Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ROCKET REX STRIKES AGAIN N ~ ::E ~ w Z W ..J U >U By John Grout VALENCIA, CAL, April 16, 1972 Pockets still saggin g with the bulge of gold dust, Re x Staten, a Ifi -year -old pr of ess i on al m o tocro ss ma chinery-flogger fro m Fontana, fre sh fro m getting nas t y wi th th e elite of American motocrossdom in last we ek 's Moth er Lode sluicer at Plymouth , returned aga in to his home base at the Indian Dunes reservation. And it's doubtful that any other rider curr ently cam paign ing in the U.S. would ha ve been in the same b all park with th e young crowd-pleaser, While sticking his front wh eel into th e b itter middle o f an aw esome array of 250cc equipment, Staten appeared to b e enjoying th e fro th o f battle with more delight than one would expect fro m Nick The Greek if he were at te n di ng th e first ann ual flo ater-of-a-crapshooter melee in th e basement at Fort Kn ox. He had more effi ca cy than th e entire Boston Tea Party. He could have whipped the Chinese ping p ongers with h is exh au st 's blow-by. His CZ running gear display ed more velocity than the in iti al p ropellant t hat was employed in todav's moo n lau nch. (Cool it, Grout... Ed. ) Racin g in two 20-min ute m o tos, Stat en d isp lay ed flawl ess rides in both, and spen t most of t he fin al mot o's last lap o n hi s rear tire, as followers Eddie Cole (Yam), Mitch Leonard (CZ), Rick J on es (Bul) and Steve Holiday (Yam ) am ong a wild crew of o th ers, tried to co nvin ce th e spectators th at th ey were still in th e same race as Rex. During the firs t heat race fo r th e di vision, Leonard h eld th e lead for th e first th ree laps , appearing as if he would go all of the way. Meantim e , however , both Cole and Staten were gobbling-up ground at a voracious clip . Finally , while Cole and Leonard were slid ing as a t eam through th e tigh t corners, Rex, who charges the berm ins tead of merely turning one wa y or the other, sailed right on p ast the p air of front-runners, and got to the checkers b y a cushy margin. In th e final mo to , Staten led th e entire dis tance. Cole, Leonard, J ones and Holiday, in that order , were the da y's ov erall runners-up. A fter the first moto f o r the 125 cc Pros, Larry Watkins (DKW) , Ken Zahrt and Steve Merkel, b oth of wh om w ere astride Bultacos, lo oked lik e a wrap for th e pay parade - then all hell b roke loose! In volved in the second go -round, Watkins blew an engine while trying to st ay iii front, Zahrt grabbed the lead, only to have to lay his bike down at 70 mph to avoid a collision with a wandering, cycle-mounted spectator, who had en tered th e fast b ack strai gh t in th e wr ong direction ; a nd Kenny Cook , who had then tak en ov er the pace, b lew h is Bu l with b ut a lap re ma ini ng. Wo w ! Merkel got the ov erall. Zahrt and Watkins were lucky to get second and th ird. Joe Cushaway, riding against the Open professionals, survived a fierce final moto for the division, and registered a I-I record to walk away with the largest portion of purse money . SCORING CHANGE TIGHTENS DUNES ACTION. ZOWEE By J ohn Grout VALENCIA, CAL_, April 23 , 1972 - A ne ar-r ecord turnout of motocross racers furn ishe d so me wild an d ex itin gly close ac tio n in today 's all-class p rogram at Indian Dunes Park, T h e clas sic A _M .A . sco ring sy stem was u sed: 400 for a moto win ; 30 0 for a 2nd ; 225 for a 3rd, e tc. Mik e Marsh, the y oung rider from Alh am b ra, who was astride a wh iz of a Yamah a, grabbed a 3-1-1 score whil e defeating Bob Admire on a Husky. Using the A.M.A . scoring sytem ; final results really were close. Winners o f the other two heats for the Open Expert machinery, w ere : Steve Rauch (CZ) and Eric Crippa, who w as breezing a trouble-riddled Yamaha which w as snugged into a new titanium frame w