA
M.C. an d flag king, go t his new wa ter
truck o ut, planned so me d iff er ent ang les
and add ed a dash of persuas ive turns
that went clockwise. All that counter
clo ck stuff he tucked away for so me
other co unty to use .
Len Macchiarella, riding a plagiarized
Maico, must have felt the difference fo r
h e switched his usual first to a fourth
with Chuck Erlcnbach. Riding this 250
Novic e class without a flaw, Erlenbach
breezed his Yamaha into firs t lik e it was
a' normal Sunday ride. (He's hoping the
track won't ch an ge fo r awhile.]
As for t he h ot shoes, who we all seem
to look forward to seeing, it was Legge,
Grossi and T urner. Pat Legge, romping
like he was making up for h is slowness
las t week, crank ed his Maic o into a
couple firsties an d let Billy Grossi take
the final one. T h is was because Legge
danced a few so mersaults on a
misconceived j u mp and to ok time to get
up. Grossi, still so re in th e shoulder,
to ok little time to make the lead in to a
full lap.
As with most MRA races, th e lo okers
seemed to enjoy it all . More t ha n likely
it was be cause the beer is co nsiste n tly
co ld and th e restroo ms st ill sm ell
d eodorized at 3 :3 0 . T hese condit ions
will not only be maintained but will
mo st likely to im prove prior to th e lat er
p ar t of J une. I 've heard fro m th e b irdies
t hat Super Joe j u mps about th at time.
Ma ybe so me of those small h ouses in a
NEW ,G RO OV E FOR MRA
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Ron Bass looks surprised and o ut of shape because he is clobbering flagman Curt Jo rgensen. Read all about it in Cycle News (below).
wonder why the spectator leeks so relaxed.
been forgotten.
This is the life of the spec tato r wh o
pays to see a human put his b ody in
co nten tion with his ma chine for an hour
and a half. He wishes he couI d be as
ne at as the guy who just skimmed him .
To be p art o f the thrill, he is wa tching,
but is co n ten t to be o n the ou tside of
the rib bon.
As I wa tch ed the riders, I sp otted a
spec ta tor come up to a flagm an an d ask
him a question. I suppose it co uld h ave
bee n , U\ Vho is in first place " o r "Is th e
175 class next?"
This flagman, I gath er , was Curt
Jorgensen w ho himsel f rides the MRA
races . As Curt an swered the spec, Ron
Bass w as about to unload and had left
his horn at home . T h e flagman, with his
mind answering and his head turned,
becam e part 0 f th e unloading process.
Bass st arted up and fin ished wh ile
J orgensen mended a pain ful hand.
A lo ng wi th th e results o f the race,
o ne sh ould also rememb er those
marshals; th ey too are p art of the race.
And from th e p eople who saw this
incident and myself, we hope his hand is
better; it's his clutch hand.
(R esults on Page 40)
F'a.tb.e r and Son Score
By Bill Spencer
FRE MONT, CAL., April S, 19 72 - T wo
Triu mph and h e reall y is getting to be
too good for th is stuff. T he same so rt of
yo u ngsters on a 125 Puch put caut io n
away fo r the run n ing of the 125
thing goes fo r the likes of Ernie Vi ck
tw o-h our m a rathon an d set a feveris h
and Chuck Recasers. Bo th of th ese two
pace t h at lasted fro m start to finis h an d
rode the d istance by themselves and
a very im p ressive win . Danny Jensen,
were rewarded with trop hies fo r th eir
the Expert and Hank So uza, the Novice,
efforts. All four firs t' finishers w ere o ld
men. Maybe the re is still a chance .. .
really pla y ed t he game to th e hilt wi th
Winning th e 250 run was Carl
fast rid er ch ang es and never once letting
Rodrick wh o n ow joins th e ranks of the
th e machine re st. Their dominat ion was
a total of two laps ov er sec o nd place
Na t ional he ro es and will b e unab le to
rid e for tro p hie s an ymore. T he dec isio n
Fr ed and Al Wood o n a 12 5 Yamaha.
comes b ecause of h is fa ntast ic ability to
Finish ing a health y third were Chuck
runaway at these type o f even ts. The
Host er and A l Ludwigsen on a CZ .
