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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141020
DeFeo, Higgins back s: & at 'emin dustocross ~ N By Carol Neill "" FLOW ERY BRANCH, Apri115, 1972 N The mo to cross at R oad A tl anta was ru n ~ over a course mu ch impro ved ove r last -0: years. It was more demandi ng for th e tr.l riders and more su ite d to the sp ectators. ~ However , it was also ex tremely dust y. Z As th e rid ers moved alo ng th e b o lt om ~ str aight in th e first moto o f t h e 250cc o class the last two o r three riders loo ked ~ lik e vague shadows movi ng th ro ugh the cloud. Tony Wy nn (C Z) to o k co m m and of th e firs t 25 0 mo to with a smoo th an d consistent style. He quickl y o pe ned up a subst an t ial lead over seco nd place Nelson Bo yer (Mai) and third pl ac e Zane Kent (Bu l). They co ntin ue d that way for ab o ut hal f th e mota. Beh ind th em Glenn Vincen t (Hus ) was moving up through the pack. Halfway th rough th e moto Wynn's bike began miss in g b adl y and Boyer made a b id for first pl ace with Doug Sanger close behind. Boyer took the lead two lap s lat er but lost it to Sanger (Mai ) wh o crossed th e finish lin e first followed by So nny Defeo (CZ) and Francis Daley (Yam) . V incent took fourth and Gunnar Lindstrom (Hus) an uninspiring fifth in uninspiring mota. Zane Kent an dropped out at the end with transmission difficulties. The second leg saw a co llisio n o n th e hill immediately a fte r t he start between Vin cent an d Kent which sent Vincent to the hospital with a broken leg and put Kent out for th e a ft ernoo n with a broken bi ke, Gun nar mo ved in to an immediate firs t a nd stayed th er e to th e end. He was ch allen ged sp o radicall y first b y Sanger and then b y Defeo . Defeo is a t alented rider and it sh owed in th is moto altho ugh Lindstrom's greater e xperie nce gave him th e win. R ich ard J ordan , (CA) Lindstr om, and Defeo led the th ird leg with Lindstrom and Defeo challenging J o rdan until th ey fina lly p assed him lat e in th e mo t a . Sanger and Defeo knocked wheels at the hill at t he end o f the front strai gh t, forcin g Defeo o ff th e tra ck and costing him precious sec o nds. Sanger cam e around th e nex t lap w ith a co m p let ely flat rear tire. In the end Gunnar to o k first and Defeo second. When th e points were t allied Sonny's three second pl aces outdid Gunnar's fifth and two firsts t o give Defeo fir st and the Belray Oil Trophy. The first leg of the Open Class w as a Ho -Hurn revival o f The Gary and Barry Show. Gary Bailey (Bul) to ok th e lead initially o nly to b e o vertaken b y Barry ;; Higgins (C zj . Higgins led from there on. Gary's strongest challenge for the lead was in the first portion of this mota. Higgins lo oked wild and uncontrolled, not at all lik e his st yle of old. Bailey also got crossed up periodicall y. They open ed up a co m mand ing lead over th e rest of th e field so that the race to ok o n th e aspect o f a two-man duel. The second moto W d S somewh at di ffe re n t. Gary Semi co (Hus) an d Wyma n Priddy (C Z) gra b bed th e first two p laces off th e starting line fo llowed by Higgins and Baile y. They chased t he leaders for seve ra l lap s until Priddy see me d to tire. Barry closed the gap an d passed . In ano ther lap Bailey h ad also passed Priddy. In th e closing m in ut es of the moto Barry was catching Se mi co b ut he ran o ut of time . Bailey lost ground du rin g th is t ime b ut to o k th ird beh ind Semico and Higgins. In o rder th at th e moto cro ss would no t differ too much from th e o ther races in th is we ekend of pro tests Wyman Priddy and Barry Higgin s lodged a p rotest agains t Gary Bailey, who was run ning his 250cc bik e in the Open class. This, after Baile 's Ch ampio n