ith ab ou t a half-in ch of ground cle arance . The n igh tcap moto for the Exp er ts on the big-bores created some h ellish suspense wh en race lea de r, Mike Ma rsh, cen te r-pu nche d one of the b ack -course b erm s. T h is unplanned tri p fro m th e What every r· rsho dknow abo t helmets. What is a helmet supposed to do? Not a dumb question-a smart one. Because a helmet is supposed to do at least three things: Absorb the shock. Dissipate it. Resist penetration by a sharp object. We also think a helmet should be as good-looking and lightweight as possible. But let's start with the safety feat ures. Fiberglass or thermoplastic? Many helme ts are made of molded polycarbonate. But this material has serious shortcomings. The shell may become brittle with age. Gasoline, grease or oil can break down the molecular structure of the plastic and weaken it. Finally, polycarbonate helmets bounce on impact, rather than absorb shock as fiberglass does. A fiberglass helmet, properly engineered and constructed, absorbs and dissipates impact without bouncing and is far superior in resisting solvents or penetration by a sharp object. What's the best of the fiberglass helmets? We believe Top Gear Helmets are the best protection available and here's why: Five layers of Blue Line bias-cut fiberglass fabric are cross-laid in the mold. Blue Line fiberglass fab ric was originally developed for aircraft components and it gives th e highest strengthto-weight ratio of any fiberglass fabric. Now about light weight-and comfort. Top Gear Helmets are up to one pound lighter than some imports . One reason is, since Top Gear uses Blue Line fabric , it can avoid using extra resin fillers in the helmet . Another reason is a unique, lightweight liner. That combined weight-saving makes a big difference on long trips. Handsome for a reason. In Top Gear Helmets , colors are locked in, not just pain ted on. The effect is that the colo r and metal flakes are suspended in the gel. This means greater resistance to chipping and cracking plus greater depth of color. What a bout State safety standards? Most states require that a safety helmet meet a testing standard referred to as Z90 . But-this standard is based on an accident at only thirteen miles an hour. So a helmet can pass this test and yet offer a low level of protection. However, the 1970 Snell Fou ndation tests are far more stringent than the Z90 requirements. No polycarb onate helmet has qualified and only a few fiberglass models have passed. A l/Top Gea r Helmets have won this vital app roval. Two Models. Top Gear Helmets come in both the regular and full-face coverage models . The regular model (TG 750) has a five-snap design to accommodate all standard visors and shields . It sells for $27.95. The full-face coverage model (TG 950) is designed for competition riding. The vision part is extra wide for better side vision, and the chin bar is dou ble-stressed for lower-face protection. It comes with a flip shield, complete with studs for racin g tear shields. Th e helmet also carries con ventional snaps to take any regular shield. It sells for $49.95. Both Top Gear Helmets come in Opaque White , solid Metalflake Red or Metalflake Blue. And both come in Top Gear's unique, new Rainbo design. Th is blends six colors in a free-form rainbow-like design. Top Gear Helmets are a good reason to get acquainted with your Top Gear dealer. There are hundreds of other good reasons , from lube to leathers, from batteries to boots. ACCWOllf5 11K. Price and speciucano ns subject to ch ange . Pn nted in U,S.A . TO P GEAR ACCESSORIES, I 'C. 2745 E. H UNT INGTON DR., DUA RTE, CALIF. 