While thes e two had th eir tongues
decisio n comes to benefit th e unrat ed
dragging fo r th e last few min utes they
riders and No vices that ride th is class
and don't have as mu ch of a chance
we re righ t in th e th ick of it for the
better p art of the day an d just to prove
against t he lik es of an Exp ert like
Ro drick .
th at o ld me n can go fast, th ey h ad just
completed a tw o-hour run in the Open
Gary Selby took home th e sec o nd
class be fore launch ing th em selves on
place trophy and had to dig out fast to
get h is short tracker shaped fo r th e ne x t
t h is event.
day 's Co w Palace thriller, as did J oe
In th at Open b at tl e it was a father
a nd so n team that too k ho me th e big
March and and bro th er Dave. T h ey w ere
pleasan tly surprised at th o se p reced ings
brass. Chuck and Steve Burg ess rode a
500 MX BSA fo r the win an d
wh en th ey fo und o ut th ey h ad tro ph ies
co ming and exp ressed th at on th e next
consid ering Dad has a pe g leg going fo r
him, it really is impressive. Finishing all
o u ting, May 6 , they wo uld b e th ere w it h
by himself for three trophies, in three
bells on.
[R esu lts on Page 40 )
tr ies we re .Iohn Frazier on the dinosaur
Nice Guy Fini hesFirsl
By Loretta Davidson
OA KDALE , CA L ., Ap ril 9, 1972 With a t urno ut o f 19 4 riders, a fu ll
program o f 40 races w ere h eld he re at
the Oakdale Short T rack . T h is faci li ty is
fast b ecoming o ne o f t he fa vorit es
amo ng th e rid ers.
G reg Gr een er d id so me prett y
sp ect acul ar rid ing to wi n the 125cc
Ex pert Main . It wasn't as easy as it
so unds, though, since th ere we re II
Ex perts in this class. Sk ip Ak sland was
righ t o n his rear wheel waiting for a
mistake that never ca me .
The 175 Novice Main was a
lap-c hecker's
nightmare.
Richard
Bonander won the race w ith the
co nfusion fo llowing him in the form of
Britt Davis and Mike Miller. These two
passed each other several times coming
across th e line like twins. A tie was
cal led as no o ne was able to call it any
o th er w a y .
"
'"
c..
'"
N
'"
row...
Now that " Han gtow n 72 is now a
deposit amongst th e AMA's more
su cces sful mo to s, a ll that is left is last
issue of Cycle News an d a memory. The
unexcelled quality of the club 's hot hats
have served their purpose and are now
shown off at other races . The ones that
didn't sell will soon become part of a
neighborhood garage sale . The dust has
been washed off and is still being
exhaled, the food has all been flushed
down t he toilet, an d th e b ummer of
getting o ut of the par king lot has now
en
David Masse h as got to be on e o f t he
b est a nd n icest 250 Expe rts to co m e up
in a lo ng tim e . In the heat race , David
an d Jeff Davidso n we re leading b y a
large m ar gin o nly to fall w ith one-fourth
a lap to go . O f t h e tw o , the first to push
his b ike across the line would transfer to
the semi. David was first so to the semi
h e went. He had some tro uble o ff the
line b ut man aged to take th e final
transferring position to the Main.
As the boys lined up for the Main,
they lo oked lik e a row o f snorting b ulls
and w ere rearing to go . Finally t he fla g
dropped and they were o ff. J am es
Monegan went into the lead foll owed b y
David and Rod Halstead. James h eld th e
lead fo r seven lap s th en was passed b y
David and settled fo r second . Rod
Halstead an d Mike Hard y di ced back
and forth the full dis tance with Rod
taking the flag first.
(Resu lts on Page 40)
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