full -coverage helmet was disallowed since it did not pass AMA sp ecs and h e had to spend the day in a Bell helmet. Bailey's frustrations came out in th e third mota as he attempted to engage in a round of fisticu ffs with Priddy on th e starting line. Sem ico repeated his quick-start ac t in th e third leg but Barry t ook o ver short ly ther eafter, nev er to be seriousl y ch allenged again . Sem ico foll owed him working his way up but he never could close th e gap . Priddy rode a distant third . Bailey started b ack in th e field _ and never mad e up eno ugh gro und to get anywhere n ear the leaders. Barry crossed the fi nish lin e first followed b y Sernico, Priddy, and David Robinson (Hus) . Th e last three are all new to th e Na tio nal relati vel y mo tocros s scene but all gave a good accou nt o f th emselves. Th e res u lts gave H iggin s a firs t ove ra ll w it h two firsts and one second . li e was fo llowed by Semico a nd Priddy fo r second and third overall. Bail ey finis hed a di stan t 16 th . Yamaha held to first 26 Novices By Carol Neill FLOWERY BRANCH , GA ., April 15, 1972 - A beauti ful blu e-sky day greet ed spectators as a start to th e 1972 Ro ad Atlanta race program. Al ong with the sun, 43 Yamahas out of a field o f 5 1 motorcy cles were on hand to in it itate th e we ekend in the AMA Novi ce road rac e. Pol e p osition went to David 'Pat' H iggins Evans (Ya m ). The field was st art ed in two groups separated by a 10-second interval. After th e green n ag dropped and the field came around onto the fro nt straight at the end of the first lap Phil McDonald was leading followed by Robert Rectenwald (Yam) and Mike Devlin . By th e completion of the second lap McDonald was still leading but by this time Pat Evans h ad taken over second place, dropping Devlin and Rectenwald. John Long h ad b een st eadily working h is wa y up through th e pack to a fourth . Lap 4 saw Evans and Long running first and second, an arrangeme nt which co n tin ued until t he seventh when Long t o ok over first. The next two la ps were a lso his . Laps 9 an d 10 ' were recaptured by Evans. By th e end of th e 11th lap Long had reg ained the lead on th e Dirty Distributing Yamaha and fr om th er e th e rac e was his b y an eve r-increasing margin to th e drop of th e fin al nag. His lap averag e was 86.44 1 mph. Lon g d eserves special notice fo r this spectacu lar d ispl ay of riding fin esse. He was called o u t o f th e front line b y an o fficia l fo r crossi ng the st arti ng lin e. This meant he started from halfway ba ck in the field , worked his wa y to a fourth p ositi on by the end of lap 3 and was in th e top two from th e fourth lap onwards to the finish. Evans co nt in ued in second p lace to the end followed b y Mike De vlin, who had seen almo st th e entire race from third place. Th e mo st seri ous mish ap o f the race oc cu rr ed at the end of th e sixth lap as J essie Byars moved through tr affic in th e last tum and onto the front st ra igh t. He lost co ntro l on the inside o f the tum and slid to the outside edge of th e pavement o n th e straight, As his bike skittered down the outside edge of th e straight Pet er Baer attempted an evasive movement which resulted in his losing his b ik e just beyond the nag st and. As his bike came to rest it caught fir e and lay burning for what seemed an e tern ity until an ex t ingu isher arri ved . However Byars h ad to wait even longer for an ambulance t o arrive t o help him. In the end th e Novice fin ish was a moment of glory for Yamaha as th e tall y sheet showed the first 26 finishers to be bearing th eir marque. Carruthers repeats for another 250 win By Jack Mangus FLOWERY BRANCH, GA ., April 15 , 1972 Veteran road ra cer Kel Carruthers led only one lap of Road Atlanta's 50-mile