91010 • P.O. BOX 6790. TOWSON. BALTIMORE. MD. 2 1204 Shadow Glen course migh t have been the downfall of a rider with less experience than Mike The "Alhambra Annihilator" kept h er roaring to round out the card right behind race winners Crippa and Pat Young. Overall 250 Expert winner was a repeat from last week's show at the Dunes. Tracy Oswell unleased a CZ with more zip than a radar bleep ! Young Oswell found himself sh oved righ t to edge, attempting to th e b itter ou t-rocket both Frank Giardin a (Bu l) and Chuck Bou ck (Y am) . Don Emler, as tri de a Rickman Zundapp , whipped Bultaco-mounted Chris Mogensen for the day's overall 125 Expert victory. In mini-cycle competition - which w as run on the short track - the two class fron t-runners were Mike Bruno and Tom Hopkins. Old Timer big trophies went to Joe Rose (Ex) , Dick Frampton (Am ) and Dana Wilson, wh o was racing as a Powder-Puffs Novice. While top included: J anene Pennington (Bul), Nancy Payne (Ric) and Rebecca Solomon (Yam ). The 100 Juniors, div ision A, produced three different winners in their th ree motos: Ricky Park (Hod), Johnny Vyeno (Hod) and Ray Soffa, wh o was h aving som e trouble with his Bultaco. Yet; none of them got the da y 's overall victory . Dale Warden turned in a st eady 4- 3-3 ride to take home th e big brass for the A's, Bill Cappel (Ric) and Park were runne rs-up. Rick A rmstrong grabbed th e w in over a 4 0-rid er field in the 125 A c on flict. Paul All u m (Bul) w as b rin gin g th e issu e home un til he flipped tai l-fo r-sneezer with but a couple of laps to go in the final m o to . Tanner, Blunt Glory in Perris Return By Elaine Jones PERRIS, CAL., April 8 . 1972 - Cary Tanner and Jamey Blu nt showed up at Perris tonight for the first ti me in quite a while and d id the thing they do best. . win. Cary got his in t he 250 Amateur/Expert, topp ing Tim Holm and Randy Smith. Cary is the only gu y that h as beat Do ug Mason on the Perris track this season and that was only once. Do ug has ap parently decided to give Ascot a go as he has been absent fo r the past few weeks. Of course Jamey's win came in wh at has . got t o be called his class the t 75-200 . A lpo Petti t, a ne w face, was second an d Ra ndy Smith co llected his second third for t h e evening. Rick Miln er go t th ings perkin' to take the w in in the 100-125 A mateur/Expert over weekly rivals and District 37 rivals, J eff Coleman and Wayne Whisen ant. It was a clean sweep for the little greenies . Sandona, who got his J ohn gra d uation papers th e week b efore , wins just as w ell in t he Am at eur/ Expert ranks as he did in the No vice moto. Ask Paul Lambert and Ken Miller ; they had to ch ase him. Walt Foster had a lit tle bad lu ck in the Amateur/Expert Moto 11. Walt unloaded which gave Vince Graves all the edge he n eeded to take the number one spot. Walt had enough for second and Steve Waller third. A _ lo t of big bike boys turned out with Steve Robb and Casey Call ender taking the two Novice motos and Wes McGee winning the 650 Novice moto, Mike Drews topped the 125 Novice go with Mik e Zepeda h ot on him. This class was so close th at Jimmy Johnson and Frank Ridl on h ad to share the third place spot. Tory Irwin ca me up from the mini-cycle ranks and made his debut in the 100 Novic e class by winning the third divis ion over John Guthrie, ano th er mini-cy cle rid er, and R . Rice . Marc J ones is lo ok ing graduation to th e Amateur/Expert class right in the eye as he too k Division 11 of th e 10 0 No vices o ver Jim Karns, Jr. and Ed Bee son. Ke ith Pa xton and Derek Kat anic went round an d round in t h e first Division 100 Novices and Keith tu rned th e tables from last week by making Der ek ride the second spot. J im Wood was third. . G . Sainlow and Mark Reichert went the fastest in the two divisions of 250 Novices with Mike Hansen and Norm Blake was second fastest. Hopefully this week everybody will b e able to stay up right which seemed to b e a problem Saturday ni gh t. (Results on page. 36) . '0 "

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