Expert/J unio r 250 race but t hat one lap was the one they pay the money for - the final one. T he 34 -y ear -o ld Australian-born San D iego resident to ok th e lead from R on Fierce in t um one on the white n ag lap. Kel, aided b y th e b listering pace set b y the two othe r leaders, J ohn ':>Iike ' Lan e and Pierce . set a new average speed record of 89.51 1 m ph. Carru th ers, w ho won last year's co m b ined race, was ab oard a fac tory Ya maha TD ยท3 and o nce again t he race tu rn ed into a Yamah a b en e fit as th e first 26 finis hers were aboar d that brand . Ro n Pie rce took t h e lead at th e star t , followed clo sely b y Lane, Ken Ro bert s. J erry Green e and Dave Smith. Lan e took over the lead o n Lap 7 and as the race co n tin ued appeared to be on his way to a win but Pierce and Carruthers had other ideas . Pierce regained th e lead on the 17th lap and turned th e 18th lap at an average sp eed of 90.82 mph . Carruthers was right on Pierce and after taking the lead on the last lap won by a narrow margin with Lane making an off-course ex cursion attempting to nip Pierce for second at the finish line. Daytona combined winner Smith had to settle for fourth with Ken Roberts taking fifth ahead of Junior Howard Lynggard . Jimmy Chen was the first non-Yamaha rider to finish as he and his Yoshimura Honda took 27th plac e. Yvon DuHamel failed to finish in his qualifying heat as his 35 0 cc single Kawasaki lasted less th an two laps. Jerry Greene Runs off with 250 Junior 50mi By J ack Man gu s FLOWE R Y BRANCH , GA. , April 16, 1972 - The rain-delayed R oad Atlanta 50-mile Junio r Ro ad Race was won by J erry Greene aboard a Kawasaki at an average sp eed of 88.810 mph. Gr een e shot off the starting grid and was never ch allenged as he pulled a tremendo us lead on th e rest of the field . Greene's speed mark automatically becomes a track record as the Juniors ran only a 250cc Junior/Novice combined race at last year's Road Atlanta meeting. While Greene had first all to himself, seco nd place wa s hotl y contested throughout the race. The ea rly st ages saw Jimmy Chen aboard th e Yoshimura Honda battle Yamaha riders J eff Mar ch, J ames Evans and Daytona Junior road race winner Ronnie Dottley. Both Dottley and March eventually dropped out with mech an ical problems and Evans took over a nd h eld o n t o second place ahead of Chen. The third place finish for Ch en was a repeat of a similar p erformance at Daytona. Yamaha claimed th e fourth a nd fifth finish positions with factory rider Howard Lynggard and Bob Pepper doing the riding. Jim Cotherman improved his Daytona effo rt by one position when he finished sixth on his three-cylinder Triumph ahead of Florida's Gary :>1cGoron, who was Ya maha-mo unted. Steve Dalgamo, riding the Nixon .Enterprises; Triumph, was invo lved in the most spectacular getoff of - the weekend when he unloaded while .l at -o ut on the lo ngest straight during a Friday practice session. Delgarno had pulled in the clutch and placed the bike into neutral for a plug check b ut the gear box proceeded to place itself into a lower gear. Da lgarno was spit off through the fa iri ng bubble when th e bike lo ck ed up and went sideways. Ot her than a case of asp halt rash and th e stiffies, th e Maryland rider was okay alt ho ugh the geto ff mad e him a sp ectato r for the rest of th e weekend. G does a K ill nievel WAGGAMAN, LA., April 16, 19 72 Stu ntman Bob Gill successfull y flew h is Suzuki acro ss a ca n al adjacent to the Mo to cr oss West racetrack b efo re an uncontr oll abl e crowd of almost ap pro xim at ely 5 ,000. T he walls of the canal w ere 120 feet apart giving th e ju m p site a canyon effect . Gill landed about 3 0 feet p ast the fa r wa ll giving him an u no fficial j u m p di st an ce o f 150 fee t.